Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Marvel TV

  • REVIEW: ‘Loki’ Season 2 Finale

    REVIEW: ‘Loki’ Season 2 Finale

    The reinvention of the God of Lies is complete. With a thrilling and satisfying finale to the second season of Loki, Tom Hiddleston has roundly addressed critics’ concerns (including my own) about how much could possibly have been left in the tank for a character who had already done so much. Hiddleston’s dedication to the character, a fantastic creative team that was fully dedicated to some ridiculous sci-fi concepts and held fast to their vision and a deep cast combined to provide 12 incredible episodes of streaming television including an astounding season (and likely series) finale.

    Though it won’t be the last time we see Loki, “Glorious Purpose” was a wonderfully fitting bookend to the entire series (you’ll recall that the first episode of the series was also entitled “Glorious Purpose”). Loki’s journey into mystery led him right back to where Season 1 ended and put him face to face once again with He Who Remains who, sort of unsurprisingly, revealed that every step of said journey–including his own “death” and all the crazy bits that went on in Season 2–where engineered by him. Having spent centuries trying to save every reality and totally recreating himself along the way, Loki’s refusal to take He Who Remains final offer as an answer leads him to make a choice that nobody, including himself, could have ever predicted. No longer the conqueror or mischief maker, Loki reanimates the dead branches of reality and sets himself about the endless task of giving life to others at the expense of his own freedom. Free will outside of the boundaries set by He Who Remains.

    (L-R): Owen Wilson as Mobius, Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15, Eugene Cordero as Casey, Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, Ke Huy Quan as O.B., and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Marvel Studios’ LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.

    As a finale to a season and the series, the episode lands because it ties up so many of the series’ threads nearly as neatly as Loki ties together the branched timelines. Loki is the MCU’s longest experiment with longform narration to date and it’s a tall task for any writing room to keep everything together over the course of nearly 12 hours of a series. Thankfully despite series creator Michael Waldron moving on, the studio maintained continuity by handing the keys to the show to one of Season 1’s most key contributors, Eric Martin. Resultant of that, Season 2 picked up where Season 1 left off, took the audience on a wild romp and then dropped them right back off in a familiar place with the main character in a familiar predicament.

    For as complicated as the sci-fi weirdness of the show seemed to be, in the end, Loki remained a fairly straightforward character study of one of the MCU’s greatest characters. And powered by one of the MCU’s greatest talents in Hiddleston, Loki became the warm light for all mankind to share. In that regard, Loki was more than just a series that maintained continuity over 12 episodes; it was a reverential ode to every beat that has made the character so popular since he first appeared in 2011’s Thor. In just about every way, Loki is the MCU’s “Breaking Good” full of all the things that make stories great. Perhaps, in his big chair at the end of time, this was a story written by the God of Stories himself.

  • Marvel Studios Unveils New ‘Spotlight’ Brand for

    Marvel Studios Unveils New ‘Spotlight’ Brand for

    Here’s a rather fascinating surprise. It looks like Marvel Studios was tired of people complaining about what is and isn’t part of the mainline storyline and has established a new brand. As the internet complains about fatigue and “filler” in the build-up towards the grander storyline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems they decided to establish a “Marvel Spotlight” with a brand new fanfare composed by Michael Giacchino. Its name is inspired by the anthology comic book series from 1971 and gives them the opportunity to explore smaller stories without the weight of “having to watch it all” the internet claims.

    Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum shared the following on the new branding:

    Marvel Spotlight gives us a platform to bring more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen, and in the case of Echo, focusing on street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity. Just like comics fans didn’t need to read Avengers or Fantastic Four to enjoy a Ghost Rider Spotlight comic, our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story.

    Brad Winderbaum

    You can listen to the fanfare here:

    It makes sense and gives people the opportunity to be a bit more selective in what is or isn’t relevant. Ironically, it seems that the “homework” accusations are technically solved with this but it does expect that people are informed of what exactly this branding means. In a way, this is also their version of the Marvel Knights branding used in the comics to introduce darker, more grounded storylines. We’ll see how they use it in the future.

    Source: Marvel

  • Marvel Studios’ ‘Echo’ Series to Change Echo’s Powers

    Marvel Studios’ ‘Echo’ Series to Change Echo’s Powers

    Surprising everyone: the first trailer for the next Disney+ series Echo has dropped. It dropped in quite a fashion, as not only is it now a Disney+ and Hulu simultaneous release, but it’s also going to be Marvel Studios’ first TV-MA release. So, we’ll have to wait for its binge-release in January to see if the story delivers on the MA promise.

    In a small interview ahead of its release, director Sydney Freeland also teased that this version of the character might be quite a bit different from the comics. Echo was famous for her ability to copy anyone’s ability, which made her a formidable fighter against characters like Daredevil. It seems they have other plans for her according to the director.

