The numbers are finally in and it looks like even with what some deem mixed word-of-mouth, the film has already pulled in $300M worldwide. While the film is on the lower end of its predictions, the film pulled in $143M domestically, which is certainly shy of the $150M to $170M projections. In a way, it’s closer to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘s release which is fitting given some of the discussions surrounding the latest entry. Still, the film has pulled in the third highest opening of the year just behind fellow Marvel release Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Jurassic World: Dominion, which it was only $2M shy of passing it.
As pointed out by Forbes Scott Mendelsohn, July releases aren’t as dominant as the pre-summer blockbuster releases and have showcased better legs. What is helping Marvel’s latest release is the fact that its only four-quadrant competition will be Black Adam in late October. While the smaller jump of 17% from Thor: Ragnarok isn’t their usual power push but the film wasn’t sold in the same way as the franchise changers like Captain America: Civil War and Multiverse of Madness.
Even if it’s on the lower end of projections, closer to the conservative ones from Marvel and Disney, the big question is where does it head from here. A harsh drop in the second weekend has become a norm for the franchise, but if it does end up sticking around 60% like Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ant-Man and the Wasp could get it to $400M. Yet, that B+ CinemaScore is likely going to drag it down a bit as those films bounced back. Yet, the lack of any real competition outside of Bullet Train and still ongoing power players Minions 2 and Top Gun Maverick.
At the moment, it does seem like the film will likely end domestically somewhere beyond $300M domestically. The film is also still showing a strong international release and won’t find its way to China and Russia, where the previous entry made around $135M. So, if the current film passes $715M worldwide it’ll still be a strong showing alongside other releases this year like No Time to Die ($774M) and The Batman ($770M). So the lowest bar to pass would be F9‘s $721M.
Chris Hemsworth and the cast of the film have been ever busy with promoting Marvel Studios’ latest project, Thor: Love and Thunder. In that process, Hemsworth has described Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher as his “favorite villain” to work against in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This quote from the lead actor has stirred me into thinking who would qualify as my personal favorite villain within the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With this being a truly daunting task, I’ve thought up a list of my five favorite villains from the MCU. Before getting into this specific list, I want to make it specifically clear that this is a list of my favoritevillains and not necessarily the best villains (in whatever metric you may qualify that to be). These are five characters whose film appearances resonated the most with me for a plethora of reasons, and I encourage the notion of thinking up which five would be your favorites.
Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin
5) Norman Osborn / Green Goblin (Earth-96283) – Spider-Man: No Way Home
The argument could be made that Willem Dafoe’s portrayal of the classic villain is technically an MCU villain due to him coming from the universe of the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man films, but Green Goblin’s now intrinsic ties to the life of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker should qualify him as a definitive MCU antagonist. Having grown up with said Raimi-directed films, the absurdist camp of Dafoe chewing scenery in his descent into madness left a large imprint on myself and specific turns of phrase were in my lexicon well before Spider-Man: No Way Home. Though with the news of his return into this role in the 2021 blockbuster, I held some reservations that he (and the other returning characters) would feel too incongruous with the more slightly subtle tones of what the Marvel Cinematic Universe had done with Spider-Man. Though fortunately, not only did this version of Norman Osborn fit in extremely well with Holland, I’d argue the campiness of the character enhanced the performance. Willem Dafoe adeptly balanced both sides of the sympathetic figure of a man trapped by a demon inside of him and the sinister villain who killed this universe’s Aunt May and drove Peter into nearly becoming a killer. He was the perfect type of villain to help transition Holland’s Spider-Man into the seemingly more adult version that will continue into the future.
Daniel Bruhl as Helmut Zemo
4) Helmut Zemo – Captain America: Civil War
What makes DanielBrühl‘s portrayal of Helmut Zemo such a memorable villain for me in the history of the MCU is the distinct lack of physical action we see him undertake. Whereas essentially every other villain from the Marvel Cinematic Universe made their claim for power through overt action, Zemo got what he wanted through acting in the shadows and through the power of words. This Machiavellian approach felt extremely fresh at the time of Captain America: Civil War’s release and he still remains one of the most unique villains from the franchise. And then of course, there’s the worthwhile discourse that Zemo is arguably the most effective villain in the MCU thanks to being the catalyst of the Avengers disassembling through only a few distinct actions.
Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger
3) N’Jadaka / Erik Stevens / Killmonger – Black Panther
For a film like Black Panther, its primary villain is what moves the film from a really strong entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to an all-time classic. The strong working relationship between director Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan is ever present in how much the movie is carried by the actions and motivations of Killmonger (though I certainly don’t mean that as a slight on anyone else involved in the strong ensemble cast). For me, watching Killmonger throughout Black Panther is akin to watching a Shakespearean performance of King Richard III in his titular play or Iago in Othello. There will always be something exciting and intriguing seeing a villain being able to strategically navigate the world around him and end up in ultimate power, only to have a dramatic fall by the end of their story. And what especially makes Killmonger a majorly compelling character is having justifiable motivations for his actions in the world around that has genuinely unfairly wronged him. Some of the most interesting villains to watch are those that have the right moral justifications, but carry them out immorally.
Josh Brolin as Thanos
2) Thanos – Avengers: Infinity War
While Thanos serves as the main antagonist for both Infinity War and Endgame, I particularly want to focus on why the former portrayal of the character is especially one of my favorite MCU villains. The level of nuance that Thanos brings to the table on his quest for all six Infinity Stones was a pleasant surprise for some audience members (including myself). This was a character that very easily could’ve been portrayed as an ultimate “man in the chair” that orchestrates his villainous scheme from a distance while focusing on the large Avengers roster before a large final battle. However, Infinity War gives Josh Brolin some substantial material to work with in terms of character development by making him essentially the protagonist of one of the highest anticipated major blockbuster films. When Marvel Studios could have simply made Thanos the personification of pure evil, they instead made him a complicated figure that truly believes he is acting for the good of the universe (even though his actions clearly show that he isn’t). It was a genuinely risky decision by Marvel Studios, and I greatly appreciate that risk and how well it ended up playing out for them. And on the point of risky decisions, the most critical component for making him one of my favorite cinematic villains is him ultimately being successful in his resoundly defeating Earth’s mightiest heroes destroying half of the universe’s life. While it was obvious in the moment that the killed heroes would rise again by Endgame the following year, it still remains one of the most bold endings to a major studio film and solidified this film as the Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back of this generation. And Avengers: Infinity War would certainly have not reached that status without the all-time great portrayal of Thanos.
Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio
1) Quentin Beck / Mysterio – Spider-Man: Far From Home
While generally well received by audiences as an enjoyable villain, I certainly expect this to be considered to be an at least unconventional #1 pick for favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe villain. However, Jake Gyllenhaal gives an all-time great and multi-layered performance as Mysterio that consistently rings in my mind a favorite character from this decade-plus long cinematic saga. While I certainly feel strongly about nuanced characters with complex motivations (as seen in my entries of Zemo, Killmonger, and Thanos), I can find equally great enjoyment out of a villain who has essentially no real redeeming qualities. Quentin Beck is simply an absolute irredeemable villain in his vain attempt to enter the world of celebrity and total willingness to outright murder a teenager. Plus his showmanship is extremely memorable, between his iconic revealing monologue and multi-layered illusion on Spider-Man in Berlin. What I find most interesting with Mysterio is Gyllenhaal’s master-class in acting with this role. Quentin Beck is played as a fairly wooden and generic superhero for the first half Far From Home, and it reaches the point that one could think it’s just an outright bad performance on a first viewing. However, the turn at the midpoint of the film is both extremely fun to watch and recontextualizes his entire role in the film as part of his master scheme (which makes this film extremely rewatchable in my book). Jake Gyllenhaal looks like he’s having the time of his life as an unhinged, vapid Hollywood-esque, mustache-twirling lunatic. And of course Mysterio is responsible for providing this version of Spider-Man with my favorite live-action action scenes with the character throughout the third act. Then of course comes the notion that Mysterio is the catalyst for the status-quo breaking events for Peter Parker, which places him in my pantheon of enjoyable villains that at least semi-successfully achieve their goals.
Of course, this whole thought experiment is ultimately subjective, and I’m very certain any reader of this will have their own variations on a “Top Five Favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe Villain” list. That in itself has been critical in making Marvel Studios as successful as it has been. And hopefully we will be able to see new villains that could be included on these types of lists in the near future as Phase Four continues.
Currently, Thor: Love and Thunder is setting the box office ablaze and making its mark among the Marvel Cinematic Universe offerings. While not a critical darling, it does seem that audiences have enjoyed the film for the most part going by its 83% liked rating on Google and 81% Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It was once again a Marvel film that pulled in a B+ after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Eternals both landed in that category. Many have been pointing to a doom and gloom scenario for the future of the franchise.
