Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next threat seems to be emerging from within the multiverse. The ending of WandaVisionkicked off a new era that saw its expansion in Loki. While all eyes were on the newly introduced Kang, it seems the rumored foe of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness might have an early appearance. In the first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home, eagle-eyed fans may have spotted the first glimpse of Shuma-Gorath.
In the trailer, Doctor Strange creates a spell to wipe everyone’s memory of Peter Parker being Spider-Man. As it usually does, something goes wrong and it unleashes something from the multiverse. Eagle-eyed Twitter user @MSpector_JM noticed that in the rift you can spot a rather strange and familiar eyeball with what seems like tentacles. The design is very reminiscent of Shuma-Gorath and continues to tease his presence.
Rumors point to the multiversal being as the main threat in the upcoming sequel and it is after America Chavez’s abilities, who is confirmed to make her live-action debut in Multiverse of Madness. As such, Strange’s actions in No Way Home may break a hole in the newly established multiverse, which gives Shuma the power to finally find the source of power he requires to dominate every reality.
Yet, this brief tease may not be his actual debut within the MCU. Giant green tentacles can briefly be seen in the premiere episode of What If…?, as they try to break through a portal opened by Red Skull before being pushed back in by Captain Carter. He even has a showdown with a Variant of Doctor Strange in a later episode, where he fuses with him. As the show deals with the multiverse and the fact that tentacles are the only connective tissue besides the Watcher, it may be Shuma-Gorath.
Marvel Studios is building up to his full debut in next year’s Doctor Strange sequel. The various teases and this small detail in the Spider-Man trailer could hint at a post-credit sequence involving Strange facing the creature. While the trailer implies it was Peter’s nerves unleashing the multiversal villains, there’s a chance that this small glimpse builds up to the first confrontation as we learn the true reason why the multiverse broke in the first place.
It’s nothing new that the popular franchise would draw in negative criticism, especially with directors that focus more on the auteur aspect of cinema. Marvel Studios’ approach has proven successful, but is naturally not without its faults, especially in the earlier days. In an interview with the magazine El Mundos, the following remark was translated by Dune‘s director Denis Villeneuve while promoting his next tentpole film.
There are too many Marvel movies that are nothing more than a cut and paste of others.
Denis Villeneuve
It’s certainly a harsh statement in regard to Marvel Studio’s approach to filmmaking. Still, it’s not the first time this kind of remark has found its way online. Curious enough, there have been some potentially misleading translations surrounding this quote as the context was left out. Michelle Jaworski, a reporter for the Daily Dot, pointed out that the translation may be quite different:
As long as you feel a personality in a project, that it is an artistic object and that there is a will at work, it is not a question of money. But how we approach the cinema. The problem today…Well, if we’re talking about Marvel, the thing is, all these films are made from the same mold. Some filmmakers can add a little color to it, but they’re all cast in the same factory. It doesn’t take anything away from the movies, but they are formatted.
Denis Villeneuve
He then goes on to highlight that the Dune film is a personal one and how he tried to be more mainstream with his approach. The translation does offer a bit more context on it, as it’s less a downplay of Marvel’s films but rather that their approach generally sidelines the director. Ironically, there has been criticism on their Disney+ side where they supposedly take away roles from showrunners. The director has praised Chloé Zhao and even Marvel Studios for breaking their usual mold in an interview for Harper’s BAZAAR.
I’m your biggest fan. I think it’s genius that Marvel approached you because you’re the radical opposite of it aesthetically.
Denis Villeneuve
As such, it’s less an attack directed at Marvel Studios but rather the current approach to filmmaking that resulted from their success. It’s also come to a point where “Marvel” has become a generalized term for any franchise-focused production by auteurs. He praises Marvel Studios for taking this step and it may be a sign of his hope for a change within the industry.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings only recently hit theaters, but star Florian Munteanu is already talking about what didn’t make the cut. During a recent interview with ComicBookMovie, the former heavyweight boxer revealed that fans will be seeing much more of him when the film hits Blu-Ray. While Munteanu‘s presence was undoubtedly felt throughout the movie, his role essentially just functioned as an over-the-top bodyguard. Now, “Big Nasty” claims that he filmed a few Razor Fist scenes that would have expanded on the character’s backstory and motivations.
