The first season of Daredevil: Born Again won’t hit Disney Plus until March of 2025 but there’s a significant amount of hype for the series already, especially following the leaked trailer that was shown at D23. Featuring the first look at White Tiger and the returns of Jon Bernthal, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson and Wilson Bethel as their respective characters from Netflix’s Daredevil, the now-taken-down trailer provided a glimpse at what to expect from the revival. However, even though it gave away a few surprises–including an appearance by Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan–Marvel Studios held plenty back.
Taking place in New York City, Daredevil: Born Again provides an opportunity to further explore a corner of the MCU that was more well-defined by the Netflix Defenders-verse series than it has been by Marvel Studios. However, the Big Apple was heavily featured as a setting in the Infinity Saga and streaming projects such as Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye and Echo all helped flesh out the finer details of the folks who populate it. And it seems that one of NYC’s finest socialites is returning for an appearance in Daredevil: Born Again.
According to reliable MCU insider Daniel RPK, Tony Dalton is set to return in Daredevil: Born Again as the wonderfully witless buffoon Jack Duquesne.
Though he spent the first five episodes of Hawkeye bumbling and stumbling along, Duquesne helped save the day in the finale by using his skills with a blade to help fight off the Tracksuit Mafia. As the episode drew to a close, creators Rhys Thomas, Bert and Bertie positioned the character to return as some version of his comic book counterpart’s alter ego, the Swordsman. Proudly never having worked a day in his life and always in pursuit of new leisure activities, Duquesne met First Responder Adetinpo Thomas’ Wendy who brought up LARPing to the doofus. Should the Daredevil: Born Again creative crew be so bold, the perfect opportunity to introduce Duquesne in a comic-accurate Swordsman costume while LARPing in NYC is there for the taking. Once a member of the Avengers in the comics, Swordsman has straddled the line between hero and villain over the course of the last 50 years but it would be a wonderful move by showrunner Dario Scardapane and directors Justin Benson and Andy Moorehead to have Jack suit up to celebrate his Golden Jubilee.
Daredevil: Born Again will stream on Disney Plus beginning in March 2025.
Marvel Studios swung for the fences at SDCC ’24 by revealing Robert Downey Jr.‘s return to the MCU. Trotting out their biggest star didn’t land quite as well as they had hoped, however, as fans questioned both the logic of recasting Downey as Victor Von Doom and whether or not he’d truly been cast as Doom at all. In the days and weeks following the casting, social media was abuzz with speculation that the character might be revealed as a Tony Stark Variant behind the mask or a reverse-engineered take on Marvel Comics’ Infamous Iron Man. It is the Multiverse Saga, after all, and fans have grown accustomed to the studio’s growing penchant to put their own spin on incoming characters. And so, despite being introduced as Victor Von Doom, fans have continued to wonder just who Downey would be playing in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday. For now, at least, it seems that uncertainty can be laid to rest.
In an interview with THR, Downey clarified that his return to the MCU was never going to happen by going backward by reprising his role as Tony Stark and that the goal laid out by Marvel Studios Head Honcho Kevin Feige was to “get Victor Von Doom right.“
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: Robert Downey Jr. speaks onstage during the Marvel Studios Panel in Hall H at SDCC in San Diego, California on July 27, 2024. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
Downey revealed that talks about his return to the studio began in 2023 when, during a conversation with his wife, Susan Downey, and Feige, the Marvel boss said, “It just keeps occurring to me, if you were to come back …” before taking the conversation in a surprising direction. “He brought up Victor Von Doom,” shared Downey, adding, “I looked into this character. Later on, he goes, ‘Let’s get Victor Von Doom right.” And with the blessing of Disney boss Bob Iger, the plan was hatched to bring the Infinity Saga’s brightest star into the struggling Multiverse Saga as the most complex and well-developed villain in the history of Marvel Comics.
Though he won’t be the first actor to play two roles in the MCU–indeed his Captain America: Civil War co-star Chris Evans just reprised his role as Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine–he will be the first to fill two roles of the magnitude of Iron Man and Doctor Doom. To that end, should any hint of Tony Stark’s well-known MCU persona come through in his performance as the Beast of the Balkans, fans will begin to question just who is supposed to be behind the mask. Fortunately, Downey–who just won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Oppenheimer–has shown to be more than a one-trick pony over the years and has the requisite skill to disappear behind Doom’s mask and create a brand new persona that fans will have to hope is as mesmerizing and memorable as his time as Iron Man.
