Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Disney Plus

  • ‘Reservation Dogs’ Director Sydney Freeland Confirms Involvement in Marvel Studios ‘Echo’

    ‘Reservation Dogs’ Director Sydney Freeland Confirms Involvement in Marvel Studios ‘Echo’

    In December, we connected the dots and speculated that Reservation Dogs director Sydney Freeland might be attached to direct Marvel Studios streaming series Echo. It seems now that there’s no doubt that Freeland is attached to the show as she has spread the word of a casting search via her Instagram account.

    The post, which calls for background actors with a focus on Native American, First Nations and Indigenous Peoples, confirms that the streaming series is prepped and ready to begin production next month in and around Peachtree City, Georgia. With that start of production just a month away and no news on who will direct the series, Freeland remains THE top candidate, especially now that she’s confirmed her involvement. Marvel Studios has used multiple directors for some projects, so it’s not clear if Freeland will be the project’s only director.

    Echo will flesh out the story of Maya Lopez, who first appeared in the MCU in 2021’s Hawkeye. The series has been looking to fill nearly a half-dozen lead role with Native American talent, such as Graham Greene, who recently joined the project, and it’s expected to see Lopez spend some time in a small town while tangling with some mid-level thugs. The series has yet to be given a release date, but a mid-2023 debut seems likely.

  • Oscar Isaac Looking Forward to Bringing the Midnight Sons to the MCU

    Oscar Isaac Looking Forward to Bringing the Midnight Sons to the MCU

    With the debut of Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight just under two weeks away, star Oscar Isaac is already looking ahead to the future of the character. The series, which was recently screened by critics, is said to have very little connective tissue to the rest of the MCU, allowing it to explore some new ground. Without ties to Captain America, Captain Marvel, Thor or the Hulk, Marc Spector is free to make his own friends down the road.

    In an interview with The CineGeek, Isaac was asked about which friends he would like to see Moon Knight make down the road, and his answer will make comic fans FIRED up:

    Interviewer: “My last question: I’d like to see Moon Knight with two other Avengers characters. Which two characters would you like to have as teammates?“

    Isaac: “The truth, for me, more than the Avengers, is the Midnight Sons. Imagine, with Punisher, Ghost Rider, Daredevil… I think that would be a very interesting group.“

    Fans have been clamoring for the arrival of the Midnight Sons, a team of heroes who take on some of the darker, more supernatural threats in Marvel Comics, since the announcement of the Moon Knight project. Isaac is certainly no stranger to the team and lists off the makings of an interesting squad, including Daredevil, who was once rumored to make a cameo appearance in Moon Knight.

    The team has always been a bit of a revolving door, but if there is one character associated with it most often, it’s another one name dropped by Isaac: Ghost Rider. Rumors of Marvel Studios circling an actor for the role of Ghost Rider have kept the character in the discussion and Isaac naming him here will only keep it going.

  • ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Adds Christopher Lloyd

    ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Adds Christopher Lloyd

    Star Wars franchise has just nabbed quite the veteran for the upcoming third season of The Mandalorian, as The Hollywood Reporter has just revealed Christopher Lloyd, famous for his roles in Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and so many other countless projects have joined the project. His role remains tightly under wraps, but he is meant as a guest star and won’t have a recurring role. It might be similar to The Terminator‘s Michael Biehn in the last season.

    The Mandalorian has truly become a special franchise as it continues to pull in quite a few veteran actors. Din Djarin’s story seems to resonate with quite a few, as well as the talent that is bringing their story to life. The series has already been in active development in California, and we just recently got a few set photos teasing the return of a fellow Mandalorian. So, we’ll see if the upcoming third season might manage to become even larger in size than the previous ones.

    Din Djarin’s story will pick up directly where it left off in The Book of Boba Fett. While it did seem rushed to have him and Grogu meet up again, especially in a spinoff story, it opens up a lot of opportunities and possible stories to explore in the next season. Grogu still has no control over his powers and may succumb to the dark side, or even teach Luke a lesson about the importance of allowing an emotional connection to make you stronger. Whatever it is, we’ll have to see once the third season drops on Disney+.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • New ‘Ms. Marvel’ Merch Teases New Jersey Avengercon

    New ‘Ms. Marvel’ Merch Teases New Jersey Avengercon

    While we have gotten a few teases in the first Ms. Marvel trailer, merchandise has found its way online featuring a print that confirms the event all about Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. It also seems to tease various events that visitors can try out during their visit like Hulk’s Rage Room, which are actually real things that you can visit–just without the Hulk branding. Of course, as it is Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel also gets highlighted as the “Cosmic Avenger.” The other posters also offer a better look at her new costume for the series, highlighting some doodles we saw from her active imagination in the trailer. The photos were found by @TimmyTakout.

