Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has been pushed back by quite a bit, but it seems like the merchandise releases may have not received the memo. A batch of toys is finding their way online teasing the various characters from across the Spider-Verse potentially joining the project. Of course, there’s always a chance they are just creating some based on ideas and it isn’t definite they’ll have a role but the latest merchandise finding its sway online reveals a Cyborg Spider-Woman.
You read that correctly, it seems like a cyborg version of Spider-Woman will have the role of some kind in the upcoming Spider-Verse sequel. Theere has been a version of the character int he comics with a cyborg version of Peter Parker, whose design is quite a bit different; the arm was more Winter Soldier and less 90’s arm cannon. You can check out the visual as shared by @preterniadotcom on Twitter.
Here's a look at Cyborg Spider-Woman from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. pic.twitter.com/ucKrUd9iD5
It’s surprising they are going down the Spider-Woman route with this character, especially given that the design is mostly similar to the classic red-blue from Spider-Man. Though, there might be an interesting story here that is teased, as she could be part of a Wasteland-inspired part of the Spider-Verse. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the upcoming sequel but hopefully, a new trailer isn’t too far even with the long wait until the sequel releases on June 3rd of 2023.
It wasn’t long around the time that The Batman sequel was announced that we got the confirmation we’ll also be getting an HBO Max spinoff based on ColinFarrell‘s Penguin. While we still don’t know where it’ll take place in the story or if it’ll fill the blank between sequels, but in an interview with Entertainment Today, Farrell offered some insight into how involved Matt Reeves is with the project.
In the interview, the actor reveals that while Reeves is heavily involved with the upcoming spinoff, he is not going to direct any of its episodes. Farrell does say that he’s “all over” the upcoming Penguin spinoff, which he hints may be simply titled The Penguin but it’s great to know that Matt Reeves still is supervising the franchise even with the current shifts over at Warner Bros. Discovery.
He’s so obsessive about what he does, but he’s all over [HBO Max’s] The Penguin [series] as well. I mean, he’s not gonna direct it but he’s all over the structure of the scripts and who’s gonna direct them. And so, it’s exciting.
Colin Farrell
It’s definitely interesting that he won#t take any directing duties, but if he’s eyeing starting production on the sequel in the near future, he’ll be quite busy sooner rather than later anyway. Plus, there’s also the other HBO Max spinoff he hinted at that’ll focus on Arkham Asylum that hasn’t had an update in a while. So, we’ll see if perhaps he plans to direct some episodes of that project.
It’s not long ago that we learned that Adam Wingard was starting work on the upcoming sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong. Monsterverse was seemingly facing its end with the big clash between the two Eastern and Western Kaiju giants but surprised many, as it was the film to kick off the box office during the pandemic. Now, work has seemingly started and the film’s production title may be teasing what exactly the film will be about.
@KDM_Monsters shared what seems to be the clapperboard for the upcoming Monsterverse entry, which includes the working title. It appears that it’s currently filming under the title “Origins” which raises some questions regarding what we can expect from the upcoming project. In a way, it does seem to imply that the next entry may either explore the origins of either Godzilla or Kong, especially which was already set up in the latest entry, or even act as a prequel.
It should also be pointed out that it confirms that Ben Seresin is back as the film’s cinematographer, as he’s also worked on the previous entry of the Monsterverse. The Godzilla vs. Kong sequel will have a lot of heavy lifting to do, as it not only has to continue where the previous one left off but also potentially build up the future of this franchise; if there is one at all.
With an Apple TV+ series on the horizon, there are many questions about what we can expect and with no clear announcement, if this sequel is about Kong or Godzilla, it does add some questions if it might move away from the big two in future entries. Here’s hoping that they may get the momentum they are looking for to give us a third entry in the Godzilla franchise.
Avengers: Secret Wars gets its name from two major Marvel Comics events—Secret Wars (1984) and Secret Wars (2015). Both share some similar elements, such as Beyonder(s) and the creation of a Battleworld, and Marvel may very well take elements of both of these events to craft the 5th and 6th Avengers movies. Still, considering the 2015 event was prefaced on the destruction and ultimate revival of the multiverse, it does not take a scholar to guess that the 2015 event and the events leading up to it will be an extremely heavy influence on Secret Wars.
