Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Movie News

  • Disney CEO Claims Pixar Had “Some Creative Misses” and Reflects on Disney+ Impact

    Disney CEO Claims Pixar Had “Some Creative Misses” and Reflects on Disney+ Impact

    It’s been a wacky day. SAG is officially entering a strike alongside the WGA while Bob Iger seemingly decides to shift the blame to a cracking industry on the people desperately keeping it alive. With millions to spare, he seemingly decides to take some wild swings in a recent interview by not only blaming the current situation on those trying to survive but even hitting into his own company.

    Disney isn’t perfect and has had some rough patches throughout the years, but they have developed two golden geese: Pixar and Marvel. They had the kind of bankability any franchise still dreams of, especially direct rivals like DC. Yet, the last few years have been rough on the industry and they made some big steps to grow their streaming business.

    Now that the pandemic is seemingly done and behind us, they are back peddling their original plan and trying to become theatrical giants once more. While they proved to still be the most consistent up until now, Bob Iger decides to downplay Pixar’s creative output as “creative misses” while knowingly highlighting that their streaming releases of these iconic films slowed down their box office prowess.

    There were three Pixar releases in a row that went direct to streaming, in part because of — mostly because of COVID. And I think that may have created an expectation in the audience that they’re going to eventually be on streaming and probably quickly, and there wasn’t an urgency. And then I think there was some, I think you’d have to agree that there were some creative misses, as well.

    Bob Iger

    While he seemingly ignores this part when discussing their Marvel releases, it’s bizarre to see him downplay the value of projects like Luca, Turning Red, and even Elemental. We don’t know what projects he’s talking about specifically, but it sounds a lot like a justification for why they went to streaming only with their projects. It almost feels like a way to save face without doing so. It’s a darn shame that this is how the hard-working animators are treated by their own studio head after being a strong part of its legacy for years.

    Source: Variety

  • Haley Atwell Didn’t Love Captain Carter’s ‘Multiverse of Madness’ Role

    Haley Atwell Didn’t Love Captain Carter’s ‘Multiverse of Madness’ Role

    “I can do this all day.” For fans of the MCU, hearing alt-universe Peggy Carter utter one of Steve Rogers’ most memorable lines in her brief appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was a react-out-loud moment. Haley Atwell, who first brought Peggy to life in Captain America: The First Avenger, also recently reacted out loud…except her reaction wasn’t as positive as most in the theater.

    In an interview with EW, Atwell described Carter’s appearance in Multiverse of Madness as “a frustrating moment.” Atwell, whose latest film, Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One, just hit theaters explained that the brief appearance in the Doctor Strange sequel was not her cup of tea. “I’m like, ‘That wasn’t my choice! When she was like, ‘I could do this all day’ and then followed by she’s immediately cut in half by a frisbee,” said Atwell. “And the audience being like, ‘She can’t do it all day. Apparently you can’t, so, egg on your face.’ That doesn’t really serve Peggy very well.“

    Of course that Peggy isn’t THE Peggy, something Atwell certainly knows after having voiced another, other alternate version of the character in Marvel Studios’ first canonical animated adventure, What If…?. According to Atwell, her experience with that project was a little more enjoyable. “I felt like I had much more to do in the What If…? animation series,” explained Atwell. “I mean, any actor will tell you, to be able to go into a booth in effectively your pajamas and do an animation is great fun because you’re focused on the voice as the instrument and your main performative tool.“

    With another season of What If…? still on the slate for Marvel Studios and plenty of other adventures left to go in the Multiverse Saga, there will likely be plenty of chances for Atwell to reprise the role of Peggy Carter. Given she’s voiced her displeasure with the particularly bad case of being cut in half the character experienced in Multiverse of Madness, it seems likely her next role will be more well-rounded.

