A new trailer for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will be coming our way soon, but from what fans have seen of the film so far, Marvel Studios is really leaning into comic booky looks for the villains. M.O.D.O.K. hasn’t been fully revealed yet, but nobody would mistake his look as having come from a “grounded” universe. More importantly, Jonathan Majors‘ Kang the Conqueror looks to have been ripped straight from the pages of Marvel Comics. The purple and green scheme and the blue mask seem to capture the otherworldliness of the character that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had in mind back in 1964 when he appeared in Avengers #8.
As fans wait for the first truly great look at a fully geared up version of Kang, a new piece of concept art will give them something to tide them over.
While Marvel Studios may miss the boat from time to time with the characterization of some of the characters they adapt for the MCU, their track record on character designs is much stronger. This look for Kang is another example of making minor and necessary modifications to the comic book look while capturing the essence of that look.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters in just 48 days!
The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts or, in this case, an X-Men fixture that Fox left on the bench.
The Island That Walks Like a Man
If you’ve been reading along throughout the 12 Days of X-Mas, you may have noticed that many of the characters from the first six days have something in common: they all first appeared in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1. Nightcrawler, Storm and Colossus were among the group of mutants Charles Xavier sent as an extraction team when two previous teams of X-Men disappeared on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The events of Giant-Size X-Men #1, which introduced the sentient, mutant island of Krakoa, were monumental in 1975, set in motion the events of Chris Claremont‘s iconic run on Uncanny X-Men and led to the modern era’s greatest X-Men stories in Jonathan Hickman‘s House of X/Powers of X run. Any self-respecting live-action adaptation of the X-Men must include a proper representation of Krakoa.
Hickman has displayed a penchant for devising clever retcons in his time at Marvel Comics, providing rich new history for characters as important as Apocalypse and Reed Richards…and he did it again with Krakoa. At NYCC ’22, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief C.B.Cebulski made mentioned an interesting bit of symbiosis happening at Marvel now that Kevin Feige has truly become the One Above All. According to Cebulski, the comic branch tries to stay “about 10 years ahead” (which seems to really mean 7-12 years ahead) of Marvel Studios and that timeline puts Hickman’s Krakoa retcon on track to be fair game for the studio right around 2026 which, coincidentally, is probably when the Marvel Studios mutant takeover will begin.
Fox really teed up Marvel Studios when they failed to use Krakoa in their X-films. Certainly, nobody could have predicted Maestro Hickman’s genius being turned loose and retconning Krakoa into one half of the ancient island, Okkara, that once was home to Apocalypse and his family before being torn asunder and separated as the other half, Arakko, was sealed away in another dimension. Whether the Marvel Studios Parliament chooses to introduce Krakoa as it was in 1975 and then develop the backstory or jump right into the new history of Krakoa as relayed in 2019, the reality is they have a can’t-miss character with a rich and fascinating history that truly relays the weirdness that is and has always been the X-Men. Of course, by bringing The Living Island into modern day, Marvel Studios gets the added benefit of easily working in one of the coolest and most underappreciated X-Men: Doug Ramsey, aka Cypher. Thanks to Fox and much like Ryan Day, Marvel Studios finds themselves on third base without having to have legged out the triple.
There has been an ever-growing distrust of studios and their handling of projects. While history does show there will always be moments when they have a hand in the trajectory of a project, it’s not always something that is done purely to worsen a project. There are moments when creatives simply have different creative visions, that drift apart like with the original Ant-Man and Doctor Strange sequel scenarios with Marvel Studios, but it’s not always the case.
Director James Gunn is currently working on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for Marvel Studios before heading over to his new job as the co-CEO of DC Studios. Everyone involved has been very open about this new future venture, and Gunn is always very open to just how things happen behind the scenes. With a certain group of people online having general distrust towards Disney, Gunn instantly denied any distrust brewing on Disney or Marvel Studios influencing his current work, or even any from the past.
No, they aren't. They've never touched any of the Guardians' movies. They movie's almost finished being edited, is in great shape, and Fred and Greg (my editors) and I are the only ones editing anything.
