Murphy's Multiverse

Blog

  • SPECIAL: The Sunday Paper— Greatest Hits of 2022

    SPECIAL: The Sunday Paper— Greatest Hits of 2022

    Murphy’s Multiverse’s Extremely Talented João Roque Pinto

    The Marvel Cinematic Universe

    This should come as no surprise. Of course, fans flock to MCU news. Splitting it into films and Disney+ series, the biggest movie news seems predictable. But our readers’ interest in the series is perhaps a bit unique. Of course, in general, the most interesting MCU news this year came from San Diego Comic Con’s debut of Marvel Studios’ slate for Phases 5 and 6, culminating in Avengers: Secret Wars.

    MCU Movies

    With the news that Phase 6 will include Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, the speculation of multiversal proportions has begun. Our readers, though, have been most interested in a rumor about who the first Avengers to potentially bite the dust in The Kang Dynasty will be.

    New Rumor Reveals the First Avengers to Fall in ‘The Kang Dynasty’

    Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a big moment in 2022 for countless reasons. The MCU's newest anti-hero, Namor, finally made his live-action debut. While many want to see the return of the character, it may not be in the form of a solo film. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore confirmed that the character can definitely return in a future project, but Disney is not able to produce a standalone project based around the character. It seems the rights are still with Universal, who also holds the rights to Hulk and was the reason that character never got a sequel since the Edward Norton film back in 2008.

    Other major MCU movie news includes, of course, Deadpool 3. While fans have been clamoring for any information on the character's MCU debut, we were treated this year with the knowledge that Hugh Jackman will return as Wolverine, and a new working title (that includes "Wolverine") for the film seems to make it clear how important and big his role will be.

    New Working Title for ‘Deadpool 3’ Reveals the Size of Hugh Jackman’s Role

    While not directly about any particular MCU film, once again this year legendary director Quentin Tarantino made negative remarks about Marvel and/or superhero films which gave film Twitter fuel to rave for days. One of the things that peaked our readers' attention was learning that Tarantino actually has or had an idea for an MCU film based on the Howling Commandos.

    As a side note, MM readers apparently got a kick out of our Ultimate Lists of What to Watch Before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder. If you thought the Multiverse of Madness list was chaos, just imagine what the Ultimate List for Secret Wars will look like (hint: the entire MCU and then some). Rest assured, an Ultimate List for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will hit the internet soon.

    The Ultimate List of What To Watch Before ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

    MCU Disney+ Series

    If you were to guess what our readers clicked on most in 2022, would you guess Moon Knight? If so, you're a winner. Not only was our most-read article about how Moon Knight beat out Hawkeye's viewership on Disney+, but fans were all in on Moon Knight costumes. Theorizing alter ego Jake Lockley's costume (which did not come to fruition) was a fun pastime, and others were extremely interested in some of the unused suit designs for the series. Clearly, fans seem interested in more of the series. Will we get it? We still don't know, but we have a general guess we could see it in 2025.

    ‘Moon Knight’ Beats Out ‘Hawkeye’s Overall Viewership on Disney+

    Readers also flocked to news about the upcoming Secret Invasion. Perhaps fitting for the show, some of the most-read articles involved leaked set photos or rumors about the identity of characters—specifically Emilia Clarke's character—whose identity will further be questioned throughout the series.

    Emilia Clarke’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Skrull Identity Rumored to be Revealed

    What would the past few years have been without the constant Daredevil dialogue? Of course, fans jumped on all news Charlie Cox-related. It ultimately paid off when fans learned he would return in his own MCU show, Daredevil: Born Again as well as cameo in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Still, the thing that got fans stirred up the most was when Cox finally broke his silence about his wild appearance in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home and re-ignited the renew Daredevil campaign.

    DC

    To be honest, DC has been a mess for quite some time. Whether you love(d) the DCEU (and/or all of the things that were in the DC multiverse but not the DC Extended Universe, which makes no sense), hated it, or (most likely) were indifferent to it, it existed. However, late this year all of it was thrown into complete additional chaos when it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would be taking over as co-leaders of the newly-formed DC Studios. There is plenty to try and unpack so far—for example, Henry Cavill is no longer Superman. Who else will be recast? What will they do with their current 2023 slate that includes The Flash, Aquaman 2, Blue Beetle, and Shazam 2?

