Another weekend has passed and it seems Shang-Chi is still holding on to the top spot. It’s currently eyeing to end the Sunday with a total domestic of $176.1M after an incredible hold of 61%. It’s the second-best third weekend in September with $21M only beaten by the horror film It with $29.75M. The film is showing healthy legs and also benefits from a lack of competition. It went up against the new release of Clint Eastwood‘s Cry Macho, which is only eyeing around $4.7M over the three-day weekend. Unlike the Marvel Studios production, it’s also currently available via HBO Max and could see a strong drop on Sunday.
Currently, it looks like Ryan Reynold‘s Free Guy will take the second spot as it may pass the $5M mark this weekend. Other releases aren#t doing much better, as Cop Shop featuring Gerard Butler might miss hitting the $3M this weekend even with glowing reviews by critics. Its reception by viewers is telling a different story. It’s likely to end up on the sixth spot with horror films Candyman and Malignant ahead.
Shang-Chiand the Legend of the Ten Rings seem to indicate that the core audience is back in theatres, but not everything is quite where it used to be. Venom: Let There Be Carnage moved back to its October 1st release and with Dune on the horizon, the films might add some much-needed energy. The lack of a Chinese release is hurting some films, as it’s been the saving grace for F9: The Fast Saga and Godzilla vs. Kong. The latter pulled in almost around $200M from that market alone putting it ahead of the current domestic leaders.
Life is busy. Sometimes too busy to catch up on all the big news of the week. Never fear, The Pulse is here to get you all caught up on the biggest stories of the past week, September 13-18th.
Hit Monkey First Look, Release Date Revealed
Once upon a time, Marvel Entertainment gave the green light to a handful of animated series. Of those, only MODOK and Hit Monkey survived Kevin Feige’s ascendancy. While we’ll probably never see The Offenders event series, we can see Hit Monkey beginning on November 17th on Hulu. The show is rumored to be “hyper-violent”, so we might not see the Marvel Studios credits roll ahead of it, but it’s still looking like it’ll be a blast.
Serkis Says Spidey and Venom Meeting is “Gonna Happen”
Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage screened last week and all the buzz (including from the studio, bizarrely enough) was about the post-credit scene that is rumored to hint at something fans have long hoped for: Spidey and Venom being in the same place. According to the film’s director, Andy Serkis, fans are eventually going to get what they hope for, saying “of course it’s gonna happen.” When? How? Why? Which Spidey? We’ll all find out together.
Krysten Ritter Wants to Join Charlie Cox in the MCU
Actress Krysten Ritter, who brought Marvel’s Jessica Jones to life on Netflix back in 2015, has decided that she’d like to not be done playing the character. Ritter, who was last seen as Jones in 2019’s third season of Jessica Jones, says she’d “absolutely just die to play Jessica again.” Nobody wants Ritter to die, but it’s great to know she’s up for returning to the role and reimagining the character like her Defenders co-star Charlie Cox totally for sure isn’t doing in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
‘THE PENGUIN’ Series in Development at HBO Max
Director Matt Reeves is definitely getting the chance to do some world building around his upcoming Batman film. The latest development, according to Deadline, is a streaming series focused on Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot. That makes at least 2 series spinning out of 2022’s The Batman.
We’ve previously written about how Marvel Studios continues to innovate and where it could improve. Marvel Cinematic Universe projects are often critiqued for prioritizing spectacle over emotional and thematic resonance in its third acts. At the same time, it’s clear from interviews that the studio seriously contemplates the decisions that go into their finales. This deliberation allows the studio to experiment. While experiments can result in occasional falters, it is a long-term approach that succeeds more often than not in resonant finales.
Marvel Studios’ films and tv series are often reviewed as sacrificing satisfying conflict resolution for spectacle in their third acts. This is also an element those making the films are aware of and are always working to improve. Nat Sanders, one of the editors of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, described on The Rough Cut podcast how the third act was a main focus to improve during the pandemic shutdown:
“We had a hiatus period, we had to shut down and before we came back up, along with really cutting and refining the 6 weeks worth of material we had at that point, our other main big focus was pre-vizing the third act and really continuing to develop the third act because it felt potentially just a hair underbaked in the script, compared to everything else, and we thought there was more to keep working on, so it ended up before a really great thing that we had that time for that part.”