    Her power in the comics is she can copy anything, any movement, any whatever. It’s kind of lame. I will say, that is not her power.

    Sydney Freeland

    Details are still scarce on what exactly her new power set might be; if there even will be one but it’s definitely interesting that they are trying to head into a new direction with the character. We’ll see if we get some teases in the coming months. A January release is kind of fitting given it’s a sequel to Hawkeye, which was released in December.

    Source: Variety

  • REVIEW: ‘Loki’ Episode 5 Shows the Power of the Longform Narrative

    REVIEW: ‘Loki’ Episode 5 Shows the Power of the Longform Narrative

    As Loki nears the completion of its second season, it continues to stand as the nonpareil of what Marvel Studios television was initially intended to be and should endeavor to continue to be. Thanks in no small measure to the continued brilliance of Tom Hiddleston, the show continues, in modern parlance, to slap, slay and dish out weekly bangers. While it’s illogical, even preposterous, premise all but guarantees it’s not for everybody, Loki continues to embrace its place as a true sci-fi show and seems with each passing episode to submerge further into those depths. To that end, it’s no surprise that Season 2’s fifth episode, “Science/Fiction” turned out not only to be the most convoluted and nonsensical entry to date but also one of the series’ best and maybe one of Marvel Studios’ best episodic efforts.

    As the penultimate episode of Season 2, “Science Fiction” does what penultimate episodes do. It makes real the consequences of the season’s ongoing concerns about the stability of the Temporal Loom which finally gave out in Episode 4’s cliffhanger. The destruction of the Loom, which refines raw time into the timelines where people live their lives, resulted in both the destruction of the TVA and, as revealed in Episode 5, the destruction of those timelines. When the Loom isn’t Looming, entire realities and their inhabitants are reduced to spaghetti, something that not even Sylvie, the colder-hearted Loki Variant, can abide. The loss of the Temporal Loom also puts Loki back in a familiar predicament as his time-slipping, thought to have been remedied in the season’s first episode, resumes albeit with an interesting twist as he bops about to different realities where familiar faces from the TVA are living their lives. By episode’s end and with the help of Ke Huy Quan’s A.D. Doug, PhD, Loki is empowered to control time-slipping, creates a bare-bones TVA and puts himself on the path to make an effort to save all of reality in the Season 2 finale. Job well done.

    (L-R): Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15, Owen Wilson as Mobius, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Eugene Cordero as Casey, and Ke Huy Quan as O.B. in Marvel Studios’ LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.

    However, as part of Marvel’s longest longform episodic narrative to date, “Science/Fiction” serves as a linchpin not only for Season 2 but for the series as a whole. Season 2 head writer Eric Martin’s presence as a key contributor to Season 1 allowed for continuity of the creatives behind the series which means that the big ideas from the first six episodes are far from forgotten. Indeed, “Science/Fiction” may have just put Loki and Sylvie right in the same boat in which they found themselves when they met He Who Remains in the Citadel at the End of Time. In that meeting, He Who Remains offered the pair the power to be curators of the Sacred Timeline as his replacement as the man behind the curtain of the TVA. By assembling an all-new, all-different team and learning to slip time at will, Loki has put himself in position to prevent the destruction of the TVA (man, the time wimey stuff here is so fun–and painful–to think through) and, with no leadership left to speak of, take control. Take a bow, Al Ewing, as Loki is about to become the God of Stories.

    There is, however, one fairly large question left to ponder as we wait for Episode 6: is Loki really writing this or any other story? Should Loki end up in charge of the TVA, isn’t that right where He Who Remains wanted him? Of course, as the God of Stories, Loki may somehow find a way to use Victor Timely’s Multiplier to allow the newly branched timelines to continue on but if not, if the decision is made keep all of reality intact by refining time back into the Sacred Timeline, won’t He Who Remains have accomplished exactly what he wanted? While he’s not the most trustworthy narrator, He Who Remains made it very clear that he was the architect of Loki’s existence and it was through his machinations that Loki ended up in the Citadel in the first place. As this Variant of Loki who has come so far on his road to redemption finally finds himself on the precipice of becoming the hero of all time, always, would Marvel Studios dare take his agency from him and reveal that he’s simply been He Who Remains marionette all along? With one episode left to go, it looks like we’ll all find out together just how much of this story has truly been written for Loki and how much has been written by him.

