Tag: The Pulse

The Pulse: Collecting the Biggest News of the Week of November 21st-27th

‘Loki’ Cast Members Getting into the Madness of ‘Doctor Strange 2’

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is undergoing extensive reshoots which are designed, as star Bandicoot Snugglesnatch explained, to help realize the full potential of the film. Whether that means getting people on set who couldn’t be there before, when the film was shooting in the UK, or adding/reshooting some things, it’s ultimately a positive part of the filmmaking process for a pro like Sam Raimi and part of Raimi’s vision for this film apparently includes having Loki, Mobius and Sylvie in it. A recent IMDB update shows that stunt doubles for the actors behind those characters have recently joined the production. Additionally, Owen Wilson has been spotted in Los Angeles, a place he does NOT frequent unless he’s working. We’ll see how mad it all gets next May.

‘The Marvels’ Wraps Principal Photography

As the Doctor Strange sequel keeps on keeping on, the Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, has wrapped principal photography after just shy of 3 months of work. Ironically enough, after going the entire duration of filming without a leak, a few set photos leaked the day after filming wrapped. The film is now slated for a February 17th, 2023 release.

‘AMTW:Q’ WPAWAWNSITCFN2Y

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania wrapped production as well and will not sit in the can for nearly 2 years before it releases in July of 2023. Of course it’ll undergo some additional photography at some point, which will inspire some intrepid internet personality to claim it’s a disaster and that the entire film is being reworked, but such is the cycle. It’s rumored that by the time the film does hit theaters, Rudd will look exactly the same as he did when filming began.

Netflix Go Going for a Power Rangers Universe

After crashing and burning with the launch of their Millar-verse when Jupiter’s Legacy turned out to be D.O.A., Netflix isn’t giving up. The streaming network, in an effort to keep up with the competition, is working on mapping out a Power Rangers Cinematic Universe, full of interconnected shows and films. Dragon shit!!

Chris Pratt to Americanize Italy’s Greatest Hero in Upcoming Film Adaptation

In an unprecedented act of aggression, American actor Chris Pratt is boldly attempting to erase the heritage of one of Italy’s greatest heroes by simply refusing to acknowledge it. Pratt, who is voicing Italian icon Mario, will reportedly not be imitating the stereotypical accent that’s been developed by the character over the years. Is nothing sacred?

Scott Snyder’s ‘Nocterra’ Headed to Netflix

One of the more original indie comics of 2021, Nocterra, is now in the pipeline to be adapted at Netflix. Nocterra, created by Scott Snyder of Batman fame, is a horror series that tells of a dystopian future where the lights all went out and a lot of bad shit started happening to people, including being turned into terrifying monsters. It truly is a wonderful book that you should check out before it gets turned into a trash series on Netflix.

More Blade Runner on the Way

Ridley Scott was a little grumpy this week, but in one of his kinder moments, he did mention that he had pitched a 10-episode season of a Blade Runner live-action series. It was a little confusing because on one hand, he railed against millennials while, on the other hand, realizing that streaming is the future of entertainment. With an Alien series already in development, it looks like 2 of Scott’s most iconic franchises will continue to live on and that’s almost certainly a good thing.

‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Cast Gets Recast During Casting for Dead Boy Detectives

The Doom Patrol spinoff series, Dead Boy Detectives, found it’s 3 leads this week. The new crew, who will replace the crew that appeared on the most recent season of Doom Patrol, is comprised of George Rexstrew, Jayden Revri and Kassius Nelson. I have no idea who these actors or characters are, but I think JJ liked them.

November 27, 2021
The Pulse: Collecting the Biggest News of the Week of November 14th-20th

Doctor Strange 2 Adding More Cast in Reshoots

After people got very upset at the prospect of a Marvel Studios film undergoing reshoots, some folks with their ears to the ground came through with some info that made a lot of sense. As it turns out, the reshoots aren’t because the film is “a mess”, but rather to get some more cast, who were unavailable during principal photography, into the film.

A New Daredevil Project is In Development

According to a grid leaked by Daniek RPK, Marvel Studios in now developing a solo Daredevil project. There was no indication if the project is meant for theaters or Disney Plus and we still don’t know if Charlie Cox is continuing his portrayal of the Netflix character or starting from scratch. This one looks like it’ll be a ways off yet, but we can all see Cox pretty soon in No Way Home.

