Tag: Captain America

Marvel Studios 6 Worst Post-Credit Scenes

The case has been made. Marvel Studios long-standing tradition of post-credit scenes has become a distraction and should come to an end. By taking on a life of their own, they’ve become parasitic in nature, taking the focus off of the film and dominating online discussion. Here’s a look at 7 post-credit scenes that help support the claim that it’s time for them to take a dirt nap.

Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 (2013)

While humorous, the post-credit scene to Iron Man 3 essentially only served to make sure audiences didn’t forget about the Science Bros. from The Avengers.

Thor: The Dark World

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

It’s not surprising that one of Marvel Studios’ worst cinematic efforts has one of its worst post-credit scenes. Following the film’s conclusion, fans are treated to getting to see one more shared kiss between Thor and Jane Foster. It’s great because Jane then disappeared for nearly a decade’s worth of content, only being mentioned as a joke in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The little joke about the Frost Beast left behind on Midgard is actually more impactful.

Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

The film introduced the MCU version of Peter Parker to much fanfare. We’re now a whole trilogy away from his intro, and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has proven wildly popular and his most recent film is one of Marvel Studios’ best yet. However, the post-credit scene following his introduction lacked any kind of punch at all. It showcased his flashy Spidey symbol, something that hasn’t been revisited since. If the only purpose it served was to let fans know we’d see more Spidey, I’d rather have had the “Spider-Man will return” text.

Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange (2016)

In fairness, the Strange franchise was overhauled when the entire creative team from the first film left Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and was replaced by Michael Waldron and Sam Raimi. That might, however, be indicative of one of the big problems with these post-credit scenes in the first place: short of maybe Kevin Feige, there is no guarantee that anyone’s ideas will carry on beyond the scenes. Scott Derrickson was moving the franchise in one particular direction; once he left, the idea of Mordo hunting sorcerers probably left with him. 616 Mordo didn’t even appear in the film but, as Waldron pointed out, that just means he could still be out there doing his thing. It’s too bad fans will probably never see it. This is why the return of One-Shots would be a considerable upgrade.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

One of the most chilling post-credit scenes of all…now rendered totally useless by the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. It’s not to say we’ll never see Michael Mando’s Mac Gargan suit up as Scorpion and hunt down Spidey, but any chance of him getting the info out of Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes disappeared with Strange’s spell. Of course, Keaton hasn’t been back in the MCU since then anyway, but that’s a different story.

Eternals

Eternals (2021)

This scene has the potential to be redeemed, but depends an awful lot on whether or not Marvel Studios ever does anything with the Eternals again. While the film sets up the promise of more adventures, the reality is that nobody (both in the MCU and in real life) knew about them before the film, so nobody is going to miss them after. This scene really only works for hardcore Cosmic comic fans, and even then it’s a stretch. Harry Styles is gorgeous as Starfox and Patton Oswalt was a great fit for Pip; however, introducing Starfox AFTER Thanos is dead is a bit of bad timing and Pip is probably just going to end up as a walking practical joke. As it stands, it wasn’t time well spent.

In all honesty, the list had to be trimmed down to focus on these 6. The other Eternals’ scene, the recent Clea scene and more were all up for consideration, but these 6 helped provide a more well-rounded look at the issues Marvel Studios has faced. Given they’ll certainly not stop putting them together, we can revisit this down the road and see if these are still among the worst.

May 14, 2022
Sebastian Stan Shares His Thoughts on ‘Captain America 4’

Not too long after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier introduced Anthonie Mackie‘s Sam Wilson as the new Captain America of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the fourth entry in the film franchise was announced. We haven’t heard much on that project since, but it has been a promising addition to see more of Wilson’s take on the heroic role. In a recent interview, Mackie’s co-star Sebastian Stan shared his thoughts on the upcoming sequel and made a curious Rocky Balboa comparison.

But I’m very excited for that movie and I think he’s going to be great. He’s going to add a whole different feel to that idea. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Rocky, in some ways.
Sebastian Stan

In the past, there have been many hints that Wilson’s time in the cowl will be closer to an underdog story, especially with its stronger cultural exploration. We may have gotten a hint in the Disney+ series that’ll get expanded once the film releases. We’ve still been waiting for any updates or news on how far along the film is. Back in August, we reported that it may be eyeing a June production start. So, we might get some casting news in the coming months if that is still accurate.