    Source: EW

  • Bob Iger Speaks Out on “Diluted Focus” Due to Marvel’s Recent Output

    Bob Iger Speaks Out on “Diluted Focus” Due to Marvel’s Recent Output

    Marvel is the big fish in the pond and for the first time in a long time, they had a project not quite reach the heights they usually do. While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania didn’t crack the $500M, it was more a warning of what was to come throughout the summer box office with one bomb after another that barely crack the $300M ceiling. Outside of a few exceptions, including Guardians fo the Galaxy Vol. 3, it has been rough all around.

    That still didn’t stop people from calling it the end of Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe; a common complaint throughout the Internet’s long history with the franchise. Still, Disney CEO Bob Iger is seemingly aware that their own ambitions became a focus point of general audience drag. He ends up discussing the performance of some recent releases, but generalizes the topic of how their streaming ventures hurt their theatrical output.

    There have been some disappointments. We would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better. It’s reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been.

    Bob Iger

    He ends up highlighting Marvel as an example by downplaying previous TV ventures and stating that audiences’ “focus and attention” was diluted. While the internet would make that seem true, there’s a big batch of people out there that generally don’t keep up even when there were just two or three films a year. Plus, there was the whole pandemic that changed many viewers’ behaviors and strongly showed its fangs this summer at the box office. The sudden increase in output to appears the Chapek era of “all-in streaming” strategy still played a role in this multi-faceted world.

    Marvel’s a great example of that. They had not been in the TV business at any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention. That is, I think, more of the cause than anything.

    Bob Iger

    One thing concerning this comment is claiming that Marvel has “not been in the TV business at any significant level,” which means Iger is mainly referencing Marvel Studios as an entity or generally forgetting the past few years. Their Disney+ output is far removed from the weekly releases of a 22-episode season that was Agents of SHIELD. The various Netflix series set the standard for many’s expectations of the current shows.

    That is also ignoring Hulu’s Runaways which ran for two seasons, the non-Disney productions like Legion and The Gifted. We also can’t forget Cloak & Dagger which ran on Freeform and we haven’t even touched upon any of the animated series or whatever Inhumans wanted to be. There was more output from Marvel at one point, and seems like an oversimplification of a post-COVID media world.

    At the end of the day, if a film is good but not worth a rewatch in theaters: why watch it in theaters? Their strategy to release films within 45 days created a new habit for viewers and ended up dragging their box office successes more than diluting viewers’ attention. Similar to how they milked their other golden goose on the streaming service and ended up hurting Pixar’s box office success long-term. It’s never that simple.

    Source: Variety

  • First ‘The Marvels’ Funkos Include Goose, Captain Marvel, and More

    First ‘The Marvels’ Funkos Include Goose, Captain Marvel, and More

    It looks like Funko Pops for the next Marvel Cinematic Universe entry is slowly finding its way online. While we still have some time before The Marvels‘ releases in theaters this November, it looks like a sneak peek of what’s to come has surfaced online. To be fair, these don’t include anything majorly new that wasn’t already hinted at in the trailer, but it’s definitely interesting to get a bit more from the project.

    As shared on Instagram by IG account funkochaseryeg, a new box set is unveiled that includes a Pop figure of Captain Marvel in her binary form. Not just that, but it also confirms that the kittens we saw in the trailer are indeed the children of Goose, who will definitely leave chaos in their wake; never double-cross a Flerken kitten. The box also includes Ms. Marvel and Photon Funkos.

    Goose seems quite dominant as part of the merch push, but that’s not too surprising. The feline was a standout in the first Captain Marvel movie and has been highly anticipated to return to the franchise since he puked out the Cosmic Cube. It’ll be interesting to see how they will explore the storyline with the kittens and if perhaps Goose has a surprisingly more active role in the film moving forward.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Barry’s Anthony Carrigan Joins ‘Superman: Legacy’ as Metamorpho

    ‘Barry’s Anthony Carrigan Joins ‘Superman: Legacy’ as Metamorpho

    Seems like James Gunn has been quite a busy casting for his upcoming film Superman Legacy. While all eyes were on who exactly would end up taking on the role of Superman and Lois Lane, he has been quietly gathering some other DC Comics heroes that’ll have an unknown role in the project. Recently, it was revealed that Edi Gathegi, Nathan Fillion, and Isabela Merced have joined the production in some familiar roles to comic fans. Now, one more has been added to the list.

