Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Disney Plus

  • ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Adds ‘Agents of SHIELD’ Star

    ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Adds ‘Agents of SHIELD’ Star

    Perfectly timed, Daredevil: Born Again starts production in New York City we are getting some more news on what we can expect from the quasi-legacy series. Not only do we have a director now, but also have a rather shocking recast of Sandrine Holt taking over the role of Vanessa Fisk. It marks the first recasting from the original Daredevil Netflix series even though Jon Bernthal is returning in his iconic role.

    Still, we have one new addition to the cast with an Agents of SHIELD actor Michael Gaston. He wasn’t a major player in the Marvel series with a single episode appearance but this marks the second in his career. The actor also worked on shows like Blindspot, Mayor of Kingstown, Chicago P.D., and many more.

    He joins a cast that consists of Margarita Levieva, the before-mentioned Sandrine Holt, Michael Gandolfini, Jon Bernthal, Vincent D’Onofrio, and its main star, Charlie Cox. It’ll be interesting to see just how big the cast grows as 18 episodes open up many opportunities to introduce a wide variety of characters.

    We still don’t know how far they’ll dive into an overarching plotline or mostly keep it as a week-to-week story. Fisk’s involvement does hint that something will be brewing throughout the entire season, but with 18 episodes they might want to have more individual storylines that flesh out the world we’re about to return to. Only time will tell, as we also don’t know if Foggy or Karen will return.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Recasts Vanessa Fisk

    ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Recasts Vanessa Fisk

    Elden Henson. Deborah Ann Woll. And now Ayelet Zurer. As Daredevil: Born Again starts production in and around New York City with stars Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Jon Bernthal reprising their respective roles from the Netflix Defenders-verse series, details about cast members from the series not returning are beginning to emerge.

    The latest news, courtesy of THR’s Heat Vision, is that Sandrine Holt has been cast as Vanessa Fisk, the wife of Wilson Fisk, indicating that Zurer, who played the role on Netflix’s Daredevil will not be returning.

    The news should raise several questions about the nature of the relationship between the Netflix series and the new Disney Plus streaming series. It’s widely believed that Michael Gandolfini will be playing Fisk’s adult son in the series. Given a new actress has been cast as Vanessa and an adult son that was never acknowledged in Netflix’s Daredevil now exists, it would be easy to take Cox‘s comments about Born Again being “a whole new deal” to mean the new series will not be tied to Daredevil very tightly, if at all.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Disney+’s ‘Daredevil’ Series Adds ‘Dexter’ Director

    Disney+’s ‘Daredevil’ Series Adds ‘Dexter’ Director

    Just as the next Daredevil series starts production, it seems we have an update on who will take over directing duties. The ambitious 18-episode Disney+ series has now added Michael Cuesta, famous for his work on Dexter and Homeland, to direct the first episode of Daredevil: Born Again.

    Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio are set to return alongside the recent announcement of Jon Bernthal also reprising his Punisher role from the Netflix series. The series showrunners and writers are Matt Corman and Chris Ord, who previously worked on Covert Affairs, The Enemy Within, Containment, and The Brave.

    We don’t know how different the series will be from the original Netflix series, though it’s to be expected that Marvel Studios and everyone involved will try to make it stand out as its very own show; probably the reason for its subtitle Born Again being promoted similarly to Spider-Man’s Homecoming.

    There’s going to be a lot of excitement and weight on this Disney+ series, as many have established the Netflix version of the character as their de facto “fitting” tone for the character. His She-Hulk appearance highlighted that his more lighthearted comic variant had been overwritten in the viewers’ eyes. So, we’ll see how it comes together once we get our first actual look at the project.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Matt Shakman Rumored to Have Struck Fantastic Deal with Marvel Studios

    Matt Shakman Rumored to Have Struck Fantastic Deal with Marvel Studios

    Following his work on WandaVision, Marvel Studios turned to director Matt Shakman to take the lead on their Fantastic Four project when original helmer Jon Watts departed. With Fantastic Four now casting ahead of a 2024 start of production, news comes that Shakman may already be lined up for a pair of Marvel Studios projects in addition to the film.

    During a segment on the Hot Mic Podcast, Jeff Snieder indicated that Shakman may be Marvel Studios choice to lead a Disney Plus streaming series focused on the Silver Surfer and is lined up to direct a portion of the Disney Plus streaming series Vision Quest. While there has been no official word from Marvel Studios concerning a Silver Surfer project, a Special Presentation introducing the character has been rumored for some time . Vision Quest, on the other hand, is known to be in the works and is reportedly headed into production in 2024.

