Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: MCU

  • Richard E. Grant Joins the Cast of ‘LOKI’ in Mystery Role

    Academy Award Nominated actor Richard E. Grant has joined the cast of the upcoming Disney Plus Marvel Studios streaming series Loki. Grant’s involvement in the production, which was first reported by Discussing Film, is reportedly a minimal time-maximum impact role with the actor on board for just one episode of the series’ first season.

    Image result for richard e grant villain

    Curiously, the news of Grant’s casting comes shortly after rumors began to swirl that one of Marvel Comics greatest villains, Kang the Conqueror, would make his MCU debut in Loki. Over the years, Kang has appeared in many forms, but one quite suits Grant’s age and demeanor: Immortus. An older, more experienced version of Kang, Immortus first appeared in Avengers #10 as the Lord of Limbo whose main goal was the preservation of alternate timelines rather than conquering them (which was always his goal as Kang). In the long and twisted history of Kang, Immortus is sort of the final evolution of the character, even though he co-existed with, sided with and came into conflict with other versions of his younger self.

    Image result for marvel comics immortus

    Casting Grant as Immortus would be a brilliant move by Marvel Studios. An actor of his caliber would not only bring the necessary gravitas to the character, but also leave the door open to casting another, younger actor as Kang, should the studio have longer term plans for the character.

  • Connecting Imaginary Dots: The Taskmaster(s), The Dark Room and The Future of the ‘BLACK WIDOW’ Franchise

    If you’ve never read an installment of Connecting Imaginary Dots, allow me to explain the idea. Connecting Imaginary Dots was the title I came up with for my speculation pieces when I was writing at MCU Exchange. These types of pieces basically allow me to unload a bunch of junk that’s circulating in my brain in a way that should never be confused for things I actually expect to happen. I basically take a bunch of facts that are almost always entirely unrelated and do my best to connect the dots with by stretching my imagination. In the past these types of pieces have resulted in me theorizing that the Spider-Man sequel which became Far From Home might end up being a team-up outing of Spidey and Hulk in the Savage Land; however, I also wrote one theorizing that Sterling K. Brown would be playing the father of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther LOOOOOONG before anyone else was considering it and one in which I theorized that Annette Bening was actually Mar-Vell when everyone else still thought Jude Law was playing the character. The bottom line is this: these are fun spec pieces that allow me to just be a fan. With that out of the way…

    This piece is probably as convoluted and out there as any Connecting The Imaginary Dots piece I’ve done since I decided that Spidey and Hulk were headed to the Savage Land, but it’s in my head and I’m going to get it out.

    Family. The less than subtle theme of this May’s Black Widow has been built up through the trailers and has led us to believe that Nat’s reunion with her Russian family will take her on a bit of a redemptive arc. The film is also setting up Taskmaster as the main antagonist and, often times in film, the antagonist’s arc is a dark reflection of the hero’s. I’m beginning to wonder that as Nat’s reunion redeems her, if we might see a family separated and out for revenge.

    There are a lot of dots here, so I’ll lay them out now:

    • Last March, I revealed that Ned Benson’s script work on Black Widow introduced a new character to the mix. The studio was searching for a “diverse female” to play a small supporting role. A number of actresses ranging from Storm Reid (15 years old at the time) to Hannah Quinlivan (25 at the time) were up from the role.
    • 16 year old Liani Samuels was cast in Black Widow as Anya. I believe, but cannot confirm, that she appeared in yesterday’s final trailer.
    Is that Samuels front and center? I don’t know.
    • The final trailer revealed that Taskmaster is now in charge of the Red Room and training an entirely new kind of Widow who have no control over their actions. He is essentially the Headmaster of the Red Room.
    • Mark Waid’s run on Black Widow, which began in 2016, introduced the Headmistress. The Headmistress oversaw the Red Room when Natasha was trained. With the help of her daughter, known as Recluse, she has developed the Dark Room: a new, more violent Red Room that would train child assassins and would have no ties to any country. The Headmistress ultimately killed herself, leaving her daughter to become the new Headmistress and out for revenge against Natasha.
    Image result for marvel dark room academy
    • Marvel Studios filmed part of Black Widow on location in Norway. I believe a shot of the landscape appeared in yesterdays final trailer:
    • Avengers Academy #1 introduced a character known as Finesse. Over time and because of her abilities as a polymath, she became suspicious that her father was Taskmaster. This has never been confirmed or denied.
    • This is a big one that has to be marked as a rumor: I was told that Black Widow would feature two Taskmasters: the first one male and the second one a female. This is an unconfirmed rumor and only here because it supports my wild speculation.

