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‘Multiverse of Madness’ Writer Addresses Wanda Stans’ Complaints About the Film

Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron has gone on record saying that he envisioned the Scarlet Witch as the villain of the latest entry into the MCU right from the start. That decision hasn’t resonated with Wanda’s internet stans, many of whom feel it undoes her character’s arc in the Marvel Studios streaming series WandaVision. In an interview with Playlist, Waldron addresses their concerns and gives some insight into Wanda’s journey.

I guess I would say to the WandaVision fans, like, I get it. Watching a character you love do bad things sucks. That elicits a strong feeling, which is what we’re trying to do in the movies. We never would have done it if it didn’t feel like the next step in her character journey.

Wanda’s villainy is not unprecedented in the source material, where she was first introduced as a villain in 1964’s X-Men #4, nor in the MCU itself where she began as a Hydra experiment meant to counter the Avengers and was responsible for holding an entire community hostage in WandaVision. And while she ultimately freed the people of Westview, the series ended on an even darker note with Wanda studying the Darkhold, leaving fans to understand she hasn’t quite overcome the traumas she’s suffered, as Waldron points out.

To me, my interpretation of the story of WandaVision was, that Wanda is confronting her grief in that show, but I don’t think she’s necessarily conquering it. It’s a show about her living in denial to some extent and she’s conquering her denial, but I don’t think that she’s properly reckoning with her anger over what she’s endured, and that anger is what she carries with her as she walks away with the knowledge that she is the Scarlet Witch and with the Darkhold, this evil book. And I think it’s that anger that the Darkhold preys upon and pushes her on what is a, to me and I think to Wanda, a very justifiable, noble journey. She just wants her kids.

Wanda’s journey in the MCU has been nothing short of the universe’s most tragic. Defined almost entirely by what she’s lost, Wanda has rarely had time to breathe between tragedies. With Lizzie Olsen keen on continuing the character’s story, it’s worth considering that Wanda’s best days almost certainly lie ahead of her.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theaters now and you can stream all 9 episodes of WandaVision on Disney Plus.

Source: Playlist

May 13, 2022
The Morning After Huddle: May 13, 2022
Welcome to another edition of The Morning After Huddle where we we bring you the top news from around the NFL each day. We hope you’re strapped in tight. There’s unexpected turbulence in the Mile High City with Jerry Jeudy.

Here’s what you need to know:
- According to the Arapahoe Sheriff’s Office, Jerry Jeudy has been arrested on charges of 2nd degree criminal tampering with a domestic violence enhancer.The Broncos are aware of the situation and are gathering more evidence.
- We’ve been waiting all day for Sunday Night! Maria Taylor will officially take over for Mike Tirico as host of Football Night in America. Maria’s promotion comes on the heels of Tirico’s move to full time play-by-play announcer.
- Our condolences go out to the family of Patriots Hall of Famer Gino Cappelletti, as he has passed away at 89. Cappelletti was heavily involved with the Patriots as a player, coach and broadcaster. For more details, click here.
- Finally, we leave you with our Key Signings RoundUp: Jaguars rookie Travon Walker has signed his contract. Contract details stipulate that Walker will make $37.4M, including a $24.4M signing bonus. The Atlanta Falcons also announced a rookie contract signing, late Thursday. Wide Receiver Drake London signed an (estimated) $24.66M deal. Not a signing, but a trade was made yesterday as the New England Patriots sent QB Jarrett Stidham (and a 7th round pick) to the Las Vegas Raiders for a 6th round pick.
That’s it for today’s huddle. Catch us on this weekend for more top news you definitely need to know!