    Shakman has a strong background in TV beyond WandaVision, having worked on HBO’s Game of Thrones. Given Vision Quest is all but guaranteed to be a sequel to WandaVision, Shakman’s participation in the series would provide an opportunity for narrative continuity and consistency to be present in the new series.

    Source: YouTube

  • REVIEW: ‘Chang Can Dunk’ is Worth a Shot

    REVIEW: ‘Chang Can Dunk’ is Worth a Shot

    Chang Can Dunk is the latest Disney film that explores what it means to live in high school as an underdog and the overall challenge of somehow growing up while finding your place in the modern world. The main storyline set seems quite simple with 16-year-old Chang making a bet with the popular kid that he can slam dunk within a few weeks just to prove himself to his peers. Yet, while the story seems like your typical sports-drama, director Jingyi Shao uses it more as a template to explore some heavy-hitting themes.

    On the surface level, Chang Can Dunk seems rather superficial as its main hero portrayed by Bloom Li goes out of his way to impress a girl. As the popular basketball kid starts hitting on her, he awkwardly tries to get her attention before making a bet he can’t really back out from. It becomes a classic underdog story of a young kid proving to himself and everyone around him that he’s not worth ignoring.

    Without giving away any major spoilers, what makes this Disney+ original so interesting is that the film keeps its focus tight on Chang’s overall character arc. We don’t get this happy-go-lucky home life as his mother is overworking herself and doesn’t show any active interest in what he cares for. We don’t often see a mother and son that drifted apart as much as they did, but their acts of desperation in how they show concern for the other.

    Technically, Chang’s struggle of connecting with his mother is at the core of the story, and it’s also the strongest element at play. It’s similar to how Turning Red challenges the overprotectiveness of parents that can end up pushing them away, or simply alienating them from the high expectations put upon them. There’s also the cultural relevance of that pressure that adds to the overarching message.

    We see Chang build a rather strong support system around him with some of the highlights just being him hanging out with his best friend Bo (Ben Wan), his mentor De-Andre (Dexter Darden), and Kirsty (Zoe Renee). It’s especially sweet to see the way he connects with De-Andre, who was a former pro-basketball player that lost his dream, and the way it further strengthens the dangers of popularity and fame.

    The film has a strong focus on going viral online, and it’s not just a tool for some creative shot composition. They truly go all out with the concept, as Bo becomes this vocal point of evolving the way he films online videos that just add a few creative and unique shots to make the film stand out. Overall, the film has some really strong shots and makes good use of empty space to highlight headspace of Chang at times. Of course, it’s also carried by Bloom Li‘s performance who can sell the highs of falling into the beauty of stardom and the depression of feeling alone.

    The only real drag on the overall story is the cliché it is built around. It feels like a project that wants to subvert the usual stories we see in high school-focused sports dramas. The moment a classic trope is unveiled, the film actually surprises by pushing the story into a whole new direction focusing on the actual core narrative that was more sidelined up to that point. We don’t harp too long on the misbegotten actions, as eventually, people forgive those they care about. It’s sometimes family that has the hardest time forgiving themselves.

    The message overall is powerful and makes the film stand out. It just struggles through the clichés at times and ends up dragging out the reveal that just sticks too much to the cliché. It had me dreading the moment due to how predictable it was and it still happened exactly how it is set up. It’s saved by what happens after but it still feels like it fell into the cliché pool rather than just dipping its toes.

    The film is definitely worth a shot for those that love these types of films, especially once the story starts coming together. Jingyi Shao definitely offers an inspiring story that should not be missed out on. It may sometimes fall a little too far into clichés and isn’t the slam dunk it truly could be, there’s something special about this project that makes it worth watching. It’s a perfect watch for a young audience that may not yet know the dangers of online fame and trying to fit in.

  • Fewer Sequels, More Avengers in Store for the MCU

    Fewer Sequels, More Avengers in Store for the MCU

    As Bob Iger continues to reign in the free-spending gunslingers behind Disney’s big brands, fans of those brands continue to wonder what the future will hold. During an appearance Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Iger gave some indication of what the future of Marvel Studios may hold.