    The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the classic character of Rex Mason, better known as Metamorpho, has joined the cast. He will be played by Anthony Carrigan, who recently had a standout role in the HBO series Barry and even showed up in the DC series Gotham. So, he’s not new to the world of heroes.

    Seems these announcements and finalized casting choices are being made with the SAG-AFTRA strike on the horizon. The film is set to release on July 11th, 2025 but if the strike moves forward, they’ll have to push back the release quite a bit as they were eyeing a production start early next year. With some time to go, who knows what else might happen by then as well.

    The big question is what role these heroic characters will have. Who knows if they are an actual integral part of the story, which would be a shame given the importance of giving Superman his own film that is less pure set-up but an introduction to this new world. It makes you wonder if Gunn is more focused on setting up his new DC Cinematic Universe but it’s a given as he’s the CEO of DC Studios and the director/writer of the first “true” entry in the franchise.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced & Edi Gathegi Join ‘Superman: Legacy’

    Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced & Edi Gathegi Join ‘Superman: Legacy’

    The cast for James Gunn‘s Superman: Legacy continues to grow. It was announced on Tuesday that Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced & Edi Gathegi are the latest to join the growing cast. Per Deadline, frequent Gunn-collaborator Fillion has been cast as one of DC’s many Green Lanterns, Guy Gardner. While Merced has been cast as Hawkgirl and Gathegi has been cast as Mister Terrific. They join the previously cast David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan who will star as Clark Kent, aka Superman, and Lois Lane, respectively.

    Updating...

    Source: Deadline.

  • New ‘Deadpool 3’ Set Photo Offers First Look at Hugh Jackman in Comic-Accurate Wolverine Suit

    New ‘Deadpool 3’ Set Photo Offers First Look at Hugh Jackman in Comic-Accurate Wolverine Suit

    Just recently, we had a first look at Ryan Reynolds‘ new Deadpool costume in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe threequel. As the entry was moving away from 20th Century Fox, many were hoping this meant we’d also get Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine to finally wear a comic-accurate costume of his own. His return gave many the hope that we’ll finally give the actor the chance to have one last go after Logan to be a bit closer to the comics.

    Luckily, the latest set photos from the production have finally confirmed that he will, in fact, wear the iconic yellow outfit from the comics. It seems strongly inspired by the Astonishing X-Men run and it’s crazy to see the actor actually wear a costume that isn’t just black leather or a brown jacket. Even X-Men: Days of Future Past only gave him some yellow highlights and remained true to the 2000s X-Men franchise.

    https://twitter.com/GeekVibesNation/status/1678400255652507651

    It is bonkers to think that he’s been playing the character for over 20 years and never had the chance to actually don the iconic suit. Deadpool 3 is the perfect time for his character to return and get that iconic look, as it blends the two worlds together in a potential multiversal storyline. Plus, it would’ve been a shame for these two giants not to meet with the entire Deadpool franchise building up to their eventual meeting.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Holds On as the New ‘Insidious’ Takes the Top Spot

    ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Holds On as the New ‘Insidious’ Takes the Top Spot

    That B+ AudienceScore is showing its fangs, as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has slipped to the second spot in its second weekend. While not every blockbuster needs to hold on to the top spot, the film simply had a disappointing $60M opening with a $295M production budget. It would need to make at least around $800M to make its money box, and it’ll need to leg out to make back its money.

    Though, while some are calling this a bad slip, it still dropped “only” 56% from its opening weekend. Putting that into perspective with The Flash opening to a $55M but slipping by 72% with a similar rating shows that Indiana Jones at least has some staying power moving forward. Though it also has quite a bit of competition that might bring that hold to a quick end potentially, it drop still could’ve been better which may be why the reactions are surfacing as they are.