Nat Sanders
The editors also spoke about how Marvel Studios emboldened them to make big decisions with the director Destin Daniel Cretton. They mention cutting half an hour out of the third act, and how these were considered good value even if a change in look for one character cost more than the entire budget of another film. Harry Yoon, another one of the editors, mentions how this empowered decision making met with an experimental attitude that focused towards continually improving the film’s emotional conclusion:
“[With the Marvel Studios producers] there was this attitude of ‘if we can make it 5% better or 3% better by addressing this one comment, then let’s try it.’ […] After a while you start to feel like you have permission within Marvel to make bold decisions […] That’s where it got very exciting towards the end, once we started to understand that character, story and audience were the big priorities and not these other things.
Harry Yoon
All of this suggests Marvel Studios keeps its collaborative spirit from within the Parliament, and extends it out to their project-based collaborators. This in of itself keeps fresh while also consistent. Regardless of personal opinions on the matter, it is a process that strives to keep improving.
It’s fairly commonly received wisdom that a singular vision rather than an interdependent conception is what empowers creative and successful films. Yet Marvel Studios seems to empower its collaborators to make impactful decisions throughout the process and potentially change aspects of the result as they go. Benedict Cumberbatch recently reflected on this experimental attitude in regards to his Doctor Strange sequel:
“With the first film, you’re always locked into a script, because it’s the origin story,” he says. “But there was a lot more freedom this time around. I guess, because we were … not literally making it up as we go along, but sometimes it feels like that. Marvel has this amazing ability to come into production: ‘We really just have to start shooting now. It doesn’t matter that the third act is not quite where you want it to be.’ You really do things on a wing and a prayer sometimes.”
Benedict Cumberbatch
This experimental attitude will always result in hits and slight misses. On one hand it’s brilliant that Marvel Studios gives its creative collaborators freedom to keep improving a script or scene they are not quite happy with. This can, with different perspectives or more thought, often help a scene arrive at a better place. On the other hand, however, an impending production timeline might mean a completely satisfying conclusion is reached. It also suggests that we might get different kinds of conclusions as the studio as a whole works on improving, which we know is a key motivation of the producers there. It seems as though the difficulty of third acts is a studio wider discussion. Jac Schaeffer recently spoke about how hard it can be to resonantly blend scale with emotional conclusions:
It’s the third act of a Marvel movie. I’ve been around the block on some of those, and they’re so fun — but that’s always the hardest to land. The emotional part of the finale was always very clear to me: their goodbye and the goodbye to the children. That was the grounding force. All the pyrotechnics and making sure that Wanda’s win against Agatha at the end really sings, that’s stuff that takes a long, long time.
Jac Schaeffer
The Marvel Cinematic Universe at large is a work-in-progress and this filters down into the production elements of each project. Loki featured a conclusion that was largely an amazing set of Jonathan Majors’ monologues. Yet it was also satisfying through aspects of action, scale, emotion and theme. Post-credit scenes as a feature, are significantly part of the additive delight which makes these films and streaming series so compelling. Characters and concepts are introduced, and for the creatives, part of the fun becomes figuring out how these characters and concepts play into the larger narrative. That wider narrative is perhaps the most significant point. While there might be immediate conclusions in particular projects, the wider narrative remains a work-in-progress. This gives Marvel Studios the freedom to produce better endings that delight us all.
We’ve been hearing more and more about what it’s like to work with Marvel Studios. Disney+ is some unknown territory for the production company and may have shifted their approach to adapt to the new format. Unlike their films, they can’t follow the usual three-act structure but have to find a different way of balancing the dramatic and action aspects of their projects. WandaVision showrunner Jac Schaeffer shared the challenge she faced getting the fight scenes down after focusing primarily on the dramatic aspects of the story. In the interview with Hollywood Reporter she shares that:
The finale was the hardest because that’s the Marvel-iest part. It’s always tough to really nail down on the mythology. What does Agatha [Kathryn Hahn] want and what does her power set look like? What does that mean for Wanda? How do we make that interesting? What’s the chess board where all the players give everybody a satisfying conclusion? It’s the third act of a Marvel movie. I’ve been around the block on some of those, and they’re so fun — but that’s always the hardest to land.