Source: Twitter via The Direct

March 4, 2022
Sebastian Stan Didn’t Think He’d Return as Bucky After ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’

There’s such an abundance of superhero projects, it seems unlikely that they would ever come to an end. Yet, that wasn’t the case around ten years ago when the first Marvel Cinematic Universe projects found their way into cinemas. It wasn’t until Avengers in 2012 that cemented the production company and the genre into the landscape of financial security. Sebastian Stan, who famously plays Bucky and the Winter Soldier, certainly did not expect to tackle the role for as long as he has. As he reveals in an interview with Vanity Fair:

I certainly did not know that I would be playing the role for 10 years. I remember going in for the Steve Rogers role and not getting it. And then being told about this role and where it could go. But it didn’t seem like there was any commitment, really
Sebastian Stan

Many of us probably would’ve never guessed that the films would become such juggernauts at the box office that we’d get stories like Ant-Man or the Guardians of the Galaxy on the silver screen. Stan reveals that he actually thought the scene wouldn’t get followed up because they took away the one thing that would’ve teased his future in the MCU.

I knew at the end of the story, I was going to fall off this train, and then I was going to be given this green sleeve. That was the only indication I had that I could potentially be coming back. But no one said anything to me. Then, on the day we were shooting that scene, they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to be doing that green sleeve.’ And I just thought, ‘Oh. That’s it. I’m just going to die on that train. There’s no coming back.’ But they just didn’t know what arm they were going to use or something, and it kept going from there

It’s weird to think they took away the sleeve at the last second. Perhaps they deemed it too violent with the poor guy getting his entire arm ripped off. It may have also been too obvious later on once he made his return in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Of course, the fact they didn’t know which arm they were going to use is also funny and makes sense as they’d want to avoid forcing themselves into a corner. It’s great to hear his thoughts and look back at where the franchise was.

You can check out his recap of his career right here:

Source: Vanity Fair via The Hollywood Reporter

February 21, 2022
Marvel Studios Most Pedestrian Stinger of 2021 Might Have Been Hinting at a Much Bigger Story

After sitting out 2020 due to the pandemic, Marvel Studios returned with 4 films in 2021. Black Widow, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home all took their turns in theaters and introduced fans to new characters who would be a part of the future of the MCU. The first three films also had both mid-credit and post-credit scenes that, upon further review, may have followed a potentially intriguing pattern that serves as the basis of this wildly speculative piece.

Eternals featured a mid-credit scene that seemed to set up an Eternals sequel and a post-credit scene that seemed to set up a spinoff project, in this case, Black Knight. The mid-credit scene following Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings felt like a set up for the sequel, which we recently learned will see the return of Destin Daniel Cretton as both writer and director, while the post-credit scene guaranteed that we’d see the return of the Ten Rings organization, now headed up by Xialing, which could be one of the Disney Plus properties Cretton chooses to develop as part of his new deal. Finally, Black Widow’s post-credit scene set up Yelena Belova’s recent appearance in the Disney Plus streaming series, Hawkeye; however, upon first, second, third, fourth and fifth viewings, the mid-credit scene for the film seemed to be little more than a cute nod Avengers: Infinity War. Upon further review, however, it’s possible that there is more to that scene than meets the eye.

Black Widow takes place in 2016, following the events of Captain America: Civil War, leaving the better part of two years between it and the save-the-day entrance of Rogers, Black Widow and The Falcon in Scotland in Avengers: Infinity War. Could Marvel Studios be setting us up for more adventures with the duo?

Last year, we discovered that Marvel trademarked “Marvel Studios Nomad.” Among the several different trademarks on the property was one specific to “Entertainment services, namely, the development, creation, production, and distribution of digital multimedia and audio and visual content, namely, motion picture films, television programs, and multimedia entertainment…“, a trademark commonly filed when the studio plans to produce a film or series. Other similar trademarks were filed last year at the same time for the slew of projects Marvel Studios announced during their Investor’s Day presentation. Since the news of the trademarking broke, however, there’s been no mention of the development of any sort of a Nomad project at Marvel Studios, though the studio did file an additional trademark for Nomad just 4 months ago.

