DC Studios first animated feature film, Dynamic Duo, is getting a major overhaul by an Academy Award-nominated pair of writers.
According to The Wrap, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the writing team behind 500 Days of Summer, The Disaster Artist and DaisyJones & the Six, have come on board to rewrite the project, which is currently set to hit theaters on June 30, 2028.
According to The Wrap, Dynamic Duo, which will be directed by Arthur Mintz, will “take place in a separate timeline from his films starring Robert Pattinson and, as we understand it, outside of the current DC Universe canon,” which would then establish it as an “Elseworlds” project.
Originally penned by Coco and Lightyear scribe Matthew Aldrich, Dynamic Duo will tell the story of “the early days of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd aka the Robins. The duo call themselves the Dynamic Duo. They’re orphan thieves, best friends who share dreams of a better life, but their friendship will be tested by competing visions of a future out of which will come a new Dynamic Duo.“
DC Studios will be working with Swaybox, a new and innovative animation studio that uses a “Momo animation” process that Deadline described as “a cross between CGI animation, practical elements of stop-motion, and live-action real-time performance.”
To date, there’s been no official word from Marvel or Sony and Ruffalo was not seen on set in Glasgow, Scotland when the film began production. With production having moved mostly indoors, it’s possible Ruffalo may never be seen “on set” to confirm his role but the actor was asked about the rumors in a recent red carpet interview with ET Online.
“I don’t know, I’m still waiting to hear. I haven’t read a script yet,” said Ruffalo when he was approached about his return to the role.
“If it does happen, it would be incredible,” laughed the star. “I grew up with this, and it’s changed my life in the best ways. Each time, it’s a new director, a new world, and it’s so exciting. There’s nothing else like it. A TV show doesn’t change its world from one director to the next, and that’s what is exciting.“
Based on what’s been seen and shared so far, Tom Holland and new Spidey franchise director Destin Daniel Cretton seem to have something special cooking in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which looks to diverge significantly from the previous MCU-set Spider-Man films. Adding a rampaging Hulk to the already long list of problems Holland’s Wall-Crawler will face in the film might make for one of the Multiverse Saga’s best projects, if not one of its most action-packed.
Superman star Isabela Merced, who debuted as the DCU’s Hawkgirl shared Gunn’s social media post in an Instagram story she captioned “See You Soon.”
I’m totally done with the treatment. My treatments are incredibly intense. They’re not regular treatments. They’re 60-page treatments with dialogue and everything,” Gunn devulged. “And so, now I’m just turning that into a script. We’re planning out when we’re going to shoot that. It’s going to be much sooner rather than later.
-James Gunn
Should Merced, who also briefly reprised her role in Season 2 of Peacemaker, indeed be returning for the film, it is very likely she’ll be accompanied by Edi Gathegi‘s Mister Terrific, Nathan Fillion‘s Guy Gardner and Anthony Carrigan‘s Metamorpho, all members of the Maxwell Lord-sponsored Justice Gang.
After years of trying to bring the character to life in a Fox-produced solo film, Channing Tatum finally brought Gambit to live-action in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Tatum‘s Gambit stole the show as audiences fell in love with the actor’s long-awaited debut as the Cajun, even if his accent made it all but impossible to understand him at times. It didn’t take long for fans to begin to call for more of Tatum‘s mumbly mutie. And with a little post-credit magic here and a deleted scene there, more of Tatum as Gambit in the MCU seemed to possibly be in the cards and then, Marvel Studios announced the main cast of Avengers: Doomsday, which included Tatum, allowing him to bring Le Diable Blanc to another party. This time, however, there will be one notable difference.
“I’m not gonna go full Cajun,” said Tatum of his role as the Ragin’ Cajun in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday.
Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this? Woo, I’m about to make a name for myself here.
As Tatum explained in an interview with Variety, directors Anthony and Joe Russo “want things to be funny, but they don’t want to go full ‘Deadpool’,” in which the character’s accent more closely resembled the indecipherable gibberish spit out by Blake Clark‘s Farmer Fran in Adam Sandler‘s The Waterboy. “They want to keep the drama and keep it tight. When Gambit gets serious — when he drops the Mardi Gras mask — things do matter,” teasing a major role for Gambit, including a “big fight” with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom that Tatum found himself sidelined for, thanks to an unidentified leg injury.
The change in approach comes in response to Marvel execs, who the star said “really had to wrap their mind around the accent and how people are going to understand him,” in the biggest Marvel film of the decade.
