Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Marvel Movies

  • Rumor Control: The Cast of Marvel Studios ‘Fantastic Four’

    Rumor Control: The Cast of Marvel Studios ‘Fantastic Four’

    Marvel Studios highly anticipated Fantastic Four reboot continues to be a hot topic. Though its release date was recently bumped to May 2nd, 2025, the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes could produce a domino effect that bump it even further down the road should production the projects that were in the midst of filming drag too far into 2024. Strikes aside, casting rumors about the film have hardly slowed down. Recently, a pair of talented actors took their turns in the rumor mill but are they signed, sealed and delivered? While there’s no way we’re going to confirm or deny anything at all, here’s what we’ve heard about Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn’s involvement with Fantastic Four.

    Vanessa Kirby

    It’s been made clear since the casting process for Fantastic Four began that director Matt Shakman hoped to cast his Susan Storm first and then build out from there. With that in mind, it always seemed pretty suspicious that so many casting rumors were centered on Reed Richards when there was no Sue. Kirby’s name was one that made a few trips through the rumor mill, seemingly ebbing and flowing in the opposite direction of Margot Robbie’s. Over the last week, Kirby’s name popped back up with several different scoopers indicating that she had landed the role of Susan Storm and news reached us that corroborates that info. From what we’ve heard, however, Kirby is the only actor believed to have actually agreed to a deal before the SAG strike.

    Joseph Quinn

    So where does that leave Stranger Things breakout star Joseph Quinn? It sounds like Quinn is the choice for Johnny Storm (concept art of the actor as the Human Torch has been spotted, we hear) and is expected to close a deal once Hollywood returns to business as usual. However, with no end date to the SAG strike in sight, it would be wise not to count any eggs before they hatch as any number of snags with scheduling could potentially cause Quinn to end up on the outside looking in and Marvel looking for a different Torch.

    No new ground is being broken here simply some support and clarification for what’s already out there but given the wild times in Hollywood, nobody should hold their breath on either of these two stars being in Fantastic Four until after production on the reboot wraps…if it ever starts.

  • Emma Corrin Confirms Villainous Role in ‘Deadpool 3’

    Emma Corrin Confirms Villainous Role in ‘Deadpool 3’

    In February, the internet learned that Deadpool 3 has added The Crown actress Emma Corrin in an unknown role. There were quite a few rumors making the rounds on who exactly she might be playing with some ranging from quite abstract comic characters to various Marvel Cinematic Universe connections one can imagine.

    In an interview with Variety, Corrin doesn’t reveal who they are playing but confirms that it will be a villainous role. Though, they highlight that when they met with director Shawn Levy, famous for his work on Stranger Things, they had zero idea what the role was because Marvel was keeping quite a tight grip on actual details, as per usual.

    I feel really excited to play a villain. I haven’t done that, and it’s an itch I want to scratch. I’d heard about the project but, classic Marvel, they couldn’t tell me anything about it. Absolutely nothing. Zilch. So I met [Shawn] being like, ‘I don’t know what this is about.’

    Emma Corrin

    They go on to highlight that they’re not much of “a Marvel person” but has had some history with Spider-Man and Black Panther. Though, they do go on that she believes “it’s amazing” and seemed to love the self-awareness of Deadpool.

    Hands up, I’m not a Marvel person. I’ve watched ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Black Panther.’ I was like, ‘Look, you’re gonna have to debrief me into this.’ It’s such an intricate world. There’s so much to it, it’s an absolute mindfuck. All the language and the Easter eggs, and this person is related to that person who did this, and this person came back and this person’s dead… it’s amazing. I really understand why it means as much as it does to so many people. It’s a phenomenon, and I feel really lucky to be part of it. Especially ‘Deadpool,’ because I love the fact that it’s self-aware, and critical of its own inner-workings.

    Emma Corrin

    We’ll have to wait quite a bit longer until we find out who they are playing, especially with the SAG and WGA strikes going on due to studios not paying their talent the money they deserve for the work they invest. It’s unclear when or how much they finished from production. As the director’s guild isn’t striking, Levy might be currently busy working on post-production and waiting to finish filming they didn’t get around to.

