Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Disney Plus

  • ‘Secret Invasion’ Set Photos Offer First Look at Emilia Clarke

    ‘Secret Invasion’ Set Photos Offer First Look at Emilia Clarke

    It’s surprising how little has found its way online from the Secret Invasion set. We’ve been following the Batgirl film through set photos and videos quite closely, while the Marvel productions have kept quite a tight lid on their projects. The only tease we got was that it was heading to Halifax’s Piece Hall with some set photos hinting at it being used as a stand-in for Russia. Now, some set photos have found their way online through Leeds Live, which gives us our first look at Emilia Clarke on the film’s set

    It certainly isn’t the first look you might’ve expected, as it offers no hint at who she might be playing and it’s kind of perfect. Secret Invasion will dive into a world overrun by Skrulls and with Nick Fury’s involvement, there will be quite a lot of spies going undercover. So, it’ll be a lot of “whodunnit” action in the series and we’ll still have to guess who Clarke is playing. According to the set photos they’ve shared, the Lead city center was transformed into a Russian street. So, we might spend some time in that location and we’ll see if they might even explore SHIELD’s history with the KGB.

    It’s certainly great to finally get a good look at the series’ set even if it doesn’t really tell us much for now. As they are still filming, and the film was taken out from an official website’s 2022 lineup, we probably won’t see it until 2023. As such, we might not find out who Emilia Clarke is playing for quite some time, but that won’t stop us from definitely theorizing.

    Source: LeedsLive

  • ‘Moon Knight’s Beats Out ‘WandaVision’ and ‘Hawkeye’ 24-Hour Viewership

    ‘Moon Knight’s Beats Out ‘WandaVision’ and ‘Hawkeye’ 24-Hour Viewership

    Just recently, we shared the news that Moon Knight has become Marvel Studios’ most liked video on their official Marvel channel. Turns out the latest Disney+ project has been quite the hit, as The Hollywood Reporters’ latest Heat Vision blog offered some insight into just how well it performed. So, the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and one of their more obscure heroes garnered quite the buzz after his premiere during the NFL wild-card game. It seems that within 24 hours, the film topped 75M views.

    To put that into comparison, the highest viewed series is Falcon and the Winter Soldier with an impressive 125M. WandaVision had a strong start as the first Disney+ trailer premiere with 52M. Loki managed around 60M while Hawkeye only stood at 41.5M. From a social engagement aspect, the series beat out everyone else with 263K mentions. It was even higher than The Mandalorian, which was at around 221K mentions. They shared a quote from an anonymous executive producer from a rival studio, who stated that:

    I couldn’t tell if this was a movie or a TV show, that’s how good it looks.

    The look was certainly impressive and we may be seeing the first learnings that the studio took to heart after producing their first set of series. It’s a very new direction for the studio even after merging with Marvel TV. Here’s hoping they truly jump into the mind-bending aspects of the character

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins ‘Ahsoka’

    Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins ‘Ahsoka’

    Production on Ahsoka is set to start moving along sometime soon as the cast for the project continues to expand. The series will see Rosario Dawson return as Ahsoka, who she brought into live-action in Season 2 of The Mandalorian. Hayden Christensen is returning as Ahsoka’s former Jedi master-turned-Sith, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Ivanna Sakhno are joining the cast as Sabine Wren and a “formidable, fierce and striking mercenary”, respectively . Now word of another actress jumping into the galaxy far, far away has come our way: Mary Elizabeth Winstead is reportedly set to join the cast of the upcoming Disney+ series.

    Winstead is best known for her roles as Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Huntress in Birds of Prey, as well as her work in 10 Cloverfield Lane. Along with plot details on the series, info on Winstead’s role is still currently under wraps. Ahsoka is currently casting for a few other female leads, including one for a female, 36-40, that is described as “tough but maternal.” It’s possible that Winstead, who is 37, could be Lucasfilm’s choice for that role.

    Production on Ahsoka is expected to be ongoing in Los Angeles for most of 2022, with an October wrap tentatively scheduled. The series will see the return of corrupted Jedi Knight Barriss Offee and the live-action debut of Grand Admiral Thrawn when it streams, likely sometime in 2023.

    SOURCE: THR

  • ‘Moon Knight’ Becomes Marvel Studios’ Most Liked Disney+ Series on YouTube

    ‘Moon Knight’ Becomes Marvel Studios’ Most Liked Disney+ Series on YouTube

    There are a lot of metrics we can work with nowadays to get a glimpse at how a project is performing before it even has officially aired. It’s never truly set in stone, but there they do help people to get t a feeling for just how popular an upcoming project may en dup being. Spider-Man: No Way Home’s impressive YouTube viewership was a testament to just how big of a release it ended up being. Now, it seems like Marvel Studios might have another big winner on its hands with Moon Knight going by its performance on YouTube.