His spoiler-filled explanation begins,
We had that big end battle, and you [originally] would have seen a bit more there from Razor Fist. I’m looking forward to people seeing that because there was a reason why he replaced his blade with the dragon sword and fights with two swords, but I don’t want to spoil too much and I don’t want to give away too much.
The last we see of the Ten Rings’ foremost mercenary, he’s aligned himself with the organization’s newest leader – the formidable Xialing. Munteanu continues his informative recount by stating that deleted scenes would have given audiences a better idea as to why Razor Fist was so loyal to both Xialing and his former boss, Wenwu.
I always call [him] stepdad because, at the end of the day, Wenwu gave him a new life and purpose and a home. He trained him and took him away from the streets. That’s also something you will see in the bonus material. [Xialing’s] his daughter, so there’s more meaning to that than just following a new leader, but we’ll have to see what happens.
It would appear that Razor Fist, often presented as the butt of the joke, may have a more tragic origin than initially believed. Luckily, he made it out of Shang-Chi alive, so there’s still hope some of that could be explored in a future MCU project. That is if it’s not on the DVD bonus features first.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.
Marvel Studios’ upcoming Eternals looks like it will stand out from the bulk of the MCU for numerous reasons. In particular, the diversity of the film’s cast and its inclusion of underrepresented groups in superhero roles is undeniably a major move for the franchise. Actress Lauren Ridloff will make her debut as Makkari, the speedster of the Eternals, and the MCU’s first deaf superhero.
In the comics, Makkari is a very different character— a large blonde hearing man. When asked by the New York Times why Eternals took such a different route with the character, Ridloff had this to say:
To be honest, I don’t know much about how they made that decision. But I love that they decided to make Makkari everything he’s not in the comic books — he’s a huge guy, let’s find someone tiny. He’s blond, let’s find someone who has Black hair. He’s a man, let’s go with a woman. He’s hearing, and now the character’s deaf.
Lauren Ridloff
Ridloff also noted that she feels the pressure and stress that comes with the expectation for her to pave the way for future deaf actors. Asked what she hopes people will take away from Eternals, she responded:
Growing up, I didn’t dream about becoming an actor. I didn’t see myself on the screen. As a little girl, I thought I was one of only a few deaf people walking on this Earth. Now, as an adult, I’m aware there are at least 466 million deaf people and hard-of-hearing people out there. I’m not the only one. And that’s what it means to have a deaf superhero — a lot more people will see a lot more possibility.
Lauren Ridloff
Notably, the MCU is already set to introduce deaf actress Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez/Echo in the upcoming Hawkeye and Echo Disney+ series and even has plans to explore Clint Barton’s AKA Hawkeye’s comic book history of deafness in the former. Marvel Studios’ vital moves to increase and highlight the diversity of its characters in Phase 4 will certainly be featured in Eternals, and Ridloff is no doubt ready to inspire a new generation of superheroes and superhero fans.
Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings has established itself as both a critical and popular success, carrying a strong 98% audience score and 92% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metascore of 71 and 7.6 user score at Metacritic. Financially, it has outperformed pandemic expectations and looks to have another good week or two in the tank. All that success combined with Kevin Feige and Destin Daniel Cretton’s comments which have indicated a sequel is essentially waiting to be given the green light mean that a follow up to Shang-Chi is an inevitability at this point. The first film was pretty well self-contained, but as is always the case found ways to connect itself to the MCU and leave some threads left to pull for potential sequels. What could we see in Shang-Chi 2? We have some thoughts…
The Capital Cities of Heaven
The pocket dimension of Ta Lo is integral to the plot of Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings. When Shang-Chi and Xialing first arrive in Ta Lo, they get a tour of the small town along with a history lesson: in short, there are other hidden cities that, like Ta Lo, are likely pocket dimensions. As we prepare for the Sacred Timeline debuts of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk, it’s possible that Shang-Chi also laid the groundwork to bring Daniel Rand-K’ai, the Iron Fist, along for the ride as well.
