Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Marvel Movies

  • ‘Eternals’ Nabs $9.5 in Thursday Previews, Third Best of the Pandemic

    ‘Eternals’ Nabs $9.5 in Thursday Previews, Third Best of the Pandemic

    All eyes are on Marvel Studios’ venture into the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s history with indie darling Chloé Zhao‘s attempt at a grounded epic about eternal beings. After its initial critical reception ending up as the studio’s first rotten scored film on Rotten Tomatoes, it made many wonders what it means for the film’s box office performance. In a way, there’s the discussion if the Marvel brand can sustain its position at the box office even if hit by a mixed reception, and the star-power of the project.

    Luckily, as we’re about to enter the weekend we got a glimpse at its performance through its initial Thursday previews. Box office analyst Charlie Jatinder shared his findings that offer a better understanding of where the film is currently heading. The latest predictions had it at a strong $150M worldwide opening, but it’s looking like it might pass them if it keeps up the momentum going into the weekend. As of now, it earned $9.5M in Thursday previews through the US and Canada. So, it’s now nearing an $85M with its international release following the same trend currently.

    As Deadline points it, it currently is the third-best earner in its Thursday previews. Currently, Black Widow holds the top spot with $13.2M followed by Venom: Let There Be Carnage‘s $11.6M. The latter went on to surpass the former’s overall opening weekend. So, the big showcase will be how the film holds over going into Saturday. Shang-Chi earned $8.8M in its previews and the latest release is ahead of pre-pandemic releases of Doctor Strange and Thor: The Dark World. Overall reception is at 86% with audiences which is a far cry from its current 50% on Rotten Tomatoes.

    Source: Twitter, Deadline, Forbes

  • ‘IT’s Bill Skarsgård Voices Deviant Kro in ‘Eternals’

    ‘IT’s Bill Skarsgård Voices Deviant Kro in ‘Eternals’

    Quite a few mysteries were surrounding the main Deviant from Chloé Zhao‘s Eternals. The biggest was Marvel Studios reluctance to share the identity of who was bringing him to life. In September, a statement by Dan Stevens made it seem like he was going to tackle the character in the upcoming film. Now that the film has finally been released, the cat is out of the bag and it turns out IT‘s Bill Skarsgård was the one to bring the character to life on the silver screen.

    It’s a curious detail that Marvel Studios still hasn’t announced the voice behind Kro even though he’s quite a big name to tackle the character. There’s a chance that the role was just considered too small to promote his involvement, as they might want to reuse the actor for a different role later down the line.

    If they aren’t putting a strong focus on his inclusion in the film, it makes you wonder what other role they might have in mind for the actor. Gemma Chan returned after a previous appearance in this to take on the role of Sersi. So, it’s quite possible he’ll make a return in a future project. they simply decided to put their main focus on the main ensemble cast of ten characters.

    Source: Comic Book

  • Will Poulter Hints at Adam Warlock’s Golden Skin in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

    Will Poulter Hints at Adam Warlock’s Golden Skin in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 is set to begin principal photography. The cast and crew of James Gunn’s space outlaws are currently making their last preparations for productions. With Will Poulter having recently joined the cast as Adam Warlock, there are lots of questions about how he is going to be involved beyond emerging from the cocoon we saw in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 post-credit scene.  Poulter was on The Jonathan Ross Show promoting his upcoming Hulu miniseries Dopesick, where host and Marvel fan, Jonathan Ross, was on hand to field a variety of questions about Poulter’s MCU character. 

    The actor was typically evasive as most are as part of their MCU contracts, he jokingly stated that that he is “feared for the safety of his family” because he’s “sworn to secrecy.” After confirming Marvel Studios and James Gunn won’t change the character’s name, Ross was giving him the grilling any Marvel fan would, particularly about whether Warlock will be the gold color of The Sovereign. The actor points out the gold sofa he is sitting on, stating “this is a lovely sofa is what I’ll say” perhaps indicating he will in fact have his traditional gold comic-book appearance. The actor also hinted that he is in the process of buffing up for the project.

