Tag: Marvel TV

RUMOR: ‘The Mandalorian’, ‘Secret Invasion’ and Many More Productions to Shut Down for 90 Days Due to IATSE Strike

Just yesterday, reports were going around about a potential IATSE Union strike to ensure reasonable expenses and breaks for crew members. It was hinted that they were going to go on strike Monday, but a new rumor might point to it taking place as of tomorrow. According to Star Wars Time, it seems that the production of The Mandalorian‘s third season will shut down alongside other Lucasfilm productions. It seems that the plans for the company are to close up shop for around 90 days with 60,000 film and TV workers affected. They do highlight that there is a slim chance they might avoid a potential shutdown, but the chances seem quite slim.

There are also rumblings surrounding Marvel projects eyeing a similar development. So, we can assume the same will happen with other projects like the currently filming The Last Of Us, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, or the recently started Secret Invasion. There’s also the uncertainty of how it may affect post-productions due to VFX departments and editors. The latter may fall into IATSE Local 700 of The Motion Picture Editors Guild. Star Wars Time highlights that their source at the time was unsure. So, the projects like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, and other productions could also face delays. There’s also the question of projects that require reshoots within that 90-day window.

It’s an important step for the industry, as it faced many new challenges with the pandemic. We’ve seen discussion for fair compensation on many levels of Hollywood’s talent, such as Scarlet Johansson‘s ongoing feud with Disney over Black Widow. These actions ripple out to others and draw the attention of the industry to see how they may influence the future. We’ll surely keep a close eye on how it develops, but once the strikes happen we can expect quite a few delays of future releases moving forward.

Source: Star Wars Time, Variety, Editor’s Guild

October 14, 2021
New ‘Hawkeye’ Trailer Confirms Linda Cardellini’s Return

Ever since the first trailer for Hawkeye dropped, fans noticed that someone important in Clint Barton’s family was missing. As he commits to keeping his new protégé Kate Bishop out of trouble, he ends up facing the challenge of getting home before Christmas. We see his kids but Linda Cardellini‘s Laura Barton was noticeably absent. Of course, it led to a lot of speculation that she may not get featured in the series, but Disney+ had other plans and the latest trailer finally confirmed her appearance.

The new trailer doesn’t reveal too much new, but it’s great to get a confirmation on her return. She likely won’t have a large role in the series, but might likely appear in the beginning and end. It’ll be interesting to explore their relationship as Jeremy Renner‘s Barton faces this new challenge. The earliest concept art teased Kate on the Barton farm some time ago, but it’s uncertain if the new direction of this Die Hard-inspired Disney+ series.

The upcoming series will explore Marvel Cinematic Universe’s street-level heroes. It seems like the most down-to-earth take on a story, especially with poor Clint getting beat up quite a bit in the trailer. It’ll join other Marvel Studios dramas with six episodes planned. The premiere will consist of two episodes, which is perfect for it to end ahead of The Book of Boba Fett‘s premiere in December. It’s going to be a busy fourth quarter ahead of us.

Source: Twitter

October 14, 2021
Samuel L. Jackson Begins Filming ‘SECRET INVASION’

We haven’t hear much about Secret Invasion since last month’s report that Skrulls were hiding in London. Luckily, we finally have an update with the series lead now heading to the set. Although Samuel L. Jackson has been posting selfies of him and his cool t-shirts in London since August, up until this point he has used the hashtag ‘#themarvels’ with those photos. It hasn’t been until now that he has used ‘#secretinvasion’ on Instagram suggesting the beginning of his days on this set.

Secret Invasion will be Nick Fury’s 12th appearance in the MCU after he was last seen in the Spider-Man: Far From Home’s post-credit scene. Back then he was looking for his shoes after relaxing in front of a beach projection and telling everyone to “get back to work” while commanding a Skrull spaceship. With our recent reports on Kingsley Ben-Adir playing a villainous Skrull, it is intriguing to think that Nick Fury might be caught between his Skrull friend Talos and his evil brethren as they try to take over Earth.

It remains to be seen exactly what the mission of Fury’s Skrull spaceship was and how it will tie to Secret Invasion, but with cameras seemingly rolling on the limited series perhaps there’s an outside chance we might see some early footage at Disney+ Day on November 12th.

Sources: Instagram

October 14, 2021
The Biggest Moments in ‘WHAT IF…?’

Now that the first season of What If…? has ended, let’s take a look at just how big the show’s biggest moments were with regards to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

T’Challa Makes the Universe Better

In an unexpectedly poignant paralleling of one man’s decency in the real world, What If…? firmly proves that the mere existence of T’Challa makes the galaxy brighter and better, just as the late Chadwick Boseman did for ours. As Star-Lord, T’Challa vastly improved the conditions of the universe; preventing the annihilation of half of life by taming the Mad Titan and continually doing acts of kindness. The episode itself has Wakanda’s prodigal son stealing the Embers of Genesis, potent seeds that can repopulate millions of planets with life.