Jac Schaeffer
She highlights that the iconic and gut-wrenching goodbye sequence was the clearest vision she had going into the project. Yet, the path filled with fights between two Visions and Wanda’s takedown of Agatha took the most time. Most of the series pays tribute to classic sitcoms and takes quite the shift in the finale. Schaeffer‘s comment does highlight that they are one of the most challenging aspects of these projects. Action sequences that tie the entire story together while also keeping a dramatic core aren’t easy to balance. It can sometimes drag down a strong story if it doesn’t nail the ending. Luckily, WandaVision was able to accomplish just that.
Improvisation is a common feature on most movie sets. Actors taking creative liberties with their dialogue and behavior has led to some of the most iconic lines and moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It includes the likes of the “I am Iron Man” bombshell from Iron Man and allegedly 80% of Taika Waititi‘s Thor: Ragnarok. Karen Gillan is no stranger to improvisation on sets, such as Avengers: Endgame‘s opening paper football scene with Iron Man and Nebula, but it seems her improvisation skills may have actually left their imprint all the way back in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Speaking to BBC’s Radio 1 this week, the Guardians of the Galaxy actress revealed that another iconic Nebula moment was the product of improvisation. When asked about her favorite lines from her career, she surprisingly said one of them was the “It’s not ripe” line from theGuardianssequel.
One that I noticed that people want me to always write on pictures is that improvised line actually from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which is “It’s not ripe.” It was improv-ed at the time, and that has stuck beyond anything else.
Karen Gillan
The Yaro root is a fruit Nebula spends most of the film chasing in vain. The Guardians repeatedly warn her that it’s not ripe and actively prevent her from taking a bite. Finally at the end of the film, Nebula sneaks her way into trying the fruit and inevitably spitting it out followed by the above-mentioned line.
How a Single Line Can Add More to the Story
Although it might seem like a small side joke, the Yaro root also doubles as a well-written piece of characterization for Nebula. Despite her being an antagonistic, bitter character, the Guardians are still looking out for her best interests, even with something as simple as eating fruit when it’s ready. When the head-strong Nebula rushes to get what she wants on her own terms, it ends up being premature and not what she wanted. The Yaro root is a reminder of how Nebula can benefit from learning to trust others instead of struggling to get by on her own and achieving less.
So even though it’s a small line from a silly gag, I think this line is actually rather important to her character arc. The meaning of the line makes it all the more impressive that it was an improvisation, especially when you consider that its director James Gunn has previously stated that about 99% of the final dialogue in his films are straight from the script. It’ll be interesting to see if her tendency for improvisation might come to the forefront with director Taika Watiti in Thor: Love and Thunder. As mentioned previously, he’s a fan of improvisation and perhaps he’ll get more of these character-developing scenes through improvisation.
If you are interested, you can check out the interview with Karen Gillan right here:
After a long wait, Hit Monkey has finally been unveiled. It’s one of the last entries that was once set to become part of The Offenders crossover at Hulu. Yet, even with its release date out there, the thing that may have caught many reader’s eyes is that it doesn’t have the Marvel title. Even MODOK held the title in its advertising for the series even with its darker, adult-themed humor.
It is still based on the Marvel character, but won’t hold the title just like Helstrom did right around the time Marvel TV was absorbed into Marvel studios. We may have gotten an answer on why, as ComicBook.com’s Adam Barnhardt shared on Twitter that it’s being left out due to how violent the series is going to be. It may also be the reason why the last Marvel TV live-action series also lost that part of the title and not due to the merger, as many suspected.
It’ll be interesting if Marvel Studios’ future projects might take a similar approach. Deadpool kept its R-rating and Marvel logo while beheading enemies. Yet, it also was published through 20th Century Fox that doesn’t have the same limitations that Disney has. We know that the third entry in the Deadpool franchise will be part of the MCU, which means it’ll hold the Marvel Studios title. Perhaps Hit Monkey might be the last not to get the title, as Marvel Studios starts developing their future projects.