Should Marvel Studios decide to take the leap (and make no mistake, bringing Iron Fist to the MCU will come with several big shit storms), a Shang-Chi sequel could easily make use of the pre-established idea of hidden cities to introduce the Capital Cities of Heaven and, should the want to make an absolutely incredible movie, center it around the Tournament of the Heavenly Cities. Introduced during Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and David Aja’s run on Immortal Iron Fist, the capital cities of heaven are all mystical cities located in pocket dimensions around the Earth, each with their own Immortal Weapon or champion. Among those cities if K’un Lun whose champion is, of course, The Immortal Iron Fist. Every 88 years, 7 of the 8 cities converge into one breathtaking setting, the Heart of Heaven, and host a tournament that pits the Immortal Weapons against one another. Bringing the tournament to the big screen would provide MCU fans with a chance to meet characters such as Fat Cobra, John Aman and Tiger’s Beautiful Daughter while giving Feige a chance to reboot Danny Rand, Dog Brother #1 and the Bride of Nine Spiders, all of whom were done dirty in the Netflix series.
It wouldn’t take much imagination to shuffle things around enough to have Ta Lo be one of the Capital Cities and have Shang-Chi be their champion. Given Cretton’s effective use of flashbacks in the first film, it would be fun to watch him explore the rich history of these cities while introducing characters that could stick around for a while and have their own stories told down the line. Given what we learned in Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, it’s safe to assume these cities already exist. Now it’s a matter of how badly the team at Marvel Studios wants to explore them.
The Atlas Foundation
Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings did a wonderful job of establishing the long history of the Ten Rings organization without telling us too much about either the organization or the rings themselves. We know the organization has existed for around 1,000 years and that during that time, Wenwu was known by many names, among them the Great Khan. Logically, if one organization has existed for a thousand years, so could another: The Atlas Foundation.
The Atlas Foundation’s origins date back to the time of Genghis Khan and have ties to him as each of the Foundation’s leaders have always been descendants of him. Given Wenwu’s long life, it’s entirely possible that he fathered more than the two children we met in Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings and that one of those children could have gone his or her own way from Wenwu and created a secret organization that has grown significantly over the last 1,000 years. This part of the sequel writes itself as, should this organization exist, both Shang-Chi and Xialing would be direct heirs of Wenwu and the rightful leaders of the Atlas Foundation. With Xialing now running the Ten Rings, it would make for some killer sibling rivalry if Shang-Chi took his place atop Atlas and used its resources to work against his sister.
Introducing the Atlas Foundation opens the door not only for another really cool dragon (Atlas has long been advised by the immortal lung dragon known as Mr. Lao) but could also pave the way for Jimmy Woo to enter the picture and open the door to an Agents of Atlas project as a direct follow-up.
Fin Fang Foom
When we found out that Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings would feature multiple dragons, NOBODY predicted we’d get the Great Protector and the Dweller-in-Darkness. Nobody is complaining about how great they worked out but fans are still crossing their fingers that the one we all thought was coming will show up and the mid-credits scene, while intentionally ambiguous, certainly leaves open the possibility we will see Fin Fang Foom in the sequel.