    As the Direct points out, the latest premiere trailer for an upcoming Disney+ series has garnered over a million likes. That’s not a small accomplishment, as the trailer was only released barely a week ago and has managed to get more attention than WandaVision (760K), Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s (433K), or even Loki‘s 695K likes. Until now, Hawkeye held the most likes with 915K, but none of the Disney+ series managed to pass that milestone until now. However, you have to keep in mind these are purely the numbers from Marvel Entertainment’s official account. There are plenty more sites that may show different numbers based on their audiences.

    There’s definitely a case to be made that Oscar Isaac and a darker tone may have sold people on it. It felt closer to what we saw with Daredevil when it comes to tone, and that might just be the fresh take that viewers have been waiting for, especially on a family-friendly platform like Diseny+. Still, a relatively unknown character like Moon Knight beating out well-established characters is a testament to the synergy Marvel Studios is enjoying with their projects and the excitement for new takes on their ever-expanding franchise.

    Source: YouTube, The Direct

  • ‘Lucifer’ and ‘Luca’ Top 2021’s Streaming Chart

    ‘Lucifer’ and ‘Luca’ Top 2021’s Streaming Chart

    2021 has been quite a year, to say the least, as the pandemic continued to keep us at home. As such, we had a bit more time on our hands and luckily the various streaming services had plenty of content to keep us busy throughout the year. Of course, there’s always hope that your favorite show of the year might make it to the top of the list. While streaming services still won’t quite tell us how shows and films are performing, Nielsen still conducts its studies to give us an inclination on how the year went.

    In 2021, the most-streamed original show was not the extremely popular Squid Game, but actually Lucifer. It switched to Netflix some time ago and now has become their most streamed offering. The Great British Baking Show takes the third spot followed by Virgin River, Bridgerton, You, Cobra Kai, The Crown, and Longmire. It’s not until the tenth spot that a non-Netflix offering joins the ranks with Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Disney+ and Apple TV+ only got one entry each with WandaVision and Ted Lasso.

    There’s a very different story when it comes to movies, as eleven of the most viewed cinematic offerings were from Disney+. The list is dominated by Luca, Moana, Raya and the Last Dragon. Netflix’s Red Notice takes the fifth spot and they also nabbed the ninth with Mitchells Vs. The Machines. Marvel Studios also joined the list with Black Widow on the eleventh spot and rounds out the Top 15 with Avengers: Endgame. The performance of Disney+ is a good hint at the fact that family- and child-friendly offerings were the big winners.

    Overall, it’s a strong list of shows. There’s always a chance that if we’d ever get a chance to see the true numbers their positions might shift. Nielsen also only uses third-party information that excludes mobile numbers, which could work in specific offerings favor. They only rank TV screens and HBO Max and Peacock are not currently included in the list, whose offerings with Friends and Yellowstone are likely candidates to be in the list. Still, it’s at least a small inclination what 2021 was like and we’ll see what 2022 has in store for us.

    Source: Deadline

  • Pixar is “Really Bummed Out” On ‘Turning Red’ Heading to Disney+ Instead of Theaters

    Pixar is “Really Bummed Out” On ‘Turning Red’ Heading to Disney+ Instead of Theaters

    There has been a rather discouraging trend of Disney sending Pixar films to Disney+ for free. The prestigious animation studio was one of the leading voices in spearheading our modern understanding of CG-animated filmmaking. Yet, as the pandemic hit, things haven’t been easy for everyone in the industry. Especially with uncertainty if families will visit cinemas as they did before the pandemic started in 2020. As such, Disney made the move to release some of its films on their new streaming service.

    Strangely, there still is seemingly no clear strategy moving forward. Only select films were made available through their Premier Access options, where you can purchase the film for a set price. Yet, while their original and Marvel Studios offerings got the special treatment, Pixar’s Soul and Luca didn’t get the same. They were made available for free to push Disney+’s subscription numbers. Turning Red, their next film, was their big return to cinemas but ended up following the same fate. In a new piece by The Hollywood Reporter, they shared a statement by an anonymous Pixar employee on the situation.

    Everyone is really bummed, but most of us get it. Families just aren’t going to the movies

    They highlight that the company isn’t mad about the decision, but more disappointed. There’s a good chance that Encanto’s low box office numbers were one of the reasons they went down this route, especially. Sing 2, the most recent animated film to release in theaters, also didn’t fare much better if compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Here’s hoping that the current omicron development gets better so that Pixar can make its grand return to cinemas once again.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Marvel Studios Makes a Major Change to The Phase One Timeline

    Marvel Studios Makes a Major Change to The Phase One Timeline

    Disney Plus has now added all of Marvel Studios One-Shots to their streaming library, giving fans a chance to relive some of the memorable shorts that once accompanied the home releases of their films. Agent Carter, All Hail the King and more are now streaming on the service and have all been added into the official, chronological viewing order. Interestingly enough, one of the One-Shots has knocked one of Marvel Studios biggest hits out of its place as a bookend to Phase One.