There’s always been a soft spot between online fans and Disney. Not that it is entirely unfounded, but Marvel Studios generally is a very different beast and most of its influences stretch from how the greater narrative of the Marvel Cinematic Universe stretches between projects. It’s a studio model they are open about, and Scott Derrickson left Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on good terms.
The only real fallout so far was with Edgar Wright‘s Ant-Man, which mainly results from how far the MCU came along since the original project was pitched. Wright’s original vision dates before the first Iron Man dropped and it seems that adding a few scenes into the story went against his vision, leading to the fallout. Yet, Wright has also openly stated recently that they long buried the hatchet and it’s not uncommon that projects simply don’t come together.
Warner Bros. has a far bigger history with its involvement on projects leading to some questionable results, such as the entire Justice League debacle. We still see the results of that today. Gunn goes on to highlight that interferences are commonly when uncertainty arises for producers, especially once a film or series has already been filmed and is being edited. Sometimes we barely even know if there was an issue, to begin with, outside of random rumors that come from third-hand sources. In the digital age, chaos simply creates a very different atmosphere and that is why there’s more distrust than ever before.
There have been many stories on what exactly the future has in store for Marvel Studios’ 2023 slate. We have quite a few projects initially mapped out with Secret Invasion, Echo, Loki’s second season, Ironheart, and Agatha: Coven of Chaos on Disney+. That is all on top of three films that would find their way into theaters throughout the year. Many have been worried about Marvel Studios trying to push out too much with rumors even hinting that they are rescheduling their approach.
A tweet by Marvel Studios UK hinted that they were still set to release those projects while rumors hinted at something else. Yet, it turns out that this tweet has been deleted adding to the confusion. Echo has currently been reported to get pushed back by the series’ showrunner as it would have to release before Daredevil: Born Again. Agatha was already hinted at a potential 2024 release but that tweet added the confusion.
It would make sense to dial it back for Marvel Studios as they finally caught up with the projects that were all developed around the same time window. Plus, Bob Iger also retook the seat as Disney’s CEO meaning we’ll see some new developments over at Marvel Studios with more control back in the hands of Kevin Feige. Whatever may happen in 2023 remains to be seen, but we may be looking at a very different Marvel Cinematic Universe once Phase 5 rolls around next year.
We’ve come to learn over the months after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ release that the film originally had many more cameos planned besides the already great additions we got. Among the many Illuminati members was the fact that Daniel Craig was going to play the role of Balder the Brave, a Thor stand-in for the multiversal group. We know that he couldn’t join the production and they ended up adding John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic.
Now, a new Instagram post has found a way online from Elizabeth Olsen‘s stunt double, CC Ice, who took to her personal Instagram account to look back at the filming of the brutal takedown of the team group at the hands of Wanda Maximoff at a rampage. In it, we get a good look at someone lying on the floor impaired by a sword. Going by the design, it’s clearly Balder the Brave.
For those wondering how there is a BTS image of him on the floor even though they couldn’t get Craig in the film, they used stand-ins for various roles before they could finalize who would eventually become a part of the production. It’s one of the results of the chaotic rumors being spread online due to how many eventualities they prepared for in case they could get some cast members to join the production.
It’s always interesting to see what may have been and it’s once again impressive how they made this team work together even though they didn’t film them all around the same time due to COVID restrictions. Plus, they managed to make the environment look as impressive as they did with the use of a green screen. It makes you wonder if we’ll get BTS images of other cameos that never made it into the final product.
The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts.
The Goddess
Fox’s mishandling of Ororo Munroe stands as one of the most egregious mistakes of the X-Men trilogy…and the second X-Men trilogy. In what seems to be a common theme, the Fox X-films chose to focus on the enormity of Storm’s Omega-level powers over delivering an appropriate characterization. The results: some flashy VFX, a line of dialogue that’s on the top of everyone’s “Worst Lines Ever Spoken in a Superhero Film” list and two very forgettable adaptations of one of the X-Men’s greatest leaders. The good news moving forward is those mistakes are simple to remedy.