    We do not know. But to be honest, MM readers have not spent too much time tracking the fire tornado that is DC. But Gunn has reassured fans that more will be known early this year.

    Hot Take

    It’s Time for Marvel Studios to End Their Most Well-Known Tradition

    We also generated plenty of discourse around the MCU's post-credits scenes. One unknown member of the site, Charles Murphy, wrote a piece on why Marvel should end its post-credits scene tradition:

    Given they distract from the movies, aren’t always followed through on and the disturbing trend in their quality, it really is time for the Marvel post-credit scene to be retired. We’ll always have that kiss between Jane and Thor…before Jane disappeared for a decade.

    Charles Murphy

    If you still have too many opinions about it, feel free to hop right back into that conversation. But screaming into the Twitter void about movies feels so 2022. 2023 is better...right?

    Honorable Mentions

    It's not all about superheroes, though MM readers certainly love them. But in 2022 we had some major interest in several other things. Check out some of the most noteworthy ones below.

    Chris Hemsworth Shares First Set Photo from ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Prequel ‘Furiosa’ as Production Starts
    EXCLUSIVE: Live-Action ‘One Piece’s First Season No Longer Ten Episodes
    Leaked ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Set Photos Tease Sith-Themed Mandalorians
    Jason Blum Offers Update on ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s Film
  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 8, Shadowcat

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 8, Shadowcat

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts or, in this case.

    The Kitten

    Another victim of Fox’s focus on cool displays of powers rather than proper characterization, Kitty Pryde was reduced to meme status after being Juggernaut bitched in X-Men: The Last Stand. The character returned in 2014 for a role in X-Men: Days of Future Past where she got to touch Logan’s temples for a while and then became a teacher in the new timeline established at the end of the film. In essentially every way possible, Fox wasted a top-tier X-Men character who was portrayed by an incredibly talented actor. Outside of correctly using her phasing ability, Fox seemed to have absolutely no understanding of Kitty nor how important of a character she could be. That’s something that Kevin Feige will almost certainly remedy when he brings his version of the X-Men to the MCU.

    A bit of a child prodigy, Kitty showed genius-level aptitude in computer science and attended a prestigious engineering school as a child. She joined Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and became a member of the X-Men when she was just 13 or 14 years old. Kitty is just about the perfect poster child for Wolverine’s side of the debate with Cyclops over using teens as “soldiers” in Xavier’s crusade. Over the years, Kitty has grown close with Storm, Wolverine and Colossus, with whom she’s had an on-again-off-again romantic relationship. Kitty has arguably had one of the most chaotic and interesting lives of any X-Man and has battled demons, vampires, aliens and all other sorts of baddies and has always emerged from her battles as a central figure to the success of the team.

    What Fox failed to understand about Kitty Pryde is that despite being introduced in the comics as a teenager, she’s no sidekick. In fact, used appropriately, Kitty is probably the perfect point-of-view character to launch the MCU’s look at the inner workings of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. That’s not to say that the other characters aren’t incredibly important, only that Marvel Studios could take the unique approach of giving the audience Kitty’s perspective of entering the madness of the mutant world. Though Fox’s X-Men were always in danger, the question of whether they should have been was never fully explored in the Singer or Kinberg films. The Fox films never explored the true nature of Charles Xavier (as detailed here), something that could be done wonderfully by changing the lens through which he’s viewed. Marvel Studios has many characters from which to choose as they think about which character they want to be the eyes through which they meet the larger world of the X-Men, but there’s no better choice than Kitty Pryde. Shadowcat should be right out front as mutants step into the spotlight in the MCU.

  • ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’ Concept Art Offers Great Look at Jonathan Majors’ Kang

    ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’ Concept Art Offers Great Look at Jonathan Majors’ Kang

    A new trailer for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will be coming our way soon, but from what fans have seen of the film so far, Marvel Studios is really leaning into comic booky looks for the villains. M.O.D.O.K. hasn’t been fully revealed yet, but nobody would mistake his look as having come from a “grounded” universe. More importantly, Jonathan Majors‘ Kang the Conqueror looks to have been ripped straight from the pages of Marvel Comics. The purple and green scheme and the blue mask seem to capture the otherworldliness of the character that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had in mind back in 1964 when he appeared in Avengers #8.

    As fans wait for the first truly great look at a fully geared up version of Kang, a new piece of concept art will give them something to tide them over.