ICYMI: Thursday’s Edition – May 12, 2022
May 13, 2022
Dan Stevens set to Star in ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Sequel

It has officially been announced that Dan Stevens is set to star in the upcoming sequel of 2021’s blockbuster film Godzilla vs. Kong. Director Adam Wingard is set to return to direct the follow-up project, marking a reunion between director and actor after working together on The Guest. The 2014 independent thriller gave Stevens and Wingard some of their strongest reviews and put both of them on the board as people who could play roles in more major franchises down the road. The Monsterverse sequel is one of the first major tentpole film roles for Stevens, who has generally been very selective in the roles he accepts. The actor most recently has portrayed John Dean, the Nixon-era White House Counsel, in the series Gaslit on Starz.

The sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong continues Legendary’s financially successful Monsterverse franchise. The original film released in 2021 was the first film post-pandemic to earn over $100M at the box office domestically and ultimately grossed $468M globally. While minimal details are known about the new film, audiences should certainly anticipate a return of both iconically monstrous figures as they engage in another world-shattering war. Production led by Adam Wingard is set to commence in Australia later this summer. It will certainly be interesting to follow further developments for the Monsterverse as more from this film is announced.

Godzilla vs. Kong 2 does not yet have a release date, but it is thought to hit theaters sometime in 2024.

Source: Deadline

May 12, 2022
Moon Knight Head Writer: Get Excited for X-Men ’97

Jeremy Slater, head writer for the recent Moon Knight Disney+ show, hyped the upcoming X-Men ’97 show in an interview with Comicbook.com’s Adam Barnhardt.

“Beau DeMayo, who’s doing X-Men ’97, is one of the best writers I have ever worked with in my life. He’s an absolute genius. And the other day, we had our writers’ dinner, and he was telling me some of the things they have planned for X-Men ’97. I can’t say a single thing, except you guys have no idea how excited you should be for that show.”
Jeremy Slater

DeMayo was a contributor in the writer’s room for Moon Knight under Slater, who went on to say it is “going to be f—ing awesome. That’s all I can say about it. But the stuff he was saying — every episode — it was blowing my mind of what he was sort of pitching. So you guys have no idea how excited you should be for that show.”

The show, which will be the first official X-Men content in the MCU, is rumored to pick up directly where the original series left off. Excitement for the project is growing following Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier returning in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. As of now, there is not a known release date for X-Men ’97.

Source: Comicbook.com

May 12, 2022
CW Cancels ‘Legacies’ After Four Seasons

In what has been a day filled with mass amounts of cancellations from the CW, Legacies has officially become the latest casualty. After four seasons beginning in 2018, the Julie Plec-created series has officially been pulled by the network. The show continued the overarching narrative of the Vampire Diaries franchise while introducing audiences to a new generation of supernatural beings at Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted. With the cancellation of this series, it quietly marks the end of the Vampire Diaries saga as of now, with both the original series and additional spin-off The Originals having come to an end in recent years.

Even with the end of the series, creator Julie Plec remains fully ensconced in the world of young vampires. She continues to be working on the Vampire Academy series, created by Marguerite MacIntyre and herself, for the Peacock streaming service. As well, she has recently reunited with Vampire Diaries co-creator Kevin Williamson earlier this year to begin development on an additional series for Peacock based around the Death Day film franchise.

The CW has very much upended its original programming lineup with the cancellations of 4400, Charmed, Dynasty, In the Dark, and Roswell, New Mexico earlier today. As well, the network has officially eliminated a large portion of their shows built around the DC Universe with Naomi being canceled today in conjunction with Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow recently. It certainly begs the question of what the CW has planned moving forward in terms of original programming.

Source: Variety

May 12, 2022
New ‘Moon Knight’ Concept Art Reveals Ammit’s Alternative Designs

Not too long ago, we got a good look at some alternative designs for Khonshu, Moon Knight’s rather selfish Egyptian deity. The series gave us a good look at a few Egyptian gods, but the big stand out was the build-up to Ammit’s arrival. The crocodile goddess made her debut in the final episode and didn’t hesitate to suck in some souls of those deserving for crimes they haven’t even done yet. As it turns out, the Moon Knight villain may have almost looked entirely different.