Earlier this year, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness actually gave us potentially the first direct reference to a Secret Wars (2015)-inspired event. While before the Illuminati, Reed Richards told our 616 universe Doctor Strange about the phenomena called incursions, where universes get destroyed when colliding with one another. A simplified summary of the igniting event before 2015’s Secret Wars is the incursion of the last two surviving universes in the Marvel multiverse—Earth-616 and Earth-1610. Many are familiar with Earth-1610 as the “Ultimate” universe, as it was the subject of Marvel Comics’ imprint Ultimate Comics. Earth 1610, among many other contributions, was responsible for the introduction of Miles Morales as Spider-Man.
Part of the reason Secret Wars (2015) was as compelling and exciting as it was is due to the long-running and meticulous building of that separate universe—Earth-1610–alongside the primary Earth-616 storylines. Secret Wars (2015) writer Jonathan Hickman was the driving force behind the Avengers, New Avengers, and some Ultimate Comics, which all led into the event. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in a very different state than the comics were ahead of Secret Wars. We know that the 6th Avengers film of the same name will release in just a little over 3 years. As such, the MCU will have trouble being able to capitalize on its storytelling during those years given the limited amount of projects it can feasibly churn out in comparison to comics. Still, if the MCU wants to ensure its next major event feels and hits like the massive event it purports to be, it might take specific inspiration from the comics that inspired it.
Specifically, the MCU would benefit from having at least one universe separate from Earth-616 for audiences to be invested in. While there are bits and pieces scattered throughout the Multiverse Saga already (such as in What If… ? and Multiverse of Madness), there is no particular set of stories taking place in a dedicated separate universe yet. With two entire Phases left to go before the end of the Saga, Marvel Studios has a decent amount of time and a sufficient quantity of projects lined up to explore something akin to the Ultimate universe in live-action.
While some of the MCU’s animated projects leave the multiverse implications wide open, the MCU could boldly step into the next few years with major live-action projects that actually take place in a non-616 universe. Marvel Studios has said nothing to indicate this about any of its upcoming projects, but it would be a relatively easy and low-stakes (in the long-term) way of building up to Secret Wars and its aftermath. In the comics, the conclusion of the event saw the reconstruction of the multiverse, but it did not return to exactly how it existed before its destruction. An easy example is, again, Miles Morales. Though his home was the 1610 universe, the new multiverse saw him established as part of the main 616 universe.
The MCU would similarly have this option with any non-616 characters it established. In other words, the fact that some major characters could debut and exist outside of 616 in the coming years would not mean that our main MCU timeline would be without them in the long run. This could mean anything from the upcoming Fantastic Four, Blade, Deadpool 3, Daredevil: Born Again, or other projects could take place outside of the MCU’s Earth-616 universe fans are accustomed to. Aside from telling the Multiverse Saga story, it could also help Marvel Studios better integrate some of its newer properties from Fox or reboot Marvel TV projects into the proper MCU.
We have yet to see what the next Phases of the MCU will bring, though the Multiverse Saga would be quite bland if the multiverse did not dramatically expand story-wise ahead of its conclusion in Secret Wars. Bits and pieces of other universes will play their part, but firmly establishing major live-action storylines in another universe would heighten the overall narrative and experience for fans since we now officially know where the current saga ends. We will find out more, presumably soon, but some of the upcoming live-action projects could very well begin establishing an entirely new universe than the one the MCU has spent virtually all of its time in.
In a few days, we’ll finally get our hands on the latest entry in the Predator franchise, Prey. The project is taking a very different direction this time around to offer something unique, as it’ll act as a prequel to the long-running R-rated franchise. Dan Trachtenberg has taken over directing duties on the eight entries in the franchise, and shares that he’s been actively working on this project since his work on 10 Cloverfield Lane.
In the official press conference for the Hulu Original release, Trachtenberg got a chance to share just how the film came together and what led to it taking as long as it did, mostly pointing at the Fox-Disney merger being one of the many reasons that it took as long as it did to release it.
Why now? Because it just took this long to make this movie. I started developing this maybe a year after 10 Cloverfield Lane came out. And the last movie came out in theaters. And then, the Fox-Disney merger happened. And all of those things really delayed this from getting going. But the main inspiration behind it was sort of a confluence of a couple things. One was really wanting to make a movie that was primarily action-driven, mainly told visually, but not wanting to that just be fun, just be a good time, to wanna inject that with heart and emotion.