    With the dots all laid out, here’s what I’m staring at:

    Samuels’ Anya is Taskmaster’s daughter. Marvel Studios specifically wanted a non-white actress for the role because they were casting her as the daughter of Fagbenle’s Mason/Tasky. Her character is is an amalgamation of Recluse and Finesse. Marvel Studios has a lot of great characters and they’re not going to get to them all, so they’ve brought the two together to make an intriguing new character. Recluse is part of the Dark Room Academy where she is trained by her father. At some point during the climax of the film, her father is killed by Nat, or maybe Yelena. When she find out, she swears revenge, becomes the new Taskmaster and will be the face under the mask going forward. Anya’s loss sets her on the very path Nat is trying to step off of. Of course that means she’s not going to get revenge on Nat so, like I said, maybe Yelena…but you guys all think she’s dead! Which is really weird because this series of screenshots pulled from the trailers tells a really different story: one in which she is alive (note she is wearing the same white outfit without the vest when she’s on the table) and being prepped for some sort of medical procedure:

    But all that is another story…

    The bottom line is this: I look forward to more Tasky shenanigans and a couple more Black Widow solo films starring Florence Pugh.

    How crazy and convoluted is this conjecture? Let me know in the comments!!

  • EXCLUSIVE: New ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Set Photos Tease a Big Project by Samson Development

    In December, I wrote a piece about how The Falcon and The Winter Soldier would explore some of the efforts to rebuild the world after the Blip. A big part of that rebuilding process seems to be the ever-present Samson Development Company whose motto, conveniently, is “Rebuilding Your City After the Blip.” While we don’t know what role Samson Development will have in the series (Will the company be in the background? Is it somehow related to Doctor Leonard Samson? Is the company somehow integral to the plot?), a new series of set photos from out friend @loburger indicates that as the series comes to a close, Samson Development is working on a pretty big project that could hint at something major coming down the road (it also could be hinting at nothing).

    @loburger recently went down to get a closer look at the area where our exclusive set videos were shot and got us not only a good look at the signage indicating a large undertaking by Samson Development, but also some information about the production timeline of the series as well. As you can see in the photos below, Samson Development is building a massive tower located on Broad Street.

    The identity of this mysterious new tower is sure to cause a stir. Could it be the Baxter Building? Possible, but unlikely as the Baxter Building is located at 42nd and Madison Ave. and very near the UN building. Oscorp? Again, possible but unlikely. As much as we’d love for it to be one of those great landmarks, at this point we do not have the evidence to support those ideas.

    In addition to the interesting new tower going up on Broad Street, a closer look at one of the set photos shows a curious logo that calls back to some graffiti seen in earlier set photos.

    Those set photos, which can be seen here, have fueled speculation of Captain America villain Flag-Smasher showing up in the series and this sticker might well be connected to the same perpetrators of that graffiti. While we have no context for why this logo is here or what to expect, it’s consistent with things we’ve seen before.

    A final note of interest: according to @loburger’s conversation with set security, it appears that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, which is now filming in the Czech Republic, is scheduled to return to Atlanta for additional filming “at the end of the month.” Hopefully we are able to gather some more photos then and continue to get an idea of what to expect from the series!

  • New ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Key Location Revealed

    New ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Key Location Revealed

    Murphy’s Multiverse recently gained a friend in the Czech Republic and as a result some very intriguing information about a filming location for Falcon and the Winter Soldier has been uncovered.

    Thanks to @FFilmu on Twitter we have learned that Ploskovice Castle, north of Prague, will be used for filming. This is certainly a very regal looking location which does make us wonder if it might be used for Baron Helmut Zemo’s ancestral home!

    Ploskovice Castle in the Czech Republic.
    Via www.zamek-ploskovice.cz/cs

    Per @FFilmu, the production has permission to film the beautiful exteriors and in the main hall, as well as the grotto pictured below.

    Many thanks to Fandime Filmu on Instagram for the updates of Falcon and the Winter Soldier filming in Prague. This is an image of the grotto expected to be used for filming this month.
    Another image of the cave-like grotto from
    www.zamek-ploskovice.cz/cs
    An image of what I believe is the main hall to be used for filming from
    www.zamek-ploskovice.cz/cs

  • What I Heard This Week: Marvel Studios Disney Plus Production Update

    If you’re a part of the tl:dr crowd, this probably isn’t for you.

    Over the past 5 months, Marvel Studios has begun production on 3 series set to stream on Disney Plus. The production schedules themselves have been in flux and we’ve even seen a shift in the release date of one show as WandaVision moved from its original 2021 debut to late 2020. What I think we are witnessing here is Marvel Studios learning on the fly. While they’ve produced a couple dozen films, these series are an entirely different animal and the studio has been learning and evolving while responding to all sorts of different issues (weather, natural disasters, leaked locations and more).

    The Falcon and The Winter Soldier kicked off production in Atlanta at the end of October. That production was loudly announced via a social media blitz from stars Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie. This production has been very public, even throughout the last week, yet the general public has no idea the number of surprises in store for them (even if I did scoop Madripoor when they didn’t want me to).

    WandaVision was widely reported to begin filming in September in Los Angeles. However, as I reported in September (the site wasn’t up and running yet, so I just tweeted out the info), neither of those things were correct. As seen in the documentation below, production kicked off in early November in Atlanta.

    In early December, I used similar documentation (seen below) to inform fans that production on Loki was set to begin in early February. Just about a month later, I learned that Marvel Studios was slightly accelerating the start of production for Loki (which we later learned was so they could have the brief footage for the Super Bowl spot). That report was met with a great deal of skepticism; I was even told publicly on my Twitter feed by a Marvel Studios crew member that I was wrong because he was told Loki wouldn’t start until “closer to summer.”

    I think this is an important lesson here. I believe that the crew member was told that. I believe he believed that. I also believe that at any given time only about 5% of the people involved with a production (that includes the cast as well) actually knows the entirely of “what’s going on.” Obviously cameras rolled on Loki; we all saw the proof with our own eyes.

    As 2019 came to a close, I learned that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier was set to film in Puerto Rico after the holiday break. As we know, filming in Puerto Rico was delayed and then abandoned after the island was ravaged by earthquakes. As filming in Atlanta is reaching its end, we’ll see just where the show lands next…

    The new year brought more changes to production. Ms. Marvel, once slated for an April start, was seemingly moved to August as the studio reopened casting. Then I learned that production on Hawkeye (originally planned for an April start before being pushed to July), was indefinitely delayed. Recently, I updated that original report to indicate that the studio has tentatively targeted (pun most definitely intended) September for a start of production, turning the indefinite delay into a defined one: start of production was pushed back another 2 months. I know this is a really big topic of debate, so as I did with WandaVision and Loki, I’m sharing the recently updated documentation for Hawkeye, which is filming under Finger Guns Productions, LLC.

    Way back in October of 2020, I tried really hard to hint to everyone that Finger Guns Productions LLC was the company for Hawkeye:

    Quite a few people believed, and some still may, that it was the production company for Deadpool 3, but as you can see it is clearly marked as a Disney Plus production. Further evidence which has been redacted also indicates that it is Hawkeye. So, as of late yesterday, production on Hawkeye is set to kick off in Atlanta on September 28, 2020. Before people start jumping to the conclusion that this means Hawkeye will miss its Fall 2021 premiere date (something that was widely reported due to poor reporting on the original story), we should take cues from the two longest running productions: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and WandaVision. As I mentioned, Marvel Studios has been learning and evolving and one lesson I believe they have learned is that they have MORE time than they originally believed to get these shows done. Despite delays of every kind, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is on track to meet its August release date and WandaVision is on track to arrive several months earlier than originally intended. So, if Hawkeye does in fact begin in September of 2020, we could reasonably expect it to air anytime between July and Decemeber of 2021. With that lesson in mind, here’s a little more breaking news…

    Not too long ago I learned that She-Hulk was looking at kicking off production in Atlanta in July. A recent report from the Illuminerdi indicated that it would instead kick off in August. As of yesterday, neither of those things are still true. She-Hulk, under Thine Selves Productions LLC, is now looking to get the cameras rolling in mid-November of this year. If we are to use WandaVision as an example, that means we could very well see She-Hulk streaming on Disney Plus in December of 2021.

    Finally, it was recently reported that Moon Knight will film in Atlanta in November. I can confirm that this is accurate. What I can add to that is that Moon Knight, under Spectorcorp Productions, is still planning to go to the UK. As I originally stated, it is HIGHLY LIKELY that the reason they are heading to the UK is to use it as a base from which they can easily access some more exotic locations (think deserts) that are often used for filming.

    The constant here is change. Even as I type this, I’m confident that within a month, something here will change. That doesn’t stop me from continuing to look, rather it’s what keeps me going.

  • What I Heard This Week: ‘THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER’ To Film in Canada

    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.