  • ‘She-Hulk’s Budget Ballooned Up to $25M Per Episode

    ‘She-Hulk’s Budget Ballooned Up to $25M Per Episode

    There are many discussions surrounding what is going on with Marvel. While some believe they have lost their edge, it’s hard to deny (even if the web tries) that recent events shook the entire industry in an unprecedented way. What seemed like a straight-forward march into 2020 ended up derailing an entire industry for years to come. As such, costs were exploding beyond what you’d usually see with shows, especially in a streaming war to produce the best “content” possible (even if that wording has soured quite a bit in the industry).

    She-Hulk, Attorney at Law was one of the shows that seemingly suffered, as in a new Variety report they claim that a single episode would end up being more expensive than even the final episodes of Game of Thrones. However, it’s not surprising given just how big Marvel was that they’d invest heavily to promote the streamer as much as possible, especially with a purely CG character as part of the cast and we know that Marvel has a bad habit of generally reshooting many sequences leading to more CG work.

    It definitely isn’t a good sign if their costs continue to pile up and who knows if the current strikes also affected the 2024 releases. We may not know until next year, but it wasn’t a secret that the Disney+ shows cost a pretty penny, especially grounded shows like Secret Invasion saw its costs balloon during production in recent reports.

    Marvel Studios wasn’t quite prepared to start a new venture like long-form storytelling and then getting hit by a pandemic that completely threw everyone off. We’re still feeling the aftermath of that time as it was still just under a year ago that we were living it. Now, we are also facing strikes that are redefining the entire industry, at this point while Marvel is certainly facing shaky grounds, it’s not something that seems specific to them looking at how few films performed in 2023.

    Source: Variety

  • Marvel Studios’ Daredevil’ Series Finds Its New Showrunner and Directors

    Marvel Studios’ Daredevil’ Series Finds Its New Showrunner and Directors

    It’s been a wild ride for Disney+ and Marvel Studios. Now that the WGA regulations are in place based on the new deal, the studio’s head writer concept has been scrapped to return to a more traditional showrunner method. The Punisher’s Dario Scardapane is seemingly taking over as showrunner for the Daredevil: Born Again series (uncertain if that name will remain) and is joined by the directing duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who are making quite a name for themselves with their work on the Loki Season 2 episodes that are getting quite a bit of social media attention.

    The series was filmed in New York but after it was paused due to the strikes, it seemed that Marvel Studios wasn’t quite satisfied with what they got and original head writers Matt Corman and Chris Ord left the project. Given the character’s history with the Netflix series considered one of the best adaptations, it’s no surprise that they are trying to make sure that this one truly sticks the landing. Benson and Moorhead are attached to direct the new episodes to finish out the first season but no one knows how much they will overhaul the entire show.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Marvel Studios ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Getting a Creative Retooling

    Marvel Studios ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Getting a Creative Retooling

    As Marvel Studios looks to completely overhaul how it produces its streaming series, one of its most anticipated projects is getting a complete creative retooling. According to a new report from THR’s Borys Kit, the creative team behind Daredevil: Born Again, which was announced at SDCC ’22 and began production earlier this year, will be entirely replaced.

    THR’s report explains that the lengthy shutdown caused by the WGA and SAG strikes gave Marvel Studios One Above All, Kevin Feige, and the executive producers of Daredevil: Born Again time to evaluate the work that had been done on the show and come to the conclusion that the direction it was headed in wasn’t one in which they wanted to continue. As a result, head writers Matt Corman and Chris Ord were cut loose along with the directors of each episode. While it’s expected that some of the completed footage will be used, the retooling will be significant and Marvel Studios is on the look for new writers and directors. The hope is that the new team will align better with the original intent behind all Marvel’s projects which is to respect the source material.

    Updating…

    Source: THR

  • ‘Loki’ is Disney+’s Second Biggest Premiere of 2023

    ‘Loki’ is Disney+’s Second Biggest Premiere of 2023

    It looks like the god of mischief remains a major player for Disney+ even if The Mandalorian still holds the crown. The streaming service is highlighting that the second season of Loki pulled in 10.9m views worldwide in its first three days. As such, it managed to have around 512M minutes watched. While Ahsoka was touted with 14M views recently, those numbers were a five-day tally which means that Loki is only behind The Mandalorian in 2023’s big number game.

    The first season still remains one of the most-watched series on the streaming service and the anticipation for a sequel season was quite high even if marketing was a bit more subdued. Though that is likely still more reflective of Marvel not trying to rock the boat too much given people’s ongoing discussions of fatigue surrounding the genre and franchise, but that didn’t seem to stop Loki one bit going into its sophomore season.