Dan Trachtenberg
It’s unknown just how many projects may have been affected by the merger, as Disney did end up carrying quite a few to release. There has been a noticeable trend that productions under the 20th Century Studios brand are slowly becoming streaming exclusive releases. though one could also easily make the point that the pandemic has also led to the influx of streaming originals that eventually led to the current productions still releasing as mapped out. We’re seeing a few more finally hit theaters and it’s hinting at a new shift for the franchise.
The numbers are here and it does seem like DC League of Super-Pets isn’t going to make the box office explode as much as one would hope, as it came in at the lower end of its initial predictions with $23M. While it opened to a strong $2.2M, it didn’t quite pick up momentum over the weekend and was quite frontloaded; playing more like a usual franchise IP-driven project than family-friendly animation would even with an A- CinemaScore.
The opening is closer to The Bad Guys back in April, which managed to leg out quite a bit, which the Super-Pets film can hope for with little to no competition. Perhaps taking over Black Adam‘s release date didn’t help either. It isn’t performing much better internationally either, as it pulled in 18.4M in 64 markets, which is quite below industry projections which expected at least a 41.4M worldwide opening.
In other news, Nope took a heavy beating this weekend. Not only did it open quite below expectations but it dropped by 70% going into its Friday, not far from Marvel’s recent releases in the B CinemaScore club. It did take an overall 58.1% drop in its weekend which is higher than even Us which puts it at 80.6M now, earning 18.6M which is less than Get Out‘s 28.2M. Still, it’s currently on route to make around 140M and could still leg out in a very dead few months coming.
Thor: Love and Thunder is also surprisingly quite a bit, as while it didn’t seemingly have the same legs as expected, it’s slowly picking up steam again and internationally performing decently with a 20.8M 4th weekend and now standing at 662.4M. Its projection is even growing again domestically, as it’s the 7th film to cross 300M in the US and now entered the Top 100. It could still end its run around 340M domestically, which is higher than Thor: Ragnarok‘s 315M. Only internationally it’ll slightly pass the original’s run sans China and Russia (and yes that is significant).
The only thing hurting is that it does have a higher production budget of 250M which means the film will likely break even with a much smaller profit, still not bad considering the discourse surrounding it. Marvel isn’t dead by a longshot and still pulling in strong numbers. So far, the only real well-performing blockbusters entries have been 2020 layovers Top Gun Maverick and Minions: The Rise of Gru, which does raise some interesting questions. Everything Everywhere All At Once has also been one of those rare productions to keep its momentum, but not all indie productions have shared the same kind of momentum. We’ll see how this long pause may affect upcoming releases.
The Rocky franchise is growing, and series star Sylvester Stallone isn’t happy about it. It was announced recently that MGM would be developing a spin-off film centered around the infamous Drago family, with Dolph Lundgren and Florian Munteanu reprising their father-son roles as Russian fighters Ivan and Viktor Drago from Rocky IV and Creed 2, respectively. Robert Lawton is set to write the script, with Irwin and David Winkler producing. Stallone, who has been actively involved with the creative process of nearly every Rocky and Creed installment, will seemingly not be part of the project.
The actor took to his Instagram just days ago to confirm some beef between himself and the Winkler family, calling David Winkler “painfully untalented” and his father Irwin “parasitical”. There is apparently an ongoing dispute between Stallone and the Winklers over the rights to Rocky, with the former claiming that the latter is holding hostage what should be his. The announcement of Drago only further set Stallone off, with the 80s icon returning to his social media for another vicious takedown:
Stallone is best remembered as the lead role in the Rocky films, but the creative also wrote every installment and directed all but two of the films. He also helped co-write the first two Creed movies. The upcoming third Creed will be the first without his direct contributions, although his role as producer indicates the project is happening with his blessing.
Kevin Feige once said that Marvel Studios would not appear at San Diego Comic-Con unless they could overdeliver, and this year’s event proved he wasn’t kidding. Through two major panels, one for animation and the other for live-action, the entertainment giant landed punch after punch of exciting news. Those in attendance were treated to countless announcements at a rapid fire pace, and information drops were used to both expand on known projects and reveal entirely new ones. If any fans felt left in the dark after 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, they should have a pretty good idea as to what the future holds now.