“There was very little improv. The Cajun dialect is a very particular one,” said Tatum in a previous interview of his first go around as the character. “I grew up in Mississippi and my dad is from New Orleans. So it’s one of those things that I grew up around it, but I’ve never done it. There are certain little isms that are very Cajun-y, but we actually intended it to be somewhat unintelligible. That was sort of the joke.[Co-star Ryan Reynolds would] come up to be and say, ‘I don’t want to know anything that you’re saying on this [take],’ so I just dialed it all the way up,” added Tatum. “And then other ones he’s like, ‘All right, I’ve got to understand what you’re saying now.’”
Whether the changes to the character result in this Gambit being a Variant from another timeline or just someone looking to communicate more clearly with his friends, fans will certainly be thrilled with the return of Tatum in the role.
In 2020, Liverpool, England was transformed into Gotham as director Matt Reeves filmed scenes for The Batman. Five years later, as production on DC Studios’ Clayface gets underway, Liverpool is once again serving as Gotham City, set this time, however, in the all-new DCU.
As was the case with the DCU’s Superman, which saw Cleveland become Metropolis, DC Studios is taking great care to make sure its Gotham is FULL of Easter eggs, nods and comic accurate inclusions. Most interestingly, a map of Gotham City has been spotted on set and it is complete with key locations such as Wayne Manor, Ace Chemical, The Monarch Theater, Crime Alley, Arkham and the Kane Memorial Bridge.
While this map is unlikely to serve as anything more than something to see in the background, the references to the Joker, the Penguin, Batman and the Kane family stand out as fans get their first look at a Gotham in which the Dark Knight has likely been active for a significant amount of time.
Fans of the comics may note the map is all but identical to the one created in the 1999 Batfamily crossover event, Batman: No Man’s Land. While it’s unlikely that story will be adapted into Clayface, it’s a notable choice as it’s a different map than the one used in The Batman and with fans still searching for reasons to believe Clayface will be set in the Reeves-verse, this may be a strike against that.
Cameras are now rolling in Liverpool on DC Studios’ third film, Clayface, and plenty of interested onlookers have taken to social media to share photos and videos from the set. While nothing too spoilery has been captured so far, a scene being filmed at The Queen Elizabeth Law Courts, which has been transformed into Gotham General Hospital, revealed that a very familiar face has joined director James Watkins‘ horror film.
As seen in the photo and video below, shared by Egg Boy, Ray Donovan star Eddie Marsan is now part of the DCU.
The first looks don’t reveal anything too telling about Marsan‘s role, though he was also seen walking on set with Tom Rhys Harries, the film’s titular character, which could mean Marsan‘s role is substantial.
Starring Harries as the Matt Hagen version of the classic Batman baddie, Clayface will “center on an ascending actor whose face is disfigured by a gangster. As a last resort, the actor turns to a fringe Elizabeth Holmes-style scientist for help. At first, the experiment is a successful but … well, it wouldn’t be a horror movie if the story ended right there, would it?” Based on additional photos from the set, it seems possible that low-level mob goon Jimmy “Red” McCoy may be the gangster responsible for Hagen’s disfigurement.
Written by Mike Flanagan and described by DC Studios’ co-chair James Gunn as “a complete horror film,” Clayface is set to release on September 11, 2026.
Principal photography on Avengers: Doomsday recently took place at Windsor Great Park in the UK where a set referred to as the “Luke Cage House” was constructed in a secluded area. Rumors indicated that the home belonged to Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter and was located in the alternate timeline created when Rogers used the Time-Space GPS to travel time to live with the love of his life.
Despite all that, fans are convinced that the pair of stars are in the film and a report that they recently shot scenes alongside Tom Hiddlestonhas supported a rumor that Rogers’ decision created the first Multiversal incursion, kick-starting the end of everything. Now, as filming in Windsor Great Park wraps, a new behind the scenes photo confirms a mid-20th century setting for the recent scenes.
Photographer UnBoxPHD, who has been delivering photos from UK sets of Marvel Studios films over the past couple of years, shared a shot of a car carrier transporting a pair of classic cars: a Plymouth Special Deluxe and a Chrysler New Yorker, both from the early 1940s.
Given that Rogers travelers back to 1949 to have his dance and begin his life with Carter, the cars support the recent set report; however, until Atwell and Evans are seen on set or officially announced as part of the cast, their inclusion in the film will remain a subject of debate.
What I can say is, it’s just inherently interesting and complex material. The core idea of what X-Men is involves complexity.
-X-Men director Jake Schreier
In an interview with Empire, director Jake Schreier confirmed that he he is now on the clock for Marvel Studios X-Men.
“I can’t say anything about it, but we’ve started work on X-Men, and that’s obviously very, very exciting,” said Schreier, who directed the very well-received Thunderbolts* which debuts on D+ August 27th.