Strange Supreme is the GOAT

What If…? may have held back on tackling bolder premises but it certainly went all out in showing how powerful these heroes can really be. Doctor Strange, or rather, Strange Supreme, has the most vulgar display of power in the MCU yet during the season finale. Putting to use all the forbidden, arcane abilities he stole from various magical beings in Episode 4 and then some, Strange Supreme puts up a fight with a cosmically powered, vibranium Ultron in the most incredible way. The sorcerer shapeshifts, duplicates Mjolnir a hundredfold, gives everyone invincibility armor, and even swallows a galaxy-ending explosion like a pop tart.

Ultron Unlimited

Like Strange Supreme, Ultron gets a huge glow up in What If…?, allowing Marvel Studios to give us the true Age of Ultron the titular film fell short of delivering. Turns out, Ultron in his intended vibranium-Vision form, wielding all six Infinity Stones makes Thanos and his quest look like child’s play. Ultron achieves multiversal omniscience at the tail end of his extinction agenda, posing a threat unlike any other. It’s a shame that James Spader wasn’t available to give this incredible glow-up justice.

Everyone dies

The MCU has long been the recipient of the criticism that it’s too afraid to kill characters. What If…? rectifies that critique, albeit in a very inconsequential way, by killing our beloved characters left and right. They all get killed in varied ways, starting from Hank Pym’s atomic assassinations in the murder mystery episode and eventually escalating to Mortal Kombat-inspired fatalities in the popular zombie episode. No character has it worse than Tony Stark who dies more times than any other mainline Avenger.

Greatest Fights in the MCU

If there’s one thing What If…? gets absolutely perfect, it’s the fights. The scope and grace that the medium of animation affords these creators is nothing short of astounding. We get matchups that fans have been dreaming of such as Hulk vs. Wanda or Captain Marvel vs. Thor. The fights the creators come up with are so ingenious and creative that end up surpassing what the films have done in many ways.

The Winter Rogers

The anthological nature of What If…? makes it safe to assume that a lot of these stories are as good as done. The exception to that rule, however, is the Captain Carter of it all. Rumored to appear in live-action in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and confirmed to have follow-up stories in the second season of What If…?, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that the finale ends setting up her next big adventure.

The revelation that the Steve Rogers of her timeline is still somehow alive and in stasis in the Lemurian Star has big implications for her future stories. Could this be another spin on the Winter Soldier saga? Is Peggy destined to find love with Steve 70 years later?

The first season of What If…? is now streaming on Disney+.

October 10, 2021
The Pulse: Collecting the Biggest News of the Week of October 3rd-9th

Jake Gyllenhaal to Lead ‘Prophet’ Adaptation

Jake Gyllenhaal has his hands full. In addition to being the lead of the upcoming Oblivion Song film, we learned this week that he’ll be working with Extraction director Sam Hargrave to bring Rob Leifeld’s Prophet to live-action. Prophet is sort of a Captain America analogue from Image Comics and what’ll be most interesting here is to see if the character will have feet.

Ultron Bots and the Illuminati

A juicy rumor popped up this week that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness would feature some Ultron bots from another reality. It was quickly followed up by the appearance of some leaked concept art that furthers the speculation that the film will feature a version of the Illuminati and that Charles Xavier will be a part of that group. We know Marvel Studios was, at one point, developing an Illuminati series for Disney Plus so they are eager to introduce the group so maybe this is our introduction to the secret society.

James Gunn Back for More DC Action

James Gunn’s move to DC has been fruitful for both parties. Fans and critics loved The Suicide Squad and Gunn spun a Peacemaker series, set to debut in January, out of that film. Now the director says he’s got another project in the pipeline, though he’s not tipping his hand just yet. Certainly it’s not Krypto…

Agatha Harkness Spinoff Headed to Disney Plus

Most fans knew it was Agatha all along way before the song hit but the reveal that Kathryn Hahn’s character was a 300+ year old power stealing witch was still done well and left a lot of gaps to be filled in. Now Marvel Studios might be able to fill in those gaps in a new Agatha-centric series in development for Disney Plus.

Hello There!

A new rumor suggests that Star Wars fans will be reuniting with an old friend next May (May 4th is a Wednesday, afterall) when the streaming series Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts. Previous rumors had it in March (?) but a release on May the Fourth Be With You Day is pretty sweet!