As the Avengers explain to Shang-Chi, his use of the Ten Rings activated a beacon that is calling to something ancient. Given the presence of Captain Marvel in the room, it’s easy to believe that this beacon is calling to something far away across the stars, however, that is never made explicit. The opening of the film leaves the origin of the Ten Rings intentionally ambiguous, stating only that Wenwu maybe found them in a crater or in a tomb, leaving room for a sequel to explore just exactly where they came from. Given his comic ties to the rings, it would be pretty great if the answer to that question came in the shape of He Whose Limbs Shatter Mountains and Whose Back Scrapes the Sun.
Though his story has changed some over the years, Fin Fang Foom is an ancient being from the planet Kakaranthara from where his species, the shape-shifting Makulans, left to conquer other planets. FFF arrived in Ancient China prior to the 8th century and while his fellow Makulans went out to conquer, he was given a reserve role and put to sleep in a tomb. Eventually, the Mandarin ventured into the tomb and took the Ten Rings, Makulan technology that contained the souls of dead warriors, and woke the Foomster.
Again, the story writes itself and keeps its ties to the comic books while updating it to keep it fresh. Wenwu’s rings are clearly alien tech; the combination of that tech with Ta Lo’s magic could be just the catalyst to bring Foom out of his slumber and into the world where he would lay waste to it in the form of a giant dragon, giving Marvel Studios its very first Kaiju film. While Fin Fang Foom might seem like an Avengers-level threat (indeed the mid-credit scene with the Avengers leads us down that path), Shang-Chi is pretty powered up with the rings and could put up a fight against Foom and maybe even learn something new about the rings along the way.
Spider-Man found a comfy home in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that didn’t stop Sony from slowly building their own. 2018’s Venom was their first foray that will soon get a continuation in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Of course, as Sony finally gave their franchise a name, it opened up the question of Spider-Man will interact with these characters. Morbius offered a glimpse at a connected universe with the appearance of Michael Keaton‘s Vulture, but there hasn’t been much on that since.
Well, it seems the director of the Venom sequel, Andy Serkis, is pretty sure that it’s going to happen at some point in the future. He discussed the eventual fight between the long-time comic adversaries in an interview with IGN during the film’s premiere.
Look, that’s the question on everyone’s lips. They want to know if Venom is gonna meet Spider-Man, but personally, it’s never gonna happen. I’m only joking, of course, it’s gonna happen. But, I think there’s so much. Look, it depends when you want to get there, and also, what the appetite is. If people want more Venom stories, then, to jump straight to Spider-Man, you could be missing out on so many great supervillain characters in between now and then. So, in a way, by rushing to it, you might be closing the door.
Andy Serkis
What makes this statement curious is that back in May, the director did highlight they’ve treated Venom as its own world. So, if he believes he’ll face Spider-Man, the bigger question is which one. Tom Holland seems to remain as a mainstay in the MCU moving forward, but a while back Kevin Feige hinted that he can cross between cinematic universes. Perhaps the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home push him out into Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. Whatever happens, it’s not going to
The last episod eof What If..? introduced the world to the first incarnations of zombies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They’ve actually been a mainstay in the comics since their debut in the Ultimate Fantastic Four run before going on to get their own series. It looks like Marvel Studios might have some plans for the zombified Avengers, as Mark Millar hinted at some live-action plans potentially being in the works in his latest newsletter. The statement “
[…](if my sources are correct) a little live-action Marvel Zombies further down the line, but you never heard that from me.Mark Millar
The episode introducing the zombified versions of our favorite heroes was quite the talk of the town ever since it was first teased. It’s a concept that would deserve more exploration and with the horror theme, they’d make for a perfect enemy for our favorite Sorcerer Supreme to face in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
There is also the possibility to reintroduce the concept in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The virus spreads through Janet van Dyne in the Quantum Realm, which exists outside of time and the multiverse. Perhaps the crew’s return to face Kang the Conqueror might unleash the virus in another unsuspecting universe. It’s would also be curious to see if this project ends up as an R-rated one, or they go with the more muted PG-13 friendly designs of the animated series. If they truly make a return, it’s going to be an exciting one as Marvel Studios continues to explore new avenues with their franchise.