    Image result for prettiest places in vancouver

    A thing I heard this week: Thor: Love and Thunder may shoot some scenes in Vancouver, British Columbia, aka Hollywood North.

    Since the 1970s, Vancouver has been one of the world’s top production locations. While it hasn’t been a hot spot for Marvel Studios, Helstrom is filming there now and it looks like the plan is for Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder to do some work there as well. As far as I can tell, the plan is still for the bulk of the filming to take place in Australia and for additional filming to take place in Vancouver, among other locations. While I continue to search to find out if the film will be using studio space, my assumption is that they’re going to Vancouver to shoot locations and, to that end, there is no shortage of beautiful places from which to choose.

    Thor: Love and Thunder is expected to kick off production in Australia this August and shoot through the end of the year.

  • What I Heard This Week: ‘THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER’ Doing Rewrites Due to Pandemic

    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.

    Image result for marvel madbomb

    A thing I heard this week: The extended shooting schedule of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Atlanta might be due to some rewrites of the plot and it all might just have happened because of the coronavirus.

    In a potentially disturbing case or art imitating life, the plot of the upcoming Disney Plus series may have been altered as the coronavirus has continued to spread through the world and approaches being considered a pandemic. As many of you know, the production company for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is Pandemic Productions LLC. The earliest of plot “leaks”, speculation and made up stuff all shared a common thread: some sort of of device unleashing a pandemic on the populace. In some cases, it was the Madbomb; in others, it was a terrorist group unleashing a bioweapon. Whichever one you liked best, the rumors were certainly out there that the show was set to feature something of the sort.

    Over the past two weeks, I’ve head a growing number of whispers that this is no longer the case. The coronavirus has already taken the lives of nearly 3,000 people worldwide, is causing long-term shut downs of schools and businesses and is wreaking havoc on the global economy. By the time The Falcon and The Winter Soldier streams in August, it is likely that the disease will have met the criterion to be considered a true pandemic (the last global pandemic was the H1N1 virus which killed as few as 151,000 and as many as 575,000 people worldwide, according to the CDC). From what I’ve been hearing, Disney may be proactively trying to get ahead of what could be a potential disaster for the studio by rewriting and, as a result, reshooting parts of the series, with a heavy emphasis on the seasons first couple of episodes.

    If any of these whispers are true or not is going to be really hard to prove. I don’t find it terribly likely that Disney is going to give an official press release that says something like, “We were going to do this, but did this instead because of this real world tragedy.” However, if it is true, it gives some insight into the types of behind the scenes decisions that have to be made at studios and how, as I am so fond of saying…things change all the time! If this is accurate, it’s obviously a show of empathy from the world’s largest media marketer. Given Disney’s strong relationship and presence in China, ground zero for the virus and the place where its terrible toll has had the largest impact, and with Disney set to launch its service to the rest of Europe where the virus is currently spreading rapidly, its not hard to believe these rumors. Taking into consideration the widespread panic that exists now and will continue to grow throughout the next several months and choosing not to add to it by changing the plot of its upcoming series, the one that will launch Marvel Studios streaming presence, is a bold, yet humanitarian move.

  • Connecting Imaginary Dots: A ‘LOKI’ Character May Come From Fantastic Four Comic

    If you’ve never read an installment of Connecting Imaginary Dots, allow me to explain the idea. Connecting Imaginary Dots was the title I came up with for my speculation pieces when I was writing at MCU Exchange. These types of pieces basically allow me to unload a bunch of junk that’s circulating in my brain in a way that should never be confused for things I actually expect to happen. I basically take a bunch of facts that are almost always entirely unrelated and do my best to connect the dots with by stretching my imagination. In the past these types of pieces have resulted in me theorizing that the Spider-Man sequel which became Far From Home might end up being a team-up outing of Spidey and Hulk in the Savage Land;however, I also wrote one theorizing that Sterling K. Brown would be playing the father of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther LOOOOOONG before anyone else was considering it and one in which I theorized that Annette Bening was actually Mar-Vell when everyone else still thought Jude Law was playing the character and, more recently, one in which I tried to connect some dots that would allow Spider-Woman to be a Sony/Marvel Studios cooperative effort much like the two most recent Spider-Man films. The bottom line is this: these are fun spec pieces that allow me to just be a fan. With that out of the way…

    Last week, The Illuminerdi relayed some information on some characters set to play a supporting role in the upcoming Marvel Studios streaming series, Loki. In that article, they included the following information about a character named “Casey”:

    Casey – Open to any ethnicity or gender. Casey is a good natured, yet exhausted intern. Extremely likeable. Great comedy skills. Casey’s entire career has been spent indoors and always does things by the books even when things are out of their control. A supporting character needed for 4 episodes

    When I first read about the role, a role for which Marvel Studios is looking for non-binary actors, I assumed it was a fairly generic role that was created to add some more humor to the office atmosphere of the Time Variance Authority. Last night, when researching another character set to appear in the series (sorry, I’m not quite ready to run that piece yet today), I was surprised to learn that a TVA employee named Casey already existed!