In the many discussions online in regards to the quality of the film’s overall effects work, Variety has revealed that the film’s budget has topped the previously assumed $200M and now stands at around $250M. While from a box office perspective, this merely adds weight to the project needing to at least hit $500M, which also doesn’t include the marketing costs. There’s no definite reason given why the production budget for this film ballooned up to this price mark but it should be noted that VFX isn’t the biggest part of the pie.
Given that they’ve done reshoots on the film with some rather expensive cast, it wouldn’t be too surprising that they may have wanted to invest slightly more. It’s only speculation mind you, but it’s interesting if you consider Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is still reported with a $200M budget. There’s also the chance that the use of the Volume has skyrocketed due to the rising interest. It does put the film on the same level as Captain America: Civil War and Avengers.
Yes, people will probably boggle down this to “why the VFX looks bad if that’s the budget” but there’s a lot we don’t know about how this production came together. Marvel films also have the added benefit of profiting off of merchandise sales that aren’t a key factor in its box office dominance. The bigger question remains if the current phase is still the aftermath of films being shot during COVID and that is a leading cause for many qualms people have; especially as it is something that’s affecting many films throughout the industry.
We’ve heard surprisingly very little of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. While the film has finished production and some spoilery rumors are making the rounds, Marvel Studios has been mainly focused on its 2022 releases. Plus, there’s still some time before the film hits theaters in February of next year. Yet, it seems one detail has managed to find its way online through Film Music Reporter.
Beck has left quite an imprint on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it’s exciting to see him back. He’s also the first to get to score Kang the Conqueror’s theme, which will likely become a recurring one throughout the future franchise. So, we’ll see what he’ll bring to this thrid entry, especially with the promising new additions that could set up some exciting future developments.
Just recently, it was revealed that Marvel Studios’ new animation division will get its very own panel at San Diego Comic-Con. While we only got teases of what’s to come, it was hinted at we’ll see a lot more from their animation projects. Now, it seems like more details have dropped for the Hall H panel for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future.
In a new report by Deadline, Kevin Feige‘s “mega-panel” has been confirmed for 5 PM on Saturday, July 23rd. So, we’ll definitely get quite the double whammy with the upcoming projects. It’s unsure just how much they’ll show considering D23 and Disney+ Day are also on the horizon, but it’ll be exciting nonetheless.
Marvel Studios’ usual tradition was always a showcase of their upcoming Phase or new entries to the MCU. Yet, they may have a stronger focus on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever given that the film is going to release in November and we still don’t have a trailer for it. They may be keeping the “big” announcements for the Disney-owned event later on.
No matter what, there’s something special about these events and they also tend to create some build-up that Phase 4 may have needed if it weren’t for COVID delaying a lot of the releases. So, we’ll see how they enter the event and what they might be bringing to the show for those that are attending, as well as what they’ll share with those at home.
The following article will contain spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder’s post-credit sequences. If you want to avoid spoilers, only continue at your own risk.
Thor: Love and Thunder may have expanded the Marvel Cinematic Universe in smaller but relevant ways. Not only did we meet other god pantheons, but we even got a glimpse on how they act when it comes to those they were meant to protect. After getting tired of their arrogance, thor seemingly kills Russell Crowe’s Zeus. Yet, the post-credit sequence reveals he survived and also introduced us to the MCU’s Hercules.
The biggest surprise comes in theform of him being played by British actor, famous for his work onTed Lasso, Brett Goldstein. They keep the door open on how exactly he will return but it turns out that his casting was something Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige wanted to make happen according to director Taika Waititi.
Kevin really wanted him to do it, and yeah, Brett’s amazing. He’s great.
Taika Waititi
He also goes on to highlight that Hercules’ future in the MCU isn’t truly set in stone outside of what Feige might be planning for the cahracter.
And I don’t know if that’s to do with Thor, or if it’s to do with how that will develop. Because, obviously, Hercules, there’s a character from the books as well. And so, yeah, this will be interesting to see because Kevin, he’s obviously the mastermind of all of these threads and how they’ll tie up and how they meet, mix and match. So I’m curious to find out myself.
