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  • Roy Thomas, Co-Creator of Marvel’s Iron Fist, Praises Finn Jones and Netflix Series

    Roy Thomas, Co-Creator of Marvel’s Iron Fist, Praises Finn Jones and Netflix Series

    Marvel Television set the bar high on Netflix when it premiered Daredevil and Jessica Jones in 2015, but the success of those shows was short-lived. Iron Fist dropped two years later to much worse reviews, with many fans and critics feeling that the show and lead actor Finn Jones had failed to live up to the immense potential behind Marvel’s Living Weapon. Yet, during a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Iron Fist co-creator and industry legend Roy Thomas revealed that he actually very much approved of Jones’ performance and the show at large.

    When asked what he ultimately thought of the live-action series, Thomas explained:

    Oh, I watched all of it. Yeah. Iron Fist had a few problems here and there, but I really liked the actor who played Iron Fist. I liked the general concept of it and everything.

    Marvel’s Iron Fist ran for two seasons on Netflix before it became the first of the shows to be axed, in what would eventually be the demise of the entire Defenders franchise on the small screen. The first season of Iron Fist was run by Inhumans showrunner Scott Buck, with showrunner Raven Metzner signing on for an ever-so-slightly improved sophomore effort.

    While the series has plenty of problems, from writing to fight choreography, Jones’ casting was controversial from the start. Many fans hoped an actor of Asian descent would have landed the role. Although Danny Rand’s future within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently unclear, the character remains a hot topic. Since the show’s cancelation, one of the show’s stunt coordinators’ has come forward with claims that Jones did not put in enough effort when it came to training for fight scenes.

    Nonetheless, Thomas continues to have only good things to say:

    Just wonderful. They were all reasonably good. Of course, The Defenders wasn’t that popular, that brief series, but I thought that was great because I’m an old superhero group fan, and I thought that was wonderful. But I really liked them all. I met many of the actors, [Mike] Colter who played Luke Cage, and Iron Fist and so forth…

    Both seasons of Iron Fist are streaming now on Netflix.

    As it stands, no plans for the character’s appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been announced.

    Source: Comic Book

  • Brenton Thwaites Confirms ‘Titans’ Season 5

    Brenton Thwaites Confirms ‘Titans’ Season 5

    This past season of Titans saw the team hit a bit of a bump in the road, as the death of Jason Todd brought the heroes from San Francisco, all the way back to Gotham City. The absence of Batman led the team to stick around and defend the city as Scarecrow and Red Hood began their reign of terror. The series just recently wrapped up its third season at HBO Max with a fourth season confirmed to be in the works at DC FanDome. It seems like fans of the series need not worry about the future of the Titans though. 

    In an interview with Matt Sheehan, actor Brenton Thwaites, who plays Dick Grayson on Titans may have confirmed that the series has already been renewed for a fifth season before the fourth had even begun production. While asking a question on what’s in store for Dick and Kory, and the potential future we saw for them in the finale of season 3, Thwaites let it slip that season 5 would be happening.

    “So I knew it was a placeholder for whats to come in Season 4 and 5, and I just, I just asked that they were very confident that they were very confident that would happen”

    This past season of Titans saw the team hit a bit of a bump in the road, as the death of Jason Todd brought the heroes from San Francisco, all the way back to Gotham City. The absence of Batman led the team to stick around and defend the city as Scarecrow and Red Hood began their reign of terror. The series just recently wrapped up its third season at HBO Max with a fourth season confirmed to be in the works at DC FanDome. It seems like fans of the series need not worry about the future of the Titans though. 

    Titans is one of the most popular series on streaming and it’s not shocking to see it be renewed beyond season 4. The next season is still very early in development so it’s unknown as of right now just when filming will begin or when the next season will release.

    SOURCE: Twitter

  • ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ Rights Up for Sale, ViacomCBS Interested

    ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ Rights Up for Sale, ViacomCBS Interested

    Alvin and the Chipmunks have been a childhood classic for years. Now, it seems that the current owner Bagdasarian Productions is aiming to sell the iconic singing chipmunks for around $300M. Currently, ViacomCBS is interested in purchasing the rights, which includes all the films, songs, and TV shows that starred Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and their expanded family. The company is run by Ross Bagsdasarian Jr. and his wife Janice Karman. They’ve already actively had talks with buyers but no agreement has come as of now.

