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  • ‘Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser Joins ‘Titans’ as Scarecrow

    ‘Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser Joins ‘Titans’ as Scarecrow

    It looks like HBO Max’s upcoming season of Titans has found its Dr. Jonathan Crane. The official Twitter account has unveiled that actor Vincent Kartheiser will be taking on the role of Scarecrow. The actor is known for his work on the WB series Angel and AMC’s Mad Men. He also just recently appeared on Netflix’s The Social Dilemma. The character of Scarecrow has been a mainstay in Batman’s rogue’s gallery for a long time. He’s appeared in the original animated Batman series, The Lego Batman Movie, Harley Quinn, Gotham, and was famously played by Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Trilogy. It’ll be interesting to see how Kartheiser reinvents the character for the third season of Titans.

    Interestingly, the tweet points to his influence from within Arkham Asylum. He may be the mastermind behind many villains that’ll make the life of the Titans a living nightmare. He will be joining a stacked cast that consists of Brenton Thwaites, Anan Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, and Conor Leslie. The addition of Scarecrow was first teased during DC FanDome alongside Barbara Gordon and Red Hood. We don’t know how big his role will be, but he might have a larger role as the mastermind pulling the strings. The strong focus on Gotham might also see other iconic Batman villains making an appearance in the upcoming season.

    Source: Twitter

  • Kevin Feige Confirms That Gemma Chan’s Sersi is ‘Eternals’ Lead

    Kevin Feige Confirms That Gemma Chan’s Sersi is ‘Eternals’ Lead

    Marvel Studios’ Eternals has been touted as an ensemble film from the beginning. The movie features a sprawling cast of characters, played by some of Hollywood’s biggest names. Understandably, this has led many fans to believe that the project would not be centered around a specific lead. However, in a recent interview with Variety, Marvel boss Kevin Feige revealed that wasn’t exactly the case. In the midst of discussing director Chloé Zhao’s big win at the Academy Awards, Feige dropped a special little nugget of information:

    […] It came down to casting. So for Sersi, for instance — and if there was a lead in this ensemble, it is Sersi, it is Gemma Chan — we looked at and read all sorts of women for that part. And ended up really believing that Gemma was best for it. And thankfully, she’s proven that to be the case in the final movie.

    That’s right, it seems Gemma Chan’s Sersi will be the main focus of Eternals. This is a departure from the comics, which traditionally showcase Ikaris, who is set to be played by Richard Madden, as the major protagonist. While this news is previously unconfirmed, it doesn’t come as a total surprise. We’ve known for quite some time that Sersi’s romance with Kit Harrington’s Dane Whitman would be a major focus in the film. Using Sersi’s affinity for humans as a link to the Eternals that leads them to protect modern society makes a lot of sense. Plus, the character has a history as one of the only Eternals to join the ranks of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, so this may help to set that concept up down the line as well.

    Source: Variety

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ Malcolm Spellman Talks How Madripoor and Fontaine Were Added to the Series

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ Malcolm Spellman Talks How Madripoor and Fontaine Were Added to the Series

    We got a chance to talk with Falcon and Winter Soldier‘s head writer Malcolm Spellman, where our very own Charles Murphy discussed the introduction of a Marvel Comics icon, Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. She was played by the talented Seinfeld and VEEP actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Her character was originally going to premiere in Black Widow, but due to the pandemic, she ended up in the Disney+ series first. In the interview, Spellman revealed that Val’s character evolved in the writing room:

    The way it happens was: Everything that Marvel wants you to create first and they want you to do it without worrying about it. Like, if there is obvious threads to the greater MCU, by you all put them in, they don’t oppose them on you. So, that character existed as a shady-ass CIA operative person as we were mapping out the story. Gradually, she became the Contessa, she became Val. We’ve already created the character first.

    The way she is introduced, it seemed like they were setting up a team-up project shortly, especially with the potential of a Dark Avengers story being considered at one point. Well, it seems that Val’s introduction was only added later. It is great to know that they didn’t force any story elements into this series but rather added them organically into the already mapped-out story. He also confirmed the same happened with Madripoor.

    That’s the same thing with Madripoor. Madripoor was described, it was named after a real-life city initially imagined as a real-life city where the restaurants on the streets serve endangered species and there are open gun bazars. Once we created that city, they smiled because they know, a nerd moment: “What if it is Madripoor?” and everyone freaked out.