Shortly after the discovery of the Nomad trademarks, the news broke that Chris Evans was nearing a deal to return to the role of Steve Rogers in two potential MCU projects. Strangely enough, the trade noted that neither of those projects were expected to be Captain America projects. And of note to this wild theory is that, just recently, Marvel Studios One-Above-All, Kevin Feige, revealed that Scarlett Johansson was working with Marvel Studios on a “top secret, non-Black Widow-related project.” It’s easy enough to theorize that the return of both Johansson and Evans could be connected and related to either the Nomad project or another one of Evans’ potential projects.

Bringing the two back together would allow Marvel Studios to capitalize on the chemistry between Evans and Johansson, first seen in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It is during the time period mentioned above that Rogers, who put down the shield in Civil War, took on the mantle of Nomad, according the writers and directors of Infinity War. With nearly two full years of time to explore, it’s possible that a Johansson-produced project, starring Evans, could be in the works and would reunite Johansson’s Widow with Evans’ in a way that’s otherwise pretty tough given that one is dead and the other is 100 years old.

Could the project be called Nomad? Maybe. Sure it would feature the Secret Avengers (that’s the name of the group according to Joe Russo), but featuring them in a project called Nomad wouldn’t be any different than featuring the same group in a project called Captain America: Civil War. But the idea of them being the Secret Avengers is interesting enough in and of itself because, like most of what makes the MCU great, there’s a comic book behind it.

In 2010, Ed Brubaker, whose Captain America run has defined the MCU’s Cap as much as anything, began writing an espionage-heavy series called Secret Avengers. In it, Rogers led a team of heroes, including Black Widow, that found themselves up against the Shadow Council, the Roxxon corporation and even Shang-Chi’s evil father. As the title indicates, they had to operate on the down low, much like Rogers’ team in the MCU would have had to do. Walking away from the shield almost certainly didn’t stop Rogers from doing what was right. Just because we didn’t see it on screen doesn’t mean that the MCU’s Secret Avengers weren’t active, but they certainly had to be discrete. And as we found out in Black Widow, Nat has some friends, one in particular that knows how to be discrete.

Black Widow introduced O-T Fagbenle’s Rick Mason, an ex-military character whose brief appearance showed us that he has some prior relationship with Nat and that he’s very, very good at finding things, especially given some time and money, as seen in the mid-credit scene in Black Widow. Fagbenle is charismatic, handsome and a rising star and has teased the return on the character down the road, saying it would be “criminal” for him not to return and that there’s a “great space” for him in the MCU.

And while a guy like Mason could show up just about anywhere, the hints at the relationship with Nat made him that much more interesting. That relationship could come in very, very handy in a Nomad project where Rogers and the Secret Avengers want to go out into the world to do some good, but don’t have Tony Stark bankrolling their projects. And that brings us full circle. When Nat takes off to break her pals out of prison at the end of Black Widow, it’s the beginning of something that we only see the end of two years later in Avengers: Infinity War, leaving a lot of stories to be told in between, the sweet spot for a Johansson-led Nomad project.

Any stories told during this time could bring in any number of villains from Cap’s rogues gallery that could or could not carry over into the era of Sam Wilson’s Captain America. Any stories told during that time could feature a run in between David Harbour’s Red Guardian and Evans’ Rogers. Any story told during that time could set up any number of villains or story lines to be further explored in Phases 4 or 5. Any stories told during that time could even feature Florence Pugh’s Yelena. You can see the pattern: just because these potential stories are told in the MCU’s past does not mean they can’t have a big impact on the MCU’s future, just like Black Widow has done.

Of course, this is all theoretical and, as such, based on almost no evidence. However, should Marvel Studios be planning on a Secret Avengers/Nomad project set in the post-Civil War/pre-Infinity War time period, at least we have some idea of just how fun it might be.