    Adam Warlock | Character Close Up | Marvel Comic Reading Lists

    Whether Warlock remains the superweapon against the Guardians that The Sovereign intends him to be or switches sides as he does in the comics, remains an open question. Also with a few years that have passed between the end of the second film and where we’ll catch up with the Guardians, it is curious to wonder whether we might see Warlock in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Wherever we see Adam Warlock turn up it will be interesting to see what route his story takes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

    Source: YouTube

  • Chloé Zhao Confirms the Identity of the ‘Eternals’ Post-Credit Cameo

    Chloé Zhao Confirms the Identity of the ‘Eternals’ Post-Credit Cameo

    Eternals has finally hit theaters after multiple delays due to the ongoing pandemic, but the wait was worth it. The film will start a new chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Still, as much as things change, some traditions continue. The latest Marvel film features two post-credit scenes, which continue to tease what the future might have in store for fans. The second scene, however, may have left some fans scratching their heads as to just what was going on. Luckily, director Chloé Zhao was able to offer more insight.

    We will spoil Eternals and its second post-credit sequence. Only continue at your own risk if you are currently avoiding spoilers for the film.

    The final post-credit scene features Dane Whitman pacing back and forth near a large sealed crate with his family’s crest on it. Once it opens, the Ebony Blade is revealed. Dane contemplates picking it up before finally giving in and going for it. Just before Dane is able to pick it up, we hear a voice ask “Sure you’re ready for that Mr. Whitman?”. We never find out who that was as it cuts to black the moment he turns around.

    Theories have been going around quite a bit and luckily, Chloé Zhao didn’t waste any time to reveal who exactly was the mysterious visitor. In an interview with Fandome, she confirmed that the voice belonged to Maharshala Ali‘s Eric Brooks, or better known as Blade.

    “That was the voice of one of my favorite superheroes, Mr.Blade himself Blade. Blade, Blade, Yeah!.”

    While we didn’t get a look at the vampire hunter, it’s a curious reveal. It opens up the window of what exactly his inclusion means for the character, as he prepares to tackle the role that was last seen on silver screens in 2004’s Blade: Trinity. Blade is set to be directed by Bassam Tariq and will be written by Stacey-Ossei Kuffour. As the film was potentially pushed back by a year, it’ll be interesting to see if he makes an appearance in other supernatural-based adventures.

    Source: Fandome

  • ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Poster Spotted on a Bus

    ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Poster Spotted on a Bus

    Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s marketing has been surprisingly subtle with only a trailer releasing so far. Surprisingly, we never got an official poster for the film and have been anxiously awaiting any news on the second trailer. Most of the film’s first looks focus primarily on his connection to Doctor Strange, and his confrontation with Alfred Molina‘s return as Doc Ock. While there’s still no sight on that second trailer, we did finally got a poster. Well, it’s not an official release just yet but it was found by Redditor BananaBreadGabe on the side of a bus.

    New Spider-Man NWH poster spotted on bus
    byu/BananaBreadGabe inMarvelStudiosSpoilers

    The Direct offered a closer look at the poster’s design:

    Of course, the film has quite a few eyes on it due to the return of classic Spider-Man characters. In addition to Molina, the first trailer did tease William Dafoe‘s Green Goblin, nand we know Jamie Foxx is returning as Electro in the project. Of course, the potential of the original Spideys from the previous film incarnations joining the project has added an extra layer of curiosity if they might appear in any future advertising.

    It’s strange we didn’t get this poster released earlier, as it doesn’t reveal anything we haven’t seen in the initial trailer. The design from Doc Ock’s perspective is great, as it also means they can expand upon it with every different villain taking a stab at our favorite webhead. Of course, there’s the question if the rumors surrounding Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield might also get a spotlight before the film releases, or they’ll keep it in their backpocket for afterwards. The second trailer might give us a hint at how they’re tackling the advertising.

    Source: Reddit, Twitter

  • ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Delayed Until January in the Philippines

    ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Delayed Until January in the Philippines

    It looks like Spider-Man: No Way Home is facing some delays after all, but this time only in a few select markets. Columbia Pictures Philippines has shared a Facebook post that includes the upcoming release dates for upcoming Sony films. Sneakily, it confirms that the upcoming Spider-Man threequel won’t release until January 8th. As the film will feature some heavy spoilers, there was an instant petition launched to make sure it releases in December, after all, to get the release on the same day as the rest of the world.

    Ist möglicherweise ein Bild von Text „WELCOME BACK TO THE CINEMAS! DON'T BREATHE2 NOVEMBER 17, 2021 VENOM ETTHEE ARNAGE DECEMBER 8, 2021 RESIDENTEVIL DECEMBER 15, 2021 STUOIOS SPIDER-MAN -MAN No Way HomE JANUARY 8, 2022 GHESTBUSTERS AFTERLIFE JANUARY 26, 2022 FEBRUARY 9,2022 天 FEBRUARY 23, 2022“

    The country is generally getting quite a few projects much later than in other markets. Venom: Let There Be Carnage won’t release until December 8th while Ghostbusters: Afterlife is eyeing a release in January. So, there’s a good chance it didn’t have a release date until recently due to the pandemic. So, it’s very likely a delay that was going to happen either way. Understandably, locals want it to release earlier to avoid any spoilers that will very likely leak online the moment it’s in theaters.

