Murphy's Multiverse

Blog

  • ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Webs Up the Title of Highest Grossing Film of 2021

    ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Webs Up the Title of Highest Grossing Film of 2021

    The fabled Holiday weekend has done its thing, as Spider-Man: No Way Home will pass $1 billion over the weekend. As such, it has now become the highest-grossing film of 2021. The title was held by The Battle of Lake Changjin, which was a strong Chinese release with $904 million. It earned an amazing $19.7M on Christmas Eve and stands at a strong $405.5M domestically. With that, it has passed Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle to become their highest-grossing film in the domestic market. As of now, the film has garnered $900M worldwide and will likely pass the mark either tonight over Christmas Day or the latest on Sunday.

    If the film passes the $1 billion over Christmas Day, it’ll tie with Avengers: Infinity War to reach that milestone. Avengers: Endgame still has that title with five days. It’ll be the first to pass the billion mark since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in December 2019. What makes this film stand out is that it’ll pass this benchmark without a Chinese release, as it’s only the fifth film to manage the benchmark, which includes The Dark Knight, Joker, PIrates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and Alice in Wonderland. At this rate, it’ll inch closer to the releases like Frozen with $1.45B, or even Avengers: Infinity War with $2.048B. Developments in the new year will offer a clearer picture.

    Source: Forbes, Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Spider-Man: Freshman Year’ Adds ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Li Cree as Storyboard Artist

    ‘Spider-Man: Freshman Year’ Adds ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Li Cree as Storyboard Artist

    We’ve been quite excited to see what the future has in store for Marvel Studios’ new ventures, especially with their drive to expand into animation. What If…? was merely a window into the potential we can expect, but with the announcement of an X-Men: The Animated Series revival and Marvel Zombies project, there’s a lot of potentials. A personal highlight is the prequel series Spider-Man: Freshman Year that’ll explore Peter Parker’s time before he joined Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War.

    It looks like the team is continuing to expand, as Star Trek: Lower Decks and My Adventures with Superman‘s Li Cree has announced they’ve joined the project on Twitter. The resumé also includes Port by the Sea, Critical Role: Vox Machina, and she was even part of the Nickelodeon Artist Program working on Rugrats. Her announcement came with a new visual to highlight the new project on Twitter:

    The animated sequel has garnered a talented team of artists, such as Harley Quinn‘s Liza Singer alongside Jeff Trammel as executive producer. She’s also has worked on various projects including Disenchantment, DC Super Hero Girls, and more. It’ll be exciting to see how they bring the visual style to life and explore Peter’s time as a small-time hero while balancing his school life.

    Source: Twitter, Li-Cree

  • Matt Murdock is Back…and On a New Marvel T-Shirt

    Matt Murdock is Back…and On a New Marvel T-Shirt

    After almost a year’s worth of debate as to whether or not Charlie Cox would be back as Matt Murdock, the actor popped up, as reported, in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Murdock served as Peter Parker’s lawyer and, in a brief scene early in the movie, displayed his radar sense by deftly snagging a brick thrown through a window. When asked by Parker how he did it, Murdock simply said, “I’m a really good lawyer.”

    Marvel is now putting that humorous scene on display on three new t-shirts available on Amazon.

    Amazon has made available a classic t-shirt, a raglan baseball shirt and, a tank top version so you can have the guns out when the sun’s out. You can purchase the shirts by clicking on the appropriate link below:

    Premium T-Shirt
    Raglan
    Tank Top

  • Recapping the First Three Seasons of ‘Cobra Kai’

    Recapping the First Three Seasons of ‘Cobra Kai’

    The small-screen follow-up to the Karate Kid films, Cobra Kai has become a massive hit with a fourth season on the way and season five having already filmed. It’s one of the rare reboots to last and, with Season 4 around the corner, we take a quick look back at the show’s first three seasons and why each season has only continued to grow better than the last.