December 28, 2021
Recast, Reboot, Retire or Reprise: What’s the Right Choice for Other Marvel Netflix Characters
With Vincent D’Onofrio and Charlie Cox reprising their respective roles as Kingpin and Matt Murdock this week and rumors swirling that other cast members from the Netflix Defenders-verse series might join them, we decided to take a look at who should come back and who should be left behind. Note that this is not all-encompassing and that there’s no real metric here, much less any consistency. Sometimes we want the actor and not the role; other times we want the role but not the actor; other times we want neither. To make it easy, we cast a verdict on each character: recast the role, reboot the character with the same actor, retire the character or have the same actor reprise the same role. Because the world is hard, sometimes had to pick more than one.

The Big 4

Each of the following actors led at least 2 seasons of a solo series on Netflix as well as popping up in either Defenders or another series.
- Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle
  Whether or not Marvel Studios plans on using the Punisher in the near future is certainly a great topic for debate, but that debate is for another day. The topic here is whether or not Bernthal is the man for the job should they chose to bring the character into the MCU and, fortunately, there’s not much of debate to be had. As he almost always does, Bernthal inhabited the role of Castle in a way that many actors just couldn’t do. If we are going to see the Punisher again, it has to be Bernthal.
  Verdict: Reprise
- Mike Colter as Luke Cage
  Colter is a case of Netflix missing the mark on why they cast the character. Colter is a solid actor. His work on CBS’s Evil has been excellent; however, he seems to be, in general, more comfortable in roles that require a more subdued persona and, to me, that’s just not Luke Cage. If Cage is coming back, the actor has to have BIG energy and charisma. The man lead the New Avengers and as much as I love Colter, I can’t see him effectively convincing Dr. Strange, Spider-Man and Captain Marvel that they should be following his orders.
  Verdict: Recast
- Finn Jones as Danny Rand
  In a shared universe that includes Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, there’s simply no place for Jones as the Iron Fist. While part of the problem with the character was the way he was written (Rand should be able to kick multiple asses all the time without ever having to use the Iron Fist), it’s impossible to give Jones a pass. He notably didn’t want to train and he’s also just not that great of an actor. If they give Rand another chance, it has to be with another actor.
  Verdict: Recast
- Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones
  Ritter’s situation is nearly the opposite of Colter’s in that the role of Jones fits her specific talents incredibly well. She looks the part and believably acts the part. While the series ended on a really poor note, Ritter’s time as the character would make it incredibly hard to imagine someone else in the role.
  Verdict: Reprise
The Supporting Cast

Each of these characters played a major, supporting role in at least one season of the Defenders-verse series.
- Vondie Curtis-Hall as Ben Urich
  After giving one of the best performances in Season 1 of Daredevil, Curtis-Hall didn’t get a chance to come back in the role because, well, Kingpin killed off the character. One of the best cases we can make for why the Netflix series should not be canon is so Curtis-Hall can return in a role that could expand beyond Daredevil’s stories and into the greater MCU.
  Verdict: Reprise
- Rosario Dawson as Clarie Temple
  Keep the actress, ditch the character. Dawson is lights out in pretty much everything she does. Fans would love to see her jump into a bigger role like Mahershala Ali, who starred in Luke Cage, was able to do. Sorry, Claire, you stay behind, but bring Rosario into the MCU in a new role.
  Verdict: Retire
- Scott Glenn as Stick
  One of the most unforgivable offenses made by Netflix over the course of their Defenders-verse series was their portrayal of the Hand. As Charles V. has said over and over again, “it’s really hard to screw up undead ninjas”, but they did it. If there’s one Daredevil-centric thing they could fix that would really spice up the whole MCU, it’s the Hand. And if the Hand is back, Stick should be back and if we’re getting Stick, it’s gotta be Scott Glenn.
  Verdict: Reboot
- Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson
  Foggy is such an important part of the story of Matt Murdock that he absolutely must be involved in whatever stories are told going forward. Henson, however, never seemed the right fit and it’s almost certain a recast would land better with fans.
  Verdict: Recast
- Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing
  Henwick was one of the brightest stars over the two seasons of Iron Fist. It was recently revealed that she had to pass on a role in Shang-Chi in order to land her role in the upcoming Matrix sequel, so obviously Marvel Studios is keen to work with her again. Henwick should absolutely be in the MCU. Whether that’s as Collen Wing or in another role is the question. Should she enter into the MCU in another role, that would really make it hard to consider Iron Fist “canon”, however. There is certainly a great Daughters of the Dragon story to be tole with Wing and Misty Kinght, should they want to keep Henwick in a version of the same role.
  Verdict: Reprise
- Simone Missick as Misty Knight
  Speaking of…Missick was dynamite as Misty Knight, bringing some of the charisma to Luke Cage that Colter did not. Seeing Missick return as Knight, perhaps to team up with Sam Wilson as she has recently in the comics would be fantastic.
  Verdict: Reprise
- Debra Ann Woll as Karen Page
  The vote here is no, but not for the reasons you might think. Woll was great as Karen Page. She was better than great. But as the story of Matt Murdock/Daredevil moves on, Marvel Studios would be wise to move away from the dark, Frank Miller inspired arcs that we integral to the Netflix series and adapt some other authors’ work. Modern day runs by Charles Soule and Mark Waid would top the list and wouldn’t require more of Page, a character whose continued story would only continue to drag Matt through Hell.
  Verdict: Retire
- Elodie Yung as Elektra
  Yung checked all the boxes as Elektra: sleek, sexy, dangerous and talented. If they should choose to do another story with the Hand or just with Elektra, it’d be hard to find someone who both looked and played the part as well as Yung. Bring her back!
  Verdict: Reprise
The Villains
- Wilson Bethel as Bullseye
  Bethel’s time as Bullseye was just getting started when the plug was pulled on the Defenders-verse. He gave a great portrayal and would be fully capable of holding his own on screen again with Cox. Bring back Bullseye and bring back Bethel.
  Verdict: Reprise
- Alice Eve as Typhoid Mary
  Eve seemed like an out of place casting at the time, but she did fine in the role. Moving forward, however, it seems appropriate to have an entirely different version of the character and I don’t think anyone would be upset to see a new actress in the role.
  Verdict: Reboot and Recast
- Bob Gunton as Leland Owlsley
  Love Gunton, but he was playing the comic book Owl in the same way that Fra Fee is playing comic book Kazi, which is to say not at all. There is certainly room for the Owl in this newly carved out corner of organized crime in the MCU, but not for this version. A younger actor and totally different characterization are in order.
  Verdict: Reboot and Recast
- Theo Rossi as “Shades” Alvarez
  You might think that with all the characters and actors we didn’t include on the list, that Rossi is a surprise. He might be but his son, Victor Alvarez, could join the MCU’s other young heroes down the road. Rossi was creepy and slimy in the role. It would only be a bit part if he came back, so let’s see him back so we can get to his much more important offspring.
  Verdict: Reprise
- David Tennant as Purple Man
  Tennant joins D’Onofrio and Ali in the trinity of great Defender-verse performances as villains. Ali has moved into the MCU in larger role as Blade. D’Onofrio is back. It might be a stretch to bring Purple Man into the current MCU unless the want to do the big Breakout arc from New Avengers, but getting Tennant back on board in that role or any other would be fantastic.
  Verdict: Reprise
- Wil Traval as Nuke
  Nope. Give us a real Nuke in a future Cap movie. Scrap the actor and forget the character ever existed.
  Verdict: Reboot and Recast
- Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Marianna
  Zurer was fire as Vanessa. Both the actress and the character were amazing. However, the MCU’s Kingpin isn’t going to have 13 hours of time to tell a bunch of personal stories, so unfortunately, unless we get a Kingpin series, neither Zurer or Vanessa need to make the jump.
  Verdict: Retire
Make sure to sound off in the comments on who you’d like to see reprise their roles and who you think should be left behind.
December 16, 2021
Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2023 Release Calendar, V2

Earlier this year, we ran one hypothetical scenario for Marvel Studios 2023 release slate. A lot has changed since then (including the reshuffling of the film slate and a streaming series delay), so with Disney Plus Day coming up next week, we thought we’d shoot our shot at predicting how 2022 and 2023 might look. Here’s 2023, V2.

Whereas 2022 started off with a Star Wars series, it’s possible that the late-2021 reshuffling of Marvel Studios projects may have allowed for a perfect bit of Disney synergy.

This could allow the Disney+ Secret Invasion series to kick off the year and lead almost directly into The Marvels, a film with which it will share characters and, potentially, some plot points. If that’s the case, we could see an episode of Marvel Studios: Legends catch us up on Nick Fury and Talos on January 4th ahead of Secret Invasion’s 5-week run (prediction a 2-episode premiere here to keep things from overlapping).

Marvel Studios: Legends episodes for Kamala Khan, Monica Rambeau, and, of course, Carol Danvers are a good bet the week of the release of their team-up appearance in The Marvels. If Disney+ keeps pushing these summaries out, we could see them on February 15th.

The Marvels is starting to sound like another one of Marvel Studios’ highly ambitious team-up sequels, on par with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: Ragnarok. Looking back, those films set not only their main characters but also the supporting cast on new journeys that lead to some amazing, redefining arcs. We could see that happening here when The Marvels drops into theaters on its new date, February 17th, 2023.

It can’t be all Marvel all the time. Season 3 of The Mandalorian would fit in nicely following The Marvels, meaning the next MCU project we could see would be episodes of Marvel Studios: Legends recapping the journeys of the Guardians. There would, by this time, be a LOT to do, so we could see the most loaded Legends day on May 3rd, 2023.

James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, originally supposed to be in theaters in May of 2020, will finally arrive on May 5th, 2023. Adam Warlock, played by Will Poulter, is set to make his debut and, presumably, give the Guardians a hard time. However, we know that Gunn has said this film will be Rocket’s film and that it’s the final chapter in his telling of the story of this group, so Warlock will certainly not be the only new character we meet.

Following the final chapter of the OG Guardians of the MCU, it’s likely we’ll get a bit of a break from the MCU, maybe for something like the Lucasfilm Ahsoka series in May. Marvel Studios could get back in the game with a Marvel Studios: Legends episode on Maya Lopez (and maybe Wilson Fisk) on June 7th before her series debuts the next week.

We know almost nothing at this point about the solo Echo series other than it is described as a Hawkeye spinoff. There are rumors that both Hawkeyes and Kingpin will appear and that they are searching for Native American actors to, we think, play members of Echo’s family. This one has the feel of something that can be a pretty original spin on the character and it’s key that the focus is on Alaqua Cox’s Lopez. That said, don’t be surprised if some other familiar faces show up throughout the series.

By the time Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters, it’ll have been 5 years since Ant-Man and The Wasp was in theaters. A little catching up on Scott, Cassie, Hope, Janet, and Hank sounds good…oh yeah, and Kang. Expect a few Marvel Studios: Legends episodes to air the week the film hits theaters.

While Peyton Reed remains on board as the director, writer Jeff Loveness came on board AM&TW:Q to put a fresh spin on an existing draft. I’ve always heard this was going to be a much bigger film than either of the first two and having Jonathan Majors’ Kang involved certainly does nothing to dispel that rumor, though I am VERY curious what this one ends up being all about. We’ll all find out together July 28th, 2023.

Another year, another season of What If…?.

Riri Williams is set to make her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in July of 2022, so the events of her show will almost certainly be influenced by/spin out of the events of that film. An episode of Marvel Studios: Legends will help new fans catch up on her story and sort through the 3 suits she goes through in the Black Panther sequel.

Even though her series was announced in late 2020, it really does seem like it’ll be mid-to-late 2023 before we see our first episode of Ironheart. It won’t start filming until 2022 and will be part of a backlog of projects when it does. With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever being pushed to November 2022, it’s all but a sure thing we don’t see this follow-up series until 2023.

This whole feature is an exercise in making wild guesses but by the time we’re at this portion of the 2023 calendar, the guesses are even wilder. Since we’re going with Cap 4 as the final 2023 film, we’re going with an episode or more of Marvel Studios: Legends ahead of time to catch us up on whoever needs to be caught up on.

Captain America 4 is going here simply because, as of writing this, it’s the first movie scheduled to go into production in 2022 (currently set for a June start). Blade is set to go into production one month later, so it’s would be easy to imagine it could be here instead, but I went with the simplest explanation.

Should Armor Wars be the MCU series that rounds out 2023, some episodes of Marvel Studios: Legends will be a necessity to catch up on Rhodey and whomever else they pack in here.

By the time this series streams (hypothetically), it’ll be about 3 years since its surprise announcement at the 2020 Disney Plus Investor Day. Like Ironheart, Armor Wars is, in part, being pushed down the line as other projects get pushed down the line. In this case, we know that as of November 2021, the project was still in the EARLIEST days of development, so it’s reasonable to assume it won’t go into production until late 2022 so a late 2023 release date sounds right. It’s also intriguing that this film could have some themes in common with Captain America 4 (maybe they both deal, to some extent, with Sharon’s work as the Power Broker or with these heroes continuing to work through the legacies of their friends?) Either way, this show has a ton of potential to introduce some wild new characters to the MCU (CONTROLLER AND STILT-MAN!!) and it’s hard to think we still have 2 years to wait on it.

Why anyone would try to guess what’s going to happen in 2023 when we aren’t even sure what’s happening in 2022 yet is beyond us, but we did it anyway. Again, bookmark this bad boy so we can come back to it later for a laugh.

November 4, 2021
Marvel Studios: Viewing Orders

With over two dozen projects comprising the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s sometimes easy to lose track of the order through which audiences should experience them. It is, of course, something pretty fluid as personal preferences might have some skipping a couple of projects in favor of their favorite ones. All in all, there are two general viewing orders that contain the entirety of the MCU. A Release Order, which respects the order in which projects were made available through the years, and a Chronological Order, which takes into account when each project’s plot takes place.

Personally speaking, the Release Order should be followed when watching all MCU projects for the first time, with the Chronological Order being something to use on rewatches. This is mostly due to the fact that major plot points would be spoiled if not watching the entirety of the franchise as it was released, similar to the way audiences watching Star Wars for the first time would be spoiled The Empire Strikes Back‘s major plot twist by having previously watched the prequel trilogy.

CHARACTER VIEWING ORDERS

When it comes to following specific characters, we got together individual viewing orders with their appearances through the years. These can be as a central character to the plot or as blink-and-you-miss type cameos, many on mid or post-credit scenes. Keep in mind this is a work in progress, as new characters will keep being added.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

September 29, 2021
REPORT: ‘Captain America 4’ Eyeing June 2022 Production Start

It’s been a big day for the Captain America franchise, as we finally got the confirmation that Anthony Mackie will join the project as its titular hero. His journey to become the symbol of America hasn’t been an easy one throughout the Disney+ series Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson will continue the story they set up in the series, as they are penning the film’s script. It looks like they may have already planned quite a bit, as Cosmic Circus has shared the information that the film is eyeing a June 2022 production start.

Prep will already begin in May of that year with production moving to Georgia. There’s always the chance things might change, especially as it is uncertain how long the pandemic will continue to roam across the world. It’s not unusual for Marvel Studios to map out their productions far in advance, and we don’t know how long Mackie has already been signed on. For all we know, today’s announcement might just be the official confirmation.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the film continues the story set up in the Disney+ series. There’s a lot of potential in the politics and themes that were introduced. Especially with the returning writing team, it’s certain they won’t just have the topic as a one-off but build upon it as Sam continues to accept his new role. It’s great to see the franchise explore these different avenues and it might open up the possibility for him to build up his own trilogy that tackles these very sensitive topics.

Source: Cosmic Circus

August 18, 2021
‘What If’: Captain Carter to Utilize Scrapped Captain America Storyboards

We’ve seen some creative ideas make their way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yet, there is still something that sadly ends up on the cutting room floor. Normally, a franchise doesn’t get a chance to revisit them, but Marvel Studios’ new animated series What If gives them a unique opportunity. Director Bryan Andrews confirmed that some unused concepts will get utilized through the newly introduced Captain Carter. He’s been with the company since 2010s Avengers as a storyboard artist and finally has the chance to reuse scrapped ideas.