    It’ll be interesting to see what other merchandise might find its way online, as something like Avengercon seems like the perfect idea to build creative merchandise around. It’s ironically not the first time such an event was used to introduce Ms. Marvel’s transformation into a superhero, as Marvel’s Avengers used a similar concept with A-Day. It’s funny to see two creative teams build a similar concept for their adaptation of the character.

    The first trailer has teased an exciting slice-of-life meets superhero series that’ll explore what it’s like to be a teenager wanting to become a hero. We still don’t know if any Avenger will make an appearance in the series, as you’d think one would appear during an event called Avengercon. Maybe they include some fun Easter eggs, like an actor that voices Iron Man or Captain America on an animated series to poke fun at the many Variants that are out there. We’ll see if the next trailer might offer a closer look at Avengercon.

    Source: Hot Topic via Twitter

  • Runtime of ‘Moon Knight’s First 4 Episodes May Have Found its Way Online

    Runtime of ‘Moon Knight’s First 4 Episodes May Have Found its Way Online

    It looks like the reactions to the Moon Knight screeners are making the rounds, as praises are making their way online for Marvel Studios’ new series. It seems Oscar Isaac’s promise of a psychological thriller was true, as it also mixes in a new style of comedy for MCU’s usually quip-heavy approach. That’s not all, as it seems that the length of the Disney+ series’ episodes has leaked online as well. @BRMarvelNews has taken to Twitter to reveal the length of all four episodes that have made their way to critics.

    It’s curious that the first episode is the shortest, but we also have to keep in mind that they do include the credits, which are supposedly around five minutes long. We’re only two more weeks away from the series finally hitting Disney+ and it’ll be exciting to see just how Marvel Studios managed to bring one of its darkest characters to life on the family-friendly streaming service. The reactions have been quite promising and Marvel Studios remains on a hot streak with their projects.

    It’s still uncertain why four episodes were provided, but it seems Disney and Marvel Studios truly believe in this project, especially with the chance that something might accidentally leak. Still, it also makes you wonder what the last two episodes may have in store for viewers. Isaac has been quite excited about how different this project is and we’re certainly excited to find out as well.

    Source: Twitter , Twitter

  • ‘Daredevil’ MCU Reboot Hinted as a Disney+ Series

    ‘Daredevil’ MCU Reboot Hinted as a Disney+ Series

    We’ve shared some evidence that might hint at Marvel Studios fast-tracking a new Daredevil project. Now, it seems almost certain as IGN has just shared some information from the latest Production Weekly issue that includes a reference to a project simply titled “Daredevil Reboot.” It is listed as a Disney+ series and includes Marvel’s Behind the Mask producer Chris Gary as a producer alongside Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige. The interesting thing to note is that it’s included as “currently in development” but doesn’t include any more information.

    There have been quite a few hints that they are moving forward with the Man Without Fear, especially after the return of Charlie Cox in Spider-Man: No Way Home. While it seems logical now that the character might be on par with big names like Spider-Man, it wasn’t until the Netflix series that catapulted the character even higher to stardom. He was quite popular in the comics but was one of Netflix’s leading series. Some might even argue that it would set the tone for their future projects at the time.

    The original series has now found its way to Disney+ alongside others in specific markets. With the title “reboot” included, there’s a chance that it was taken due to the discourse surrounding the project. Production Weekly has a tendency to pull some information based on what is making the rounds, but there’s enough evidence that this project is moving forward and it seems that Marvel Studios has quite a few plans for Daredevil in the future of this franchise.

    Source: Production Weekly via IGN

  • REVIEW: ‘Cheaper By The Dozen’ Should Have Been a TV Show

    REVIEW: ‘Cheaper By The Dozen’ Should Have Been a TV Show

    Disney+’s Cheaper By The Dozen has all the makings of a successful TV show. It features a wholesome family-friendly premise with two great leads in Zach Braff and Gabrielle Union, who command the perfect kind of star power a series like this would need. The film has a mostly-good ensemble of kids that may become the next big sitcom stars. Most notably, though, it has an all-star producer in Kenya Barris, whose eye for network-friendly sappiness that turned Black-ish into a massive sitcom empire is in full effect here. But that’s also a problem with the film. That it’s paced, stitched, and filmed like a TV show, it crams in so much more than any film can service. 