Some time ago, Marvel TV announced a variety of shows that’ll crossover into the so-called The Offenders mini-series. Most of the series ended up getting scrapped but some productions were along far enough they’d still see the light of day on Hulu. The recent release of MODOK was the first series, which took a stop-motion approach to its animation style. It looks like the next survivor has found its way online, as Entertainment Weekly unveiled Hit Monkey is heading to the streaming service as of November 17th.
Alongside the release date, we also got our first look at the show’s titular Japanese snow macaque and his hitman ghost friend, Bryce. The dark comedy follows the events after Bryce nursed him back to health. Yet, after his passing, the macaque picks up his assassin’s ways to avenge his friend, as his ghost, voiced by Jason Sudekis, continues to haunt him throughout the show.
The November release isn’t too far away and could be our hint at a potential trailer dropping at the latest of October. It’s curious that the series takes a more traditional 2D animation style, as they were supposed to crossover at some point. The concept of multiple shows with unique art styles colliding does sound like an exciting concept, but we’ll see if any of these series get a sequel season. There’s still no word on MODOK‘s renewal but only time will tell. For now, it’s great to see some of the more unique ideas still survive after the Marvel TV and Marvel Studios merger. We’ll see if their success leads to more down the road.
Back in January, we looked at one hypothetical 2022 release calendar for Marvel Studios. We’ve been through another round of production delays and release date shifts and with 2022 just a few months away, have a little bit better idea of when we might expect to see Marvel content next year. With that in mind, here’s version 2.0 of a totally made up and hypothetical way Marvel Studios 2022 release schedule might look.
Originally set to stream on Disney + in 2021, rumored production delays pushed Ms. Marvel’s MCU debut to 2022. With the number of streaming series Marvel Studios has to get through in 2022, it would seem like they’d want to kick off the new year with a bang, debuting Ms. Marvel as soon as possible, dropping the first of the expected 6 episodes on January 5th.
Now that Wednesdays are the new Fridays, we know that Marvel Studios has no aversion to dropping a new film while a series is streaming. With that in mind, it’s possible that the they get She-Hulk’s 10 episode run started as early as February 23rd, one week after an episode of Marvel Legends catches fans up on the stories of Bruce Banner and Emil Blonsky, two characters who will have big roles to play in the series.
While She-Hulk is in the middle of its run, fans will FINALLY get the sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange on March 25th, 2022 when Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness hits theaters. Marvel Studios will almost certainly have a few episodes of Marvel Legends ready to view to prep fans to remind fans not only of what Stephen Strange, Wong and Mordo have been up to, but also to remind them of the journey of the film’s primary antagonist, the Scarlet Witch.
Right after She-Hulk finishes its extended run (remember, it’s 10 episodes and will stretch from late-February through late-April), fans will be able to head to theaters for the next chapter in the saga of the God of Thunder when Thor: Love and Thunder comes crashing in on May 6, 2022. Marvel Legends episodes covering the journeys of Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy are almost a sure thing and we’ll certainly need to catch up on Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, who will have been absent from the MCU for almost a decade when this film releases.
From the God of Thunder to the avatar of the Egyptian God of the Moon…Marvel Studios Moon Knight, featuring Oscar Isaac in the lead role(s) could hit Disney Plus as early as May 11th. In our first draft, we had Moon Knight streaming about one month earlier, but with Ms. Marvel moving to 2022, it got pushed. Realistically, should Marvel Studios wish to do so, they could move Ms. Marvel to this slot, much closer to the character’s next appearance in November’s The Marvels.
We’re not sure if Marvel Studios will go this route, but interestingly enough the mythology of Moon Knight has some ties to the mythology of Black Panther. Should Kevin Feige and crew wish to make that explicit on screen, there could be some small connection between the two that would make Black Panther: Wakanda Forever fit nicely in order after the completion of Moon Knight’s expected 6-episode run. Wakanda Forever is one to keep an eye on as well, as production delays due to an injury to Letitia Wright have pushed the expected completion of principal photography into early 2022.