    On the heels of a pair of sequels that weren’t the critical darlings that Disney had hoped they’d be, Iger indicated that Marvel Studios may reevaluate their approach to sequels.

    There are 7,000 characters, there are a lot more stories to tell. What we have to look at at Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel stories we’re telling but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters. Sequels typically work well for us. Do you need a third and a fourth, for instance, or is it time to turn to other characters?

    Robert Iger

    It’s hard not to read between the lines of Iger’s comments and think about Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. The former has been widely criticized for taking the wrong lessons from its much more successful predecessor, Thor: Ragnarok while the latter has been under fire for its drop-off at the box office.

    It’s not all bad news for Marvel Studios, though. Iger is confident that the future, which he loosely defined as the “next five years”, holds a lot of promise.

    There’s nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand. I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we’re mining. If you look at the trajectory of Marvel in the next five years, there will be a lot of newness. We’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise with a whole new set of Avengers, for example.

    Robert Iger

    Interestingly enough, that newness includes the scheduled MCU debuts of the Punisher, Blade, Deadpool, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, none of whom are new to the superhero landscape, only the MCU; so roughly in the sense that a used car is new to you, though not truly new. Beyond that, characters such as Sentry, Wonder Man and Nova are known to be making true debuts, so it will be worth tracking which of Marvel’s 7,000 other characters get the opportunity to make the jump to the MCU.

    Iger’s comments on a “new set of Avengers” is also worth some thought. After having four Avengers films weaved throughout the Infinity Saga, each serving as “Phase enders”, the studio chose to reserve the Multiverse Saga’s Avengers films for Phase 6. With Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars set to end the Multiverse Saga, the expectations placed on those films is already staggeringly high.

    Source: Deadline

  • New Details Emerge on ‘What If…?’ Season 2’s New MCU Character

    New Details Emerge on ‘What If…?’ Season 2’s New MCU Character

    The first season of Marvel Studios animated series What If…? was a hit with critics and audiences. A second season was already in the works by the time the first episodes hit Disney Plus, but nearly a year and a half later, no word on its release has been revealed. There have been some tidbits about what to expect, however, including the fairly major news that a brand new character will be introduced to the MCU in Season 2.

    The news, via Boardwalk Times, confirms the identity of the new character as Kahhori, who was recently leaked via a Funko product. According to the Twitter account, Kahhori, a young Mohawk woman, will be the star of an episode that explores the impact of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy coming into possession of the Tesseract in pre-Colonial America.

    Additional details from Marvel.com describe the episode as a look what happens when “The Tesseract takes on a new life and a new mythology, transforming a lake into a gateway to the stars and leading Kahhori, a young Mohawk woman, on a quest to discover her power.” Writer Ryan Little scripted the episode in collaboration with members of the Mohawk nation and the episode will “take place in the Mohawk language” and from the perspective of the Mohawk people. The episode will see Kahhori have to “live up to her name (which means she stirs the forest in Mohawk) to recruit powerful allies into the fight to save her people and change the course of history forever.”

    Though no official word has come from Marvel Studios at this time, insider KC Walsh recently shared a potential timeline for the release of the second season of What If…?. According to his sources, the show is tentatively set to debut in early 2024. As Marvel Studios looks to find a better pace with their streaming releases, no time frame (even those originally shared by Marvel) should be considered etched in stone at this time.

    Source: Marvel.com

  • REVIEW: ‘The Bad Batch’ Thanks Its Good Soldiers for Their Service

    REVIEW: ‘The Bad Batch’ Thanks Its Good Soldiers for Their Service

    Good soldiers follow orders. The motto of the Empire’s Clone Army and the basis of the rift between CT-9904 and his Bad Batch brothers, those words are as etched in the minds of fans of Star Wars animated series nearly as deeply as in the minds of the clones. Throughout the course of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch, “good soldiers follow orders” has been the rote and retaliatory response given any time evil deeds were done by Clones in the name of the Empire. Of course, following orders in the service of evil is still doing evil (indeed the phrase seems to be a reference to the “superior orders” defense that Nazi war criminals attempted to use during the Nuremberg trials, continuing a long-running allegory within the Star Wars universe) and the phrase was never going to hide the evil acts.

    Crosshair has always been severe and unyielding. It is his nature. You cannot change that. He cannot change that.