October 9, 2021
‘What If…?’ Introduced Marvel Studios Most Powerful Character to Date

Infinite Ultron. Infinite Black Panther Killmonger. The Watcher. Marvel Studios first canonical animated series, What If…?, brought these incredibly powerful characters into the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse and turned them loose against one another. When it was all said and done, Infinite Ultron-who is now Infinite Zola Vision-and Infinite Black Panther Killmonger find themselves imprisoned in a pocket dimension by Strange Supreme. Given what we this morose version of Stephen Strange survived not only during this episode but also in his own, an argument can be made that Strange Supreme is the most powerful being in the multiverse.

Episode 4 of What If…? was one of the show’s highest points. More than almost any other episode, it refused to adhere to the formula of following the familiarity of the Sacred Timeline and branched out. Resultant of that, fans were treated to a look at just how dark the mystic arts can be…and how dangerous. Strange’s motivations are not intrinsically villainous, but they result in the catastrophic collapse of his reality leaving him the sole survivor in a pocket dimension prison of his own making. Of course, the power it took to create that pocket dimension and contain whatever was left of his reality would have been immense, making him a near omnipotent god-like figure. Given he had already reached a god-like level of Cosmic awareness that allowed him to identify and communicate with The Watcher, this version of Strange was set up to be a pretty heavy hitter.

Strange Supreme returns in Episode 9 and displays those god-tier powers throughout. He creates another pocket dimension in which the Guardians of the Multiverse assemble, casts powerful protection spells on the team, survives a barrage of Infinity Stone-based attacks, summons zombies from another reality, unleashes some terrifying dark magic counter attacks and, finally, contains two beings fighting over the aforementioned Stones in another, smaller pocket dimension which he keeps inside his own dimension. Strange Supreme is essentially a 10-year old boy keeping fireflies in a jar at this point, demonstrating complete control over his own powers and over the ultimate powers in any given multiverse.

Marvel Studios has often been accused of nerfing characters that should, according to the comics, be their most powerful. In recent years, Thor and Hulk have been “powered up” a bit compared to their early appearances and both Captain Marvel and Wanda Maximoff have emerged as contenders for the most powerful being in the MCU after their displays in Avengers: Endgame and WandaVision. This dark version of Doctor Strange would seem worthy of putting up a fight with any of them, including the incredibly powerful Scarlet Witch. Who knows, maybe we’ll see the two of them face off in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

October 8, 2021
New ‘What If…?’ Funko Pops Include Frost Giant Loki, Ravager Thanos, and More

Finally, the second wave of What If…? Funko Pops have found their way online featuring some of the supporting cast. In each of the episodes, not only do we meet a variety of new twists on iconic stories but also how a simple change alters the entire world. The new Funko Pops include Frost Giant Loki, Ravager Thanos, and quite a few additions from the finale. You can check out the new line of Funkos right here:

Coming Soon: Pop! Marvel – Marvel Studios’ What If…? Pre-order these Pops! today! https://t.co/2ljZOKmspB #Funko #FunkoPop #Marvel #Whatif @whatifofficial pic.twitter.com/s7sGoJyFhT
— Funko (@OriginalFunko) October 8, 2021

Ironically, we believed that Ultron was going to take on the mantle of Supreme Leader, but it turned out he was called Infinity Ultron. So, the inclusion of Killmonger taking on the mantle made us believe he may finally turn out to be him, but he’s also known as Infinity Killmonger. So, the Supreme Leader is very likely the Zola-possessed version of Vision, who doesn’t have an official name as of yet.

Source: Twitter, Amazon

October 8, 2021
Don Cheadle Hints at Rhodey’s Future Beyond Armor Wars

After a relatively long wait, news recently broke that Armor Wars had found its head writer, in Yassir Lester. It’s still very early in the process as Don Cheadle mentioned earlier in the year. He and Marvel Studios were still “talking about what that show is going to be” before hiring Lester.

Cheadle gave us another update yesterday at ACE Universe Comic Con. Not only did he mention a timing update having recently brought the head writer onboard but he also spoke about his excitement for Rhodey’s next stories:

I think the most exciting part is yet to come. I think we don’t really have a super strong idea who he is really, outside of that bubble of the Avengers, outside of necessarily his friendship with Tony, and now he’s gonna kind of be untethered from all of that. So it’s an opportunity to really kind of discover who he is in a way that we have not had before with concentrated time and focus on Rhodey and Rhodey’s journey and hopefully some stuff about his past and and you know teeing up some things about his potential future. I think those kinds of things were hinted at in an Endgame where where this character might go and the things that may be in the offing for him.

Cheadle also reiterated something he’s said a few times before: it is still early days in the development of the show so despite it being announced almost a year ago now, we shouldn’t really expect to see it anytime soon.

It’s very early in the process of Armor Wars, we just hired my boy Yassir which I’m very excited about. […] A great guy, a lot of great ideas but honestly we’re just really trying to crack the spine of what it’s going to be.