    Season 1 (YouTube Red)

    Where it all began. When Cobra Kai was first announced, it was being developed as a YouTube Red series, a service YouTube had begun to try and compete with streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. The first season saw William Zabka return as Johnny Lawrence, alongside Ralph Macchio, who returns as Daniel LaRusso. The first season continues their rivalry from the films, showing that, despite the amount of time that has passed, Johnny hasn’t been able to get over what happened between the two of them. He’s a down-on-his-luck contractor, while LaRusso has built a name for himself as a car salesman. It isn’t until Johnny finds himself going to one of LaRusso’s facilities to get his car back that he’s forced to deal with his problems with LaRusso head-on. It’s ultimately this confrontation between the two that results in Johnny bringing back Cobra Kai, much to LaRusso’s dismay.

    It’s through bringing back Cobra Kai that Johnny goes on to build a relationship with his neighbor, Miguel, who he soon ends up teaching karate. As his bond with Miguel grows stronger, his relationship with his own son, Robby, continues to decline. It only gets worse when Robby ends up working for LaRusso’s company and ultimately becoming his mentee. This strikes a cord in Johnny, of course, and when Robby decides to compete in the All Valley championship independently, using LaRusso’s teaching, Johnny finds himself both eager to protect Robby and yet see him win. Unfortunately, though, Miguel ends up using Robby’s injury from their fight against him during the final match and wins, injuring Robby and forcing Johnny to see the Cobra Kai of his past is not something to celebrate. The season ultimately ends with LaRusso opening up Miyagi-do, while Johnny is paid a surprise visit by John Kreese, who is ready to bring back the Cobra Kai of their past.

    Season 2 (YouTube Red)

    The show’s second season is ultimately where s**t hits the fan and it’s absolutely great. Season 2 is when Cobra Kai becomes dojo vs dojo, with both Johnny and LaRusso trying to outdo one another with their respective dojos. Following their win at the All Valley tournament, LaRusso is eager to spread the word about Miyagi-do in hopes it’ll drown out interest in Cobra Kai. Things only become worse when LaRusso learns Kreese is back in the fold.

    The fight among the adults soon spills over onto the kids, as the students begin to fight for their respective dojos, with the Cobra Kai students often acting as bullies thanks to their “no mercy” training. The bullying tendencies are showcased best when some of the Cobra Kai students, led by Hawk, seek to destroy Miyagi-do and take Mr. Miyagi’s medal of honor in the process. As the season goes on, and the students begin to realize how violent Cobra Kai is making some of them, they opt to move to Miyagi-do where they’ll learn self-defense, rather than being trained to become merciless fighters who are taught to strike first.

    We saw Miguel’s relationship with LaRusso’s daughter, Sam, implode after he got drunk during Season 1 and accidentally hit her. So, naturally, it isn’t surprising to see both characters enter new relationships in Season 1. Miguel finds solace in Tory, a fellow Cobra Kai student, while Sam begins to develop feelings for Johnny’s son, Robby, who her father has taken under his wing. Still, the tensions seems to only grow when Miguel tries to do the right thing and return Miyagi’s medal of honor, only for Robby to plant the medal in the yard and not tell Sam the truth.

    When the students attend a party where both dojos are in attendance, Sam and Miguel briefly kiss. While it’s short, and both immediately realize their wrongdoing, it’s too late as Tory saw everything. This leads to her starting a full-on karate fight on the first day back at school, when she announces she’s coming for Sam over the intercom. Cobra Kai students go to back Tory up, while the Miyagi-do students go to Sam’s aide. Ultimately, the fight comes down to Tory vs Sam and Miguel vs Robby, as both boys attempt to stop the girls from fighting. It’s during this fight that Season 2 takes a huge turn.

    While Sam and Tory continue their fight on the stairs, Robby and Miguel have moved up higher, where they continue to battle it out, all while trying to stop the main fight. Unfortunately, while Miguel opts to show mercy, something Johnny has been trying to teach at Cobra Kai after acknowledging his faults, Robby does the opposite. With his back turned, Robby knocks Miguel over the rail, with Miguel falling on the staircase below.

    The season ends with Johnny trying to check on Miguel, only to find his mother insisting he stay away from her son — and also her, suggesting anything romantic between the two is officially over. While the LaRusso family ends up going to the hospital to collect Sam as she had to receive stitches because Tory stabbed her with her spiked-bracelet. At this point, we know Robby is on the run, and it’s unclear if Miguel will ever be able to walk again, let alone partake in karate.