    As you can see from the screenshot, the 2012 One-Shot Item 47, which was released on The Avengers Blu-Ray, is now the official end of Phase One. The 12-minute short, which was heavily tied to ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., starred Lizzy Caplan and Jesse Bradford as a couple who, in the wake of the Battle of New York, find a Chitauri weapon and use it to go on a crime spree. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Sitwell and Blake, played by Maximiliano Hernandez and Titus Welliver, respectively, intervene on the couple’s spree and eventually incorporate them into S.H.I.E.L.D.

    While the events of the series were never mentioned again and neither Caplan nor Bradford’s characters were ever seen again, the One-Shot, directed by Louis D’Esposito, led directly to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. getting the green light on ABC. Bob Iger, who was Disney’s CEO at the time, gave the go ahead on AoS after watching Item 47 and the series debuted one year later on the network. Of course, Agents Sitwell and Blake continued on in the series and, in Sitwell’s case, the films with Sitwell dying during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Blake pretty much just disappearing.

  • Disney+ Added All Marvel Studios One Shot

    Disney+ Added All Marvel Studios One Shot

    There was a time when Marvel Studios did quite a bit of experimenting. In the early days of Phase 1, they tested out a concept known only as Marvel One-Shots at the time. The physical Blu-ray release of some films included these short episodes that helped tie together some loose ends, such as The Consultant, or just have some wacky fun, like Team Thor. Suddenly, there were sightings of All Hail The King – which introduced viewers to the fact that there was an actual Mandarin out there – after Shang-Chi was added to Disney+. Now it seems they have added all One-Shots as part of a collection, as shared by @riverrun779.

    https://twitter.com/riverrun779/status/1484503856541167623?t=K2LF4dk7HfT4a6soJt9r7A&s=19

    It’s interesting to note that the series of shorts have the logo “Marvel Studios One Shot,” but when you search for them they are only available with the name “Marvel One-Shot.”

    Their addition is great for the purists that want to watch every part the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to offer. Plus, it also helps them add it to their timeline on the service, which helps give some hints when and where to place these stories. As a fan of logo design, it’s great to see All Hail The King or The Consultant get actual visuals that add some flourish to their stories, even if they are quite small in the grand scheme of the wider MCU. Their inclusion with a new logo also opens up the possibility they might revisit the concept with new 15 minute shorts for minor characters. So, we’ll see if this opens up a window for more opportunities later down the line.

    Source: Disney+, Twitter

  • ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Musical Prequel Adds Broadway’s Jelani Alladin

    ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Musical Prequel Adds Broadway’s Jelani Alladin

    Luke Evans and Josh Gad‘s upcoming Beauty and the Beast prequel has found another actor to join its line-up, as The Walking Dead: World Beyond actor, Jelani Alladin, has joined the project. We just recently learned that Fra Fee was also going to have a role in the story, as the series slowly is starting to come together ahead of its production. The musical series will run for eight episodes and continue the stories of Gaston and LeFou after the events of the 2017 original.

    The story follows LeFou’s step-sister Tilly, who will be played by Briana Middleton, as her past comes to haunt her and the three are off unto an unlikely adventure. Alladin will play a quick-witted artist, who goes by Jean-Michel. The actor is no stranger to working with Disney, as he played Kristoff in the Broadway rendition of Frozen. He worked on various TV series such as Law & Order: SVU, and FBI. Given his stage background, he’s a great addition to bring the musical to life.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Daredevil’s Viewership Skyrockets After Vincent D’Onofrio’s Return in ‘Hawkeye’

    ‘Daredevil’s Viewership Skyrockets After Vincent D’Onofrio’s Return in ‘Hawkeye’

    Marvel’s expansive plan to continuously grow with the many characters at its display has always been its biggest strength. Once a character makes a surprising appearance in one project, it creates a wave of interest for others. In a way, Marvel Studios can make years-old series or films become trending again. Exactly that has happened, as Nielsen ratings revealed that Netflix’s series Daredevil has seen a massive uptick in viewership. Three years after the final episode aired, it has suddenly joined Nielsen’s SVOD Top 10 list shortly after Charlie Cox made a memorable cameo as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Vincent D’Onofrio returned as the Kingpin in Hawkeye.

    The synergy also gave Hawkeye quite the boost, as the Disney+ series managed to also get the third spot in the list with its highest-viewed week. It was watched 938M minutes over its six-episode run while Daredevil garnered 195M minutes with 39 episodes. The Witcher still was the most dominant release during that time period of December 20th until the 27th with 2.2B minutes over its opening weekend alone. Emily in Paris, which was recently renewed, garnered 938M to take the second spot.

    Source: Variety