Just days after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu updated the status of the sequel to the 2021 hit, Inverse revealed that Shang-Chi was originally intended to have a major role in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty before the project was retooled.
“In the original plan for Avengers 5, then called Kang Dynasty, Shang-Chi would’ve been one of the film’s main leads. A lot’s changed since then; Avengers 5 was meant to focus on Kang the Conqueror, but Marvel has since completely retooled the film to introduce Victor Von Doom.”
For the past few years, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has remained steadfast in her belief that for Star Wars to thrive, the franchise needs to move away from Skywalker-centric projects. Though she’s called that mission “vital” and eschewed an adherence to George Lucas‘ original outline for the franchise, it’s proven difficult to cut the cord. Indeed recent streaming efforts such as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka have both featured appearances by Skywalkers despite also attempting to blaze their own paths in the New Republic era. However, the franchise’s latest streaming offering, The Acolyte, set out to provide a brand new entry point for fans by telling a story with no connectivity to the Skywalker Saga despite being steeped in the familiar mythology and themes of the Star Wars franchise.
I think it is vital. Just staying within the construct of George’s storytelling, to keep chipping away at that, I think would be wrong. It’s our job to step away now, but still have a connection to the mythology that George created. That won’t stop. But we are moving on from the Skywalker saga. That’s what’s taking a lot of time, discussion, and thought right now.
Series creator Leslye Headland–a lifelong Star Wars fan who described her love for the franchise as “existing on a cellular level”–put together what I called the” boldest storytelling effort to date within the franchise as it looks to redefine itself” in The Acolyte. The series came out of the gate strong but interest waned greatly down the stretch and, to no one’s surprise, became the target of online ridicule. Despite the social media buzz, Headland’s series showed promise late and she remained optimistic that more opportunity to continue the story of the series’ main characters would present itself. And now we know how that worked out.
According to Deadline, Disney has pulled the plug on the High Republic-era series, choosing not to move forward with a second season of The Acolyte.
Because of the amount of time and attention that went into this film, and frankly the Ironheartshow, that is probably not as far along as people want it to be, but there are certainly great ideas that we’re still talking to Ryan about. So, we’ll see how far we can get with it.
In late 2023, a canonical animated series, Eyes of Wakanda was announced and set for release in 2024. Now according to trusted insider Daniel RPK, the studio is turning its attention back to developing World of Wakanda, a live-action series set in Wakanda.
No details were provided about World of Wakanda in the report, however, it’s possible that Gurira previously provided some insight into what to expect. In a 2022 interview with Deadline, Gurira described Coogler’s vision for the future of the Dora-turned-Midnight Angel, comparing it to David Carradine‘s Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu.
[Coogler] was saying it’s like that kung fu show, where the guy just walked the earth. She just walks off. We don’t know where Okoye’s going. And she’s sort of letting go. She was fighting to keep that position, and then she lets it go. That’s kind of her arc, that she lets go. And we don’t know where that leads to.
-Danai Gurira on the future of Okoye
In an early 2023 interview with Stephen Colbert,Gurira was asked about the potential for an Okoye-centric series and said,” I have been told that I can gently allude to this possibility [of an Okoye-centric series]. So, I am gently alluding. Just gently.” Perhaps the time has finally come for the long-gestating project to take flight. However, with Disney cutting back on the quantity of Marvel Studios’ content on its streaming service, don’t expect to see the series before 2026 at the earliest.
After stealing scene after scene alongside MCU veterans Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany the 2021 Disney Plus Streaming Series, WandaVision, Kathryn Hahn‘s wonderfully wicked Agatha Harkness is set to make her return in Agatha All Along. Hahn takes the lead in the nine-episode series which picks up right where the final episode of WandaVision, The Series Finale, left off: with a depowered Agatha trapped in a spell cast by Wanda that left her believing she was the most neighbor Agnes from the sitcom portion of the show. Challenged by a figure from her past to regain her strength, Agatha collects a coven of witches and sets out to travel the legendary Witches’ Road in hopes of taking back what was hers.
As has become the norm, Agatha All Along will debut with two episodes before moving into the familiar weekly format. With the series premiere set for September 18th, it’s time to start prepping for launch and so, as is our way, we bring you…THE ULTIMATE LIST OF WHAT TO WATCH BEFORE AGATHA ALL ALONG.