    It makes you wish you were in these meeting rooms when their faces light up the moment they realized they could introduce Madripoor. Of course, this does mean that if we want to see the character or the fictional city return in the future, it will depend on the story that is being told. It’ll be interesting to see what other projects end up carrying on the torch set by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Malcolm Spellman Talks Carl Lumbly and A Potential Isaiah Bradley Series

    EXCLUSIVE: Malcolm Spellman Talks Carl Lumbly and A Potential Isaiah Bradley Series

    Following the finale of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, I was able to sit down for a short chat with showrunner and Captain America 4 co-writer Malcolm Spellman.

    Charles Murphy: “Carl Lumbly was fantastic; stole every scene he was in. What kind of discussions did you have with him in his prep for the role.”

    Malcolm Spellman: “Kari prepped the actors and they called me off the first rehearsal. I was getting phone calls like “Oh my God, he just gave us chills. In all honestly, when I saw the audition, that day, he had it. I kinda got choked up watching him just in the audition. That dude was dialed in. He owned that. He’s of a certain age and he owned that in a way that no one could have imagined.”

    CM: “If Marvel gave you the call and asked ‘Do you want to work with us on an Isaiah Bradley series?’, you’d be there?”

    MS: “Instantly! Instantly!”

    The Falcon And The Winter Soldier's Isaiah Bradley: Who Is He?

    There’s no doubt that Lumbly’s emotional performance caused fans across the world to react similarly to Spellman and the Marvel Studios crew. Should Marvel Studios decide to tell more of his story, a series where Bradley tells his story to his grandson, Eli, could feature flashbacks that would make his story feel even more complete.

     

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’s Malcolm Spellman Reveals How Little We Know about Marvel Studios’ Future Line-Up

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’s Malcolm Spellman Reveals How Little We Know about Marvel Studios’ Future Line-Up

    Our very own Charles Murphy got a chance to sit down and talk with Falcon and Winter Soldier head writer Malcolm Spellman. In a brief moment, they discussed the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the many threads that were left open at the end of the series. Spellman discussed briefly how fans agreeing with Daniel Brühl’s Helmut Zemo make him a popular candidate for more future appearances. Of course, there was also the discussion surrounding He also briefly discussed Sharon’s turn as the Power Broker and how it gives her more time in the spotlight.

    So far, we only know that the fourth entry of Captain America is in development. There are some hints that Sharon’s story might potentially connect to Armor Wars, which you can read our theory in the following link. There was one interesting hint by the head writer that we really have no idea how big the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to become, as he states:

    I was surprised about how few of the upcoming Marvel movies have been announced. […] Fans will start to become more and more clear as these projects get announced.

    It looks like the many films announced for Phase 4 are just the beginning. We are aware of eleven projects with Black Widow kicking off the cinematic side of the franchise in July. If these are only a “few” of the upcoming films we might have content for many years to come. Kevin Feige. is famous for mapping out his projects far in advance, as he revealed in 2018 that he already planned films up until 2025. It’ll be interesting to see if we get some more announcements this year for what may await us beyond 2023.

    Source: ComicBook.com (Films to 2025)

  • REPORT: Amazon’s ‘Silk’ Eyeing August Production Start

    REPORT: Amazon’s ‘Silk’ Eyeing August Production Start

    It looks like we got some more news on the upcoming Sony-Amazon series adaptation of Silk. The character was famously introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3 #4 but appeared as a faceless background character in the three issues before. She was part of the Original Sin storyline that revealed that Korean-American Cindy Moon was also bit by the spider that gave Peter Parker his abilities. Variety revealed that Sony was developing the project together with Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who are acting as executive producers on the Amazon series.

    It seems we have an update on the project, as Discussing Film has exclusively learned that they are currently eyeing a late-August production start. They are still actively looking to cast their Cindy Moon. The character actually made their live-action debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming where she was played by Tiffany Espensen. As this project seems detached from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they will most likely recast the character with rumors pointing to them approaching Adeline Rudolph for the role. Sang Kyu Kim is reportedly working on the series as its showrunner with Korean American writer Lauren Moon working on the project.

    This news confirms that they are still actively working on the project with Amazon after making a deal with Netflix. They got a first look deal on future projects. Shortly after, they also made a deal to release their projects on Disney+ and Hulu. So, it’ll be interesting to see if Amazon will connect their project with Sony’s future films and movies based on the Spider-Man universe, or if it will be a unique project for the studio.