    Source: Variety

  • Sony Pushes Back its Fall Slate Instead of Paying Writers and Actors Fairly

    Sony Pushes Back its Fall Slate Instead of Paying Writers and Actors Fairly

    It seems like Sony is the first to cave. Hollywood is currently going through one of its most significant strikes as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have decided to strike as no fair deal was made by any of the studios to make their life actually livable. Now, the trend continues as instead of coming back to the table to discuss the industry’s future, it seems Sony has decided to push back the major releases of their fall schedule.

    The big push comes with Kraven the Hunter, which has now shifted to a release on August 30th of 2024, which was initially set to release this October. It seems they were mostly banking on Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s press tour to push the film; uncertain if that would actually help their next Spider-Man spinoff without the webhead’s involvement. Surprisingly, Madame Web is getting released two days earlier on Valentine’s Day of 2024.

    That’s not all, as the Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel has also been pushed further back to March 29th of 2024. It initially was going to have a Christmas release and had the lesser push even with the hope to wait it out until Paul Rudd is able to promote the project once the strike ends. They also postponed the Karate Kid reboot that was going to release in June next year to a December release.

    There are also some films that have now ended up in limbo. Blumhouse’s They Listen lost its August release date from next year. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has lost its March release, which was hinted at when reports pointed to a troubled production (even if the released film is quite a visual feast). Though, they surprisingly gave Venom 3 a release date, as it stopped production during the strike, as the film is slated for July 12th while Bad Boys 4 will release on June 14th. Gran Turismo is still set for its August release.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Coming to Disney Plus Next Month

    ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Coming to Disney Plus Next Month

    Just three months after it opened in theaters, Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will land on Disney Plus on August 2nd. The film, which opened in theaters on May 5th, was director James Gunn’s final project for the studio before moving on to co-chair DC Studios and was received fairly well by critics, including our own Michael T. Ford III.

    After opting for short, 45ish-day theatrical runs for many of their MCU films, Disney has opted for longer windows with their more recent films before streaming them on D+. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hit the streaming service 82 days after release and fans waited 89 days before being able to stream Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania which is the same number of days it will have been when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 arrives on Disney Plus.

    After a rough stretch of Phase 4 and 5 films that included Thor: Love and Thunder and the aforementioned Quantumania, Vol. 3 was largely a return to form for Marvel Studios. Though it was a darker entry than either of its predecessors within the franchise, the film delivered one of the MCU’s most detestable villains in recent memory while giving some of the MCU’s most beloved heroes satisfying conclusions to their character arcs while also leaving room for them to return. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now available to buy on digital platforms.

  • Bob Iger Speaks Out on “Diluted Focus” Due to Marvel’s Recent Output

    Bob Iger Speaks Out on “Diluted Focus” Due to Marvel’s Recent Output

    Marvel is the big fish in the pond and for the first time in a long time, they had a project not quite reach the heights they usually do. While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania didn’t crack the $500M, it was more a warning of what was to come throughout the summer box office with one bomb after another that barely crack the $300M ceiling. Outside of a few exceptions, including Guardians fo the Galaxy Vol. 3, it has been rough all around.

    That still didn’t stop people from calling it the end of Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe; a common complaint throughout the Internet’s long history with the franchise. Still, Disney CEO Bob Iger is seemingly aware that their own ambitions became a focus point of general audience drag. He ends up discussing the performance of some recent releases, but generalizes the topic of how their streaming ventures hurt their theatrical output.

    There have been some disappointments. We would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better. It’s reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been.

    Bob Iger

    He ends up highlighting Marvel as an example by downplaying previous TV ventures and stating that audiences’ “focus and attention” was diluted. While the internet would make that seem true, there’s a big batch of people out there that generally don’t keep up even when there were just two or three films a year. Plus, there was the whole pandemic that changed many viewers’ behaviors and strongly showed its fangs this summer at the box office. The sudden increase in output to appears the Chapek era of “all-in streaming” strategy still played a role in this multi-faceted world.