    While Marvel Studios may miss the boat from time to time with the characterization of some of the characters they adapt for the MCU, their track record on character designs is much stronger. This look for Kang is another example of making minor and necessary modifications to the comic book look while capturing the essence of that look.

    Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters in just 48 days!

  • New Rumor Reveals the Avengers Final Foe in ‘Secret Wars’

    New Rumor Reveals the Avengers Final Foe in ‘Secret Wars’

    As Phase 5 prepares to kick off soon with Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, fans are just starting to get a sense of what Marvel Studios Multiverse Saga is going to truly all about. After the revelation that the new saga will conclude in 2026 with Avengers: Secret Wars, fans have been sure that someone other than Jonathan Majors‘ Kang would be the villain of the piece. It turns out they may have been right…sort of.

    A new rumor from Twitter user MyTimeToShineHello has revealed that Secret Wars is set to introduce a classic Marvel Comics character and the entity behind the original 1984 Secret Wars event: the Beyonder. The rumor comes with a twist, however, in that the MCU’s version of the Beyonder will be yet another Variant of Majors’ character.

    While a lot of online conversation about a potential villain centered on Doctor Doom, who was the primary antagonist of the 2015 version of Secret Wars, it seems, if the rumor is true, that Marvel Studios has chosen to make their big saga-ender a mashup of the 1984 and 2015 events with both incursions and the Beyonder playing roles.

  • 2023’s Must-See Movies With Surging Stock

    2023’s Must-See Movies With Surging Stock

    With so many movies to look forward to in 2023, it’s hard to know which ones to invest your time in. Murphy’s Multiverse has curated a list of must-see movies that should be on your list, including some that may surprise you.

    February

    17th-Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania

    The ageless Paul Rudd and his crew are back for the witty, action-packed franchise that is Ant-Man. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania features some new faces including Jonathan Majors as “Kang the Conqueror” and (checks notes) Bill Murray as a character from Janet Van Dyne’s past.

    March

    3rd-Creed III

    Jonathan Majors has been a busy man! He plays another villain, this time in the boxing ring as Adonis Creed’s opponent in Creed III. Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad are also back in this installment alongside Michael B. Jordan, who reprises his role and makes his directorial debut.

    10th-Scream VI

    Scream VI is the sequel to 2022’s Scream, but this storyline is a bit different for the franchise: there is a new killer, a new city, and new rules. Some names to keep an eye out for include Jenna Ortega, Hayden Panettiere, Melissa Barrera and Courtney Cox. Unfortunately, franchise staple Neve Campbell won’t make an appearance after contract negotiations broke down.

    17th-Shazam! Fury of the Gods

    Zachary Levi is back to give us more Shazam. Levi will bring along a star-studded cast this time that includes Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler joining returners like Asher Angel, Adam Brody, and Megan Good. New villains played by Liu and Mirren will give the Shazamly all it can handle.

    24th-John Wick: Chapter 4

    Like fine wine, Keanu Reeves gets better with age. After a two-year pandemic-related delay, Reeves is front in center in John Wick: Chapter 4. Fans will see John Wick in the throws of a war with the High Table, one that could prove to be costly.

    31st-Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

    If you’ve played the game Dungeons & Dragons, this movie is the stuff dreams are made of. Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, Regé-Jean Page, Michelle Rodriguez, Sophia Lillis, and Justice Smith will star in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves dropping Spring 2023.

    April

    7th-The Super Mario Bros. Movie

    From the producer who created Despicable Me, The Super Mario Brothers Movie is also hitting screens this spring. Chris Pratt stars as Mario and Charlie Day will play Luigi. Keegan-Michael Key will voice Toad with Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach. Finally, the crew rounds out with the hilarious Jack Black and Seth Rogen voicing the characters of Bowser and Donkey Kong.

    May

    5th-Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

    Chris Pratt is back as the beloved character Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Franchise staples Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, and Pom Klmentieff are also back for one more ride. Quill is still mourning the loss of his Gamora and asks the crew to help him defend the universe as their fate could depend on it.

    19th-Fast X

    “I don’t have friends. I got family,” says Dominic Toretto. Family has been the theme of the Fast and Furious franchise and Fast X will likely be no different. The tenth installment brings back Toretto’s crew in an assumed two-part franchise finale that is sure to thrill.