Artist Jerad Marantz took to their personal ArtStation to release some early Ammit designs. As he highlights, this was very early in development before they probably finalized the character’s overall look. What is presented is much closer to her design from the Egyptian mythology, as Ammit is commonly portrayed more like a monstrous giant alligator with humanoid features, which is quite a departure from where the Disney+ series went.

There’s also a more humanoid alternative that also includes some elements that made it into the final design.

It’s always great to get a glimpse at what could’Ve been. Sadly, the post-credit sequence has pretty much ended any potential return of Harrow and Ammit, but given Egyptian mythology anything is possible. It would be great to get the monstrous version of Ammit out for vengeance on what was done to her, seeing her fall to become the very thing she was trying to stop. For now, we’re still wondering what the future has in store for Moon Knight before we can even expect a return of Ammit.

Source: ArtStation

May 12, 2022
‘Alan Wake’ TV Series in Development by AMC

Alan Wake has celebrated its 12th anniversary and while we still didn’t get any hints at the sequel that was revealed during the last Game Awards, we did get the announcement that AMC is currently developing a new series based on the action-adventure game. While Alan Wake 2‘s taking a stronger horror direction, it’s unclear if the new series will stick to the format of the original.

Remedy Entertainment’s Creative Director Sam Lake shared his excitement on the announcement.

AMC, the wonderful, wonderful home for absolutely brilliant TV shows has bought the rights for Alan Wake. We have been collaborating on making a TV show happen. Nothing more to share at the moment, but we will certainly let you know when there is something to announce.
Sam Lake

It seems there have been discussions on adapting the gaming franchise back in 2018 with Legion‘s Peter Calloway attached as its showrunner. Lake had an executive producer role at the time. It joins countless other video game adaptations that have been finding a new home with streaming services and broadcast networks, such as Fallout, Mass Effect, God of War, and Twisted Metal.

Interestingly enough, there’s no mention if Calloway is once again attached to the series but going by the announcement, it seems unlikely at the moment. They’ve teased more updates in the future, but it seems we’ll have to wait a little longer as they get the project going, as it is seemingly in early pre-production.

Source: Deadline

May 12, 2022
Kevin Feige on Iman Vellani’s Influence on ‘Ms. Marvel’

Iman Vellani has the challenging task of taking on the role of Kamala Khan, Marvel’s first Muslim-American superhero. The character made headlines when she first was revealed back in 2014 and now Vellani will lead the new Ms. Marvel Disney+ show. While she’s a relative newcomer, she made quite the impression when she auditioned for the role.

It seems that she prepared a hand-written list of 50 questions regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which she handed to Kevin Feige on the set of Ms. Marvel. It seems he still has kept the list to this day that includes “really granular stuff.” He goes on to compare her to Tom Holland and his passion for the franchise.

Much like Tom Holland and Peter Parker, Iman is a much bigger Marvel fan than we realized.
Kevin Feige

It’s great to see actors involved with the project share the same passion that not only fans do but the many people behind the scenes trying to bring the franchise to life. He highlighted that she also played an important part in giving her input as the show evolves.

She carries this Unabomber notebook with her everywhere, with scribbles and ideas. And why wouldn’t we want to hear them? Not just because she’s playing the lead, but because if she wasn’t playing the lead, she’d be commenting on the show online. So better comment before the show’s done, and try to incorporate the best of those ideas.
Kevin Feige

It certailny sounds like she was a bundle of energy during the Disney+ seris production, perfectly showcasing the same mentality that the comic’s Kamala Khan has. The way he described it is better she comments while they’re working on it is a sweet moment and we’ll see what ideas of hers made it into the final product once it aris in June.

Source: Empire Magazine via Twitter

May 12, 2022
‘Gotham Knight’s Ordered to Series by The CW

It seemed like the CW was cleaning up, as they’ve started canceling one project after another. Yet, it seems that they still have a few projects in the development pipeline they’ve decided to pick up some of their new pilots. Among them is the new DC series Gotham Knights, which mainly shares the name and premise of the upcoming Warner Bros. Montréal game.