    Things only continue to get worse for Johnny as Kreese decides to take Cobra Kai from him. As he sees it, Miguel is in the hospital because he showed mercy. According to Kreese, it’s all Johnny’s fault, and Kreese wants to ensure the students are ready for the battle ahead of them. The season ends with Kreese making a mysterious call, followed by the teasing of Terry Silver’s return.

    Season 3 (Netflix)

    Enter Season 3…. and Terry Silver. It’s bad enough Kreese is back, but now, he’s brought Silver back to help him run Cobra Kai. Or at least, he finally succeeds in doing so after paying him a surprise visit at his house. As Silver later tells it, Kreese has reignited something within him and in him, something that made him want to return to Cobra Kai after so long.

    A fair amount of the season is centered around Johnny helping Miguel to regain his strength and the ability to walk – in the ways only Johnny Lawrence can. One of the weirder bits of the season, though, comes as LaRusso finds his image to be tarnished after the public learns of Sam’s involvement in the fight that injured Miguel. This sends LaRusso on a journey – quite literally, as he heads to Japan – to try and fix his name and save his company. Along the way, he meets up with a few old friends from The Karate Kid: Part II: Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) and Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita). Somehow, he finds exact what he was looking for and manages to safe LaRusso Auto.

    Season 3 also brings about the introduction of Eagle Fang Karate. (And yes, don’t you worry, there are plenty of jokes regarding the absurdity of the name and logo.) They might’ve lost Cobra Kai, but Johnny and Miguel are not willing to give up on those that need them. LaRusso, naturally, opposes to the new dojo, but Johnny soon proves he’s trying to be different from Cobra Kai. He understands his mistakes and wants to do right by his students, or at least those that’ll listen to him.

    Just as both parties look to be getting their lives back on track, they learn the All Valley Tournament has been canceled. The reasoning behind the cancelation, of course, is due to the fight at the high school. However, Miguel (who is fully recovered) and Sam, are unwilling to see the tournament cancelled and take it upon themselves to fight for the tournament when the adults fail to sell its importance.

    The third season also sees the return of Elisabeth Shue as Ali Mills, which naturally brings out the worst in both Johnny and LaRusso. While they continue to have their issues, by the end of the season the two mean have found they work best together. Which results in them teaming up their dojos to try and take down Cobra Kai following an attack by its students. This leaves Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang to work as a single unit, with both Johnny and LaRusso teaching them. It took three seasons, but the series allowed the two main characters to undergo tremendous growth. Even better? Some of the students seem to follow suit and switch dojos – including Hawk, who has decided to leave Cobra Kai behind him.

    One can only help the fourth season doesn’t regress because the ending of Season 3 sets up a pretty stellar Season 4.

    The fourth season of Cobra Kai debuts on Netflix on Dec. 31.

  • REVIEW: ‘Klaus’ Wants You To Suffer

    REVIEW: ‘Klaus’ Wants You To Suffer

    Christmas movies are generally filled with joy and cheer. Throughout the years, that is exactly what we have come to expect. While most are filled with genuine merriment, some Christmas films are disguised as such while actually being elaborate devices to make you suffer. Klaus is a curious example of a silly animated holiday tale that would much rather have the emotional tone of Sophie’s Choice, while the creators were clearly only greenlit by Netflix to create the next Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year. 

    But where there’s a will, there’s a way. And Klaus found that into being a drawn-out and camouflaged version of the famously emotional opening montage from Up. But this time around, the main grumpy old man becomes the ghost of Santa Claus instead of finding a new lease on life by befriending a young boy and a talking dog.

    Klaus certainly hits some of the right “I swear this is just a happy movie for kids” notes. It follows the spoiled son of some big-shot Postmaster General, who decides to teach his son, Jesper, a lesson by sending him to be the postman in Smeerensburg. It, of course, is the children’s Christmas movie equivalent of an apocalyptic warzone full of violent children and dead fish. The main character willingly places a literal noose around his neck in the first 20 minutes of this movie because he has accepted death as his fate.

    Jesper is enjoyable as the clueless, pampered man-boy attempting to solicit letters from people who otherwise spend their time carrying dead bodies through alleys, or – in the children’s case – psychopathically slowly stabbing a snowman repetitively with carrots. As anyone could guess, Jesper finally comes around by the end of the film to be a wholesome guy who loves his family and the new, less-homicidal community. But his reformation came from the real star, the titular Klaus.