Taika Waititi
Goldstein is definitely a great get for Marvel Studios, as he’s hot off of the success of Ted Lasso and likely going to become a bigger name in the near future. It’s unclear if Hercules might get his own series or film leading into a fifth Thor film, or if that might generally be their take. For now, we’ll have to wait and see where the future might lead him to.
There have been many times as of late where fans have wanted to see the director’s cut of a recently released film. It’s not always the case but with success stories like Zack Snyder’s Justice League, it became a bit of a habit. Yet, Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi doesn’t really share those thoughts and highlights the importance of studios and directors working together, as otherwise, he’d release a “four and a half hours long” movie.
I’ve been thinking about director’s cuts. I watch director’s cuts of a lot of other directors. They suck. Director’s cuts are not good. Directors need to be controlled sometimes, and if I was to say, ‘ah, you wanna watch my director’s cut? It’s four and a half hours long!’ It’s not good, at four and a half hours. There’s a lot of cup-of-tea breaks in there, you don’t even have to pause it.
Taika Waititi
He also highlights that he’d mostly just add cuts scenes and add a few more jokes in the film, which many have critics have actually pointed out was an issue with the film’s overall tonee.
I’d say my cut would probably have a few more jokes in there. There might be a couple of deleted scenes, but as I always say, a scene is deleted because it’s not good enough to be in the film. I think the deleted scenes section on the DVD, not that they use them anymore, should just be a list of the scenes and no links so you can’t click on them!
Taika Waititi
So, if you were hoping for some kind of director’s cut you’ll not get one. Yes, they have teased that quite a few sequences were cut from the film, but it does match Taika Waititi‘s directing style to throw everything he has against the wall to see what sticks. So, it does seem safe to say that his version would definitely include quite a few more jokes.
We’ve long been waiting for what the second season of What If…? has to offer, especially after a rather interesting first entry.. Not every episode was perfect, but overall the show did some really cool things. And with the recent news that fans will be treated to a first look at season 2 during Marvel Studios’ animation panel at SDCC, now is as good a time as any to take a look at what the future may hold for What If…?. As such, let’s take a look at five ideas for new episodes of pertaining to phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What If… Wanda’s Hex Took Over The Tri-State Area?
This episode would act as a continuation of WandaVision. As Wanda’s hex expands, it takes over more and more land, which leads to more of the world being dragged into the ‘TV-Verse’ that Wanda created. It takes over the whole tri-state area, which would also include all of New York. As such, characters that live in the city like Doctor Strange, Wong, Spider-Man, and more would get dragged into this fictional world. While WandaVision played around with sitcoms, the hex’s expansion could open it up to embracing other TV genres. They can pay homage to big TV shows like Lost, Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Westworld, The Walking Dead. Hell, they could even get meta and take some inspiration from The Mandalorian. Either way, more characters get involved and they have to figure out a way to stop Wanda.
What If… Loki Won The Tour de France?
In Loki, there’s a Variant that wears what appears to be a cyclist’s uniform and is holding a trophy. So, why not explore that very story on What If…? Instead of becoming Earth’s ruler by invading with an alien army, this Loki takes a different approach: gaining favor and popularity by winning the Tour de France. The episode plays out like a sports documentary, where Loki, an up-and-coming racer, has entered the race, but is unknowingly cheating using magic. And the heroes who will become the Avengers figure this out and decide they must stop him. This is how the Avengers form in this universe.
But they can’t fight Loki because he’s too popular, so they all join the Tour de France, hoping they can beat him. Captain America fairs pretty well against Loki, however, he and the Hulk get disqualified, due to “steroid usage”. Thor is also disqualified for riding his father’s 8-legged horse, Sleipnir. Iron Man builds a really good bike, but – similar to Ultron – it turns evil and fights everybody, so he’s out. Black Widow ultimately does the best against Loki, who resorts to brainwashing Hawkeye to take her out. In the end, Loki wins and uses his popularity to become Earth’s ruler.
What If… Wenwu Invaded Wakanda?
Shang-Chi‘s Wenwu is a very wealthy, knowledgeable, and worldly man, who is constantly exploring ways to expand his empire. He probably knows about Wakanda – especially if guys like Klaw will just tell you – and that it has some sort of connection to the afterlife via the Ancestral Plane. In this version of the story, Wenwu aims to conquer the country to get his wife back through the Ancestral Plane. One of the things that season 1 of What If…? did so well was that the fight scenes were terrific, especially when there was cool hand-to-hand combat. So, it would be super cool to see the Black Panther, the Dora Milaje, and all the Black Panther characters fight Wenwu, Razor Fist, and the rest of the Ten Rings army. It may be light on story but the spectacle would make up for it.