The numbers are finally in and Shang-Chi continues to impress. In its second weekend, the Simu Liu-led film dropped around 53% from its first weekend and is on par with pre-pandemic performances by Marvel Studios. It currently stands at $35.8M in its second weekend after setting a new Labor Day weekend record. That is quite a difference from Black Widow‘s harsher 70% drop. To be fair, the latter also had a digital release simultaneously that managed to garner $125M on top since its premiere.
Its performance put it at the top spot for a second week in a row and gave Disney the confirmation to keep the rest of their 2021 slate as theater-only releases, which includes the ambitious Eternals. The only real competition the latest Marvel film had to face was the horror film Malignant that released to a very lukewarm $5.57M. With a C-grading on CinemaScore, it’s difficult to say how it’ll perform long-term. It’s also the first horror film to have a weaker performance in the pandemic.
The film’s performance definitely feels like the jolt of energy the Box Office needed. Even Black Widow‘s success was followed by some concern regarding the future of theater experiences. It’s also currently on par to surpass the first Phase 4 film’s overall Box Office to become the raining champ until the next major release. Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s trailer viewership may pin it as the champion to take the top spotfor 2021, but Eternals could still become quite a contender once it releases in November. We’ll have to wait until predictions are in Marvel Studios kicks of their marketing plan.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is expanding at an exponential rate. We finally jumped into the multiverse with Disney+’s new What If…? series and will soon dive even deeper with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Yet, we’ll have a brief interlude into the Spider-Verse with Spider-Man: No Way Home. The first trailer broke many records as we witness Spidey and Doctor Strange face a familiar threat when Spider-Man 2‘s Doctor Octopus, played by Alfred Molina, makes his first on-screen appearance since 2004.
With all the rumors circling this project, it’s hard to grasp just how large it may end up being once it premieres this December. In an interview with Variety, Benedict Cumberbatch teases just how crazy this project may end up being.
There’ll be a lot of debate about it [Spidey 3] I’m sure. It’s a daring, brilliant concept. Seriously, it has got great ambition. I haven’t seen it, but by all accounts, it has achieved it. Even on paper, the audacity of it is like.. how the hell is that gonna.. [expletive].
He does also praises director Jon Watts for his work on the project and teases that the Doctor Strange sequel will also challenge the ambition of this project. Countless rumors are surrounding this project with the first trailer already teasing a multiversal team of six sinister villains. It even adds more to the potential of other Spider-Men returning to the roles in the threequel.
Who knows what other concepts and ideas will get introduced in the film that Marvel Studios managed to keep behind closed doors, as we still don’t know what it means for the future of Tom Holland‘s version of the character as Sony expands their own franchise. A lot is riding on this and with Shang-Chi‘s recent success adding hope to pandemic numbers, the film may become the highest-grossing 2021 release.
If you’re still waiting for superhero fatigue to kick in, Marvel Studios has other ideas and is here to tell you it doesn’t think it’s real. Today, the studio planted flags for four unannounced 2024 films.
According to Borys Kit, the studio is tentatively planning to release films on the following dates:
February 16, 2024
May 3, 2024
July 26, 2024
November 8, 2024
Disney also staked out some Marvel spots for the future: 2/16/24, 5/3/24, 7/26/24, 11/8/24. That's 4 Marvel movies from Marvel Studios in 2024.
Marvel Studios One-Above-All Kevin Feige has long said the number of film projects in any given year would always be dependent on the number of viable scripts; in this case, it seems like the studio is feeling good about what it has on deck. With 2023 currently set to feature five films (Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and three as yet unannounced films) and nearly a dozen unannounced streaming projects in the hopper, it’s apparent that the studio is feeling good about its plans for Phase 4 and beyond.
As to what films these dates could be for, that remains to be seen. Following the success of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Marvel Studios has two more films slated to hit theaters this year: The Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
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