    The big winner of the weekend was Insidious‘ return with a $31.4M opening weekend, which is slightly beyond the initial expectations. Insidious: The Red Door was created with only $16M when compared to other films and has shown a curious twist of smaller budgets making up for bigger blockbuster releases. Though, horror moviegoers remain committed while the general audience is a bit more cautious at the moment.

    Joy Ride is the other major release of the weekend that opened with $5.85M. While many are pointing to “smaller budget means more money,” it does seem like that isn’t always the case. The irony is also that the original small-budget release is trailing behind while the IP-focused entry is the one making money. So, we’re just seeing the usual blockbuster developments on a smaller scale than usual.

    Source: Variety, The Wrap

  • James Gunn Teases a ‘Legendary Star-Lord’ Solo Project

    James Gunn Teases a ‘Legendary Star-Lord’ Solo Project

    A post-credits scene attached to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 promised that while Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord had moved on from the Guardians and returned to Earth following his adventures with the Guardians, his time in the MCU was not up. Fans wondered and speculated about what might be next for the legendary outlaw and while most assumed that the character would show up in one or both of the Avengers films slated for the Multiverse Saga, there was also some chatter about a solo project for the character and as it turns out, that might just be in the works.

    After a successful two-month run at the box office, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now available on digital platforms complete with all the extras and bonuses that accompany home releases including director commentary. During the post-credit scene that features Pratt’s Quill reuniting with his Terran grandfather, director James Gunn revealed that he and Pratt had talked about a potential Star-Lord solo film.

    Oh, but not quite over. We always want to give somebody a little something special. And Chris and I, forever, have talked about how great it would be to be able to do a ‘Legendary Star-Lord’ movie, a story with Star-Lord on Earth trying to adapt to the environment of Earth in the same way that somebody else might try to adapt to the alien environment of outer space. He’s a fish out of water in just kind of regular water. So I can’t wait to see it.

    James Gunn

    Given Pratt’s star appeal and the fact that he’s one of the last headliners from the Infinity Saga not to be featured in his own solo project, it’s not surprising to hear that a Legendary Star-Lord film might be in the works. Though Pratt has made it clear that he thinks “it would be strange to continue Peter’s story without James,” the star also indicated he’d be willing to return to the role “down the road if something makes sense” saying he “would do it but it would really have to check a lot of the right boxes.” Just when such a project might fit into the MCU’s already packed and jammed-up slate and who would take the wheel now that Gunn has moved on to co-chair DC Studios are obvious questions. However, Gunn’s comments do seem to clarify that such a project is more likely to happen than not.

    Via: CBM

  • BREAKING: Jennifer Garner to Return as Elektra in ‘Deadpool 3’

    BREAKING: Jennifer Garner to Return as Elektra in ‘Deadpool 3’

    It looks like the rumors are true, as Deadpool 3 will act as a callback to the era before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was getting started. In a new piece by The Hollywood Reporter, they have unveiled that not only will Ryan Reynold’s film see the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, but we’ll also get an iconic character from a previous Marvel film. Jennifer Garner is back as Elektra one more time.

    For those that might not remember, Garner famously played the character in 2003’s Daredevil starring alongside Ben Affleck before getting her own spinoff in 2005. Her inclusion further supports the rumors that the story is going to feature a big multiverse storyline, as a way to build upon what we saw in Deadpool 2‘s post-credit sequence.

    Of course, Garner’s return opens up the discussion as to if recent rumors of Affleck being on set might also indicate that he’s set to return as well. Who knows if Daredevil will actually be featured and how exactly this multiversal storyline will connect, but it’s definitely the perfect idea to make good use of Deadpool’s shenanigans as a final hurrah to that era before the MCU became the de facto franchise based around Marvel characters.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter