During Marvel Studios’ Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 it was announced that the Thunderbolts feature film would be the final chapter of the MCU’s Phase 5. However, as the script moved on from Pearson to multiple different writers, the film found itself bounced down the line and, as Marvel Studios reshuffled its entire slate, it’s now on track for a 2025 release.
The team’s full (?) line-up was announced in September 2022 at D23. Julia Louis-Dreyfus returns as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, with Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, and Hannah John-Kamen also reprising their characters from previous projects. Steven Yeun was cast as Robert Reynolds/Sentry but left the project before its 2024 start of production. In January 2024, Yeun dropped out of the film and was replaced by Lewis Pullman. In late January 2024, Geraldine Viswanathan joined the cast, replacing Ayo Edebiri in a supporting role.
On March 27th, 2024, Florence Pugh posted a behind-the-scenes look at the film to social media and revealed that the film’s title had been changed to Thunderbolts*. At the time, no information was provided about what the added asterisk might mean.
Cast
Julia Louis-Dreyfusas Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
Florence Pughas Yelena Belova / Black Widow
Lewis Pullman as Roberty Reynolds/Sentry
Sebastian Stanas James “Bucky” Barnes/Winter Soldier
In considering what it would take to set Marvel Studios Nova film apart from its prior Cosmic offerings and prepare Richard Rider to ascend as the studios greatest Cosmic hero, I’ve found myself challenged over the past several days. The character of Richard Rider isn’t hard to crack, but there’s more to a film than its lead. Instead of trying to write up a script (I’m no script writer), I’m instead going to try to roll out a series of pieces explaining how I would chose to tackle some of these challenges I’ve encountered while imagining the Nova film.
In Part 1 (which you can read right here), I took a crack at solving the problems surrounding the Xandarian Worldmind, the Nova Force and Richard’s kid brother, Robbie. In Part 2 (which you can read right here) I tackled a whole new set of problems surrounding the Human Rocket including his origin, why he wasn’t around during the events of Avengers: Endgame and what it is about him that makes him human enough to make mistakes and learn from them. Part 3 (which you can read right here) took a step back from the main plot to set up the story around the story and introduce Recorder 451, the bard of Rider’s legend. Part 4 (which you can read right here) introduced the film’s antagonists in the treasonous Super Novas and set up the long game of the MCU with a few surprising character introductions.
Saving Rich’s story for the end is a little odd and this series has certainly been very non-linear, so hopefully after reading this you’re able to piece the film together in your head. Rich’s hero’s journey is going to begin in 2023 when the Hulk snapped him, along with everyone else back to life. Many of you will remember from Part 2 that Rich was snapped away by Thanos shortly after putting on the helmet of Rhomann Dey and briefly interfacing with the Worldmind. Much like we saw in Spider-Man: Far From Home, Rich is going to pop back up right were he was when he disappeared and jump right back into that uncomfortable interface with the Worldmind. I envision this as some pretty serious psychological trauma. While it would take Rich time to notice the changes around him, his connection to the Worldmind means he’s uploading 5 years of pretty horrible news instantaneously. As soon as his helmet restores the connection to the main node, Rich’s mind is overloaded with information. As it hits him, he begins to panic and experience some very real anxiety and it’s now that we hear the Worldmind say for the first time, “Richard, it is critical you pay attention at this time” before Rich passes out in the street.
Rich is awakened shortly by the Worldmind and once he begins to hear the voice again, he quickly removes the helmet and, full of the knowledge that he has been gone for 5 years, heads for home unsure of what he’ll find. Try to think of his race home as similar to Luke Skywalker heading back to his home, only when Rich gets there his parents aren’t on fire. However, when he bursts through the door, the first person he sees is his brother, Robbie, now 17 years old, just like Rich. The sweetness of the reunion with his family is made bitter to Rich as he he hears all about Robbie’s accomplishments, including his acceptance into MIT and his work on quantum computers. Though they are all happy to see each other, Rich begins to believe that everyone moved on just fine without him and it begins to chip away at his already fragile mental state. Though there’s some tension with Robbie, Rich is proud of him and once he describes what’s happening with the alien helmet, Robbie begins to inspect it. After putting it on himself, he becomes aware that he’s dealing with a quantum node and thus becomes, as you’ve read in other parts, a huge part of Rich’s story and takes his first steps into his own.
The rest of the first act of the film will see Rich continue to struggle to reclaim his life on Earth while experimenting with the helmet. Though initially hesitant, given the fact that putting on the helmet allows Worldmind to interface directly with his brain, Rich grows comfortable with the conversation and with the powers granted to him. After briefly flirting with doing some superhero stuff on Earth, including teaming up with Spider-Man, the call to adventure of heading into space with the ability to prevent the type of invasions Rich experienced in the past is too much to turn down and Rich heads to Xandar courtesy of our first Nova stargate!
On the way to Xandar, Worldmind downloads the history of the Nova Corps into Rich dating all the way back to the first Nova Prime, Tanak Valt. Aware that Rich will be put at ease by meeting more human looking members of the corps, Worldmind arranges for him to be met by Centurion Gabriel Lan and his first officer, Denarian Pyreus Kril, who we first met in Part 4 and who both have their own destinies ahead of them as Air-Walker and Firelord, Heralds of Galacuts! Lan and Kril will pass Rich off to the Corpsman responsible for his initiation: Millennian Qubit. Qubit will introduce Rich to his fellow new recruits: the Rigellian Tana Nile, the Kakarantharan Fraktur, the Mephistoid Morrow, the Shi’ar Malik Tarcel and the blue-skinned Kree Ko-Rel that Rich can’t quite seem to take his eyes off of.
Top, left to right: Gabriel Lan, Pyreus Kril, Ko-Rel, Tana Nile Middle, left to right: Fraktur, Qubit, Morrow, Malik Tarcel
It’s incredibly important that Rich is the only human in the group. I want his interactions with his core group to feel strange to the audience so that we understand what Rich is feeling. I think it’s important to flip the sci-fi script here and rather than have the aliens follow the “oh another stupid human” trope, have Rich struggle with their acceptance of him. Also, as we follow the archetypes of the hero’s journey, Ko-Rel plays the innocent temptress and it’s his attraction to her that begins to break down the walls of his xenophobia. While the core team will go forward with Rich, you might remember from Part 4 that they don’t all make it. Ko-Rel and Qubit are on the 6-man team that take the mission to Cygnet VII along with Rich, Nile, Lan and Krill and, unfortunately, neither of them make it back. The rest of Rich’s team will arrive as part of the huge strike team that finally takes out the Super Novas after Rich disables their hack. Ko’Rel’s death will stay with Rich for the entirety of his MCU journey and, as in the comics, she will become the avatar of the Worldmind when Rich interacts with it in person.
After surviving the adventure, Rich’s takes the final step of the hero’s journey, the return home. A very different person from when he left just a few short weeks earlier, Rich has the joyful reunion he should have had with his family when he first saw them post-snap. He and Robbie reunite and share a much more brotherly hug. Rich gives Robbie the helmet and as he interfaces with Worldmind we see a broad smile emerge on his face: Robbie is going to space (but you read Part 4 and you already knew that). After being briefly home, Rich and Robbie board the Way-Opener and head back to Xandar destined to take on the Universal Church of Truth, the Fraternity of Raptors and the Annihilation Wave.
In considering what it would take to set Marvel Studios Nova film apart from its prior Cosmic offerings and prepare Richard Rider to ascend as the studios greatest Cosmic hero, I’ve found myself challenged over the past several days. The character of Richard Rider isn’t hard to crack, but there’s more to a film than its lead. Instead of trying to write up a script (I’m no script writer), I’m instead going to try to roll out a series of pieces explaining how I would chose to tackle some of these challenges I’ve encountered while imagining the Nova film.
In Part 1 (which you can read right here), I took a crack at solving the problems surrounding the Xandarian Worldmind, the Nova Force and Richard’s kid brother, Robbie. In Part 2 (which you can read right here) I tackled a whole new set of problems surrounding the Human Rocket including his origin, why he wasn’t around during the events of Avengers: Endgame and what it is about him that makes him human enough to make mistakes and learn from them. Part 3 (which you can read right here) took a step back from the main plot to set up the story around the story and introduce Recorder 451, the bard of Rider’s legend.
I’ll admit I lost quite a few hours of sleep in coming up with the villains of this piece. I had no fewer than 5 different options rolling around inside my head, but I ultimately chose the Supernovas.
If you are unfamiliar, the Supernovas are basically Novas gone bad. They found a way to hack the Worldmind and to gain access to greater power than it was giving each of them. Though eventually defeated, their super-powered black helmets lived on in the black ops division of the Nova Corps that became known as the Black Novas. If you’re a Sam Alexander fan, you’ll be familiar with the story and the black helmet and while I’m not going down a path that leads to Sam’s father Jesse Alexander being introduced in this film, the foundation is there for the story to be told at some point.
The Supernovas fit the Marvel Studios mold of the villains of the first film in a series being dark reflections of the hero. People get bored with it, but it’s an archetype that transcends culture and types of media. The idea that the heroes are facing off against similar characters allows the audience to think of how, had circumstances been different for the hero, maybe he’d be on the other side of things. Black Panther did this brilliantly. In this case, these Supernovas offer Rich, a kid who has struggled with his own perceived mediocrity, access to power, resources and spoils he’s never dreamed of. These guys aren’t bad guys, they’re fighting against a system that norms everyone, that doesn’t let anyone be any better than anyone else. Why should everyone only have an equal part of the Nova Force? This is the battle raging on inside Rich as he discovers these Supernovas and finds out what they’re up to. We all know Rich is a hero, here’s where he makes that choice.
Fighting the Supernovas also allows Rich to be able to come out his film as a hero without being the biggest Mary Sue in the history of films. You can’t introduce the helmet and the powers and realistically expect him to stop the Annihilation Wave in 2.5 hours. In fact, this origin film is going to see Rich stripped of the helmet for a while and have to survive on his own physical prowess (he’s been studying MMA for the past several years, remember). Obviously he’s going to get it back and we’ll definitely see some great shots of Rich using the Nova Force, but he’s going to win this battle through the sheer force of will riding on the back of that righteous anger boiling up inside.
In addition to the terrifying looking Mister Z’zz seen in the opening of the article, this team of Supernovas consists of Adomox, the mastermind of the operation; Titus, the cyborg muscle and the adorable Phlish, because we have to sell them toys.
Here’s how we get to the good stuff. The Nova Corps has been rebuilding since the planet was left in ruins following the attack by Thanos. The Worldmind was never a target, so it remains fully operational, but Xandar doesn’t exist as we once thought of it. By the time we get to see it in Nova, it has become a cluster of fragments held together through freaky space science, just like this great art from Annihilation: Prologue. In the 5 years that passed, the Worldmind hasn’t just rebuilt Xandar, it rebuilt the Corps. The Corps is now larger than it’s ever been and has taken an active role in policing the galaxy with active posts throughout.
When Rich arrives on Xandar and begins to really take in what he has become a part of (we’ll get to all that in Part 5), we immediately learn that there have been several outposts have been attacked over the past few weeks. Nova Corpsmen Z’zz and Phlish and Denarian Adomox are missing. Skrulls, who have begun to reemerge in various sects across the galaxy, are the primary suspects.
We meet Centurion Titus through Rich’s eyes and it’s not a good feeling. Rich’s xenophobia is intense and there’s nothing human looking about Titus. Shortly after their first meeting, Rich is greeted by two Xandarians who are much more human looking: Pyreus Kril and Gabriel Lan who Worldmind has sent to help Rich acclimate.
The Supernova plot plays out like this. Not too long after Rich is acclimated into the Corps, Worldmind assigns him to go with Titus and Kril as they inspect another outpost that’s been attacked. As they approach the site, they encounter what appears to be a stolen Nova Corps ship and enter into a little space dogfight while Kril stays on the planet to inspect. Rich, feeling the power at his disposal and the need to make an impression, leaves the ship to take on the ship on his own. Pretty cool fight, but the ship escapes as Titus has to save Rich and he is berated by Titus as they return to Xandar.
The third act is, of course, the big reveal and the big villain set piece. Titus led another team to another planet and has disappeared. A 6 man team, including Rich,Kril and Lan is sent to investigate above the Xandarian ship Way-Opener. As they come into proximity with the planet, Cygnet VII, their connection to the Worldmind is severed. They can no longer communicate with it or access the Nova Force. As they prepare to leave, a black helmeted Titus unleashes his increased share of the Nova Force on the ship, disabling it, before bringing it to rest on the planet. The crew is taken off the ship and their helmets are taken from them.
We learn that Adomox has learned how to hack the Worldmind to access greater power but it comes at the cost of the helmets of other Corpsmen. Some, like Z’zz and Phlish, are willing to give theirs up and join the cause, those who haven’t come along willingly have been disposed of. The third act will play out as sort of a mashup of Predator and Cliffhanger. The team is on the run, hunted by the Supernovas and cut off from the Worldmind (good thing Worldmind helped Rich and Robbie put together that super long distance communication device that Rich has and that Robbie uses to get a full on strike team to the rescue).
And so the final act becomes Rich having to survive, powerless for a while, until help arrives. Robbie and Rich are in communication throughout and Robbie determines he knows how the hack works and tells Rich if he gets a helmet, he can reconnect them to the Worldmind. A powerless Rich gets the jump on Z’zz and gets to show off some MMA moves after separating Z’zz from his helmet. At this point, Rich takes the helmet and gets his first taste of what the extra Nova Force can do (something you’ll want to be well aware of for the future).
Now powered up, Rich encounters 2 dead members of his team and a third (Nile) in bad shape. While tending to Nile, Rich makes short work of Phlish and then his makes his run on Adomox and Titus who have caught up with Kril and Lan and are giving them one last chance to join or become space dust. While Rich puts up a decent fight, he’s clearly not in the same league as Titus. He does get some “Han Solo shows back up in the Millennium Falcon” help when he’s able to blast Adomox, allowing Lan to pick up the helmet and use it in the fight against Titus. Lan takes a big hit, Rich makes one last run at Titus and fails and it looks like it’s over until Kril, Lan and the strike team of Novas, now all fully capable of accessing the Nova Force, take Titus down.
Rich is exhausted, but he held. Titus and Adomox survive and go to the Kyln located near the Crunch. Robbie, who geniused up some ideas, is brought to Xandar to work with the Worldmind to replicate the same hack and create the Black Novas. It’s a party. You can walk away from Nova knowing that Jesse Alexander could exist and that Robbie Rider could have an adventure of his own.
The Cameos
This doesn’t fit here, but it really doesn’t fit anywhere and it’s too short to have its own piece. In between Rich’s first trip with Titus and his last, Kril, Lan and some other Novas who you will meet in Part 5 take Rich to their favorite hangout: Starlin’s Bar. It’s very much an homage to the Mos Eisly cantina and Rich is going to be VERY uncomfortable. To add to that discomfort, Rich is going to bump into everyone’s filthy, degenerate troll, Pip, in the bathroom of all places.
Pip’s cameo is going to be taken directly from the pages of my own life story. When I was 11, I went to a Detroit Tigers game and went into the bathroom by myself. I can remember there being no fewer than 50 open urinals in the bathroom and I took the one at the end. Just as I started to pee, an old guy walked in, stood right next to me (huge violation of the code) and said, “So I guess this is where all the dicks come to hang out.” I didn’t finish that pee; neither will Rich. I can’t think of a better intro to Pip.
As Rich hurries out of the bathroom, we’ll meet our second cameo star and the Boba Fett of my Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rich will come face-to-face with Monark Starstalker.
Known to be in development for several years, Marvel Studios’ Young Avengers became a reality the moment Iman Vellani‘s Kamala Khan met Hailee Steinfeld‘s Kate Bishop in The Marvels.
In May 2024, it was reported that production on a Young Avengers film was expected to begin in 2025. Later in 2024, reports circulated that the studio had decided to retitle the project Champions.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Connecting the Imaginary Dots articles on Murphy’s Multiverse, basically this is for stuff we find, that is not officially confirmed, but are more speculative pieces based on other information and “proof” we are putting together to make our conclusions.
This Connecting Imaginary Dots may not have quite as much backup as my Erin Kellyman article linked above, but strap in people because I really think I’m onto something here too!
Let’s begin with a quite accidental find while I was a bit bored and looking for more news to share with you all. As you will see below, actress Fala Chen, who can be seen in HBO drama The Undoing starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant this Fall, has some rather interesting Marvel related follows.
More importantly, Simu Liu and Destin Cretton (star and director of Shang-Chiand the Legend of the Ten Rings, respectively) are mutual follows with Fala. Now of course actors can mutually follow each other, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re working together. But it made me look a little closer.
This post is from Fala’s Instagram on January 3rd 2020. At first it isn’t obvious but a few commenters on the post guessed it and then it became obvious by the symbol on the upper right of the screen. She is on an Air New Zealand plane. Likely traveling somewhere “down under.”
A check on her Twitter shows a link to the same post but a bit more information in the tags: #newjob, #actorslife
And to that I say, “Ah-ha!… The plot thickens!”
The following post on January 24th shows Fala preparing to celebrate Chinese New Year with friends, presumably somewhere in New Zealand or Australia.
Notice who liked it?
Another post below was a few days later but obviously the same dinner of dumplings being prepared. See who liked it again? And that comment?!
Hmmmmm….
Now do me a favor okay? Scroll up this page back to the image around the table. See the guy with the black t-shirt working on the *green* dough?
Those arms, those pecks…Could that by any chance be our upcoming superhero Shang-Chi, aka Simu Liu himself, helping prepare the dumplings? You can probably guess, I think it is!
Further evidence of her filming Shang-Chi or something there for an extended period include her arriving January 3rd but not seeming to leave until a February 22 post in Los Angeles (which director Destin Cretton liked), a Valentine’s day flowers picture which appears to be in a very nice cast trailer, and a post on February 12 talking about unwinding after a 13 hour work day.
Yup. Obviously this is not confirmed or official by any means but I would have to say an actress that is mutually followed by the star and director of a movie, travels to a far away place where they’re filming, stays over a month and a half, hangs out with the star, gets her posts liked by both, etc, etc… She’s probably working on Shang-Chi. And probably a significant role.
For an idea who Fala Chen may be playing look back at this Charles Murphy Exclusive back in January which stated that MI-6 agents Clive Reston, Black Jack Tarr, and Leiko Wu are being introduced in Shang-Chiand the Legend of the Ten Rings.
“A Chinese female, 26-39 for Wu”
Fala is a very beautiful, 38 year old Chinese born actress who, per her IMDb page, speaks Mandarin, English, Cantonese, and Japanese. This would most certainly be a perfect fit for Leiko Wu.
In considering what it would take to set Marvel Studios Nova film apart from its prior Cosmic offerings and prepare Richard Rider to ascend as the studios greatest Cosmic hero, I’ve found myself challenged over the past several days. The character of Richard Rider isn’t hard to crack, but there’s more to a film than its lead. Instead of trying to write up a script (I’m no script writer), I’m instead going to try to roll out a series of pieces explaining how I would chose to tackle some of these challenges I’ve encountered while imagining the Nova film.
The biggest stumbling block is elevating the Nova Corps from James Gunn’s mall cops to the high powered, intergalactic police force fans know and love. The answer lies (as I’m sure so many of you have considered as well) in the Power Stone. The conclusion of 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy saw the Nova Corps entrusted with the purple stone following Ronan’s defeat on Xandar. As far as we know, the Nova Corps had no powers and the Worldmind didn’t exist. For those of you you unfamiliar with the Worldmind, it is a sentient supercomputer that holds the entirety of Xandar’s history inside itself and provides the Nova Corps with a connection to the Nova Force. With no Worldmind and no Nova Force, there’s also no reason to make a Nova film, so how can we get there?
The answer, an answer that ironically enough will also provide a window to introduce Richard’s younger brother Robbie to the MCU, lies in quantum computing (do you guys put the word quantum in front of everything?). I’ll leave the fine details to the experts, but as it stands now, we Earthers are still in the early days of using quantum technology and while some don’t believe efficient quantum computers can ever be built, it hasn’t stopped people from trying. One of the biggest challenges facing those chasing the prize is the amount of energy used in the process. It’s not that the actual process takes more energy than traditional computers, it’s that it takes an incredible amount of power to cool the device. If you’re talking about building something on the scale of the Xandarian Worldmind, you’d need an almost endless amount of power, the kind that might come from the purple Power Stone.
The Xandarians are already an advanced culture, so finding a way to transfer and store energy from the Power Stone would be a relatively simple task for them; therefore, in time between the end of Guardians of the Galaxy and the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War when Thanos takes the stone from them, we’ll understand that they have found a way to transfer and store the energy, engineer the Worldmind and, given its advanced AI and the fact that it’s a collective of all the greatest minds (we’ll say that the Xandarians were forward thinking and had already thought to store the consciousnesses of their brightest and best as they attempted to find a way to build something along the lines of the Supreme Intelligence used by their enemy, the Kree) it has also found a way to become self-sustaining meaning (stupid plot hole fix) it doesn’t need the Power Stone to fuel is anymore. The Worldmind is a massive undertaking and it has advanced the civilization (maybe it would be akin to a Type II on the Kardashev Scale). Now that it has an essentially unlimited amount of energy, the Worldmind makes the move to militarize the Nova Corps.
In this scenario, as in the comics, the helmets of the Nova Corps the key. In the MCU, the helmets work as a conduit by actually interfacing with the Corpsmens’ nervous system. We’ve heard about Elon Musk wanting to put chips in humans’ heads to speed up the process of accessing the internet; this is more like putting your head into a chip. The interface would allow each Corpsman to have immediate access to knowledge that the Worldmind has, appropriate to their own station, and also serve as their connection to the Nova Force (which will obviously be purple now). The key to this is is transmission via quantum entanglement meaning the entirety of the Nova Corps, while wearing their helmets, become a quantum system. This is heavy science and, since it’s not yet been mastered on Earth, I suppose it’s science fiction. It’s complicated but it’s key to the audiences understanding of how Rider can do what he does and the connectivity of one Corpsmen to another will factor into things down the line, so the audience needs to understand it. Enter Robbie Rider.
Robbie Rider is the younger brother of Richard and, you guessed it, a genius. In the comics, Robbie was developing software and making money on it at a young age, so it’s no (quantum) leap here to have him on the leading edge of quantum computing on Earth in the MCU. The details of this will come in a future piece, but here is what you need to know about Richard and Robbie. Richard struggles with school and while threatened by his intelligence, he loves him fiercely and has defended him from school bullies all his life. My idea for this film will see a pretty major paradigm shift for Richard. He will become Nova just moments before the snap meaning we’ll see him in the helmet just long enough for him to make a connection to the Worldmind before turning to dust. During the 5 years he’s gone, Robbie continues on in school and becomes one of MIT’s youngest and brightest students thanks to his work in the field of quantum computing. When Richard comes back, it will be Robbie that helps him crack the mystery of his helmet and surmises that somewhere there must be a massive quantum processor on the other end, sending Richard into space and setting up Robbie for some adventures of his own down the road (who knows, maybe he’ll intercept the Datasong or something).
Three problems up, three problems down. Of course solving those problems leads to further complications, questions and confusions and you still don’t know how the movie starts, but for now we’ve retconned James Gunn’s mall cops, created the Worldmind, explained the origins of the Nova Force and given the audience the expository device it needs!
Now, thanks to a Murphy’s Multiverse reader known as Danny, we have an unprecedented look at Atlanta set that became Madripoor. The photos reveal new locations and give us a sense of the scope of the set. While it’s possible that these locations may just be Easter Eggs, there’s always the possibility that one of them may end up being a spoiler of some sort, so proceed at your own risk.
The first photo gives another, closer look at a location that first indicated to me that the set was indeed Madripoor. Patrons of mine might remember that in mid-December, before the set leaks confirmed Madripoor, I teased that there was a spoiler in one particular set photo that I had shared.
The above photo gives us a look at a sign for Stinger’s Strip House. It was this Stinger’s sign that first gave away Madripoor to me and that now, in light of the recent news of Marvel Studios developing a slew of new shows, might turn out to be more than a great, obscure Easter Egg.
During Jonathan Hickman’s 2009-2011 run on Secret Warriors, he introduced some appendices that included some “top secret” information about the team and a slew of secret bases kept by Nick Fury. Top on the list and indelibly etched into my mind despite never playing a big role in the series is Stinger, a safe house located in…you guessed it…Madripoor.
The inclusion of Stinger’s Strip House is either an incredible coincidence or an example of some deep cuts being added into The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Given what we’ve already seen from the production, I’m inclined to believe it’s the latter and, I think that if Stinger’s is actually one of Fury’s safe houses, it works nicely to move the plot along. We’ve all wondered just what the boys (Bucky, Sam and Zemo) are doing together in Madripoor; maybe now we know that they hit up this safe house while on the run (and they’re not running from who you think they are! Their pursuer was actually seen in those Daily Mail set photos).
The idea of Stinger’s being one of Fury’s safe houses is even more interesting when we consider that since these shots were taken, Marvel Studios has begun development on a Secret Warriors project meaning we might just get even deeper into Nick Fury’s world! All speculation of course but it’s really hard not to start connecting those dots.
In addition to Stinger’s, there’s one more location in Madripoor that I believe to have been taken right from the pages of the comics: the Brass Monkey Saloon. The saloon, which has also been called the Bronze Monkey, made it’s first appearance in Captain America #363, Moon Over Madripoor, and written by Mark Gruenwald whose run is clearly the basis for much of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. The Brass Monkey also popped up recently in Mark Waid’s Invisible Woman series and while it’s never been a major location, it’s a place where Lowtown’s shady characters assemble, punches get thrown and no questions get asked.
In the first picture above, you’d be hard pressed not to notice that the original sign of the bar was a brass monkey head. You may notice a similar, less subtle motif in this next set of exclusive set photos.
If that’s not an outdoor version of the Brass Monkey, then I don’t know what it is. It’s possible that the boys pass through here and may even come into conflict with some of Lowtown’s less desirable inhabitants; it’s also possible it’s just a very cool nod to Gruenwald’s 2 issue arc that saw Cap chasing Crossbones into Madripoor after he had abducted Diamondback. Either way, these photos show an incredible level of detail and preparation that went into a temporary set.
There are several more photos here that show a Casino, a tattoo parlor and do a great job of showing the fine details on the Madripoor set.
The level of detail and effort to build Madripoor into a multicultural crime den is incredible. We don’t know right now when we will see The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but for MCU fans who aren’t avid comic book readers, it looks like their introduction to Madripoor is going to be memorable!
I’m delighted to bring some positive Disney Plus/Marvel news to you all today, I’ve heard through a trusted source that WandaVision has finished filming after all and possibly VFX on the series is done as well. All that’s left is the editing (barring any reshoots, of course). Previous information was that there was still a bit of filming left, signs indicating that it had to do with references and changes to TheFalcon and the Winter Soldier pandemic storyline. But it sounds like it will be straightened out in editing, at least in WandaVision’s case.