Tier One
Getting yourself prepared to enjoy Agatha All Along is not quite the same titanic task as it has been with other Marvel Studios properties. Hahn‘s witch has only appeared in WandaVision and only one MCU project would seem directly related to what is expected to go down in Agatha All Along. Since we consider Tier One projects to be the bare minimum, non-negotiable prep, we have only selected two properties for your required reading.
WandaVision (2021)
Excluding credits and recaps and other assorted business that’s part of every project, a full rewatch or first viewing of WandaVision will only take right around four and a half hours. The early episodes certainly set the stage for the series’ twists and turns and the back half of the season has all sorts of juicy bits that you might need to take in before watching Agatha All Along. Trailers for the series have made it clear that in addition to the difficulty of traveling the Witches’ Road, Agatha will be dealing with the repercussions of her wicked past. And if that’s not enough, it’s widely accepted that Joe Locke’s character, Teen, is the re-embodiment of Wanda’s son, Billy. Though Billy, and his brother Tommy, were magically created within the Westview Anomaly, aka The Hex, and disappeared when Wanda lifted her spell, they have had plenty to do with Wanda’s story and are very likely to play a large role again down the road.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
The post-credit scene following Episode 9 of WandaVision, “The Series Finale”, showed Wanda studying an ancient text known as the Darkhold. The consequences of her time with the tome became clear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness where it was revealed she had been corrupted by the book and been transformed into the Scarlet Witch.
According to Wong, the “Scarlet Witch is a being of unfathomable magic” who “can rewrite reality as she chooses, and is prophesized to either rule or annihilate the cosmos.” In a Multiversal search for alternate-dimension Variants of her children, the Scarlet Witch used her power to Dreamwalk into other realities, threatening their existence. We know how it all ended but it is likely not to be the end of Wanda’s story and while it’s unclear exactly how much of this will be referenced in Agatha All Along, Wanda will absolutely have an impact on the series.
Tier Two
With so little connectivity to the rest of the MCU, Agatha All Along occupies rarified air. New fans often seem overwhelmed by the amount of work it would take to catch themselves up to speed on the MCU’s next big thing but, in the case of Agatha All Along, the two projects in Tier One are the only ones that are truly necessary. However, given that magic is the heart of the series, there are a couple of other projects that might add some context to the series or, at the very least, give viewers a more comprehensive view of how magic works within the confines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Thor (2011),Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Millenia before Agatha Harkness was doing her dirty work in Salem, the Asgardians began to study and understand how to harness the energies of the universe and use them to their advantage. Asgard itself was a blend of magic and technology and many Asgaridans, such as Frigga and Loki, were known to be powerful magic weilders. The Thor trilogy also includes multiple weapons, relics and other assorted artifacts that are enchanted via spells by Odin and, perhaps, others as well.
Your ancestors called it magic and you call it science. Well, I come from a place where they are one and the same thing.
-Thor
Watching the original Thor trilogy is certainly not necessary for fans to enjoy Agatha All Along but it does provide some historical context for magic within the MCU and features one of its most powerful practitioners in Loki. An argument could be made that if one was going to watch these films they could watch Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and both seasons of Loki; however, there’s probably enough to be gleaned from the first three films to satisfy the need.
Doctor Strange (2016)
Doctor Strange not only introduces the titular Doctor but also the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Hidden in Kamar-Taj and led by The Ancient One, the Masters of the Mystic Arts are an order of sorcerers, founded thousands of years ago by Agomottos, who have learned to harness the energies of the alternate universes to protect Earth from mystical threats.
The language of the Mystic Arts is as old as civilization. The sorcerers of antiquity called the use of this language ‘spells,’ but if that word offends your modern sensibilities, you can call it a program; the source code that shapes reality. We harness energy drawn from other dimensions of the Multiverse to cast spells, to conjure shields and weapons, to make magic.
-The Ancient One
The film introduced different types of magic and warns against the use of many. There are some similarities between the way the Masters of the Mystic Arts harness and wield their magic and the way Agatha’s witchcraft is portrayed in WandaVision. If nothing else, Doctor Strange will open your third eye as to the great possibilities of magic used by humans.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law (2022)
Any efforts to catch up on the use of magic in the Multiverse must include the latest adventures of the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth-616: Wong.