    Source: Discussing Film

  • Kari Skogland Offers More Details on How the Pandemic Added to ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’s Story

    Kari Skogland Offers More Details on How the Pandemic Added to ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’s Story

    We’ve all been theorizing about how the pandemic may have affected Falcon and the Winter Soldier. After the finale aired for WandaVision, Matt Shakman revealed that they had changed quite a bit and were only able to finish the finale shortly before it aired. They also had to cut down on quite a few stories, such as one involving Ralph Boehner and Monica Rambeau. Now, we wondered the same for Marvel Studios’ second Disney+ show and it looks like their story may have been only slightly affected, as director Kari Skogland revealed in an interview with Collider.

    No. We started shooting in October of 2019 and we had shot about 75 percent [before production shut down]. So we really knew the story we were telling for sure. So when we shut down, we only had about 25 percent left to shoot. So I think the only story changes we made were small character tweaks.

    They highlight a few scenes that got added, such as John Walker and Lamar talking about taking the super-soldier serum. They also added an extra sequence to dive a bit deeper into the motivation of Karli and the Flag-Smashers.

    We had discovered that we really wanted to know Karli a bit more. So I think we added a scene between her and Dovich, where they got to just talk about what it was like to take the serum. I wanted to feel them and their history just a little bit and get a bit more inside how they were thinking and feeling in that moment.

    Skogland does not talk about how their production had been affected. There was noticeable re-use of multiple locations for sequences, which could be part of the 25% that was shot once they returned to production. It is also noteworthy that she confirms that there was no removed pandemic subplot in the interview. Charles Murphy interviewed Skogland where she hinted at how the pandemic affected their production, as they jumped straight back into things once it calmed down. It looks like COVID gave them the chance to add some of the more human moments that made these characters stand out even more. It’ll be interesting if the pandemic may have also affected June’s Loki series.

    Source: Collider via The Direct

  • ‘THE BOYS’: Laz Alonso Teases Jensen Ackles’ Dark Portrayal of Soldier Boy

    ‘THE BOYS’: Laz Alonso Teases Jensen Ackles’ Dark Portrayal of Soldier Boy

    It’s no secret that Amazon Prime’s The Boys is one of the darker comic book adaptations out there. The show has become known for its excessive guts and gore. Don’t forget its tendency to dive headfirst into some fairly heavy topics. It seems as though the upcoming third season, which is now deep into filming, won’t be changing any of that. In fact, series star Laz Alonso is teasing that it only gets worse from here. The actor, who plays Mother’s Milk on the show, revealed in a recent interview with Collider that the new Boys episodes are only getting darker and darker. He explained:

    I’ll put it to you this way. I was talking to the head makeup artist and she’s in charge of ordering the blood — that’s one of her many jobs. She told me that all of Season 2… When you talk about bulk, I don’t think they used over a gallon of blood in Season 2, believe it or not. Season 3, we’re already at three and a half gallons of blood. So that should give you a little indication of where it’s going.

    Alonso also dropped some of our first new information on Jensen Ackles’ new addition to the franchise, the Captain America-like WWII “hero” known as Soldier Boy. Apparently, the former soldier will be a big reason the show’s third season takes a darker turn. He elaborated that the inclusion of the character “allowed [Kripke] to not only bring in a character historically who’s pretty dark, but it also makes all of the other ensemble Supes darker as well.” Luckily for the production team, this is exactly what fans of The Boys were hoping for.

    Source: Collider

  • ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ May Be The Last Time We See The Winter Soldier

    ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ May Be The Last Time We See The Winter Soldier

    The ending of Falcon and the Winter Soldier came with a new name, as Sam Wilson embraced his role as Captain America. However, it seemed that Bucky Barnes may have still stuck to his Winter Soldiers moniker after finally making amends. Well, it seems that the end title might be a bit misleading. The show’s head writer, Malcolm Spellman, revealed in an interview with ComicBook.com that it isn’t representing Bucky’s state of mind, as he was finally to move on from the dark past. They also seem to hint at a new direction for the character:

    I think Bucky enters this thing truly believing he is kind of the Winter Soldier no matter what anyone says. By the end, he has the moment with the old man, but more importantly, nobody has caught this… I’ve been saying it all day. In the scene with the Flag-Smashers in Episode 6, when one of those people gets out of that van and thanks Bucky, that’s his first time being a hero. So by the end of this series, Bucky is emerging as having shed the burden of the Winter Soldier. He has found a new family, ironically, it’s a Black family in Louisiana, you know what I’m saying? And he has tasted being a hero for the first time. And I think he’s now free to become something amazing.