The series joins Walker: Independence and The Winchesters for the 2022-23 season, which are both prequel series from CW’s line-up. Gotham Knights is an original concept that explores Bruce Wayne’s offspring after his father dies and is forced to work with the children of Batman’s villains.

While many expected the sale of existing projects was due to the upcoming Warner Bros. Discovery sale that has been rumored for some time. It seems that Nexstar is currently in the lead to purchase the broadcast network, but that makes it unclear what would happen to its intellectual properties that technically belong to WArner Bros.

They’ve recently been busy canceling various projects, which included their Charmed remake, Batwoman, and even last season’s newest DC addition, Naomi. The latter was quite the surprise for many, as many saw it as a new start to their DC CW slate after various Arrowverse mainstays were leaving. It’s unclear what may happen to Gotham Knights in case a sale does end up happening, but it’s great to see them moving forward.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

May 12, 2022
‘The Sandman’s Tom Sturridge and Neil Gaiman on Bringing Morpheus to Life

Netflix has been busy promoting its upcoming fourth season of Stranger Things, but that’s not all that is heading our way. This summer will see the release of the highly-anticipated The Sandman live-action series. After getting a very popular audio adaptation, there’s been a lot of hope for seeing the series finally get adapted.

Creator Neil Gaiman certainly has been hoping so, as he reveals in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he’s gone through “1,500 Morpheus auditions” since the project was hoping to adapt the story of the Lord of the Dreaming. Joseph Gordon-Levitt started a project that didn’t get picked up, but luckily their casting led them to Tom Sturridge taking on the role.

Tom Sturridge also got to talk about the lengthy casting process, but is quite okay with it, as he understands the importance of the role.

It was entirely necessary, because this is a character who is so utterly beloved — by me more than anyone. That requires you to spend time with a human being to discover if they can live up to the dream you have of who he is. I think The Sandman pervades culture. Even the name Morpheus, King of Dreams, kind of haunted me in my youth.
Tom Sturridge

The actor also jokingly talked bout taking on the role, especially as his first appearance is naked, as the story takes place during World War I, just as some humans try to capture Death but end up with her brother Dream. While joking about ending up naked in front of the people he has nine months to work with, he highlights the challenge of bringing this character to life.

I cared very much about the physicality and image of Morpheus. We’ve all seen those pictures, we know about his skeletal, muscular, otherworldly physique. Something that’s very exciting about the physical aspect of things is you can solve that problem. I can make my body look like that — it requires A, B, C, and D — in a way that I can’t easily get into the soul of an Endless. There was something quite satisfying about beginning with a task that was achievable, and I worked hard to create this physicality that I felt that was unusual.
Tom Sturridge

Gaiman goes on to highlight how they approached the dialogue, and how much work went into the project under showrunner Allan Heinberg‘s supervision.

Morpheus’ dialogue is incredibly specific. It was probably the thing I was most obsessive about. Someone would have written a fabulous script, [showrunner] Allan Heinberg would have rewritten a fabulous script, and I would have seen it at every iteration, but there would always be a point at the end where I would still be noodling on the Morpheus dialogue: Making sure the words were right, that the rhythms were right
Neil Gaiman

Sturridge added to the view of how Dream talks, as everything he says has been “etched in stone” due to the way he’s seen everything there ever was, is and will be.

I remember you said to me that everything he says has to feel like it was etched in stone. He’s never improvising. He has experienced and perceived every thought, dream, and moment, and therefore he knows what you’re going to say. That was very helpful.
Tom Sturridge

It definitely sounds like a lot of work went into bringing this series to life, and The Sandman is definitely an ambitious adaptation. Neil Gaiman‘s heavy involvement definitely adds that special something, and the fact they went out of their way to ensure they can cast the right actor as Dream highlights how much work went into it. Here’s hoping we get a new look soon.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

May 12, 2022