So it seems in talking about Armor Wars teeing up Rhodey’s potential future, it might suggest a future beyond that event itself. As a senior member of the Avengers without some close friends like Tony and Steve around, it remains to be seen whether he will become a mentor to other newer members or simply lead by example. Whatever the case, Armor Wars seems like it will show us the potential first step in a new path for Rhodey.

Source: ACE Universe

October 8, 2021
Director Bryan Andrews Discusses Paying Tribute to Jack Kirby in ‘What If…?’

The last 2 episodes of the first season of What If…?, Marvel Studios first canonical animated series, saw a significant ramping up in terms of action and big, frenetic fight scenes. Episode 8 saw The Watcher go God-mode and take on Ultron in one of the best battles of the series which also saw an iconic comic book aesthetic jump mediums to the MCU: the Kirby Krackle. In an interview with ComicBook.com, What If…? director Bryan Andrews talked about bringing the artistic convention to the series and honoring the man for who it’s named, comic book legend Jack Kirby.

Kirby often used the Krackle, or Kirby Dots, as a representation of Cosmic energy (and in Episode 8 The Watcher was giving off some big energy!). Comic readers might mostly associate the style with Kirby’s work on The Fantastic Four (as seen below) but the unique representation permeated his work and has been used in animated series and films before such as Ben 10 and Into the Spider-Verse. Andrews, who has worked as a story board artist for Marvel Studios for more than a decade, was thrilled to bring the effect to the series.

I just wanted to do it forever. And then I’ve always been bummed that they haven’t done Kirby Krackle on the live action movies, so I was like, ‘We’re doing it here, guys,’ and everyone was like, “Yay!” I think, now that we’ve done it and it looks amazing, I’m hoping that whatever weird thing that the visual effects people have been avoiding it for [is over] — I don’t know why they would. Come on guys. Bring it, bring it! So we’ll see. Maybe it’s a new era of visual effects.

Kirby’s influence has been felt more and more in the past few years of the MCU. Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok designs were very Kirby-esque and in just under one month one of Kirby’s most obscure creations, the Eternals, will be featured in their own film. It’s both wonderful and appropriate to see the Kirby Krackle introduced into the MCU via The Watcher, one of Kirby’s creations and a staple of The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine. Let’s hope the live-action crew take a cue from Andrews and find a way to bring the Krackle to the big screen in Marvel Studios Fantastic Four.

Source: ComicBook.com

October 8, 2021
3 More Potential Disney+ Spinoffs for Marvel Studios to Expand the MCU

The big announcement has come today that WandaVision is getting a spinoff that’ll focus on Agatha Harkness. It’s not the first show to spin out of an existing Marvel Studios property on the streaming service. Our first announcement came in the form of Echo long before Hawkeye even got a release date. The fact that a villain is getting her series opens up many possibilities moving forward, as it means anything goes. So, it’s the perfect time to explore other potential Disney+ series that could spin-off from past projects.

Taskmaster Protocol

Black Widow explored a rather unique take on the character of Taskmaster but still kept a small glimpse to further explore the character in the future. The fact it was referenced as a “Protocol” in the film left a lot of opportunities to further expand the concept without necessarily requiring the return of Antonia. We did play around with the idea of them exploring Tony Masters as someone who takes over the program. No matter what direction they take, there’s a lot of potentials to expand the concept through a Disney+ series. Each episode introduces a new threat that forces our protagonists to adapt and learn. Yet, each action comes at a price, as their memory starts to fade.

Goose Stories

Halloween is around the corner. We might get a special next year focused on Werewolf by Night. Yet, I would also love to see the return of our favorite Flerken. Captain Marvel’s Goose hasn’t appeared in the franchise since his introduction in 2019. While looking like an innocent cat, he’s an interdimensional pocket with Lovecraft-inspired tentacles ready to snap up its foes at any time. He deserves a Disney+ series that twists our understanding of what a Marvel story is. We find out he’s been living a normal life with a family in the United States. Little do they know, their connection to SHIELD makes them easy targets for some dangerous forces. Yet, they had a small little cat keeping them safe. Each episode could be a parody or tribute to a horror franchise. To give an example, they could explore a house invasion story, but they have no idea they’re about to face a very dangerous being.

Ten Rings

This spinoff idea seems the most obvious, as the end of Shang-Chi very openly hinted that the new generation of this organization will make a return. Meng’er Zhang‘s Xu Xialing took over her father’s base and added a new spin to the organization. The implications seem to hint at her fighting ring organization has combined with the world-dominating terrorist organization. The fact that the film’s post-credit sequence highlights that this organization will return highlights that they have a plan for them. So, the best approach would be to adapt it to Disney+. Not only does Xialing deserve time in the spotlight, but we could also see a new empire get founded. We can explore her dealings in the underworld that hints at other famous Marvel evils making a comeback. She may offer a closer window into a world we had no idea existed out there.

October 7, 2021