Marvel Studios’ record of comic-accurate characterization isn’t bulletproof, but it isn’t anywhere near as assailable as Fox’s. MCU Steve Rogers is comic book Steve Rogers. MCU Tony Stark is, in all honesty, a more interesting version of comic book Tony Stark but still comic book Tony Stark. Like these two men, Ororo Munroe has the comic book cachet to lead an entire trilogy of solo films, should Marvel Studios be so inclined. And much like the two mentioned above, Storm could and should find herself in an ideological disagreement with another one of the X-Men’s greatest leaders: Cyclops.
Marvel Studios has time but they don’t have all the time in the world to tell all the great X-Men stories. One that seems right in line with what the studio has done in the past is an adaptation of the Schism arc. While that arc was about an ideological disagreement between Cyclops and Wolverine, Marvel Studios doesn’t adapt one-to-one, instead choosing some snazzy titles and making movies that have something in common with the comics but are also different enough to avoid comic readers being bored. Since the hope is that Marvel Studios does not turn their version of the mutants into Wolverine and the X-Men, a Cyclops vs. Storm schism would be something to see.
Ororo has evolved into an incredibly strong leader in the comics, one not even the gruff soldier Wolverine balks at taking orders from. Allowing Storm to grow into the role of leader over time and then challenging Cyke when he goes off the rails would both be in line with the comics and make for an MCU event film in line with Captain America: Civil War. Whatever the case, Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios Parliament have a tall order before them to give Ororo the respect she deserves while hopefully making fans forget about the less-than-stellar big screen iterations of the past.
Hardcore fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe rejoice…or get ready to be disappointed that all your hard work doesn’t match up with the Marvel Studios-endorsed official timeline of the MCU! Vanity Fair senior Hollywood correspondent Anthony Breznican, author Amy Ratcliffe and journalist Rebecca Theodore-Vachon collaborated WITH Marvel Studios to put together Marvel Studios The Marvel Cinematic Universe An Official Timeline, set to be released by Penguin Random House in September 2023.
The book, described as “the definitive, filmmaker-endorsed guide to the lore, timelines, and characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe“, is sure to cause quite a buzz. Given the vast, interconnected nature of the MCU, a true chronological order of the events within it has become tougher and tougher to track. Fortunately, the new book sounds like it’s not messing around, presenting a history of the MCU that dates all the way back to its in-universe origins!
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is vast, incredibly varied, and richly complex. Different worlds, different timelines, countless characters. This is the guide to that universe. Created in close collaboration with Marvel Studios, it will answer the biggest questions: what happened, when, where, and why.
Follow the entire story of the MCU from before the Big Bang to the Blip and beyond. Along the way, learn more about the evolution of the Iron Man armors, the hunt for the Infinity Stones, and the formation of the Multiverse. Want to know how many times aliens have invaded Earth, or the complete history of Cap’s shield? Look no further!
A treasured keepsake for any movie buff, filled with exclusive infographics, illuminating timelines, and amazing movie stills, this book will have pride of place on any MCU fan’s shelf.
The 320-page book, which will retail for $50 and will be available at Target, Walmart, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and more, and sounds like something Kang the Conqueror would have on his own bookshelf.
Chadwick Boseman left a legacy behind like no other and there was no simple task for Ryan Coogler and his crew to continue it with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. They made the difficult choice to have his character T’Challa pass on. Yet, the biggest challenge was how they’d decided to tackle this sensitive topic and they only knew that they wanted to explore “the transformative quality of grief and trauma” as revealed in an interview with New York Times.
We wanted to have an emotionally intelligent conversation. It’s about the transformative quality of grief and trauma. There’s this expectation with emotional trauma that you just need time. ‘Oh, give them a couple weeks off; they’ll come back to work and get back to it.’ But that person is completely different in some ways. You just don’t see it because the change isn’t visible.
Ryan Coogler
He goes on to highlight the decision to not have someone external being responsible for the death of T’Challa, as it would mainly lead to Shuri’s grief being directed outward rather than exploring her own emotions surrounding the loss.