    Source: Facebook via The Direct, Twitter

  • ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ Box Office Passes the $400M Mark Worldwide

    ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ Box Office Passes the $400M Mark Worldwide

    Even after some negative reception, the first Venom film garnered quite a bit of momentum at the box office. Looks like it’s the same case for its sequel Let There Be Carnage, as it just passed the $400M mark in its global box office. Domestically it garnered $191.6M and added another $212.5M internationally. So, there’s nothing in the way of a sequel announcement in the near future, especially if you consider Sony already added a few new Marvel listings to their upcoming release slate of 2023.

    Tom Hardy’s return as Eddie Brock led to the highest opening domestically with $90.1M. On top of that, it’s the second-best for an October release even from before the pandemic hit. It also had the strongest opening in Russia since theaters locked down and were Sony’s best performer there. With $31.4M it’s in the top ten earners of that market.

    It’s been doing quite well internationally, as its the second biggest opener in markets that includes Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Central America, Ecuador, and many more. Currently, it is tracking ahead of other block buster releases of the year, which is a good indicator that the market has finally been healing. A Chinese release however is uncertain even though the last film opened there to an impressive $269M. At this rate, it may near the $500M mark by the end of its run.

    Source: Deadline

  • Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2023 Release Calendar, V2

    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.


  • Chloé Zhao Shares Heartfelt Message to Celebrate ‘Eternals’ Release

    Chloé Zhao Shares Heartfelt Message to Celebrate ‘Eternals’ Release

    It almost seems like an eternity that Eternals was going to release in theaters before the pandemic hit. After all that time, only a few more days before we can sit in theaters and witness Chloé Zhao‘s vision of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s history. Now that the release is finally here, Zhao took to her personal Instagram account to share her excitement over its release. Not only that, but she also gives her thanks to Marvel Studios, the cast, and the crew who helped her bring this project to life while sharing a beautiful poster created by Liza Shumska.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CV0TZxkrSV3/

    With Eternals finally releasing, there’s a lot of hope that it may turn into a new franchise that expands the MCU in new and creative ways. Producer Nate Moore has hinted that there’s no guarantee that they’ll develop sequels of this specific film, but there’s a chance that they might explore their stories in spinoffs. Of course, if Zhao is interested, she may still return for a potential sequel as she seems to truly care for this project and her work with Marvel Studios. It would be great to see what she can do after her learnings from the first film together with the studio and further explore the concepts of Eternals, Deviants, and the Celestials.

    Source: Instagram

  • Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2022 Release Calendar, V3

    Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2022 Release Calendar, V3

    Marvel Studios rendered our previous 2022 hypothetical release calendar meaningless when they shuffled their entire release slate a couple of weeks ago, so we took another shot at it. Of note to this new effort is that we have considered that it looks like Disney does not want to stream live-action Star Wars series and live-action Marvel Studios series concurrently. And so while this isn’t a hypothetical Star Wars calendar, we will mention some of those series along the way.

    It looks like Marvel Studios will have to wait a bit to start streaming in 2022 as a Lucasfilm series is going to start in late-2021 and carry over into early-2022. The Book of Boba Fett could end up completing its run on February 16th, allowing Marvel Studios to kick off its 2022 Disney Plus release calendar with a couple of episodes of Marvel Legends. We could catch up not only on Bruce Banner but also on The Abomination. It’ll be interesting to see what other characters, if any, they cover and to see how much of the events of The Incredible Hulk are part of the story that leads us to She-Hulk.

    She-Hulk is set to be Marvel Studios’ longest streaming series to date, with 10 episodes scheduled. Placing it here allows Marvel to stream one episode per week, should they choose to, and helps it avoid overlapping any other live-action projects.

    We should have several episodes of Marvel Legends leading up to the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In addition to catching up on Stephen, we’ll almost certainly see a Wanda-centric one. Given the role Wong is set to play in the film, he may get one of his own, too. And then there’s Mordo…and yeah, we’ll see how these turn out, but it seems like they’ll stream the Wednesday of release week.

    Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was the first domino in the wave of release date shifts for Marvel Studios. It’s a wildly ambitious film from a director who is noted for both his pursuit of perfection and his understanding that perfection is never achieved in the first draft, so waiting a little longer to have someone like Sam Raimi put together the best version of his vision isn’t he worse thing for fans. Hopefully, come May 6th, 2022, we all walk out in awe and forget that the film was delayed for an entire year.

    Following the Strange sequel, we might not see another Marvel Studios series until mid-June. Recent rumors suggest that the Lucasfilm Obi-Wan series is slated for May (I mean May 4th IS a Wednesday); what’s curious is that if we allow for it to run for 6 weeks, we run into June and that’s when Mohan Kapur, one of the stars of Ms. Marvel, recently said he expects that streaming series to begin! Even though Ms. Marvel is introducing Kamala Khan and a WHOLE bunch of new characters, it will also feature an appearance from Carol Danvers, so we might get an episode of Marvel Legends on June 8th; either way, Ms. Marvel could kick off its run on June 15th and conclude on July 13th, coinciding nicely with Kapur’s comments.
    *Note we are predicting a two-episode premiere for Ms. Marvel to avoid overlap with Moon Knight.

    While we might not get an episode of Marvel Legends for Ms. Marvel, we’re sure to get a few for Thor: Love and Thunder. In addition to keeping up with Odinson’s adventures, fans could also use a refresher on Jane Foster, Korg, and Miek, Valkyrie, and the Guardians of the Galaxy before they hit the screen together.

    Thor: Love and Thunder, like Doctor Strange 2, was bumped down the road a few months giving director Taika Waititi time to really fine-tune this film which, coincidentally, was supposed to come out just about one year ago on November 5th!

    In this hypothetical situation, Moon Knight does some big moving. I originally thought Moon Knight might run in May, but it’s getting bumped 2 months (seems like a pattern, right?). It’s reportedly a 6-episode series which means if it follows up Thor 4 and doesn’t have any ties to any existing characters that we know of, so it can go just about anywhere. For what it’s worth, this could easily switch places with Ms. Marvel, moving Ms. Marvel a little bit closer to The Marvels which was bumped into 2023.
    *Note we are predicting a two-episode premiere of Moon Knight to avoid overlap with Season 2 of What If…?.

    We got a few episodes of Marvel Legends ahead of Season 1 of What If…?, so there’s no reason to think we won’t see some ahead of Season 2.

    What If…? is, according to Disney, set to be an annual event and it would seem totally possible that they could even keep it in the same general slot every year, too. Season 1 kicked off on August 11th, and this hypothetical would see Season 2 debut on August 24th. This timing would work out well for Marvel Studios because this same time could also see Lucasfilm’s 12-episode Andor hit Disney Plus as well. As stated in the opening, keeping Star Wars live-action away from Marvel Studios’ live-action was a priority here and the whole calendar works out very nicely if we have What If…? and Andor going around the same time.

    What If…? could wrap up just in time for Marvel Studios to stream one of its two 2022 holiday specials: Werewolf By Night. Now to be clear, we aren’t 100% sure exactly what is going on with this project, but if it is just a one-shot holiday special, its February start of production would give the team plenty of time to have it ready for October 26th, just ahead of Halloween.

    Marvel Legends episodes for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever should hit D+ on November 9th, a couple of days ahead of the film’s release. We’ll certainly need to catch up on T’Challa’s journey along with Shuri, Ramonda, M’Baku, Okoye and the Doras and even Killmonger, you know just in case he shows up.

    Of all the films getting shuffled around, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever might have needed it the most. Production was delayed when Letitia Wright sustained an injury and it was in mid-production when the new IATSE/AMPTP agreement went into place, meaning some adjustments were made on the fly. You can absolutely guarantee that Ryan Coogler will use these extra 4 months to put together an absolutely amazing sequel in memory of Chadwick Boseman.

    It looks like Marvel Studios’ offerings for 2022 will end with the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special on November 23rd. James Gunn has said he’ll be introducing an important new character in it and while a lot of folks believe that’s going to be Santa, I’ve heard rumblings (nothing concrete, so I’m not too excited myself just yet) that the new character might be one of the shinier ones in Marvel’s toybox.

    After the GotG special, Disney Plus could stream something from Lucasfilm (a second season of The Bad Batch is reportedly coming for 2022) and it’s also important to note that the now Disney owned Avatar 2 is still slated for release on December 16th, 2022, meaning the parent company will still have a lot going on even if there’s no other Marvel Studios’ series ready to stream. Of course, we’ll have a much clearer picture of things in just two weeks following the first annual Disney Plus Day, so bookmark this and come back and throw tomatoes at us then!