I need to make an example of Donny Blaze. Set a precedent that no unlicensed persons ever attempt to practice the Mystic Arts again.
-Wong
Episodes 3, 4 and 9 of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law follow up on Wong’s friendship with Emil Blonsky–as first seen in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings–and see the Sorcerer Supreme target Donny Blaze, a former student of Kamar-Taj who was expelled and now works as a stage magician. Wong crossed Blaze’s path when the latter opened a portal and sent Madisynn King to another dimension where she met a demon named Jake…
Tier Three
Tier Three inclusions are never, ever necessary for anyone to enjoy an upcoming MCU project but they can sometimes increase viewing pleasure by adding context, providing thematic connections or allowing viewers to watch films or shows that have inspired the creators of their new favorite Marvel thing! We’ve broken this very different Tier Three into two parts.
Part 1: More MCU Magic
While the Tier Two projects can help new viewers understand more about how magic works in the MCU, they are far from the only projects in which magic was used. To that end, we present a list of MCU projects in which magic played a role. NOTE: This list is intended to be comprehensive, however, if any projects have been left off please let us know and we’ll be happy to add them!
Avengers (2012)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) mid-credit scene
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Loki, Season 1 (2021)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Moon Knight (2022)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Loki, Season 2 (2023)
Part 2: Other Inspiration
As the press junkets and interviews used to promote Agatha All Along have started to emerge over the past few weeks, the cast and crew of the streaming series have named various projects that served as inspiration for the show.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Poltergeist (1982)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
The Goonies (1985)
Hocus Pocus (1993)
The Craft (1996)
Practical Magic (1998)
About Agatha All Along
In addition to Kathryn Hahn, Agatha All Along stars Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Maria Dizzia, Paul Adelstein, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Okwui Okpokwasili, with Debra Jo Rupp, with PattiLuPone, and Aubrey Plaza.
In Marvel Studios’ Agatha All Along, the infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth Teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious Teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…
The executive producers are Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Mary Livanos and Jac Schaeffer. In addition to series creator Schaeffer, episodes of Agatha All Along will be directed by Rachel Goldberg (Mayans M.C. and Gen V) and Gandja Monteiro (Wednesday, The Witcher and The Walking Dead: Dead City).
To the dozens and dozens of Nicholas Scratch fans out there, Heartstopper star Joe Locke is about to become a heartbreaker. After nearly two years of speculation over who Locke is playing in the upcoming Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series Agatha All Along, the identity of Locke’s character was recently revealed…sort of. According to Disney, Locke will be portraying a member of Agatha Harkness’ coven simply known as “Teen.” While nobody is buying that will be the only name he goes by–and a previous reveal indicates it will not be–it likely won’t be enough to prevent Agatha All Along from becoming mired in the same asinine speculation that haunted WandaVision from week to week during its 2021 run.
Rather than run from the ridiculousness of it, it seems Marvel Studios is rather content to encourage it, keeping up the facade as long as possible. In an interview with Total Film, Locke explained that while “Teen” is not a code name being used by Disney to hide who he is truly playing but rather an inside joke crafted by members of Agatha’s coven of chaos.
It’s not a fake code name; it’s what everyone calls him, which is a joke that develops during the show, but just becomes what everyone calls him, and he answers to it.
Once described as a “familiar” by co-star Patti LuPone, Locke’s character was also revealed by a casting call to be “witty” and “astute” as well as a “bit of a fanboy.” Fans of the comics have rightly connected those attributes to Billy Kaplan, aka Wiccan, who was so much of a fanboy that he originally called himself Asgardian and styled his look after the Odinson’s. According to Locke, Teen also shares another character trade with Wiccan: he is impulsive. “He’s very thoughtful and kind, but he can act without thinking sometimes,” said Locke of his Agatha All Along character, explaining how he might find himself in league with Harkness and her crew. Of course, there’s one other very good reason Teen joins Agatha’s coven: the power offered by the journey down the Witches’ Road.