    The way he phrases it may hint at a new direction for Bucky. His title as Winter Soldier could end with this series. In the comics, he carried on with the title even as he became a hero and returned to it after his time as Captain America. Our very own Lizzie Hill theorized that he may be the focus of the potential Nomad project. Sebastian Stan has the star power to lead his own project. So, it would only really be a matter of time before he gets a new project. Now that Hawkeye already got a Disney+ spin-off with Echo and Captain America 4 has been confirmed, we might hopefully get an announcement for a post Winter Soldier story.

    Source: ComicBook.com

  • How ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Broke Tired Stereotypes of Buddy Movies

    How ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Broke Tired Stereotypes of Buddy Movies

    Even before the official start of Phase 4 and Marvel’s Disney+ era, it was clear that the studio was taking full advantage of the opportunity provided by the platform to tell stories outside the typical vein of what audiences expect from an MCU movie. The most obvious example was WandaVision’s foray into various old sitcoms, but Loki and What If…? both promise to push that envelope as well.

    If there was one series in this first wave of Disney+ Marvel projects that seemed like it was going to be more of the same, relatively speaking, it was The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Not only was it marketed as a fast-paced, action-heavy, and quippy show akin to the style of movies Marvel is known for making, it went a step further. People were even pointing out that the Super Bowl spot earlier this year made the series look as testosterone-heavy and adrenaline-filled as possible.

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    The other main expectation that people seemed to have going into the series was that the two leads would have a rivalry with each other before becoming friends at the end. This made some sense since the creative team was making it a point to emphasize that Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes were friends with Steve Rogers, but not each other, but fans took it to a meta-level and made it about the shield. Specifically, that the two would both want it and fight over it, even though Avengers: Endgame made it clear it was going to Sam and there was no indication Bucky even wanted it.

    The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Sebastian Stan Reveals Who Wins the Staring Contest

    The kicks, flips, and quips were all there, and the tension between the two main characters was, in fact, largely about the shield being in the right hands. But it wasn’t a matter of who was more worthy to wield it and bask in the public’s glory; it was about recognizing the gravity of its meaning and showing respect to it, and their friend. Sam didn’t feel prepared to take it all on, and Bucky was hurt that Sam gave up the shield because it went against Steve’s wishes.

    The person who did have a desire to be the next Captain America, John Walker, ended up being the antithesis to a lot of what Sam and Bucky said and did during the series. For example, while he initially claimed to feel uncomfortable with all the fanfare surrounding the title, he sure did like to introduce himself with it before providing his actual name.

    Walker was also the one who put an end to Bucky’s therapy sessions. Mental health issues aren’t really a thing in most buddy movies but were a major part of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Both leads have suffered from PTSD for a while, though Sam has more time to figure out healthy ways to deal with it than Bucky. This isn’t treated as a shameful thing they try to hide from each other, but a problem they ultimately work together to solve. While Bucky’s therapy sessions end in Episode 2, he does write a note to Dr. Raynor thanking her for her help in the finale, showing that while Walker likely meant well in ending the sessions, it probably wasn’t for the best overall.

    On a somewhat related note, it was also refreshing to see Bucky and Sam openly admit to each other when they were wrong about something. Pride, especially male pride, tends to be very fragile in media, especially within the action genre (this also goes for real life) so it was great to see the two leads actually talk to each other about topics like race and mental health without visible reluctance. This showed up in other ways as well, like how Sam preferred to talk with Karli Morgenthau about her beliefs and actions instead of rushing into a fight with her and the other Flag-Smashers (while Walker was used to battling against his opponents and liked it that way).

    The Falcon and the Winter Soldier wasn’t just the story of Sam Wilson becoming Captain America, or Bucky Barnes finding his place in the world after becoming free of HYDRA’s brainwashing; it was all about being a good man. It’s what Dr. Erskine said was the reason Steve Rogers was chosen for Project Rebirth all the way back in Captain America: The First Avenger (as opposed to a “perfect soldier”, which John Walker arguably was) and it’s what sets this series apart from other buddy action or comedy movies.