What If… Sylvie Grew Up To Be A Valkyrie?
There’s a theory out there that in Loki, Sylvie’s nexus event was that instead of wanting to become a ‘Loki’, she wanted to be a Valkyrie. Young Sylvie is shown to be playing with Valkyrie toys and that didn’t go with He Who Remain’s plan. In this version of the story, Sylvie gets to fulfill her dream of becoming a Valkyrie, where she also befriends Tessa Thompson‘s Valkyrie. They form a new team of intergalactic super viking-warriors; one that is able to successfully vanquish Hela when the time comes. Jane Foster could be the third member of the team when she becomes the Mighty Thor, especially because in the comics, Jane Foster is currently the leader of the Valkyries.
What If… Jimmy Woo Became Sorcerer Supreme?
In this version of the story, Jimmy Woo is recruited to Kamar-Taj by Wong after showing him a card trick. However, not long after, the entire sorcerer population is decimated by Mordo in his quest to eliminate all magic-users. But since Jimmy Woo’s ‘magic’ is just sleight of hand, he goes unnoticed by Mordo. With no one left to protect the Earth from mystical threats, he assumes the role of the Sorcerer Supreme. It’s a silly idea, but one of the great things about the What If…? comics is that at the end of the issue, there would be like a silly three-page story that wouldn’t make sense for a real book. A great example of this is ‘What If Ben Parker’s Nephew Was Galactus?’ from What If Vol. 2, #3. Something like that can be done here where Jimmy Woo is Sorcerer Supreme and he does close-up magic instead of actual sorcery.
Here’s a rather massive surprise but it looks like Zeus wasn’t always on the table for Thor: Love and Thunder. As revealed by artist Miles Teves, it seems that Russell Crowe was originally going to play a completely different character. While it’s uncertain at what point was he going to play this character, it seems they’ve envisioned him as the Devil or Satan at one point. Not just that, but eves also shared some artwork highlighting the design.
There’s also a second piece showcasing a more relaxed version of the character, but just with more added color and highlighting his lazy nature. It’s unclear if he would’ve had the same role in the story or if that was also changed while rewriting it.
It’s definitely a surprise that the character was almost featured in the film, and it adds more to the theories of Mephisto making his appearance at some point. Many believed he was the mastermind in the first Disney+ series, WandaVision but were surprised when he never even showed up. While the character here is being called the Devil or Satan, it could’ve been that they considered adding him in as Mephisto for a later storyline. Yet, as we now know how the story goes, we learn that they set up something quite different going into the post-credit sequences of this film. Still, it’s always interesting to see what almost was or could’ve been.
With the Friday number sin, we’re getting a better vision of where the box office for Thor: Love and Thunder is heading. After taking in a strong Thursday Preview with $29M, the film has ended up kicking off its box office run at around $69.5M on Friday, which includes the previews. As of now, it is seemingly heading towards a $135M with a potential $145M if it picks up some pace over the weekend. It’ll be the best opening for a Taika Waititi-directed project and even beat out Natalie Portman‘s best release which was Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith with $108M back in the day.
It doesn’t seem like the film will potentially outpace Jurassic World: Dominion and will have to settle for the third biggest opening of the year so far. Still, the reopening for Marvel Studios’ first fourth entry in a franchise isn’t doing too badly as it’s ahead of the $122M opening for Thor: Ragnarok. While it’s unclear if it’ll surpass that film’s total box office, especially with the now CinemaScore B+ rating potentially slowing down its legs, the sequel still managed to reach $950M when it was initially released with a B+ rating. Still, the film has been doing pretty well overseas as well and is already on its way to $300M opening.
there are quite a few theories going around on what this means for the Studio as it’s another B release after Strange and Eternals. Some are questioning if Marvel is overdoing it with Disney+ or generally if this is a sign of audiences being tired of the franchise. One could easily point to Deadline’s analysis from RelishMix which has looked at Social Media’s stirring with the controversy of Portman‘s return as a “gender-bent” version of the character and a surprising backlash to Waititi‘s trademark humor. With a horror film and a rom-com/comedy, it’s still a bit tough to really nail down if this is an issue on Marvel’s side or just everyone getting back into the swing of things.
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