    Our introduction to Klaus is as a scary, giant man who lives alone in the woods, likely chopping up both trees and people. Through Jesper’s desperate need to gather letters, he learns that Old Man Klaus is a skilled woodworker with a dusty, dark house full of elaborate children’s toys and nothing else. Don’t let that fool you, though, because this is only the beginning of an overly-elaborate secular explanation for the legend of Santa Claus where all the necessary elements are included but are instead generally sad and heart-wrenching.

    Klaus was perfectly fine – even while being extremely depressed – living in the woods and spending time with his wife, Lydia. She, unlike the classic Mrs. Claus, died years ago and takes the form of sparkly wind that gives Klaus brief moments of remembrance of his one and only love. Somehow, Jesper and he secretly deliver one of his toys to one of the infinite toyless evil children of Smeerensburg. Watching through the window, the pure joy it brought the kid inspires Klaus to continue delivering his toys in secret. Jesper acts as the intermediary, forcing children to write sham letters to the toymaker for his own gain while coincidentally making up facts about Klaus that seem familiar, such as him having a naughty and nice list.

    That plot seems good and healthy, but it’s not sad enough. To make up for it, it is revealed that Klaus has a carved-out wall in his home designed as a family tree – it is extensive but completely empty because he and his wife Lydia were unable to have any of the dozens of children they dreamed of having. While they tried and waited, they built countless toys to one day give to their own kids, but as the ghost mist of Lydia could whisper to you, the toys were left to gather dust and haunt the dark and lonely house. 

    There are entire subplots, such as the dueling war clans that try to bludgeon one another when a bell rings and Jesper’s romance with the angry schoolteacher – but they don’t really matter. The Sámi community that lives outside of Smeerensburg ends up being the warmest and most compelling secondary aspect of Klaus, as they end up taking the place of classic Santa’s elves. They even took the time to make everyone cry when they filled up Klaus’ family tree with wooden figures of themselves. 

    If watching along to the survey of Santa’s heartbreak and loss is not enough for you, the movie also ends in possibly the saddest way it could while still pretending to be jolly. As Jesper recounts the years that have passed since Klaus began delivering gifts, he talks about how one day Klaus just disappeared without any explanation and he never got to say goodbye. We see a tired Klaus say “I’m coming, love,” and merge into the sparkly wind of his dead wife. To top it all off, we vaguely see some sort of ghostly Santa entity flying around as Jesper says, “All I know is that once a year, I get to see my friend.” 

    In some seriousness, Klaus delivers a genuinely fresh and unique twist on the legend of Santa Claus by presenting Klaus, the trauma Santa. The somewhat confusing level of dark humor also makes the movie stand out from its peers and gives the film some maturity that elevates it beyond what is expected of it. If you are looking to rip your own heart out this holiday season, Klaus may be the movie for you.

  • REVIEW: Wheel of Time 1×8, “The Eye of the World”

    REVIEW: Wheel of Time 1×8, “The Eye of the World”

    Over the course of its first season, Amazon’s Wheel of Time adaptation opted to turn the Dragon Reborn into a mystery to be solved. For six episodes, viewers were left to ponder who would be the Dragon Reborn: Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene or Nynaeve. Book readers, of course, knew it would be none other than Rand. However, the series looked to be going in a potentially different direction – until episode seven confirmed Rand to be the Dragon Reborn. “The Eye of the World” sees him come to terms with who he is, all while he recalls a prior life he’s lived. In the end, it makes for a quiet finale, to an otherwise fantastic first season.

    The episode picks back up with Moiraine and Rand making their way through the blight in search of the Dark One (Ishamael). As they fight their way through the blight, the others remain back in the city of Fal Dara, trying to figure out a way to help. Their initial reaction is to run after Moiraine and Rand, however, they know that should they step foot into the blight, it would more than likely result in death. Still, Lan is willing to chance it in order to find Moiraine. So, he uses tracking skills taught to him by Nynaeve to find her, while she aides the others in finding another way to help. The storyline essentially stretches over the show’s nearly one-hour timeframe, and yet, despite so much happening, the story ultimately feels stalled.