    Marvel’s a great example of that. They had not been in the TV business at any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention. That is, I think, more of the cause than anything.

    Bob Iger

    One thing concerning this comment is claiming that Marvel has “not been in the TV business at any significant level,” which means Iger is mainly referencing Marvel Studios as an entity or generally forgetting the past few years. Their Disney+ output is far removed from the weekly releases of a 22-episode season that was Agents of SHIELD. The various Netflix series set the standard for many’s expectations of the current shows.

    That is also ignoring Hulu’s Runaways which ran for two seasons, the non-Disney productions like Legion and The Gifted. We also can’t forget Cloak & Dagger which ran on Freeform and we haven’t even touched upon any of the animated series or whatever Inhumans wanted to be. There was more output from Marvel at one point, and seems like an oversimplification of a post-COVID media world.

    At the end of the day, if a film is good but not worth a rewatch in theaters: why watch it in theaters? Their strategy to release films within 45 days created a new habit for viewers and ended up dragging their box office successes more than diluting viewers’ attention. Similar to how they milked their other golden goose on the streaming service and ended up hurting Pixar’s box office success long-term. It’s never that simple.

    Source: Variety

  • First ‘The Marvels’ Funkos Include Goose, Captain Marvel, and More

    First ‘The Marvels’ Funkos Include Goose, Captain Marvel, and More

    It looks like Funko Pops for the next Marvel Cinematic Universe entry is slowly finding its way online. While we still have some time before The Marvels‘ releases in theaters this November, it looks like a sneak peek of what’s to come has surfaced online. To be fair, these don’t include anything majorly new that wasn’t already hinted at in the trailer, but it’s definitely interesting to get a bit more from the project.

    As shared on Instagram by IG account funkochaseryeg, a new box set is unveiled that includes a Pop figure of Captain Marvel in her binary form. Not just that, but it also confirms that the kittens we saw in the trailer are indeed the children of Goose, who will definitely leave chaos in their wake; never double-cross a Flerken kitten. The box also includes Ms. Marvel and Photon Funkos.

    Goose seems quite dominant as part of the merch push, but that’s not too surprising. The feline was a standout in the first Captain Marvel movie and has been highly anticipated to return to the franchise since he puked out the Cosmic Cube. It’ll be interesting to see how they will explore the storyline with the kittens and if perhaps Goose has a surprisingly more active role in the film moving forward.

    Source: Twitter

  • New ‘Deadpool 3’ Set Photo Offers First Look at Hugh Jackman in Comic-Accurate Wolverine Suit

    New ‘Deadpool 3’ Set Photo Offers First Look at Hugh Jackman in Comic-Accurate Wolverine Suit

    Just recently, we had a first look at Ryan Reynolds‘ new Deadpool costume in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe threequel. As the entry was moving away from 20th Century Fox, many were hoping this meant we’d also get Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine to finally wear a comic-accurate costume of his own. His return gave many the hope that we’ll finally give the actor the chance to have one last go after Logan to be a bit closer to the comics.

    Luckily, the latest set photos from the production have finally confirmed that he will, in fact, wear the iconic yellow outfit from the comics. It seems strongly inspired by the Astonishing X-Men run and it’s crazy to see the actor actually wear a costume that isn’t just black leather or a brown jacket. Even X-Men: Days of Future Past only gave him some yellow highlights and remained true to the 2000s X-Men franchise.

    https://twitter.com/GeekVibesNation/status/1678400255652507651

    It is bonkers to think that he’s been playing the character for over 20 years and never had the chance to actually don the iconic suit. Deadpool 3 is the perfect time for his character to return and get that iconic look, as it blends the two worlds together in a potential multiversal storyline. Plus, it would’ve been a shame for these two giants not to meet with the entire Deadpool franchise building up to their eventual meeting.

    Source: Twitter

  • James Gunn Teases a ‘Legendary Star-Lord’ Solo Project

    James Gunn Teases a ‘Legendary Star-Lord’ Solo Project

    A post-credits scene attached to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 promised that while Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord had moved on from the Guardians and returned to Earth following his adventures with the Guardians, his time in the MCU was not up. Fans wondered and speculated about what might be next for the legendary outlaw and while most assumed that the character would show up in one or both of the Avengers films slated for the Multiverse Saga, there was also some chatter about a solo project for the character and as it turns out, that might just be in the works.