    First appearing in Fantastic Four #354, Casey is an alien of unknown origin who operates a timespace transport (the Illinois Central Cannonball Express) for the TVA. In the issue, Casey helps the Fantastic Four escape the TVA by giving them a lift back to their own time on his impressive cross-time express.

    This was Casey’s one and only appearance in the comics and it was a brief one where he openly defied the orders of one of his supervisors, Mobius M. Mobius. Now there is no certainty that the Casey we see in Loki is this Casey, is based on this Casey or has anything to do with Casey in any way, shape or form; however, it’s certainly worth thinking about and, at the very least, opens the flood gates to deluge of new ideas about what might actually be happening in Loki!

  • Disney Plus to Update Its Marvel Studios and Disney Slates at March 5th Launch Event in London

    Disney is hosting a launch event in London on March 5th where it is expected to update its series slates for Marvel Studios, Star Wars and the rest of it properties and reveal exclusive information. This lines up with the information I shared with you yesterday but is more exciting as it also includes Star Wars and more.

    Executives from several branches of Disney are expected to be in attendance to update us on their properties and, potentially, reveal new offerings. It is expected that we might hear updates on Star Wars properties such as The Mandalorian Season 2, Obi-Wan and Cassian Andor; additionally, Marvel Studios will likely update its 2021 release schedule which should include new release dates for Loki, What If…? and Hawkeye and, potentially, dates for Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk and Moon Knight.

    Stay tuned for more on this as it draws near.

    Source: Starwarsnewsnet.com

  • What I Heard This Week: Marvel Studios Disney Plus Slate

    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.

    Image result for marvel studios disney plus

    A thing I heard this week: Marvel Studios will publicly address their upcoming Disney Plus slate in the very near future.

    In July, Kevin Feige gave fans our first look at the Phase 4 slate and it had a heavy dose of Disney Plus shows with seasonal release dates. Just about one month later, The One-Above-All surprised us when he revealed 3 additional shows were headed to the streaming service, though no rough dates were given. It looks like what we saw in July is the equivalent of a rough draft. We’ve already seen the release date of WandaVision from Spring of 2021 to December of 2020 (I’m still buzzing about that great news!) and we have seen plenty of information that indicates the 3 shows revealed at D23 (Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk and Moon Knight) are all going into production in 2020 and, as of now, all of them are starting BEFORE Hawkeye. The bottom line here is that things have clearly changed behind the scenes since Feige’s presentations this past summer.

    Marvel Studios knows that fans are very curious about the upcoming Disney Plus slate. They know fans want content soon and they know that there have been all kinds of rumors and facts going around that have made them question what they’re getting and when. Additionally, the core creative team at Marvel Studios has been meeting quite a bit over the past several months and have busily been setting the course for their properties in 2021 and beyond. With that now behind them, I am told they are ready to begin making some announcements and they will begin by giving an updated slate of their Disney Plus offerings. Unfortunately (and I know this is going to cause disbelief and hatred), I was given neither a specific date nor a format for this update, only to expect it “in the next few weeks.”

    Personally, I find this to be exciting news. There have been so many different things going on with production dates and rumors that it’ll be refreshing to get some official word. As to what to expect, as I said, I have no idea, but it seems like a nice little video similar to what they debuted during the Super Bowl would do the trick. A sequel to Expanding the Universe, if you will, that is maybe 4-5 minutes long, gives some shots of the shows that are in production and an updated idea of when the shows will release. For me, that would hit the Goldilocks range of “just right.”

    As to what to expect from the future of Marvel Studios feature films, I can tell you that I am much more confident in the 2022 slate and that, if Marvel Studios is feeling nice, you might find out more about that and the 2023 slate soon as well, though I was told there was no guarantee the film slate would be updated with the TV slate. Even so, given that Marvel Studios has firmed up their upcoming slate, you can be sure it’ll start to leak out (it already has beginning with the Captain Marvel 2 news) and we’ll all be able to piece it together soon!