    At the end of the day though, it’s always difficult to say if these shows are breaking any records. The reactions to Loki have been more positive when compared to The Mandalorian’s third season. So, who knows if the coming weeks might help the show grow? There’s definitely potential and we still don’t know how big Secret Invasion was earlier this year outside of third-party analysis pointing to it being a smaller release when compared to others. So, we’ll see if Disney is willing to share any more data moving forward.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Synopsis, New Characters Revealed for Marvel Studios ‘Ironheart’

    Synopsis, New Characters Revealed for Marvel Studios ‘Ironheart’

    After debuting in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams is set to take on her own solo adventure in the Disney Plus streaming series Ironheart. While a new listing at the U.S. Copyright Office points to it being quite a while before that series hits the streamer, some new information about the series has come to light.

    Though it’s not set to stream for another 2 years, a new synopsis for Ironheart–along with some additions to the main cast–provides a little more insight into what to expect. The series is described as one “in which charming teenage super genius Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) returns from MIT to her hometown of Chicago in her iron suit and begins to unravel threads that bring danger and adventure to her doorstep.” While it doesn’t give away much, the synopsis does at least place the setting of Ironheart AFTER the events of Wakanda Forever, clearing up a subject about which there had been some debate.

    The filing also fills out the series’ cast a bit more though it’s not quite as revealing as a similar filing that was made for Daredevil: Born Again. Solo: A Star Wars Story’s Alden Ehrenreich is listed as Joe McGillicuddy which is almost certainly an alias or throwaway name as it’s widely believed the actor had been cast as Ezekiel Stane, the son of Jeff Bridges‘ Iron Man villain, Obadiah Stane. Manny Montana (Cousin John) and Shea Couleé (Slug) look to be members of the crew of Anthony Ramos’ Parker Robins with Couleé likely a version of Marvel Comics Ulysses Lugman and Montana a version of John King, the actual cousin of Robbins.

    Anji White looks to be portraying Riri’s mother, Ronnie, while Lyric Ross looks to be taking on the role of Riri’s best friend, Natalie, who was shot and killed in front of Riri when she was 13. The Many Saints of Newark actor Matthew Elam is listed as Xavier Washington, who seems to be an original character and may end up as a love interest for Riri. Interestingly enough, Regan Aliyah, who joined the cast in August of 2022 and was rumored to be set to portray Zelma Stanton, is absent from the cast list.

    Despite their efforts to conceal his identity here, there’s really no mystery to Sacha Baron Cohen’s “mystery man” as it’s been widely reported he will be portraying Mephisto. His presence–and that of the Hood–sets up Ironheart as a unique magic vs. science that should thrill fans when it arrives in 2025.

  • ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Gets a New Synopsis and Interesting Character Additions

    ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Gets a New Synopsis and Interesting Character Additions

    After getting off to a very public start of production in New York City, Daredevil: Born Again moved out of the eye of the public for some time before being shut down in the midst of the WGA strike. With the resolution of that strike and some good vibes being generated around a settlement of the SAG strike, the big wheel is starting to spin again at Marvel Studios and some new information about the anticipated series has come to light.

    Thanks to the discovery of a US Copyright filing, a new synopsis for the Disney Plus streaming show has been made public as well as some incredibly interesting additions to the cast.

    In the filing, Daredevil: Born Again is described as a story that sees “longtime rivals Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) try to leave behind their darker alter-egos to serve the people of New York only to have their pasts catch up to them.” Given all the uncertainty about just how this series ties to Netflix’s Daredevil, it’s eye-catching to see Murdock and Fisk described as “longtime rivals.”

    The synopsis may be the least interesting bit of information found in the filing, however, as it not only confirms quite a few rumored castings but also reveals several actors and characters with major Marvel Comics ties. Confirmed are the castings of Margarita Levieva as Heather Glenn and Nikki M. James as Kristen McDuffie, each of whom was a love interest of Murdock’s in the Marvel Comics. Of major interest is the listing of Michael Gandolfini as a character named Daniel Blade, Arty Froushan as Buck Cashman and Genneya Walton as BB Urich.

    It has been rumored that Gandolfini is playing a young Wilson Fisk in flashbacks and “Daniel Blade” is not an existing Marvel Comics character, so there could be some alias work at play there. While Buck Cashman, a superpowered government special operative, has over 30 appearances as a supporting character in Daredevil comics, the most interesting name of the group is BB Urich. While there’s no BB Urich in the pages of Marvel Comics, it’s possible that Walton could be playing the daughter of Ben Urich, one of Daredevil’s most important supporting characters in the comics who was played by Vondie Curis-Hall in the Netflix Daredevil series. Urich was killed by Kingpin in that series so if Walton were to be playing his daughter, her inclusion may well line up with the idea of Fisk’s past catching up with him.

    Whatever the case, the filing also indicates the show isn’t expected to stream until January 2025 at the earliest which means fans will have a long wait to find out exactly what’s going on in Daredevil: Born Again.