    The current price is at $300M but it’s uncertain if that will remain as such moving forward. Many streaming services are eager to add any potential streaming service to their repertoire. So, it’ll be interesting to see who is interested in ensuring they can bank on adding this franchise. While it did have some films, the series is mostly known for its young demographic.

    Netflix has quite the interest in these types of IPs, such as the recent purchase of Roald Dahl‘s children’s books which cost upward of $700M. Ross Bagdasarian Sr. created the characters in 1958 for a children’s music act. It wasn’t until 1961 that the original three chipmunks Alvin, Simon, and Theodore made their official first appearance. Depending on who garners the rights, they’ll have a lot to play with. In a way, Disney might have their eye on the franchise as it plays into their all-encompassing approach to media and intellectual property.

    Source: CNBC

  • ‘Y: The Last Man’s Natasha Mumba Reveals Her Role in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’

    ‘Y: The Last Man’s Natasha Mumba Reveals Her Role in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’

    It looks like one more actress has joined the upcoming HBO adaptation of the popular gaming franchise The Last Of Us. Y: The Last Man actress Natasha Mumba updated her Instagram profile to include her role in the upcoming series. She even adds the name of her character, Kim Tembo. Fans of the gaming franchise might notice that this character hasn’t appeared in one of the two games and might be another invention for the series.

    As this is the only news we have on her joining the project, it opens up the question of what kind of role she might have. There’s a good chance she may play a member of the Fireflies or the event offer a unique take on some familiar storylines. The core of the original story was isolation. So, it’s uncertain if this version takes a unique approach to explore how exactly she fits into the story. It’s great to see Mumba join the production hot off the tail of her success on series Y: The Last Man and The Handmaiden’s Tale. It’ll be interesting to see her dynamic with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.

    Source: Instagram

  • Zack Snyder’s ‘Rebel Moon’ Adds Sofia Boutella

    Zack Snyder’s ‘Rebel Moon’ Adds Sofia Boutella

    It looks like Zack Snyder‘s upcoming film has found a new star, as Sofia Boutella will join the Netflix production of Rebel Moon. The film will be written by Snyder alongside Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad. Some time ago, the project was once planned to be a Star Wars film that was rewritten. The director made a deal with the streamer after the success of his film Army of the Dead, as he also recently produced the first spin-off based on this new zombie-filled cinematic universe.

    The film will explore a peaceful colony in the galaxy that is suddenly threatened by a tyrant known as Regent Balisarius. Their only hope is a young woman that is set to find warriors to take a stand. It wasn’t an easy process, as they’ve met with talent for months before settling on Boutella for the lead role. According to Deadline, her performance wowed the Justice League director and convinced him she was perfect for the role.

    Boutella has made a name for herself with her performances in Kingsman: The Secret Service, Star Trek Beyond, and Atomic Blonde. The former was her breakout role in Hollywood that got her various roles in the industry. She recently appeared in Wyatt Rockefeller‘s debut Settlers. We cannot wait to see what she brings to the role in this new take on a sci-fi epic.

    Source: Deadline

  • DAREDEVIL: What Could A Hypothetical Game Look Like?

    DAREDEVIL: What Could A Hypothetical Game Look Like?

    There’s a new AAA Marvel game being developed by industry legend Amy Hennig, whose previous work includes the Uncharted franchise, which she created, and Legacy of Kain, which she wrote, and a lot of fans seem to think it’s a Daredevil game. The reason why is because not too long ago, a rumor surfaced saying that Wolverine and Daredevil games were in the works. And because it’s been confirmed that there is a Wolverine game happening, fans think there might be credence to the Daredevil side of the rumor.

    Let’s assume there is a Daredevil game and it happens to be the “narrative-driven, blockbuster, action-adventure” that Hennig described, just what kind of game does Daredevil need to have? What kind of game could it be?

    Looking at the numerous video games based on comic books within the past decade paints a picture of what it could look like. The Arkham and Spider-Man games have their open-world and traversal. Square Enix’s Avengers has its co-op feature with multiple characters and builds to choose from. The new Guardians of the Galaxy game has a choice-driven narrative. The upcoming Midnight Suns is a deck builder. The Batman Telltale games are point-and-click detective adventures.