    After a successful two-month run at the box office, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now available on digital platforms complete with all the extras and bonuses that accompany home releases including director commentary. During the post-credit scene that features Pratt’s Quill reuniting with his Terran grandfather, director James Gunn revealed that he and Pratt had talked about a potential Star-Lord solo film.

    Oh, but not quite over. We always want to give somebody a little something special. And Chris and I, forever, have talked about how great it would be to be able to do a ‘Legendary Star-Lord’ movie, a story with Star-Lord on Earth trying to adapt to the environment of Earth in the same way that somebody else might try to adapt to the alien environment of outer space. He’s a fish out of water in just kind of regular water. So I can’t wait to see it.

    James Gunn

    Given Pratt’s star appeal and the fact that he’s one of the last headliners from the Infinity Saga not to be featured in his own solo project, it’s not surprising to hear that a Legendary Star-Lord film might be in the works. Though Pratt has made it clear that he thinks “it would be strange to continue Peter’s story without James,” the star also indicated he’d be willing to return to the role “down the road if something makes sense” saying he “would do it but it would really have to check a lot of the right boxes.” Just when such a project might fit into the MCU’s already packed and jammed-up slate and who would take the wheel now that Gunn has moved on to co-chair DC Studios are obvious questions. However, Gunn’s comments do seem to clarify that such a project is more likely to happen than not.

    Via: CBM

  • BREAKING: Jennifer Garner to Return as Elektra in ‘Deadpool 3’

    BREAKING: Jennifer Garner to Return as Elektra in ‘Deadpool 3’

    It looks like the rumors are true, as Deadpool 3 will act as a callback to the era before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was getting started. In a new piece by The Hollywood Reporter, they have unveiled that not only will Ryan Reynold’s film see the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, but we’ll also get an iconic character from a previous Marvel film. Jennifer Garner is back as Elektra one more time.

    For those that might not remember, Garner famously played the character in 2003’s Daredevil starring alongside Ben Affleck before getting her own spinoff in 2005. Her inclusion further supports the rumors that the story is going to feature a big multiverse storyline, as a way to build upon what we saw in Deadpool 2‘s post-credit sequence.

    Of course, Garner’s return opens up the discussion as to if recent rumors of Affleck being on set might also indicate that he’s set to return as well. Who knows if Daredevil will actually be featured and how exactly this multiversal storyline will connect, but it’s definitely the perfect idea to make good use of Deadpool’s shenanigans as a final hurrah to that era before the MCU became the de facto franchise based around Marvel characters.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • First Look at Ryan Reynolds in Costume on ‘Deadpool 3’ Set

    First Look at Ryan Reynolds in Costume on ‘Deadpool 3’ Set

    Deadpool 3 has been quite busy filming the return of the Merc with a Mouth. While his Marvel Cinematic Universe future remains open, a lot of hints have pointed to it potentially further exploring the Fox Universe one last time as Ryan Reynolds is joined by former X-Men and iconic Wolverine, Hugh Jackman. While there was a random statement that production may have already halted, it seems things are still moving along at a steady pace.

    Surprisingly, while we still have to wonder if Wolverine finally gets his iconic yellow costume, Ryan Reynolds has been spotted on set in his Deadpool gear. Surprisingly, his costume seems pretty close to the original only the fabric might be made of some different material. Though, there’s also the chance that the color is simply popping a bit more on set than it would on the big screen.

    https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1676956683044794369

    Either way, it’s great seeing the iconic design back and knowing that Deadpool is on the horizon once again. There’s probably going to be a lot more 4th wall breaking, as the character realizes that he’s on a last hurra though his original universe. There’s a beautiful irony that the way Deadpool 2 ended, opened up for Marvel Studios to jump in and just go with it as a part of their multiverse shenanigans. We’ll see if they can keep the concept fresh after two other superhero properties explored it this year.

    Source: Mirror