Denis Villeneuve is Cancelling Sting

Uber-visionary mega-auteur Denis Villeneuve has finally gone too far. Rather than de-age the nearly ageless Sting, or simply insert his scenes into Dune Part 2, Villeneuve has plans to bring a new actor in for the role of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. This is an instance of the director absurdly believing the character is more important than the actor. Surely this will backfire.

Black Panther 2 Taking an Extended Holiday Break

As Letitia Wright continues to recover from injuries she sustained while filming in August, the production on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has wrapped…for the year. A note was delivered to the cast and crew this week that indicated they would all be home for the holidays...all of the holidays…and production would get geared up again in January. The delay is not expected to shift the film’s release date, so stop the drama!

Avatar is Underway

The Netflix live-action adaptation of Avatar has begun production and the cast continues to fill in nicely. Fans are eagerly scouring the internet for any kernel of info about the new series and so are we! Keep checking back for more.

ScarJo is Back At Marvel For Something

After suing Disney over the contractual issues surrounding the home release of Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson is, according to Kevin Feige, back to work for Marvel Studios. While the master of dissembling didn’t say what she was working on, he did say what she wasn’t: it won’t be a Black Widow project. He also didn’t mention if she was starring in the project or directing/producing, so really who the hell knows?

Jamie Dornan Has Talked to Marvel Studios about a Clothed Role

50 Shades stud Jamie Dornan has started to break out of the pigeon-sized hole his role in those films put him in and now he’s revealed that he has spoken to Marvel Studios One-Above-All, Kevin Feige, about a potential hero role in a Marvel Studios production. It’ll be interesting to see the Irish actor transition from S&M to CBM, but if anyone can do it, it’s Henry Cavill lite.

‘Ahsoka’ Series Has Found a Sabine Wren

Since it was revealed that the general premise of the Ahsoka series would be the search for Ezra, fans have been waiting to find out who would be cast as Sabine Wren. Natasha Liu Bordizzo is the big winner as it was revealed this week she’d be filling the armor and and teaming up with Rosario Dawson in the series.

Marvel Studios ‘Blade’ is Sharpening Up

It’s been nearly radio silent on the MCU’s Blade reboot since Kevin Feige announced it at SDCC ’19. That’s all changing now as the casting process has begun in earnest ahead of a late-Summer of 2022 start of production. Delroy Lindo, simply one of the coolest men on the face of the planet, has been cast in an undisclosed role alongside star Mahershala Ali. Murphy’s money is on Lindo playing Jamal Afari, Blade’s father figure and mentor in the ways of staking vampires.

November 20, 2021
The Pulse: Collecting the Biggest News of the Week of November 7th-13th
‘Andor’ Prequel Gets a Release Window

Prior to Disney Plus Day, Disney held their fourth quarter investors’ call. While these things aren’t always worth covering, in this case fans got some tidbits! One such tidbit was that Andor, the 12-episode streaming series that will serve as a prequel to Rogue One, has a release window! According to Disney CFO Christine McCarthy, the series will stream sometime between July and September of next year.

‘Ms. Marvel’ Moves to 2nd Half of 2022
McCarthy also mentioned that Ms. Marvel, a Marvel Studios streaming series set to introduce Kamala Khan to the MCU, will debut during that same window. Originally set to stream in late-2021, Ms. Marvel will now debut a little closer to Secret Invasion and The Marvels, project with that share cast members and maybe even some plot points with the teen drama series. Like many other Marvel Studios streaming series, we got a new look at the series and a synopsis on Disney Plus Day. We got some cool glimpses, including the clan of bad guys destined to give Kamala a hard time.

Ms. Marvel introduces viewers to Kamala, a 16-year old Pakistani American from Jersey City. An aspiring artist, an avid gamer, and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, she is a huge fan of the Avengers — and one in particular, Captain Marvel. But Kamala has always struggled to find her place in the world — that is until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to.