In Marvel Studios’ Agatha All Along, the infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth Teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious Teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…
-Official Synopsis for Agatha All Along
It’s become widely speculated that Locke’s character is taking the trip down the legendary road to reclaim what he misses most. And while some further speculate that he’ll be looking for his mother, Wanda Maximoff, others believe he’ll be out to find his twin brother, Tommy. Interestingly enough, a recent report indicated that the studio is looking to cast Javon Walton as Tommy Shepherd, aka Speed, the reborn brother of Billy in the pages of Marvel Comics. While Locke doesn’t confirm his character’s intentions for walking the road, he doesn’t shy away from teasing that his motives are not entirely altruistic. “The Witches’ Road offers untold spoils and power…,” said Locke, adding “and then we’ll find out.“
And find out we will–although certainly not soon enough and not before we all relive the devastating stupidity that surrounded WandaVision–as Agatha All Along debuts on Disney Plus on September 18th.
Marvel Studios kicked off its post-Endgame efforts in January 2021 with its first Disney Plus streaming series, WandaVision. Led by incredible performances by Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany and Kathryn Hahn, the series was a hit with fans and has spawned a pair of spinoffs in Agatha All Along, a nine-episode streamer premiering on September 18th, and an untitled Vision series that begins production this Fall. While the continuing tales of Agatha Harkness and the White Vision are certainly of interest to fans, the series also included a handful of other characters whose impact was felt beyond the story told in WandaVision.
The story of Monica Rambeau, who gained her powers in WandaVision, continued in the 2023 film The Marvels and looks to be integral to helping move along the overall narrative of The Multiverse Saga and there are several minor characters from WandaVision who are set to return for Agatha All Along; however, arguably no characters had a larger immediate impact on Phase 4 than Wanda and Vision’s children, Billy and Tommy. Created by Wanda as part of the Hex she placed over Westview, the children disappeared when Wanda removed her spell in the WandaVision finale. Corrupted by the Darkhold and driven in her efforts to reunite with Billy and Tommy, Wanda became the Scarlet Witch and took on fellow Avenger Steven Strange in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Though she sacrificed herself to destroy the Darkhold in the final act of the film, Marvel Studio’s head honcho Kevin Feige has teased a future for the character and it seems as though fans will begin to get a glimpse of that soon.
There really is so much more to explore. We still haven’t touched on many of her core storylines from the comics. I don’t know that we saw her under rubble? I saw a tower coming down, and a little red flash. I don’t know what that means.
-Kevin Feige on the future of Wanda Maximoff
Though she isn’t expected to have much, if any, physical presence, in Agatha All Along, Wanda’s actions will reverberate throughout the series. The series will follow Agatha as she seeks to regain the power taken from her by Wanda. To do so, Agatha must walk the legendary Witches’ Road with her coven and one member of that coven is widely believed to be Billy Kaplan who, in the comics, is the reincarnated version of Billy Kaplan. Played by Joe Locke, the character is called Teen in Agatha All Along, obfuscating the character’s true identity until late in the series. With one son finding a way back into the world, it’s just a matter of time until the other does and now we know when to expect that.
According to insider Daniel RPK, Marvel Studios is looking to cast Javon Walton as a character also called Teen in the upcoming Vision-centric WandaVision spinoff. Given previous rumors about the series and the shared name for the character, it seems all but a certainty that the studio is looking to cast Walton as Tommy Shepherd, the reborn Tommy Maximoff.
In addition to recently launching a career in boxing, Walton has starred in the HBO prestige series, Euphoria, and Netflix’s Umbrella Academy. In the comics, Tommy was a rough-around-the-edges teen whose behavior frequently landed him in juvenile detention centers. He possessed powers similar to his uncle, Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver, and joined the Young Avengers under the codename Speed. Tommy Maximoff, played by Jett Klyne, displayed similar powers in the latter half of WandaVision.
With the third anniversary of the theatrical release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings creeping closer, fans are still waiting for the film’s breakout star, Simu Liu, to return to the MCU. While much of the recent dialogue around Marvel Studios’ Multiverse Saga centers on the poor performances of several projects, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings still stands as one of the company’s best films post-Endgame, having been both critically and financially successful. Just two months after the film hit theaters during the pandemic in 2021, it was announced thatDestin Daniel Cretton inked an overall deal to develop content for Disney including a Shang-Chi sequel.
Destin is an amazing collaborator who brought a unique perspective and skill to Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. We had a fantastic time working together on the film and he has so many intriguing ideas for stories to bring to life on Disney+, so we’re thrilled to expand our relationship with him and can’t wait to get started.