If somebody else would’ve taken T’Challa out, Shuri would’ve looked for that person. We wanted it to be a situation where the only place to go was internal.
Ryan Coogler
There’s something fitting with the choice, as it also reflects the grief that everyone involved went through in how Boseman just suddenly passed away and that feeling of having no control. The script also became a way for Ryan Coogler to handle the loss of his friend, going through the same challenge that Shuri was throughout the film handling the ever-persistent grief.
Ben Affleck has gone through quite the journey when it comes to superhero or franchise films. The actor has made quite the name for himself throughout his directorial and acting career, but it seems he may still be interested in revisiting a new role within an established franchise. A new rumor is making the rounds online that hints at Ben Affleck potentially taking on a role in an upcoming Marvel Studios project and it’s quite an interesting one: he may be in talks to tackle the role of Dario Agger according to @MyTimetoShineH.
For those that don’t know, Dario Agger is actually a villain better known as the Minotaur and was a recurring antagonist for Thor. At one point it was even who Christian Bale was going to play in Thor: Love and Thunder before he ended up taking on the role of Gorr the God Butcher. The character had a major role in the War of the Realms event in the comics as well as appearing in the iconic Immortal Hulk series.
His potential addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe would open up some rather interesting possibilities. If this is a one-time appearance, it would be fitting if he had a role in the new Captain America film subtitled New World Order. Agger is famous for also being the president of Roxxon Energy, a company that has been a part of the franchise since the beginning hinted at through various appearances in the background. But, who knows if there might be another project in development where he might appear in.
The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts.
Kurt Wagner made his way into both of Fox’s X-Men trilogies and, surprisingly enough, was not characterized nearly as poorly as many of his teammates. In fact, both Alan Cumming and Kodi Smit-McPhee brought the requisite pathos to their performances to make the character memorable despite not really playing a major role. Fox did a nice job with the look of both versions and found clever ways to showcase his trademark BAMFing. However, one of the greatest shortcomings with Fox’s X-Men films was responsible for inadvertently giving Nightcrawler short shrift.
Though the character was created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum for 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1, the personality of Nightcrawler that comic book fans know and love was, by and large, the creation of legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont. In a 2019 interview with SYFY, Claremont described Nightcrawler’s core characteristics and inadvertently (or perhaps deliberately) captured the problem with Fox’s character.
The thing with Kurt is, in his heart of hearts, he wants to be Errol Flynn, he wants to be a swashbuckler, he wants to kick the living daylights out of bad guys with a sword. Actually with three swords, using his tail as well. And he wants to be a romantic lead, and he wants to save the day, and he wants to be friends with everyone.
Chris Claremont
While Fox’s X-Men films were certainly quite full of teams of X-Men, they never really felt like teams. Short of some cool scenes where the X-Men teamed up to use their powers together in some neat sequences, the writing often made the X-Men feel like a collection of individuals rather than the close-knit surrogate family they often were in the comics. For lack of a better counter-example, Fox’s X-Men never had the same family feel as James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. No character suffered more from this than Nightcrawler who, as Claremont said, wants to be friends with everyone.
Claremont, of course, is right. Comic book Kurt is a friend and sounding board to so many of his teammates it’s hard to pinpoint just which one he means the most to. Wolverine? Storm? Colossus? Kitty? While there’s no argument that he is Wolverine’s best friend an easy argument could be made that he means just as much to the others it’s only that Wolverine’s otherwise loner status makes his relationship with Kurt seem more important. As Marvel Studios begins to outline what’s sure to be an X-Men universe within a universe, establishing a greater sense of family within the teams of X-Men should be a priority allowing for a truer portrayal of Nightcrawler’s greatest power: his love for his friends.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
This website uses cookies
Websites store cookies to enhance functionality and personalise your experience. You can manage your preferences, but blocking some cookies may impact site performance and services.
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
30 days
These cookies are needed for adding comments on this website.
Name
Description
Duration
comment_author_email
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author_url
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions.
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
Marketing cookies are used to follow visitors to websites. The intention is to show ads that are relevant and engaging to the individual user.
Pinterest Tag is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic.