Marvel Studios intends for the animated series What If…? to occur annually and we know they’ve already done a lot of work on Season 2, so it’s likely it’ll be ready for a Summer 2022 debut. Season 1 was 9 episodes, so we’ll go with that for now and slot July 20th as the drop date for the first episode of Season 2, which will see the return of Haley Atwell’s Captain Carter and adapt a scenario from this year’s Black Widow film.
Marvel Studios seems to be aiming to have Secret Invasion ready to stream just ahead of The Marvels. Production on the series in kicking off in earnest in October in the UK, allowing for some actors to complete work on The Marvels before shifting over to Secret Invasion. If everything goes smoothly, the series should be ready for Disney Plus by September 28th, 2022, leaving a week to recover before the Captain Marvel sequel hits theaters on November 9, 2022. Truthfully, we have no confirmation that the two projects are tied together, but we’re pretending they are for the purposes of this experiment. Presumably, both of these projects would be preceded by some Marvel Legends episodes recapping the adventures of Nick Fury, Talos, Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau before telling the next chapters of their stories.
While Secret Invasion is doing it’s thing, Marvel Studios might have to find room to drop the first of its Holiday Specials. Rumor has it that the Halloween special might just feature Werewolf By Night, a character originally believed to be starring in his own streaming series. Production on the special is set to take place early next year, so it shouldn’t be a problem to have it ready to go for, let’s say, October 26th.
Even though the entire piece is hypothetical, this one has the greatest uncertainty. I’ve recently heard a rumor that production on Echo might get pushed JUST a bit, to April 2022, making it almost impossible for it to stream in 2022. Should it hold to its originally reported January 2022 date, however, we could easily see it debut on Disney Plus by November 16th.
Should the calendar hold, Marvel Studios could wrap up 2022 with its second holiday special, the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. This one will film during production on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, so it’ll be ready to drop whenever they choose, maybe even on December 28th, 2022!
The tradition continues, as now that a few days have passed since the latest episode of What If…? dropped, Funko unveiled their latest Marvel-inspired Funko Pops. This time around, Queen General Ramonda is getting her own Funko. It’s revealed alongside the Killmonger as Black Panther design, which leaked his upcoming conflicts with the head of an Ultron sentry in his hand. It’s interesting that the Ramonda Funko never found its way online, as she had a prominent role in some of the earlier trailers.
It’s great to see Funko continue offering these characters as Funko Pop, and we’re seeing a trend of giving otherwise minor characters more focus in merchandise. They are popular collectibles and it’s great that they are rolling them out alongside their reveal in the various episodes. It adds another layer to how Marvel is utilizing their weekly releases to also create synergy with their merchandising. We still have a few episodes to go, and it’ll be interesting who else might get a Funko that hasn’t already leaked online.
All eyes are now on November’s release of Eternals, which will introduce the world to the earliest point in time of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We’ll get introduced to a brand new alien race that existed long before the Avengers were around. Director Chloé Zhao whipped up quite the cast which includes Game of Thrones‘ Richard Madden. He’ll take on the role of Ikaris, an important figure in the Marvel comics.
In an interview with Total Film, the actor revealed why he was interested in taking on the mantle and how the non-superhero aspects of this superhero drew his interest.
That’s why I was drawn to him. I don’t see him as a superhero I’ve seen before. I see him as a man first, and quite a complicated character, before a superhero. You know, superheroes have laser eyes. Superheroes can fly. So, there’s lots of parallels. But as a character, I’ve not seen anyone like him before.
Richard Madden
He also goes on to highlight how Chloé Zhao’s vision played a key role in his decision, as it is her vision of these characters that added that flair to draw him to the role.
The concept of these characters, and how deep Chloé wanted to go with these people who have been alive for so long, and have experienced so many different things. So that’s what really intrigued me – how these people interact with each other, and also the rest of the world when they’ve seen everything and done everything. That was kind of fascinating.
Richard Madden
Marvel Studio’s strength was always humanizing their characters. So, Zhao’s vision seems to fit perfectly into the way they’ve approached the MCU. He also teased that he would make a perfect leader for the Avengers, whose existence is still kept unknown to some degree, but confesses he can only make predictions for what the future holds for MCU.
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