    Based on the Steve Martin film of the same name based on the novel by Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, this new Cheaper By The Dozen follows the same concept of its predecessors as it explores the life of a family with a dozen children. The film sees Paul and Zoe Baker chase their dream of becoming successful franchise restauranteurs as a family of clashing personalities together. This new version helmed by Black-ish director and creator Gail Lerner and Kenya Barris respectively sees a more diversified Baker family with millennial cultural touches.

    Paul Baker, the quintessential white dorky dad, is going through a mid-life crisis. His restaurant has a backlog of bills to pay, he’s not maximizing his profits, he has a dozen kids to feed, and top it all off, his wife’s ex-husband and the biological father of two of his step-kids, Dom, is a glamorous football star who has everything he hasn’t. So when the opportunity to be the next Chef Boyardee comes, Paul takes it, hoping to provide for his family in a way he hasn’t before.

    For the next hour and a half, Cheaper By The Dozen rushes through one scenario after another as it tries to hit emotional beats for more than a dozen characters like a TV show would in one entire season. Storylines about racism, stealing, bullying, and dating are all shortchanged simply from the script tackling everything at a breakneck pace. It certainly doesn’t help that some of the plot points don’t fit the homely spirit the film tries to embody from its predecessors. Tiktok, glamour, and high society living are of the few things this next-gen Cheaper By The Dozen wears on its sleeve. Paul moves his family to a giant mansion in Hollywood after his hot sauce hits grocery shelves, it doesn’t quite work as the film’s attempts to engage the idea of excess and wealth fails to make a point.

    Thankfully, the cast holds most of the film together with such charming chemistry and wit. Braff and Union have an emotional foothold of Kenya Barris‘ and Jenifer Rice-Genzuk‘s script, which allows them to deepen the hastened drama from the page through earnest performances on screen. The Baker kids are a joy to watch; several of them are so fearless on-screen and steal scenes right from under Braff and Union. Mykal-Michelle Harris, in particular, is a huge stand-out.

    For better or worse, sitcom alum Gail Lerner directs Cheaper By The Dozen like it’s an episode of Black-ish, as every scene’s visual language looks ripped from a single-cam sitcom. You’re almost half-expecting Dre and Rainbow to show up at any moment. This isn’t to argue that Lerner’s direction is bad but it’s to point out how peculiar the film looks given how so much of the text is already begging to be just formatted for a serialized show. Perhaps the plan is for this film to be a proof-of-concept of just how great a Cheaper By The Dozen TV series would be.

    Once more, Kenya Barris and co. prove how strong their eye is for newly-fashioned wholesome family fun. With a cast as strong as this and relatable growing pains all families experience, Cheaper By The Dozen accomplishes the job it sets out to do in spite of all its shortcomings.

  • ‘Ms. Marvel’s Trailer May Hint at Kamala Khan’s Ability to Polymorph After All

    ‘Ms. Marvel’s Trailer May Hint at Kamala Khan’s Ability to Polymorph After All

    There has been quite a bit of a heated debate when it came to the upcoming Ms. Marvel series and the handling of her abilities. Most of the trailer highlights that she has a new take on her powers that seem to be powered by bracelets rather than her Inhuman genes. Even the first promotional photo seemed to hint that she is just creating a crystal fist out of energy rather than polymorphing her own. Yet, if you look closely, the trailer might actually reveal that she has the ability to polymorph after all and it might even tie into her story arc.

    The trailer has this odd trend of teasing Kamala shooting out her crystalized fist but doesn’t really show us the full movement of the ability. We either see her fist jet out in the corner of a frame against Red Dagger, or just her already retracting it. There’s this odd sense of the trailer purposefully keeping elements hidden from the viewer. We rarely see Kamala in action fighting. Yet, some scenes do hint at her having the ability to polymorph, especially when we see her leaping in the air.

    At first, I believed that it was just an energy field expanding on her body, but if you take a close look, her limbs are stretching out during her leap. While the focus has been on the ability to create crystal lily pads to jump off from, her body is definitely being warped as she moves closer and clenches her fist to hit whatever she is aiming for. We don’t linger on this shot long enough to really get a good look, and it might connect to a later scene as she faces off against a SWAT team protecting someone from their shots, as she has her full costume on.