-Kevin Feige on Destin Daniel Cretton, December 2021
According to Cretton, much of the groundwork for the sequel took place during the filming of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. “While we were shooting, we were throwing around joke ideas of what a sequel could be,” said Cretton who added “There are a lot of ideas that we had in the opener, and some of those ideas are planted as questions, by the end of our movie. There are things that we potentially want to explore in the future.” Despite what sounded like a promising start to a sequel script, the director indicated in a 2021 interview that nothing had moved beyond the “idea stage” and that he’d done no work on a script, saying “I’ve done [zero]. It’s a fun place to be right now. Everything is a possibility. We’re just tossing very loose ideas around and we’ll start to hone in on something, hopefully.“
I think just what Shaun decides to do with all this newfound power, you know? It kind of consumed his father, consumed Wenwu. I’m curious as to how someone much younger, much more inexperienced, would fare against the rings. Just this idea of all of a sudden being gifted something that’s so powerful but also so dangerous. And then the other big question I have is, you know, in what way does Shaun fit in with the rest of the MCU? Who are you going to see? What kind of crazy team-ups? What kinda tie-ins, Easter eggs? I’m just as much in the dark as everyone else, so I don’t know anything, but I’m excited to dive into that process.
-Simu Liu on a potential Shang-Chi sequel
During SDCC ’22, Liu fueled hopes that sequel plans would come to fruition relatively soon, telling the crowd that he was”going to be busy the next few years” and that he’d be starring in “a couple of” projects Marvel Studios announced during the convention. Two years and another SDCC later, Liu’s Shang-Chi still hasn’t returned to the MCU and the sequel still hasn’t been put on Marvel Studios’ slate. It’s an understatement to say that quite a bit has changed behind the scenes at the studio over the last two years and fans have rightfully been worried that the Shang-Chi sequel may have been canceled; however, in a recent interview with Press Trust of India, Liu put those concerns to rest.
A lot of it is above my pay grade but it’s definitely happening,” said Liu of the sequel, adding, “So just very excited to kind of work on it and it’s going to be amazing. I really can’t say anything beyond that.
It’s an encouraging update from the film’s star that comes at a time when there simply hasn’t been much information about the project in nearly a year. In late 2023, Cretton was confirmed to still be working on the script while also having stepped down as director of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. With even more changes having taken place at Marvel Studios since then–including the reframing of the entire structure of the Multiverse Saga–it’s unclear what role Shang-Chi will play in the shared narrative over the next few years. Once believed to be integral to mounting a defense against Kang the Conqueror, Shang-Chi’s rings may now have a different purpose with Doctor Doom looming. And while Liu may not be at liberty to discuss just what that purpose is, it is encouraging to know he’s still headed back to the MCU.
While the appearance of the Serpent Society in Brave New World wasn’t a surprise (set photos revealed a pair of members very early on in production), casting Esposito as its most senior member right smack dab in the middle of the action was. The trailer for the film reveals Sidewinder as an antagonistic agent of chaos and now Esposito may have given away his character’s ultimate goals.
During an appearance at Chicago’s Fan Expo, Esposito revealed some new information about Sidewinder and, potentially, his motives.
Giancarlo Esposito says Seth Voelker/Sidewinder in 'CAPTAIN AMERCIA: BRAVE NEW WORLD' is "a scientist; a great mind."
Presenting Voelker as a great, scientific mind is a change of pace for the character who, in the comics, was more of a criminally minded businessman. However, given the role that the Adamantium race is set to play in Captain America: Brave New World, it seems clear that Sidewinder and his fellow Serpents have their own plans for the mystery metal. And while a scientifically minded Sidewinder is a new take on the character, having a member of the Serpent Society armed with Adamantium would not be. In the comics, Frank Payne, who went by the name Constrictor, was once armed with Adamantium coils that he used to whip and, get this, constrict his enemies.
Combined with a previous revelation by Espositio that his character will be featured in a streaming series after the events of Brave New World, it sounds as though the Serpent Society is in the MCU to stay. If they are to do so and prove a formidable threat against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, having a man leading the pack who can crack the code of how to utilize Adamantium will prove very valuable.
Captain America: Brave New World is set for a February 14th, 2025 release.
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2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
Marketing cookies are used to follow visitors to websites. The intention is to show ads that are relevant and engaging to the individual user.
Pinterest Tag is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic.