    The most obvious one that comes to mind is the Arkham series. Given how that game pretty much serves as the gold standard for your defacto open-world game that has an emphasis on button-mashing combat makes it a very canvass to imagine Daredevil in. After all, Daredevil and Batman do share a lot of similarities; both were written by Frank Miller (but Miller turned Daredevil into Batman first a few years before he wrote Year One); both are trained ninjas; both rely on their physical acrobatic prowess; both use some form of radar sense (Bruce has his tech while Matt has his ears).

    Combat-wise, Daredevil could certainly use some cues from the Arkham series but a system that automatically lets you snap to an enemy by mashing feels incredibly shallow and boring. The 2018 Spider-Man game really does a good job of taking the free-flowing fluidity of the Arkham-style combat while keeping the skill ceiling somewhat high. You also don’t want Daredevil to be a battle tank that runs over goons like Batman but you want a system that shows his graceful precision in taking down squads of enemies. You want his skills to have their limits and not feel unstoppable every step of the way.

    A lot of people forget just how much of a traversal-heavy character Daredevil is. He’s a skyscraping acrobat that goes on joyrides with Spider-Man using his billy club. The 2018 Spider-Man has one of the most satisfying open-world experiences thanks to its freeing traversal system. While Daredevil is no Spider-Man when it comes to zipping through New York at 50 mph, you want a game that lets players use the billy club to explore to verticalities of whatever location he’s in. Amy Hennig‘s work on the Uncharted franchise could lead to some really robust platforming and traversal mechanics.

    Thematically, a Daredevil game would benefit from some form of morality system. Be it one that changes the course of the story or one that has smaller changes in gameplay. Part of any Daredevil story are themes of faith and ethics so it’s a mechanic that would fit like a glove for any potential game. Should you beat this goon to a pulp or knock him out to get information? Should you stop Bullseye from assassinating a congressman or save the civilians he has hostage? Dilemmas like this should inform what happens to Daredevil.

    Daredevil is a creature of the night, trained in the art of ninjutsu. So as a huge stealth game fan, I definitely would like to see a really effective stealth component in it. I know stealth mechanics aren’t a lot of people’s cup of tea but I especially love it when games offer the stealthy sneaky route as the more efficient solution. Games like The Last of Us had great stealth aspects that when utilized, tipped the scales to your advantage, as opposed to Ramboing your way out of an infected encounter and having your ass handed to you. You don’t have to sneak but sneaking makes everything a lot smoother.

    Quite possibly the most important aspect is Daredevil’s signature radar sense. It’s his defining ability and a game that doesn’t take advantage of it would be a huge blunder. It’s a feature that should be incorporated in every aspect of the game including combat. It’s a mechanic so crucial unto itself that mechanics akin to the radar sense have served as cornerstones of certain games (LA Noire famously incorporated an interrogation mechanic that had players read whether a character was lying or not based on their facial expressions).

    Having a radar sense mechanic leads to more varying gameplay opportunities such as branching dialogue trees and the like. It’s not unreasonable for a Daredevil fan to expect gameplay incorporating Matt Murdock’s lawyer life. Imagine a minigame where the player gets to work a witness on the stand during a high-profile court case by using your radar sense and other investigative abilities. It’s a no-brainer.

    As far as the story goes, Hennig teased a completely new original story and take on the Marvel Universe. It’s hard to tell what she could mean by that but if I had to imagine a Daredevil story that was a completely new take, I would start with the setting. A Daredevil game set in Asia that looks visually looks like Ghost of Tsushima sounds too good not to imagine; picture Daredevil quietly infiltrating a Yakuza highrise in Madripoor. A story where Daredevil has to deal with a lot of occult Hand mysticism also sounds good; have him deal with the influence of the Beast as the player makes more corrupt choices.

    Whatever the case is, whether it’s a Daredevil game or not, the idea that an industry legend like Hennig is working on a big Marvel game is more than exciting. We’re finally in an age where we have current-gen video games based on comic books that we can be proud of. For the longest time, it felt like the opposite.

    But please be Daredevil.