That being said, there were still quite a few titles missing from the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline shown at the end of the company’s Hall H presentation. Despite all the thrilling surprises, it’s hard not to wonder what might be going on with the shows and movies Feige didn’t talk about over the weekend. As such, it feels right to round up every single MCU project that’s definitely in development but somehow still on the downlow. Let’s dig in:
This was the biggest question mark coming out of Marvel’s Hall H. Armor Wars, an upcoming Disney+ series based on the comic arc of the same name was officially announced during a Disney Investor Day presentation in 2020. It’s probably the longest-standing MCU project yet to score a release window, despite a promising premise and a genuine leading man in Don Cheadle‘s War Machine. Actor, writer, and comedian Yassir Lester was brought on to serve as the series head writer almost a full year ago, and that was more or less the last time fans heard of any progress behind-the-scenes. The fact that Armor Wars wasn’t even mentioned during this year’s Comic-Con initially caused a bit of panic that the series might have been quietly canceled, until Lester took to social media and confirmed it’s still planned to release.
As history has shown, Marvel Studios is not above shifting its calendar to accommodate new things. It’s very likely that Armor Wars is simply still in its early development stages, and will be slipped into the release schedule when the company and the creatives feel everything is ready to go. It’s also possible the show’s story fits better later in the MCU timeline, and Feige just revealed its existence earlier than he ended up needing to. Until more is known, fans will just have to settle for seeing Cheadle‘s James Rhodes in Secret Invasion instead.
It really felt like this one was coming, and it’s still kind of shocking that it never did. Deadpool 3 has been in various stages of production since 2018, with its creative process being understandably delayed by Disney’s acquisition of former parent company 20th Century Fox. Since then, it’s been confirmed by the likes of Feige and star Ryan Reynolds that another film is indeed on the way. If that wasn’t enough, they’ve also revealed that this threequel will finally transition its R-rated antihero into the MCU proper.
The lead-up to this year’s convention saw Disney put both previous Deadpool films on their previously-kid-friendly streaming service, and the convention grounds themselves had the Merc with a Mouth handing out free chimichangas to promote the big additions. Nothing has ever felt like more of a sign that Marvel might announce the new entry during their Hall H panel. Alas, no Deadpool 3 was found on the timeline. At least fans can rest easy knowing Reynolds, along with franchise writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, are currently hard at work preparing Wade Wilson for his next cinematic adventure.
Marvel’s Hall H presentation was surprisingly Avengers-heavy for a franchise with so many new toys to play with. As stated before, the MCU can now legally include mutants, and more specifically, the X-Men, in their theatrical projects. Patrick Stewart became the first mutant in the MCU earlier this year when he reprised his iconic role as Professor Charles Xavier for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Iman Vellani took the reigns as part of a huge twist ending when Kamala Khan turned out to be a mutant in Ms. Marvel‘s finale episode. Now seemed like the perfect time for Marvel to announce exactly when to expect the X-Men’s return to cinemas, in a film Feige continues referring to as The Mutants, but no such confirmation ever came. Not even a peep about a potential creative team.
It’s worth noting the X-Men did have a presence at the convention, however, in the form of the animated X-Men ’97 series coming to Disney+ in fall 2023. It’s very possible Marvel held back on revealing The Mutants so that show would have time to shine, and besides, there were still about eight empty slots on that Phase 6 slide. It wouldn’t be shocking if Marvel’s Merry Mutants found themselves occupying one in the very near future.
It’s actually pretty strange that this one didn’t make the cut. It’s an incredibly open secret that Marvel Studios is developing an untitled Disney+ Halloween special centered on Werewolf by Night, but the transparency behind the project isn’t what makes its lack of attention at San Diego Comic-Con so weird. Not only does this one-hour special have a director in longtime composer Michael Giacchino, a runtime, and a full-blown cast in Gael García Bernal and Laura Donnelly, it’s actually already completed filming and is supposedly set to release in October of this year. It seems like, by this point, it should at least have an official title. Yet, the elongated Marvel One-Shot, or whatever it may be, was not even included in the MCU’s Phase 4 when Feige discussed the future timeline with fans, despite coming out before the Phase ends with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
It’s starting to look like Marvel Studios doesn’t consider holiday-themed specials as part of their actual Phase plan. Much like the still-untitled Halloween special, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is all filmed and rearing to go for this December season. Set photos, promotional merchandise, and a lot of updates from director James Gunn have kept fans satiated for the past year, but an official release date would be a nicer present for under the tree.