“There are so many things that I didn’t know about before I started [Thunderbolts*],” he explained. “The biggest learning curve for me was the proportion of the action to the more emotional, character-driven scenes, and how, even though it’s more shooting days than I’ve ever had, they get eaten up quite quickly by the action stuff. By the time we got to the end of it, it felt like, ‘Oh, now I feel like we get how to do this a little bit better.’”
After officially taking the reigns of the film in May, Schreier teased the studio’s complex take on the team of mutant heroes in a July interview with The Playlist. “It’s an incredible opportunity with super interesting characters and [much] internal conflict,” he said of helming the first MCU-set X-Men film. “These characters are wrestling with their identity and place in the world—that’s inherently interesting and complex material.”
Despite having one of the studio’s most talented ensemble casts, the only lasting impact Eternals has had on the MCU was to introduce Adamantium into the mix in Captain America: Brave New World. Even without a sequel in the works, the film’s stars such as Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden and Kumail Nanjiani have yet to find themselves integrated into other projects, leading to speculation they may never be seen again, despite some of them being more than willing to return to the MCU.
Yeah! I mean, listen, I have plans today. I don’t know if they have plans. I would love to come back. But I’m sort of waiting to hear when or if that’s going to happen. I’m hoping I get to do more. I had a great time playing that character. It’d be a shame if he’s a sort of one and done. But, you know, the decision’s not mine to make.
–Kumail Nanjiani on the future of the Eternals franchise, January 2023
“It came out right after COVID, so I had a year and a half at home to be just like, ‘When this thing comes out…‘” said Nanjiani of the anticipated impact Eternals would have on his career. “It came out, it got really bad reviews, and it didn’t do that well. It shattered me too much. That was when I was like, ‘Oh, I need to go to therapy to figure this out.”
Any disappointment fans may have had in the response to the film multiplied for Nanjiani. As he shared, Marvel intended for Eternals to launch its own franchise, including additional movies, video game appearances and even a ride at Disney Parks.
“I was like, ‘This is going to be my job for the next ten years.’ I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign on for all this stuff,” explained Nanjiani. “You’re like, ‘Okay, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year, and in between, I’ll do my own little things. Whatever I want to do.’”
Reading between the lines of Nanjiani‘s comments, it sounds as though not only was an Eternals trilogy in the pipeline but also appearances in other projects, likely including Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which has since been scrapped, and Avengers: Secret Wars. However, four years later, Nanjiani‘s Kingo has only appeared in Marvel Animation’s What If…? and as he explained, it doesn’t sound as though he has any future appearances scheduled at the moment.
“None of that happened,” he lamented. “For me, what really hit me was realising that too much of my self-esteem is wrapped up in other people’s reactions to my work. People have way bigger problems than this.”
Of course, recent years have provided plenty of evidence that the studio never truly puts any character fully to rest. Tim Roth and Tim Blake Nelson recently returned to their respective roles after more than a decade on the sidelines and with an all-new, all-different mutant-centric saga on deck, maybe there will be new life for the Eternals, too.
It doesn’t take a well-trained eye to notice that reshoots took a toll on Black Widow. Despite strong performances across the board and a thrilling first two acts, a “poorly staged, plotted, and executed” third act kept it from realizing its potential as a truly great spy film.
Part of the problem came by way of the film’s big bad, General Dreykov, the worst villain in the studio’s Phase 4 and, perhaps, the entire body of work that makes up the MCU. Played with big grandpa-fell-asleep-on-the-toilet-again energy by Ray Winstone, a potentially great villain who should have felt like evil incarnate came across as a flatline. And now we know why Winstone grumbled his way through his scenes.
In an interview with Variety, Winstone explained that after filming his scenes–whichnbe called “the best thing” he had “done for a really long time“–director Cate Shortland (almost certainly at the behest of Marvel), had him reshoot his entire performance.
“I worked with this amazing director, Cate Shortland, and we worked on what my character was going to be,” started Winstone. “He was like a pedophile running around all these girls, and they’d become black widows. We used to get applauded on set. It was probably the best thing I’ve done for a really long time,” said the actor of his time on set during principal photography.
“Then I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoots,” continued Winstone. “I say: how many scenes? [Cate] says ‘all of them.’ So I said she should recast [the role], but I was contracted, so I had to do it. I go back, they do my hair all nice, put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. I’d already done it. I thought, ‘I’m not doing it now. I’ve done it. That’s how it’s going to be.’ That’s rejection, you know? There’s nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it’s not right.”
It certainly sounds like Winstone had a miserable experience and it showed as he was barely coherent as Dreykov during Black Widow‘s third act which was a sloppy, VFX tragedy. While it’s clear there was an entirely different version of the film which included an entirely different version of Dreykov, it’s unlikely that fans will ever hear about it, much less see it.
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