  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Marketplace Will No Longer Offer Paid Consumables in New Statement

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Marketplace Will No Longer Offer Paid Consumables in New Statement

    Marvel’s Avengers has been mostly quiet as of late, as they start focusing on reworking their core system throughout the rest of the year. Yet, there was a controversy surrounding the sudden decision to include purchasable consumables in their in-game marketplace. As the main focus has always been on their payable costumes, the decision was certainly met with frustration by players during a dry period. Well, it seems that Crystal Dynamics has taken that feedback and announced in a new post on Twitter that they will no longer offer these in the marketplace but they’ll remain as in-game earnable rewards moving forward.

    We’ve already seen some big steps for the game with hero-specific perks getting added to the game. It was teased as their first of many steps that’ll build-up towards the game’s first raid where we’ll cap of the story introduced in War for Wakanda. Their sister company Eidos recently released the Guardians of the Galaxy game. So, Crystal Dynamics took a backseat for the week. Here’s hoping we’ll get a clearer picture of what the new Raid and the final 2021 hero, Spider-Man, have in store for us soon.

    Source: Twitter

  • Marvel Legends Lady Loki Now Available for Individual Pre-Order

    Marvel Legends Lady Loki Now Available for Individual Pre-Order

    After having been teased alongside a retro Falcon figure earlier this year, Marvel Legends retro

    One of the great modern iterations of the God of Mischief came from 2008’s epic Thor series by comic creators J. Michael Straczynski and Oliver Coipel when Loki took the form of a woman and became known, to fans, as Lady Loki. The Loki of Norse mythology was always a shapeshifter, so taking the form of a woman was nothing new but the character went on, in this new form, to be quite popular throughout Dark Reign. Now collectors can pick up a great looking version of Lady Loki for their shelves.

    Pre-order the 6-inch Lady Loki at Entertainment Earth ($22.99 and scheduled to ship in February) by November 2, 2021

  • Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon Join Christopher Nolan’s ‘OPPENHEIMER’

    Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon Join Christopher Nolan’s ‘OPPENHEIMER’

    Christopher Nolan‘s ensemble for his biopic on the project that led to the creation of the atomic bomb just got two atom bombs of star power. Deadline is reporting that Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon are in talks to join Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt in Oppenheimer.

    In addition to that report, THR is saying that Robert Downey Jr. is playing Lewis Strauss, a commissioner who put Oppenheimer on the stand and questioned his loyalty to the US, while Damon is playing Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer marks Downey’s first project with Nolan and Damon’s second following Interstellar.

    Cillian Murphy is set to play the titular scientist while Emily Blunt is to play Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty Oppenheimer.

    Source: Deadline

  • Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2022 Release Calendar, V3

    Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2022 Release Calendar, V3

    Marvel Studios rendered our previous 2022 hypothetical release calendar meaningless when they shuffled their entire release slate a couple of weeks ago, so we took another shot at it. Of note to this new effort is that we have considered that it looks like Disney does not want to stream live-action Star Wars series and live-action Marvel Studios series concurrently. And so while this isn’t a hypothetical Star Wars calendar, we will mention some of those series along the way.

    It looks like Marvel Studios will have to wait a bit to start streaming in 2022 as a Lucasfilm series is going to start in late-2021 and carry over into early-2022. The Book of Boba Fett could end up completing its run on February 16th, allowing Marvel Studios to kick off its 2022 Disney Plus release calendar with a couple of episodes of Marvel Legends. We could catch up not only on Bruce Banner but also on The Abomination. It’ll be interesting to see what other characters, if any, they cover and to see how much of the events of The Incredible Hulk are part of the story that leads us to She-Hulk.

    She-Hulk is set to be Marvel Studios’ longest streaming series to date, with 10 episodes scheduled. Placing it here allows Marvel to stream one episode per week, should they choose to, and helps it avoid overlapping any other live-action projects.

    We should have several episodes of Marvel Legends leading up to the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In addition to catching up on Stephen, we’ll almost certainly see a Wanda-centric one. Given the role Wong is set to play in the film, he may get one of his own, too. And then there’s Mordo…and yeah, we’ll see how these turn out, but it seems like they’ll stream the Wednesday of release week.

    Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was the first domino in the wave of release date shifts for Marvel Studios. It’s a wildly ambitious film from a director who is noted for both his pursuit of perfection and his understanding that perfection is never achieved in the first draft, so waiting a little longer to have someone like Sam Raimi put together the best version of his vision isn’t he worse thing for fans. Hopefully, come May 6th, 2022, we all walk out in awe and forget that the film was delayed for an entire year.