    As the episode cuts between the two locations, we see Rand make his way to the Eye of the World with Moiraine following close behind him. Flashes begin to appear as Rand recalls a prior life in which he’s already been to the Eye of the World and faced the Dark One. Their last meeting ended with the Dark One winning. This time, though, Moiraine is willing to do what is needed to ensure Rand does not stray from the light – even if it means killing him. As Rand enters another realm with the Dark One, one where he’s presented with a future with Egwene in which they have a child. It’s a future he wants, and one Rand nearly gives everything up for. Thankfully, however, he soon realizes that the future he’s being presented with is nothing more than a fantasy. Even if he can make it a reality, it isn’t a future Egwene has a say in and therefore isn’t one he can accept. It’s this moment in which Rand successfully overcomes the Dark in order to defeat the Dark One – at least temporarily.

    Unfortunately, though, by this point, an army of Trollocs have already made their way to Fal Dara along with Fades. While the city itself does not fall, those that stayed behind to fight soon find themselves facing certain death. While Egwene and Nynaeve help by accessing the One Power and helping Lady Amalisa (Sandra Yi Sencindiver) channel enough power to try and take down the armies before they make their way to the city. The scene is a stunning one as the lighting stands in stark contrast against the gloomy background. It’s made all the more powerful as the women collapse under the weight of the One Power, with Egwene seemingly the only survivor, until she heals Nynaeve.

    When Rand “defeats” the Dark One, he makes Moiraine promise to tell the others he has died to ensure he can head out on his own. It’s a strong ending to an otherwise uneven episode, however, it’s the closing scene viewers will most likely be talking about going into Season 2. As the episode ends, we see a young girl on a beach. Out of nowhere, a horde of ships come into focus in the ocean, catching her eye. It’s the Seanchan, and they’ve seemingly created a tsunami upon their arrival.

    I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the first season of Wheel of Time because it has successfully managed to combine excellent character work with a love of the source material. It never tried to go full action series as the show respects its source material, which is something most adaptations fail to do these days. Unfortunately, though, because of how eager the show is to stay true to the source, it sometimes feels unsure of how to adapt Robert Jordan‘s work. While there are some fine character moments in “The Eye of the World,” the episode only barley moves the storyline forward.

    Yes, there are some big moments, such as Moiraine losing access to the One power and Rand making the decision to leave the others are quite memorable. However, the bits in between are slow-going. It’s a shame, honestly, because the first season was a great success overall. “The Eye of the World” seems to feel like an afterthought. It’s slow, the few action bits are stellar, but the CGI work is wonky, and the Dark One could have been handled so much better.

  • New ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Merchandise Features All Three Spider-Men

    New ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Merchandise Features All Three Spider-Men

    It looks like Sony and Marvel Studios have reached the limit to keeping all the secrets from Spider-Man: No Way Home. As it seems that concept art has found its way online featuring all three “Spider-Men” that appear in the film in their iconic costumes. It features Tom Holland front-and-center with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield joining in the fray. The designs are great and are definitely something for collectors that were excited to see all three together. Each design has a different tribute and even includes the “Spider-Men” name. The merch is shared by @BRMarvelNews.

    There are some great details in here, especially with one playing tribute to Doctor Strange’s magical circle. We even get the scaffolding from the film’s final battle between the Spider-Men and villains from across the multiverse. It’ll be interesting to see if Garfield and Maguire might get their own unique character posters, but neither did Reptile or Sandman. So, we’ll see if we get any additional material besides the tie-in merchandise. Here’s hoping they get a bit more attention to highlight their inclusion as the film continues to dominate the international box office.

    Source: Twitter

  • The Original Plot of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 3’ May Have Adapted the Clone Saga

    The Original Plot of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 3’ May Have Adapted the Clone Saga

    The (sort of) surprising return of Andrew Garfield in this month’s Spider-Man: No Way Home already has fans buzzing about the potential of his character’s future. While any plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 were scrapped when Sony announced Marvel Studios would once again reboot the web-slinger in 2015, the multiversal trajectory of the MCU’s next phase has opened the door for any project to become possible. As such, enthusiastic members of the Spider-Man fandom have already started petitioning for Sony to put a third Garfield-led film into production.