    Tech, The Bad Batch: Kamino Lost

    After a bit of a slow start, Season 2 of The Bad Batch has quickly gotten very interesting following Emperor Palpatine’s Defense Recruitment Bill. The bill not only ushered in the era of the Imperial Stormtrooper but also emphatically ended the era of the Clones, who for all their order following, were decommissioned. The latest episode, The Outpost, is a beginning-to-end indictment of the Empire’s dismissal of the Clones and a parabolic reminder that you reap what you sow. At the center of it all is Clone Force 99’s “do what needed to be done” loyalist Crosshair who by the end of the episode finds himself in a very bad place under the special care of the series’ new bad lad, Dr. Hemlock.

    I am a soldier of the Empire.

    Crosshair, The Bad Batch: The Solitary Clone
    Lieutenant Nolan in a scene from “STAR WARS: THE BAD BATCH”, season 2 exclusively on Disney+. © 2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.

    Though it’s laid on pretty thick, the episode’s depiction of the dismal treatment of the Clones seems necessary as a teaching tool not for the audience but for Crosshair. From the moment the ennuyé Imperial Officer drones on to the Clones about their service to Crosshair’s mission to Barton-4 under the uber-douchey Lt. Nolan to the anticlimactic discovery of the purpose of that mission, the humdrum pacing of The Outpost lures fans into a bit of a trap: Crosshair gonna Crosshair. And then…he doesn’t.

    This is who I am.

    Crosshair, The Bad Batch: Return to Kamino

    Having a character go against his very nature, especially one whose nature has been the sole focus of nearly every interaction with the character since the show’s debut is no small thing. What’s more, having Crosshair betray that nature in order to kill Lt. Nolan over the death of a few “regs” symbolizes a near-total metamorphosis for the Bad Batch’s resident cynic. By pulling the trigger and killing Nolan, Crosshair followed his own orders and, by his own beliefs, is no longer a good soldier despite doing what he believed needed to be done. It would seem the fate of his brothers in Clone Force 99 is destined to intertwine with his once more as the new clone king, Dr. Hemlock, now has Omega in his sights. But will the reborn Crosshair soon have Hemlock in his?

  • REVIEW: ‘The Mandalorian’ Heads to the Mines of Mandalore for a Monstrous Measure of Mythos

    REVIEW: ‘The Mandalorian’ Heads to the Mines of Mandalore for a Monstrous Measure of Mythos

    Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are playing the long game with The Mandalorian and an even longer one with the story of Mandalore. A location frequently visited and revisited in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, Mandalore–and its fascinating history, culture and politics–has always been integral to the larger goings on of the galaxy and taken a pretty bad beating along the way. Over the course of the first two seasons of The Mandalorian and the first season of The Book of Boba Fett, it’s been clear that Favreau and Filoni are building towards Mandalore’s return to glory but in Chapter 18 of The Mandalorian, The Mines of Mandalore, that return to glory begins in earnest.

    As has often been said, The Mandalorian is a slow burn; however, in retrospect, it has provided Star Wars fans, both subtly and overtly, with an incredible amount of information about Mandalorian culture. “This is the Way” doesn’t carry the same meaning it did 2.5 seasons ago (that’s counting The Book of Boba Fett as the .5) because the Way has become so well-defined to the audience through the experiences of Mando, Grogu, et al. Favreau and Filoni made a decision to let the intricacies of The Way of the Mandalore be discovered over time rather than force-fed to the audience. That decision has led to a clear understanding of the differences in culture between the Children of the Watch and the rest of Mandalorian society. No greater example of that rift exists than the relationship between Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze and this Chapter exploits that rift expertly.

    Din Djarin’s visit to pouty Bo-Katan illustrates a key difference between The Children of the Watch and every other Mandalorian: faith. Against all odds, Din Djarin’s intentions to return to Mandalore and bathe in the Living Waters is an expression of the depth of his beliefs in The Way of the Mandalore; Bo-Katan’s dismissal of his quest–and her general malaise–is an expression of the lack of hers. While there’s been some controversy among fans around whether or not Din Djarin should be the one to reunite the great Houses of Mandalore and lead them to their renaissance, The Mines of Mandalore provides adequate evidence to suggest he may just be the guy. Though the depth of their zealotry seems to border on irrational, The Children of the Watch have kept the faith and Din Djarin’s experience in this Chapter rewards them for doing so.