    26th-The Little Mermaid

    Singer Halle Bailey stars in The Little Mermaid as the red-headed mermaid beauty and is sure to bring a soulful and powerful twist to this endearing classic. Joining her is Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Awkwafina as Scuttle, and Javier Bardem as King Triton. The Little Mermaid becomes part of your world Memorial Day Weekend.

    June

    2nd-Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

    What’s better than one Oscar-winning movie? Two! Well, we’re probably a bit early in predicting that, but there are high hopes for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfield, and Oscar Isaac are back as Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy and Miguel O’Hara. The thrilling Issa Rae from HBO’s Insecure is also joining the cast as Spider-Woman.

    16th-The Flash

    DC Comics is joining the plunge into multiverses with Andy Muschietti’s The Flash.

    30th-Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

    James Mangold will direct Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the follow-up to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Harrison Ford is joined by Antonio Banderas, Mads Mikkelsen, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Shaunette Renée Wilson.

    July

    14th-Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One 

    Does Tom Cruise age? The man has matured as Ethan Hunt for nearly 30 years. Cruise returns to the big screen in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One with some familiar faces. Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Czerny, and Vanessa Kirby are all back, with Esai Morales playing the film’s main villain.

    21st-Barbie

    There isn’t anything Margot Robbie can’t do and that includes playing Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation. Ryan Gosling joins Robbie as her character is expelled from Barbieland and joins the real world in search of happiness.

    28th-The Marvels

    In case you didn’t get enough of the phenomena that is Brie Larson, she returns to the big screen in The Marvels. Larson will be joined by Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani and the incomparable Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in the sequel to Captain Marvel.

    November

    17th-The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

    The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is the prelude to the original film franchise starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutchinson. The film details the life of Coriolanus Snow before he became the brutal dictator of Panem. Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Tom Blyth, and Jason Schwartzman round out the cast.

    December

    15th-Wonka

    In a world of pure imagination, Timothée Chalamet plays a young Willy Wonka as his world collides with the Oompa-Loompas. The cast of Wonka also includes Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins, Keegan Michael-Key, and Rowan Atkinson.

    20th-The Color Purple

    The Color Purple was originally released in 1985, featuring a star-studded cast. The 2023 adaptation has some serious shoes to fill, but it’s off to a good start. Pulling in a smorgasbord of talent, the cast features Danielle Brooks, Halle Bailey, Fantasia-Taylor, Taraji P. Henson, Louis Gossett Jr., Corey Hawkins, Deon Cole, and H.E.R.

    25th-Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom-December 25th

    More Jason Momoa? Yes, please! Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom should be a treat for fans as it’s slated to debut on Christmas Day. Momoa will reprise his role and will be joined by Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Amber Heard as Mera.

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 7, Krakoa

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 7, Krakoa

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts or, in this case, an X-Men fixture that Fox left on the bench.

    The Island That Walks Like a Man

    If you’ve been reading along throughout the 12 Days of X-Mas, you may have noticed that many of the characters from the first six days have something in common: they all first appeared in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1. Nightcrawler, Storm and Colossus were among the group of mutants Charles Xavier sent as an extraction team when two previous teams of X-Men disappeared on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The events of Giant-Size X-Men #1, which introduced the sentient, mutant island of Krakoa, were monumental in 1975, set in motion the events of Chris Claremont‘s iconic run on Uncanny X-Men and led to the modern era’s greatest X-Men stories in Jonathan Hickman‘s House of X/Powers of X run. Any self-respecting live-action adaptation of the X-Men must include a proper representation of Krakoa.

    Hickman has displayed a penchant for devising clever retcons in his time at Marvel Comics, providing rich new history for characters as important as Apocalypse and Reed Richards…and he did it again with Krakoa. At NYCC ’22, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski made mentioned an interesting bit of symbiosis happening at Marvel now that Kevin Feige has truly become the One Above All. According to Cebulski, the comic branch tries to stay “about 10 years ahead” (which seems to really mean 7-12 years ahead) of Marvel Studios and that timeline puts Hickman’s Krakoa retcon on track to be fair game for the studio right around 2026 which, coincidentally, is probably when the Marvel Studios mutant takeover will begin.