    If this were to ever become a reality, it’s likely the movie’s plot would have to be dramatically different from what was originally mapped out. Garfield is now an older version of Peter Parker, and his dialogue in No Way Home hints that events in his universe played out unlike anything we’d seen set up in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Last we saw “Peter-Three”, he was engaged in battle with Paul Giamatti‘s Rhino, triumphantly returning to heroics after the death of his love Gwen Stacy. While we may never know for certain what exactly was to come next, it is possible to get an idea of Sony and director Marc Webb‘s general plot ideas from a collection of interview sound bites over the past decade.

    The first hint at genuine story details for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 came from actor and comedian Denis Leary, who portrayed Captain George Stacy in both previous movies. In an interview with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con 2015, Leary was asked his thoughts on the cancellation of his Spider-Man franchise. His response was far more intriguing than could have been anticipated:

    I was disappointed because I’m totally selfish and greedy. I came back briefly in two and possibly in [The Amazing Spider-Man] 3, there was this idea at one point that Spider-Man would be able to take this formula and regenerate the people in his life that had died. So, there was this discussion that Captain Stacy would come back even bigger in episode 3. So, I was like, let’s go!

    Denis Leary

    This sounds absolutely bonkers, but it doesn’t come without comic book precedence. Shortly after Marvel published The Night Gwen Stacy Died, they introduced a new villain to the Spider-Man mythos. Professor Miles Warren, a.k.a. the mad scientist Jackal, would go on to be involved in multiple controversial story arcs that involved him using Peter and Gwen’s DNA to create a variety of spider-clones and revive characters thought long-dead, mainly Gwen herself. This climaxed in the well-known 1990’s “Clone Saga” plot, where it was revealed that the many new versions of Peter and his deceased loved ones were actually all part of a ploy concocted by yet another thought-dead character from his past. I’m referring, of course, to the infamous former Green Goblin, Norman Osborn.

    Chris Cooper had a brief role in the last Garfield film as a dying Osborn, passing away after leaving his “Osborn curse” and the Goblin mantle to Dane DeHaan‘s Harry. According to a 2017 Marc Webb interview with Den of Geek, this was never supposed to be the last time we saw Cooper. The filmmaker revealed the actor was initially slated to return as the surprise main villain in The Amazing Spider-Man 3:

    Yeah, we were talking about the Sinister Six. They were going to make a Sinister Six movie before we did the third one. But I wanted…Chris Cooper was going to come back and play the Goblin. We were going to freeze his head, and then he was going to be brought back to life. And then there was that character called The Gentleman. We had some notions about how to do it…that was going to be the main villain. He was going to come out and lead the Sinister Six.

    Marc Webb

    For those counting at home, that’s two major plot points taken directly from the Clone Saga. Of course, the inclusion of the Sinister Six, which was also teased at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, does take the film in a slightly altered direction. However, Webb makes a point to note that the super-villain team would first appear in their own movie, which was to be directed by Drew Goddard and was rumored to feature Garfield’s Spider-Man in a supporting role. There is no clarification on how involved the Six and the Wall-Crawler would be in each other’s solo outings, but it’s possible the villainous team would have been a more physical threat to pair with the psychological conundrum of Stacy clones running around everywhere.

    If this seems like a lot of plots for one movie, it’s because it is. Yet, the Amazing franchise was sort of known for putting too much into one movie. For example, the one that tanked everything had a Goblin arc, an Electro plot, a love story, a Sinister Six set-up, and a C-plot involving Peter discovering his parents’ role in an international weapons scheme and the special nature of his own genetics. So, yeah, it seems likely they really may have gone for both the Clone Saga and the Sinister Six…in one film. After all, the idea of cloning lines up with the aforementioned Parker genetics’ throughline Sony was weaving in their superhero movies.

    The now-famous Sony email hack of 2014 also hinted at elements from the Ultimate Comics version of the Clone Saga being used in the future of the Amazing series. In a now-deleted article from CBM, some of the leaked emails were detailed and revealed that Sony executives had actually discussed bringing back Emma Stone‘s Gwen Stacy in the same fashion as her Ultimate counterpart:

    Hannah Minghella brings up a suggestion made in jest by Emma Stone that she returns as Carnage (like in the Ultimate comics) as a ‘thought to consider for the future’ because it ‘could be really cool/sexy/intense to see.