    Chapter 5 of The Book of Boba Fett, Return of the Mandalorian, laid much of the groundwork for The Mines of Mandalore and the insane payoff within its final moments. Din Djarin’s road to redemption, as explained to him by The Armorer and Paz Vizsla, is presented as an unwalkable one. Now an apostate, his only path to being forgiven lies in the ruins of Mandalore which is believed to be uninhabitable. Moreover, the belief of the Children of the Watch is that Mandalore’s destruction is tied to a legend that points to Bo-Katan’s “undeserving” nature as the leader of the people; however, those same legends and songs, kept alive by the Children of the Watch’s adherence to The Way, prophesize a return to glory for Mandalore that will be heralded in by the rise of the Mythosaur, the heretofore unseen beasts of legend.

    2.5 seasons of The Mandalorian have partially conditioned the audience to see things much in the way they are seen by Bo-Katan. Though the Children of the Watch, exemplified by Din Djarin, continue to hold their faith as the galaxy closes in around them, how can their return to glory ever occur when it is tied to the rise of an extinct beast of myth? And Chapter 18 provides the spine-tingling answer to that question in all its glory. It’s a payoff that only works because Favreau and Filoni have let the audience slowly build their own opinions about The Way of the Mandalore and the nature of Din Djarin’s quest to redeem himself. Those who kept the faith, like Din Djarin, now see the fruits of their faith and that the future for Mandalore is bright and also probably involves Din Djarin wielding the Darksaber while riding on the back of a Mythosaur sometime very soon. It’s a story 13 years in the telling and nearly 50 years in the making and it is just getting good.

  • Disney+’s ‘Wonder Man’ Logline Hints at Show’s Intended Tone & Time Frame

    Disney+’s ‘Wonder Man’ Logline Hints at Show’s Intended Tone & Time Frame

    While word of a slowdown of the big Marvel Studios machine continues to spread, the company continues to prep several projects for production over the next several months. Among them is the streaming series Wonder Man, created and overseen by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Avengers: The Kang Dynasty director Destin Daniel Cretton.

    The show has been on a bit of a fast track since being revealed in a trade report last June; in fact, despite not being part of either of Marvel Studios’ big Summer con presentations (SDCC and D23), Wonder Man is tentatively set to begin principal photography in late March or early April. As such, the series has made quite a bit of news lately as the cast begins to shape up and it’s in the news again now as insider Daniel RPK has unveiled a potential logline for the project

    Wonder Man has been described as a Hollywood satire and the new information from RPK does seem to fall in line with that.

    Based on the character of Wonder Man, one of Marvel’s oldest characters, first introduced in 1964 in the pages of Avengers No 9. Known as Simon Williams, a celebrity actor and stuntman. In a nutshell, it is a story of two actors struggling to make it in the Hollywood of the MCU, [asking] the big question what does Hollywood look like in a world where super heroes are real?

    Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is set to bring Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, to life and will share the screen with Ben Kingsley who will reprise the role of Trevor Slattery (likely the other struggling actor) in the project. If Slattery is the other struggling actor, it calls into question just where on the MCU timeline it will fall. When last seen, Slattery seemed to have chosen to stay in Ta Lo with fuzzy bestie Morris after having spent the better part of a decade either in prison or as a prisoner of Wenwu after portraying the Mandarin at the behest of Aldrich Killian. However, before taking that job, Slattery was indeed a struggling actor doing things…no two ways about it…in the street that a man shouldn’t do.

    Could part of Wonder Man be set during the Infinity Saga? There’s no reason it couldn’t be and it actually lines up with part of Williams’ villain origin story. In the comics, Simon’s father, Sanford, developed a munitions factory named Williams Innovations. After Sanford’s death, Simon ran the company into the ground as competitors like Stark Industries took its business. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes put an interesting spin on that part of the story by having Tony Stark buy the company much to the disgust of Simon. In either version, the downfall of Williams Innovations drove Simon down the road toward becoming a super-powered villain. This could easily be adapted to the MCU without Robert Downey Jr. needing to appear; on the other hand, Marvel Studios could choose to skip this part of Simon’s story entirely and set it entirely in the present day.

    Whatever the case, MCU fans will have at least a couple of years to wait before they’ll find out. With Marvel Studios looking to spread out their streaming series a bit more, Wonder Man likely won’t hit Disney Plus until early 2025.

    Source: Patreon