    Of course, one visual isn’t a confirmation just yet if it weren’t for one more moment in the trailer that shows her limbs stretched out. Towards the end, there’s a brief sequence with a shockwave pushing various cars into the air. It’s only a few seconds long, but if you look closely in the corner, it’s Ms. Marvel creating the shockwave. Yet, what stands out is not only the pose that many might recall from the comics and even the Marvel’s Avengers game, but her body seems to be stretched in a similar manner as well. You can see that her legs are quite a bit longer and her body seems proportionally off in a way that you’d see when she does a ground pound attack while embiggened in other media.

    The only element that seems to be pure crystal is her fists, but if the previous image of her leaping is an indicator, her body might be changing underneath that layer. So, the trailers do make a case that she has the ability to polymorph, but it’s not the focus of what’s being shown. Keep in mind, Ms. Marvel’s ability to polymorph is a bit more complicated than just stretching her body. In the comics, she is exchanging mass with herself at a different point in time. So, she technically travels through time on a molecular level every time she changes her form. So, the crystals might be a visual representation of that ability.

    There’s a chance that it’s connected to the Quantum Realm, as it is how the Avengers traveled through time back in Avengers: Endgame. If they still want to build up her Inhuman background, perhaps the crystals in the gauntlet are Terrigen that activate her dormant abilities to tap into the time traveling-realm. The visual addition is due to it temporarily acting as a conduit as long as she is wearing it. While it doesn’t explain the lily pad and shield abilities, it may be that she’s using the gauntlet as a way to siphon the energy from the Quantum Realm into reality. Her imagination is a big focus of the trailer and it could be how she brings them to reality.

    I’d even argue that she might lose the gauntlets by the end of the season, and it may result in her realizing that she doesn’t have to depend on them. It would make for a great story arc for her character, and could still build up towards her inherent Inhuman nature. The comics had the advantage of a Terrigen bomb going off and creating a world filled with Nuhumans. There was the promotional material that did tease the crystal fist with a smaller one underneath, which hasn’t changed, but they could’ve adapted it going into the reshoots to add the polymorph ability after seeing some of the feedback online. We’ll have to see if a new trailer might give us a better look at her new abilities and if she is polymorphing after all. My only wish is that she actually shouts Embiggening.

  • New ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Set Photos Reveal Return of Axe Woves

    New ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Set Photos Reveal Return of Axe Woves

    It looks like Din Djarin won’t be the only Mandalorian in the upcoming third season of The Mandalorian Disney+ series. It seems that Simon Kassianides will make his return as Axe Woves, who briefly appeared in the Bo-Katan introduction episode back in the seconds season. He was the only member of her trio that was noticeably absent during the finale. Luckily, Bespin Bulletin dropped a few set photos from the production that reveals an actor with the same armor on the set.

    They do highlight that it’s very likely Kassianides himself, and he was working alongside Katee Sackhoff as well. So, we might see Bo Katan make her return in the upcoming season as well. The actress has hinted in the past on why Woves may have been absent during the final moments, but it’s uncertain if they might further explore the Night Owl’s moving forward. It is still surprising they haven’t gotten their own spinoff with how popular they were, especially when Sackhoff continued to play the role from the animated series.

    Still, it’s great to see more involvement of the other Mandalorians in the upcoming sequel, especially with the series potentially moving towards further exploring Mandalore, as another rumor by Bespin Bulletin hinted at the potential visit of the mines below Mandalore that the Armorer teased. So, we’ll likely see more of their race pop up as the series continues and an unlikely following gathers around Din Djarin, the one to wield the Darksaber.

    Source: Bespin Bulletin

  • Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2023 Release Calendar, V3

    Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2023 Release Calendar, V3

    The future slate of Marvel Studios is more fluid now than it’s ever been. With the industry STILL being impacted by COVID to some degree, a backlog of projects that could be shuffled in and out of any date at any time, and the interesting lack of a 2022 press preview kit from Disney, fans are left frivolously hypothesize, predict and speculate when to expect their most anticipated MCU projects. And we’re here to help you with your favorite addiction. This isn’t our first attempt to pin down 2023’s projects; you can check out V1 here and V2 here to compare notes.