    Fox really teed up Marvel Studios when they failed to use Krakoa in their X-films. Certainly, nobody could have predicted Maestro Hickman’s genius being turned loose and retconning Krakoa into one half of the ancient island, Okkara, that once was home to Apocalypse and his family before being torn asunder and separated as the other half, Arakko, was sealed away in another dimension. Whether the Marvel Studios Parliament chooses to introduce Krakoa as it was in 1975 and then develop the backstory or jump right into the new history of Krakoa as relayed in 2019, the reality is they have a can’t-miss character with a rich and fascinating history that truly relays the weirdness that is and has always been the X-Men. Of course, by bringing The Living Island into modern day, Marvel Studios gets the added benefit of easily working in one of the coolest and most underappreciated X-Men: Doug Ramsey, aka Cypher. Thanks to Fox and much like Ryan Day, Marvel Studios finds themselves on third base without having to have legged out the triple.

  • ‘Solo’ Sequel Not in the Works at Lucasfilm

    ‘Solo’ Sequel Not in the Works at Lucasfilm

    As Lucasfilm pushes the Star Wars franchise forward through a plethora of streaming shows on Disney+, more time moves away from the short-lived saga of spin-off films. One of the films from this era, the divisive Solo: A Star Wars Story, has been gaining popularity over time. As such, fans of Star Wars have been somewhat curious about if there is any future for this corner of the universe. Though in a recent interview with director Ron Howard, it has seemingly been confirmed that there are no plans for the film series to move forward.

    The only discussion that I’m aware of about a sequel for ‘Solo’ is coming from the fans at this point. I don’t think it’s a Lucasfilm priority, as I understand it. But there’s some great characters launched, and the folks from Lucasfilm love the fans and really do listen so I would never say never — but I’m not aware of any concrete plans right now to extend the story or deal with that particular set of characters.

    Ron Howard

    This bit of news shouldn’t come as any surprise. Solo is considered to be the only financial “bomb” within the Star Wars film franchise and critically was not well received either. In addition, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has gone out of her way to talk about how this era of Star Wars was fundamentally flawed. Audiences shouldn’t expect to see Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo any time soon. Though the potential for Donald Glover to return as Lando Calrissian shouldn’t be completely ignored, though that’s a different story within itself.

    Sources: NME

  • ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’ Director Denies Any Interference by Disney or Marvel Studios

    ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’ Director Denies Any Interference by Disney or Marvel Studios

    There has been an ever-growing distrust of studios and their handling of projects. While history does show there will always be moments when they have a hand in the trajectory of a project, it’s not always something that is done purely to worsen a project. There are moments when creatives simply have different creative visions, that drift apart like with the original Ant-Man and Doctor Strange sequel scenarios with Marvel Studios, but it’s not always the case.

    Director James Gunn is currently working on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for Marvel Studios before heading over to his new job as the co-CEO of DC Studios. Everyone involved has been very open about this new future venture, and Gunn is always very open to just how things happen behind the scenes. With a certain group of people online having general distrust towards Disney, Gunn instantly denied any distrust brewing on Disney or Marvel Studios influencing his current work, or even any from the past.

    There’s always been a soft spot between online fans and Disney. Not that it is entirely unfounded, but Marvel Studios generally is a very different beast and most of its influences stretch from how the greater narrative of the Marvel Cinematic Universe stretches between projects. It’s a studio model they are open about, and Scott Derrickson left Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on good terms.

    The only real fallout so far was with Edgar Wright‘s Ant-Man, which mainly results from how far the MCU came along since the original project was pitched. Wright’s original vision dates before the first Iron Man dropped and it seems that adding a few scenes into the story went against his vision, leading to the fallout. Yet, Wright has also openly stated recently that they long buried the hatchet and it’s not uncommon that projects simply don’t come together.

    Warner Bros. has a far bigger history with its involvement on projects leading to some questionable results, such as the entire Justice League debacle. We still see the results of that today. Gunn goes on to highlight that interferences are commonly when uncertainty arises for producers, especially once a film or series has already been filmed and is being edited. Sometimes we barely even know if there was an issue, to begin with, outside of random rumors that come from third-hand sources. In the digital age, chaos simply creates a very different atmosphere and that is why there’s more distrust than ever before.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp Teases the Netflix Series’ Ending

    ‘Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp Teases the Netflix Series’ Ending

    Stranger Things is about to wrap up, as the journey through the Upside-Down is about to find its end with the fifth season. We still don’t know when we can expect the series to wrap up, but it’s looking like a long wait is in order with a 2024 release on the horizon due to the series’ final season not even started rolling the cameras. Still, it seems that the cast has been teased about the future of their characters, as actor Noah Schnapp teased the ending of Will’s story and highlighted once again that it started with him.