    Email Received by CBM

    This revelation lines up shockingly well with a deleted scene from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which featured the unexpected return of Peter’s father Richard. A resurrection of a similar kind, with the elder Parker claiming to have actually secretly survived his supposed death, comes straight from the pages of the Ultimate Clone Saga story. The potential return of Gwen also could have fixed a brewing problem for Sony, where the cast-but-never-seen Shailene Woodley said she was unsure about coming back to play Mary Jane in the threequel:

    I don’t know anything but seeing as how they picked up the next two ‘Divergent’ films, I don’t know how I would keep my sanity with two big action films in one year. But anything can happen.

    Shailene Woodley

    As previously stated, it’s possible fans may never know what was actually supposed to happen in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. A lot of what is presented here is conjecture, based on short looks into a long, turbulent filmmaking process. Leary‘s claims of revival could have been from a version of the story written before Webb decided on Osborn and the Sinister Six. The information about Stone’s role reprisal and Woodley’s maybe-departure could be completely unrelated. Realistically, however, it does seem very likely that parts of the next Amazing were set to be inspired by the Clone Saga, with Garfield’s Peter Parker conceivably going up against a team of supervillains while contending with “clones” of those he lost. It’s a lot, but that’s what the The Amazing Spider-Man franchise’s legacy will always be.

    Source: Den of Geek, IGN, Geek Tyrant, MTV

  • Michael Giacchino to Direct a Marvel Studios Streaming Project

    Michael Giacchino to Direct a Marvel Studios Streaming Project

    No, you didn’t read the headline wrong nor did we mistype. Composer Michael Giacchino, who has worked with Marvel Studios on Doctor Strange, two Spider-Man films and Thor: Love and Thunder, is rumored to be on board to direct one of Marvel Studios’ upcoming streaming projects for Disney Plus.

    The rumor comes by way of The Illuminerdi, who point out that Werewolf By Night, Echo and Ironheart are among the streaming projects up next for Marvel Studios. As we pointed out here, Sydney Freeland is likely to be directing Echo, taking one potential project off the board for Giacchino. Out of the other two projects, Giacchino seems a much better fit for Werewolf By Night, especially given that his two prior director jobs were shorts. Werewolf By Night is expected to be a short, one-off film rather than an extended series like Ironheart.

    Giacchino’s previously worked behind the camera on an episode Star Trek: Short Treks and the comedy short, Monster Challenge, which starred Patton Oswalt. Should Giacchino be directing Werewolf By Night, which is expected to film from February through March, it’s likely he’ll be happy with the work of the composer. This is an interesting choice for Marvel Studios, experimenting with a relatively inexperienced director on their first streaming movie.

    Werewolf By Night will star Gael Garcia Bernal as the lead character, rumored to be Jack Russell, and is expected to stream sometime during Spooky Season 2022.

    Source: The Illuminerdi

  • ‘Hawkeye’ Director Rhys Thomas Plays Coy on a Potential Season 2

    ‘Hawkeye’ Director Rhys Thomas Plays Coy on a Potential Season 2

    It caught everyone’s eye when Hawkeye‘s final episode was called a “season finale“. We all expected an announcement in the series’ post-credit sequence but we were surprised by the fully filmed musical number from the Rogers musical. While a hilarious addition on the same level as the “patience” post-credit from Spider-Man: Homecoming, we were still left with some questions. In an interview with Collider, director Rhys Thomas was asked about a potential second season, where he only stated that:

    I cannot speak to future plans in the tradition of secrecy. Again, the show coming out, you never know how it’s going to be received and it has been amazing to see how warmly people have taken it and enjoyed it. And it’s been great to see Hailee’s character embraced and sort of land so firmly in the MCU. I sincerely look forward to where that character goes next. And yes, I loved walking on the streets of the MCU and would gladly enjoy doing it again.

    Rhys Thomas

    So, it looks like they’re still sticking to that remaining a secret for now, but it’s interesting that Thomas didn’t give a clear “no” when discussing it. We might get an announcement in the near future, as we still anticipate what the future of Disney+ has in store for us. We’ll see what series we can expect in 2022 and when. Here’s hoping the wait isn’t too long until we find out.

    Source: Collider