    As much as everybody wants to see the Samuel L. Jackson/Nicky Fury-led Secret Invasion, the 2022 schedule seems to be complete without it. While we still don’t know very much about the plot of either Secret Invasion or The Marvels, it does seem like the two could share some sort of narrative bridge that would be well-served by them debuting relatively close to one another.

    By the time The Marvels hits theaters, it will have been in the can for nearly a year and a half. That’s part of the backlog of projects created by the pandemic, which really changed the well-established production paradigm that Marvel Studios had followed for well over a decade. That means a lot of time to breathe for the characters in between appearances which creates a lot of anticipation…and you know Marvel Studios likes that.

    After a little bit of a delay to the start of its production, Echo looks like it’ll be up and running in Georgia in April of 2022 and permits have been filed around Atlanta for the month of May. Given the “grounded” nature of Maya and the types of characters being cast in supporting roles, it doesn’t sound like this one is going to be a VFX showcase, so it should be ready to stream on Disney Plus in March of 2023. Of course, the question on fans’ minds is how much will Daredevil and Kingpin be involved and how might this series dovetail into the Daredevil solo project in development at Marvel Studios. Here’s to hoping Maya remains the focus of this series as there’s plenty of room for Daredevil to explore on his own.

    At some point in the first half of 2023, Ahsoka, a highly-anticipated, live-action Star Wars streaming series, will hit Disney Plus. We now know that Disney Plus is not opposed to streaming live-action Star Wars and Marvel Studios’ projects simultaneously, but if Ahsoka rolls out sometime in early May, X-Men ’97, which is on track for a 2023 release, could stream concurrently with that and fill the Marvel Studios streaming void until June, leaving some live-action stuff for later in the year.

    James Gunn’s third Guardians’ film might well be his last Marvel Studios’ project. By the time this comes out, it’ll have been over a decade since Gunn started work on Guardians of the Galaxy and as we’ve seen through his recent work on The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, he’s really on top of his game. This one sounds like it’ll be something really special and emotional, with Gunn saying goodbye not only to Marvel but to some characters he’s really grown to love.

    With the production of Season 2 of Loki on track to begin in June of 2022, it should be ready to roll out in June of 2023. While it isn’t clear whether or not Secret Invasion provides a direct runway to the events of The Marvels, it seems VERY clear that Loki Season 2 and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania share a narrative canvas and that the former can easily hand off a storyline to the latter.

    2023 could end up being the Summer of Kang. Jonathan Majors thrilled audiences with a tease of what to expect when the character returns, and it looks like when he does it’ll be a much heavier dose. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will feature some version(s) of the character fresh off of what’s expected to be a major role in Season 2 of Loki. Of course, Kang’s not the only villain fans can look forward to, as M.O.D.O.K. is also reportedly making his live-action debut, played by Corey Stoll. Should the schedule fall this way, it would represent a great example of the type of synergy Marvel Studios can pull off thanks to a parent company that has its own streaming service and total control over the release schedule.

    While a lot of fans are expecting this to be tied into Armor Wars, all the early evidence suggests it is essentially a follow-up to Riri Williams adventures in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. That’s not to say that Riri might not show up in Armor Wars or that the events of Ironheart might not lead into the Don Cheadle-led streamer, in fact it would make a lot of sense if she did, but Riri will be busy enough on her own following her huge role in Wakanda Forever.

    When V2 of the 2023 Hypothetical Calendar was published, Agatha: House of Harkness had only just been revealed by the trades a few days before and the official Disney Plus Day announcement was about a week away. Now, it really does look like it could make the 2023 release slate given the tentative October 2022 start of production. It seems like the perfect Spooky Season release for Marvel Studios, so slotting it here seems a no-brainer.

    After a couple of production delays, Blade is looking at a Fall 2022 start of principal photography, which makes it the best candidate for the currently unfilled November 3, 2023 release date, especially with production on Captain America 4 officially delayed until 2023. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that it’ll come out right around Halloween and feature a vampire hunter, and it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see this date slide back a week earlier where nothing major is currently scheduled for any studio.

    Armor Wars, like Agatha: House of Harkness, is on track for a late-2022 start of production. While a 2023 debut is by no means set in stone for Armor Wars, there is a nice end-of-the-year window for it, should it be completed and ready to stream. We know very little about the project, but Kevin Feige seems to enjoy playing with the idea of having some streaming series thematically tied to the seasons in which they are released, so maybe, like Hawkeye, Armor Wars could be set during the holidays. After all, is there any better present than Stilt-Man?