    Following the Strange sequel, we might not see another Marvel Studios series until mid-June. Recent rumors suggest that the Lucasfilm Obi-Wan series is slated for May (I mean May 4th IS a Wednesday); what’s curious is that if we allow for it to run for 6 weeks, we run into June and that’s when Mohan Kapur, one of the stars of Ms. Marvel, recently said he expects that streaming series to begin! Even though Ms. Marvel is introducing Kamala Khan and a WHOLE bunch of new characters, it will also feature an appearance from Carol Danvers, so we might get an episode of Marvel Legends on June 8th; either way, Ms. Marvel could kick off its run on June 15th and conclude on July 13th, coinciding nicely with Kapur’s comments.
    *Note we are predicting a two-episode premiere for Ms. Marvel to avoid overlap with Moon Knight.

    While we might not get an episode of Marvel Legends for Ms. Marvel, we’re sure to get a few for Thor: Love and Thunder. In addition to keeping up with Odinson’s adventures, fans could also use a refresher on Jane Foster, Korg, and Miek, Valkyrie, and the Guardians of the Galaxy before they hit the screen together.

    Thor: Love and Thunder, like Doctor Strange 2, was bumped down the road a few months giving director Taika Waititi time to really fine-tune this film which, coincidentally, was supposed to come out just about one year ago on November 5th!

    In this hypothetical situation, Moon Knight does some big moving. I originally thought Moon Knight might run in May, but it’s getting bumped 2 months (seems like a pattern, right?). It’s reportedly a 6-episode series which means if it follows up Thor 4 and doesn’t have any ties to any existing characters that we know of, so it can go just about anywhere. For what it’s worth, this could easily switch places with Ms. Marvel, moving Ms. Marvel a little bit closer to The Marvels which was bumped into 2023.
    *Note we are predicting a two-episode premiere of Moon Knight to avoid overlap with Season 2 of What If…?.

    We got a few episodes of Marvel Legends ahead of Season 1 of What If…?, so there’s no reason to think we won’t see some ahead of Season 2.

    What If…? is, according to Disney, set to be an annual event and it would seem totally possible that they could even keep it in the same general slot every year, too. Season 1 kicked off on August 11th, and this hypothetical would see Season 2 debut on August 24th. This timing would work out well for Marvel Studios because this same time could also see Lucasfilm’s 12-episode Andor hit Disney Plus as well. As stated in the opening, keeping Star Wars live-action away from Marvel Studios’ live-action was a priority here and the whole calendar works out very nicely if we have What If…? and Andor going around the same time.

    What If…? could wrap up just in time for Marvel Studios to stream one of its two 2022 holiday specials: Werewolf By Night. Now to be clear, we aren’t 100% sure exactly what is going on with this project, but if it is just a one-shot holiday special, its February start of production would give the team plenty of time to have it ready for October 26th, just ahead of Halloween.

    Marvel Legends episodes for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever should hit D+ on November 9th, a couple of days ahead of the film’s release. We’ll certainly need to catch up on T’Challa’s journey along with Shuri, Ramonda, M’Baku, Okoye and the Doras and even Killmonger, you know just in case he shows up.

    Of all the films getting shuffled around, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever might have needed it the most. Production was delayed when Letitia Wright sustained an injury and it was in mid-production when the new IATSE/AMPTP agreement went into place, meaning some adjustments were made on the fly. You can absolutely guarantee that Ryan Coogler will use these extra 4 months to put together an absolutely amazing sequel in memory of Chadwick Boseman.

    It looks like Marvel Studios’ offerings for 2022 will end with the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special on November 23rd. James Gunn has said he’ll be introducing an important new character in it and while a lot of folks believe that’s going to be Santa, I’ve heard rumblings (nothing concrete, so I’m not too excited myself just yet) that the new character might be one of the shinier ones in Marvel’s toybox.

    After the GotG special, Disney Plus could stream something from Lucasfilm (a second season of The Bad Batch is reportedly coming for 2022) and it’s also important to note that the now Disney owned Avatar 2 is still slated for release on December 16th, 2022, meaning the parent company will still have a lot going on even if there’s no other Marvel Studios’ series ready to stream. Of course, we’ll have a much clearer picture of things in just two weeks following the first annual Disney Plus Day, so bookmark this and come back and throw tomatoes at us then!