There’s a ton of Captain America stuff that I had done over all the years that just never quite got in there. And I was like, ‘Ah-ha!’ ‘Cause now we have Captain Carter and she’s got the shield, there’s a lot of stuff ready to go… The moves are visually invigorating and they should be on the screen.

Of course, he does confirm there will be a lot of unique elements that belong to Captain Carter and make her stand out from Steve Roger’s time. It’s great they get to bring back old ideas through this show. Who knows, we might even see some concepts from earlier entries that never made it on the silver screen but get adapted in animated form.

The concept of the What If series opens up what feels like endless possibilities and could become a mainstay in Marvel Studios’ line-up. We know that they’ll also adapt a prelude comic, as head writer A.C. Bradley confirmed a version of Fury’s Big Week will get adapted as an Agatha Christie-style story. It’ll be interesting to see what else the ten-episode season might offer once it premieres in a few weeks.

Source: The Direct

August 1, 2021
MCU Production Timelines: Infographic & Methodology

In this piece I’m just going to explain a few of the finer points behind the data I put together for the Phase 3 and Phase 4 production timeline infographic, which João has again so excellently put into a graphic. My purpose in working with João on this one is just to help people understand another piece of the puzzle of how MCU movies tend to get put together. Fans understandably love to obsess over the release slate, particularly what’s coming next and when it is coming. It can get a little confusing as to what is and isn’t further along in the timeline. Hopefully, we’ve laid that out in an understandable format.

A couple of notes I want to make on the data. First of all, this is a relatively imprecise set of information. What I’ve put into the spreadsheet is largely the dates as combed from the Wikipedia entries for each film (I did trace back the references in those articles to trade reports in most cases). Now if a director is hired in a forest and it doesn’t make a sound, are they still the director? In other words, these dates for when writers and directors are hired are based on trade reports. It may be that someone was hard at work for weeks or even months before the media found out. I’m taking the information that is publicly available. In particular, I assume the “filming start” dates are very approximate. Captain Marvel, for example, filmed a few things before the official start of filming for weird tax purposes. Also, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania did some kind of plates filming already this year, but the filming hasn’t really started in earnest yet. Again, I’m taking the Wikipedia dates in most cases and there will be some imprecisions there.

As far as director and writer hirings, I have listed the first hiring for each in most cases. Directors in the MCU haven’t changed that much in recent years. The major exception that will come to mind for most astute readers is the change from Scott Derrickson to Sam Raimi for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. As such we’ve included that change as a separate item. Writers, however, switch with much more frequency. The process for hiring writers, managing rewrites, and then deciding who gets the final credit for both writing and story is byzantine at best. To keep it simpler, we just took the first report of any writer or any director, regardless of their final involvement or non-involvement in the project. I also am somewhat arbitrarily determining what counts as this production. For some projects, development on the IP might have happened decades ago, but I’m treating those as a different project altogether.

It’s worth noting that sequels are pretty obviously different. Often the director and lead actor are already in place and returning for the sequel. As such directors get “named” essentially as soon as the project is greenlit. This is also the case of writer/directors like James Gunn.

Release dates are a little tricky on this graph, given the interference of COVID. We’re giving you both the original date and the final date in most cases. Black Widow, for example, was almost totally finished when the pandemic started. As such it isn’t that the production really took longer, it just all got delayed. Sorting out a movie like Thor: Love and Thunder is a much more complicated matter. We’ve done our best to give you a sense of the normal operating procedure and hide the confusion pandemic delays caused.

Two other major exceptions deserve a mention. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is another one that looks rather weird due to the firing and rehiring of James Gunn. The movie never officially got a release date, but I think before the whole mess it was likely that the May 2020 date would have been Guardians Vol. 3’s planned landing spot. Also, Avengers: Endgame was shot pretty tightly with Infinity War, so there is some weirdness in its extended production time. I think it is highly likely that those two Avengers productions mixed and mingled quite a bit. Certainly, the screenplays seemed to happen at the same time.

I think that is all the details. I hope you all enjoyed this. Again, this is all an exercise with approximation. I’m sure some slight variance in the data is possible if you look at different reports. Enjoy!

May 18, 2021