What does this mean for when we might see the Scarlet Witch and her beloved Vision on our TV screen? Well, we may need to keep our feet on the ground a bit here, as it seems unlikely they’d air the show very far ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which is currently scheduled for release on March 25, 2022. There is also the matter of finishing up TheFalcon and The Winter Soldier’s filming, 3 weeks at least, before WandaVision airs. The shows were originally scheduled in a certain order for a reason, and if WandaVision has things that spoil TheFalcon and The Winter Soldier, even without the reference to the pandemic story line in it anymore, it is unlikely that WandaVision would be moved ahead of it unless there are major changes and reshoots to that show.
In other tentatively positive news, it was reported today via The Hollywood Reporter that the Czech Republic will now allow productions to resume filming there. The testing, guidelines and sanitation standards that need to be followed in order for everyone to be safe, however, would certainly complicate The Falcon and The Winter Soldier returning to finish up. No word yet on when they may.
Note: most of this was written in advance of today’s news. I had no intention of actually publishing it, but the news makes it seem fairly important now.
Every now and then I come across some information the veracity of which can be confirmed by a second source. What happens FAR more often is that I come across some information that while believable and from trustworthy sources, cannot be confirmed by other sources for various reasons. Typically, when the second scenario occurs, I move on and forget about the information unless, in rare instances, it turns out to be proven true somewhere down the road. For instance, on February 19th, I wrote this piece relaying some rumors I’d heard about Marvel Studios updating its Disney Plus slate; the next day, the news broke that a special Disney Plus event would be held in London on March 5th where it is expected that Marvel Studios and Star Wars slates will be updated.
Today’s news that Marvel Studios has essentially delayed their entire slate by one date (ie Black Widow is taking Eternals date while Eternals is taking Shang-Chi’s) makes this potential tidbit, which I referenced on my Twitter feed earlier this week, a little more relevant and gave me enough motivation to finally get back on the keyboard.
A thing I heard this week: one potential timeline being discussed at Marvel Studios is returning to work in September.
While the world is experiencing the historical COVID-19 pandemic, we are all waiting for news on our favorite distractions and, at this time, none of the news looks too good. As Marvel Studios has suspended productions all over the world, the heads have convened and began studying models that might allow them to determine when they can get back to work. One current projection being talked about in both Atlanta and Los Angeles is a September return to work.
Obviously this has a ton of ramifications IF IT IS TRUE. Eternals hasn’t completed reshoots; Shang-Chi hasn’t completed filming; Doctor Strange 2, Spider-Man 3, Thor 4 and all the Disney Plus shows will be pushed and there will be a tremendous domino effect that will see things moved in sequence (probably including the Disney Plus shows) and even off the schedule (note, as of publishing this actually happened to Ant-Man 3…sadness).
We’ll have to see if this turns out to be true or not, but it seems that, at this point, Marvel Studios is sticking to plans for theatrical releases for all their films and is willing to wait this out.
In anticipation of the continued spread of COVID-19, Marvel Studios has informed crew members via email that their current 4-week hiatus has been extended indefinitely. A copy of the email was shared with me and while I was asked not to share it in its entirety, I am able to share a few key points:
All active Disney Plus productions, which include The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision and Loki, are now delayed indefinitely with crew members being informed they “no longer believe a 4-week suspension is realistic” and that they will restart production “when the global health environment allows.” It’s worth noting that these are the only productions detailed in the email which means that there are no crew members currently working on other projects.
Crew members were notified that, as of April 3rd, they will no longer be employed on their particular project.
It is assumed that this indefinite delay is also in effect for all films in production as well, meaning Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings will be further delayed as well. Its impact on the production timeline of Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man 3 and Thor: Love and Thunder is unknown at this point.
Given the uncertainty around the spread of the virus, speculation as to the duration of the extension is foolhardy; however, it is clear that, contrary to popular opinion, work on WandaVision has not yet been completed. Stay tuned to Murphy’s Multiverse for updates on this developing situation.
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