It wasn’t that long ago fans learned Simon Williams would be coming to the MCU. It was just last month The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton and Community writer Andrew Guest would create a Wonder Man series for Disney+. The article mentioned that cameras could begin rolling on the show as soon as 2023, so many fans felt that an official announcement from Marvel might come out of Hall H. Sadly, Feige‘s presentation ended without any sort of Phase placement or casting reveal for Wonder Man. Perhaps supporters of the longtime Avenger will have better luck at D23.
Nova is maybe the most elusive MCU project in the company’s history. The character has been rumored to appear in a number of projects since it seems, the beginning of the company’s history. It was once confirmed that Richard Rider, the last of the Nova Corps, was intended to appear in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, but was cut for the sake of trimming story fat. All hope seemed lost until news dropped in March that a Disney+ series focusing on the character was in development from Moon Knight scribe Sabir Pirzada. Of course, this led many to believe Marvel would finally make the project official at Comic-Con, putting an end to the cult-like social media campaign to bring Nova to live-action. Maybe Marvel likes all the begging because that obviously didn’t happen.
Black Panther Spin-Offs
Early last year, it was reported by Deadline that Marvel Studios had put two Black Panther spin-off series into development at Disney+. One was said to revolve around Danai Gurira‘s Okoye, while the other would be Wakanda-centric and produced by director Ryan Coogler. Not much has been heard about either show since then, even if many expected at least one to be announced alongside Wakanda Forever‘s portion of the night’s program. Much like the mutant situation before it, this could be due to the fact Marvel wanted its highly-anticipated sequel to get every bit of the attention.
Not long after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings became a massive success, it was announced that director Cretton and star Simu Liu would return for another go-around. It wasn’t likely that Marvel would make a big fuss about the future project with so much else to cover, but it did seem logical that a title reveal or release date could come with the outlining of Phases 4-6. While this didn’t pan out, fans can still be excited to see Cretton come back for Disney+’s Wonder Man, which as previously mentioned, also wasn’t discussed at Comic-Con.
The video is quite short and shared by @frankpappalardo on his TikTok account. While it doesn’t reveal much, it does give us our first look at the series take on the iconic Super Duper Mart, we also see that they are definitely sticking to the traditional dusted version of a post-apocalypse.
It’s great that they are using iconic locations, and it’ll help highlight that this is definitely a Fallout adaptation. The trouble with the amount of post-apocalypse storylines nowadays is that it’s difficult to find a concept that makes you pop. Luckily, the Fallout franchise always had a charm that was uniquely it’s own and perhaps we’ll get more teases of iconic landmarks from the various gaming entries. We still don’t know where in the United States (if at all) that’ll take place. So, future set photos could give us further hints where this entry will take place and if it’s a location familiar to fans of the gaming franchise.
Sony has been pushing forward with its Marvel franchise and is hoping to capitalize on the iconic rogue’s gallery of everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. While we’ve recently focused a lot on Madame Web, Sony’s answer to Doctor Strange, there’s also the live-action adaptation of Kraven the Hunter in the future.
Taylor Aaron-Johnson will take on the iconic role of Spidey’s most human foes, especially the one with the darkest storyline in Kraven’s Last Hunt. With rumors making the rounds online, the actor got a chance to tease what we can expect from his take on the character in the upcoming Sony game in an interview with ComicBook.com.
I can’t confirm any details or anything. And also, I guess that was probably a little taken out of context and then run. I mean, I think you know what I meant what really stated was that he was a protector of the natural world I said and he’s a conservationist, which is probably more accurate, and then should have stopped there, full stop, shouldn’t have gone on beyond that because, yeah I think you know you really got to understand, yeah, he is a hunter and from that world of hunting and there’s so many aspects.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
He also shares that there’s something that he found fascinating about the character and promises that this version of the character is definitely “going to be the hunter that we all want to see.”
What I love about that character is that what is he humanizing is that he has flaws, right? Kraven is a beautiful character. Sergei Kravinov is a beautiful character because it’s someone who’s really understanding themselves and has flaws. This is a character that was built ages ago and it’s in a new time and era, but yeah, is he going to be the hunter that we all want to see? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Many are still a bit confused about what to expect from the character, especially if they will try to humanize him in the upcoming project. The challenge is in how they then set him up as a future villain for whatever version of Spider-Man they plan on including. We’ll have to wait until the film eventually releases and potentially teases further connections.
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