    The way they closed the show is just perfect — the story started with Will, and it’ll end with Will.

    Noah Schnapp

    Most of the last few seasons have put their main focus on Eleven, whose abilities were the only way to combat the various monsters out of the dimension. Still, Will was the first to meet these beings from Upside-Down and developed a psychic link with them. At the end of the last season, we could see that he still has that very connection and may become a valuable asset in the battle with Vecna, who has set his eyes on melding these two dimensions into one.

    What exactly Will’s story will remain a mystery, but it’s great to see that Schnapp is on board. He seems quite excited and also tight-lipped on what we can expect from the characters’ future. There’s the question if everyone will survive the final battle with Vecna given just how dangerous it’ll become. Perhaps when we catch up with everyone, they are already barely hanging on and find a way for the last attempt to stop them. Will might be the key they need to end it.

    Source: Forbes

  • ‘Midnight Suns’ Scratches an Itch ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Never Did

    ‘Midnight Suns’ Scratches an Itch ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Never Did

    I’ve long been someone that’s defended Marvel’s Avengers early on in its runtime. While it’s been a rough run for the game, the gameplay offered something special by truly allowing most of the Avengers to feel unique from each other. DLC characters have become more carbon copies as the game dialed back its ambitious plans to months of silence, it’s still a fun game to jump back in now and then. The only thing truly lacking was a gameplay loop in its endgame that would inspire replayability beyond its looting system; a usual crutch for most Games-as-a-Service.

    Now, a new Marvel game has come around to offer something unique in the form of Midnight Suns. The game has its own charm in using a strategy-based card system to utilize different members from across Marvel’s supernatural and heroic pantheon of heroes. Yet, the more I played it, the more I realized it did something that was part of my initial hopes for Marvel’s Avengers when it was announced early on. There’s more to do besides the core missions.

    I don’t play GaaS games a lot. Even after trying out Destiny 2 or The Division, there’s just nothing really holding me from playing the game outside of some interesting story beats. It’s what initially kept me playing Marvel’s Avengers, as it had a delightful campaign and the promise of even more story missions in the game’s future. Now that the game has all but left that part behind, there’s a certain lack of wanting to return to that world even with Winter Soldier’s recent addition. The same missions with different characters simply aren’t enticing outside of getting to play as a new Avenger.

    Midnight Suns, however, manages to scratch an itch that keeps its world and a potential return compelling. The hub world known as The Abbey offers quite a bit of a way to interact with characters or take challenges. Characters actually ask you for advice and the relationship system inspires you to spend time outside of the main missions. Your actions even lead to your main hub evolving, such as adding new functions to your site to ensure you can develop new tools to aid in battle.

    There’s a purpose to your central hub beyond just selecting missions; a far cry from how Marvel’s Avengers approached it. By the time Black Panther’s DLC rolled out, you had four hub areas to choose from and there didn’t seem to be any true purpose besides selecting specific missions or using their shops. Eye candy can only get you so far and there never was a real reason to leave the Helicarrier once updates made it easier to just grab all the necessary missions in one location.

    Early on when the final trailer dropped, there was a hint of you being able to restore the Helicarrier to its glory through your actions in the story. Technically, it is true but that only applies to the main campaign as it is visually repaired and once again functional. Outside of that, there’s no real purpose to the Helicarrier, which is quite a shame given how even Marvel-themed browser games used it as a central hub to develop research, send SHIELD soldiers out to missions, and more.

    Midnight Suns doesn’t fully bring that concept to life, but its main hub feels purposeful and there’s something that just brings you into the game besides the gameplay missions of taking on HYDRA (or AIM if you’re playing Marvel’s Avengers). It adds a sense of progression to the endgame content and would give players a reason to return. Trying to get gear for a new mission that drops once a year isn’t going to really inspire long-time players to stick around.

    There’s no clear hint if we can expect Midnight Suns to potentially end up evolving as a GaaS-type experience, but with four new characters confirmed in its future, there’s a chance they could keep it running for a long time by adding new missions, characters to connect with and more. If they also provide new ways to evolve existing characters through new training regimes, expanding new locations or functionalities to the Abbey, the game might end up doing what Marvel’s Avengers never could.