Stallone Returns to Grumble Through More Lines in Vol. 3

Sylvester Stallone was so excited to return to the role of Stakar Ogord for the next installment of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 that he let everyone know in a video from the set of the film. Here’s to hoping he continues to nail his spot-on interpretation of the comic book character that he’s allegedly bringing to the big screen.

‘One Piece’ Pieces Together One Cast

The Netflix adaptation of One Piece has been making more and more news over the past several weeks but none bigger than the cast being accidentally leaked by the Latin America Netflix account. Inaki Godoy, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero Gibson, Taz Skylar and Mackenyu were revealed to be key players for the series.

‘Moon Knight’ Looks Loony…and That’s Good
As part of Disney Plus Day, Marvel Studios streaming series Moon Knight got a synopsis and a brief teaser. While neither revealed who Ethan Hawke would be playing, the synopsis might just give a little hint.

Moon Knight is a new globetrotting action-adventure series featuring a complex vigilante who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. The multiple identities who live inside him find themselves thrust into a deadly war of the gods against the backdrop of modern and ancient Egypt.

Interestingly, the brief teaser seemed to show off not only the traditional costume, but also the newer Mr. Knight version as well. We’ll see how they split time on screen when it debuts next year.

‘She-Hulk’, Brought to You by Dan Slott

Tatiana Maslany, who vehemently denied that she was in She-Hulk, briefly appeared in the first look at Marvel Studios streaming series She-Hulk as…She-Hulk. The series, like Moon Knight, got a completely uninformative new synopsis. And, as the title says, it looks to be HEAVILY inspired by Dan Slott’s run.
She-Hulk follows Jennifer, a lawyer who specializes in superhuman-oriented legal cases. She-Hulk will welcome a host of Marvel characters to the series, including the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, and the Abomination, played by Tim Roth.

An Animation Renaissance is Underway at Marvel Studios
In probably the most exciting of all of the Disney Plus Day announcements, fans learned that Marvel Studio has not 1, not 2, but 3 new animated series in the works for the streaming service. X-Men ’97 will reunite the cast of characters of the beloved 90’s X-Men: The Animated Series on a new mission; Marvel Zombies will bring the undead, first seen in What If…?, into their own series; Spider-Man: Freshman Year, will tell a canonical tale about Peter Parker “on his way to becoming Spider-Man.” Additionally, the studio pretended that they hadn’t already told us about the second season of What If…? and gave us an “official” announcement. A lot of the people who currently dish out a lot of money to Marvel Studios projects grew up on animated projects, so it is absolutely fascinating to see them embrace that generation with the X-Men revival, try to capture the hearts of a generation with Freshman Year and eat the hearts of others with Zombies.

Marvel Studios Pretended They Didn’t Give the Trades Info and “Officially” Revealed Two “New” Series
In the least surprising announcements of the week, Marvel Studios REVEALED that spinoff series for Agatha Harkness and Echo were headed to Disney Plus. Of course, we’ve all known this for a while now but, to make up for that, we got some cool logos that won’t be the logos we see when the shows actually hit D+. Echo and Agatha: House of Harkness are “coming soon” to Disney Plus. Despite the heavy sarcasm, both shows have the potential to explore fascinating corners of the MCU and introduce some great new characters.

‘Prey’, The Next Installment of the Predator Franchise, Will Debut on Hulu

Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator movie has been retitled Prey and slotted for a 2022 streaming debut on Hulu. The moves were announced as part of Disney Plus Day because, yeah, Disney owns the rights to Predator now! The new film’s premise sounds incredible as it focuses on a Predator going up against a Comanche Nation teen around 300 years ago.
November 13, 2021
The Pulse: Collecting the Biggest New of the Week of October 24th-30th

It’s time for another edition of The Pulse. Because you were too busy to read it the first time, we wrote it a second time.

Brendan Fraser Joins HBO Max’s Batgirl

Very few actors have successfully followed the same career path as George of the Jungle’s Brendan Fraser. At this point, it seems like Fraser can only (Dudley) Do-Right as he continues to Bedazzle(d) us, resurrecting his career from its Tomb (of the Dragon Emperor) and claiming his (Furry) Vengeance on those who prematurely pronounced it dead. Fraser, who already voices Robotman on Doom Patrol, will double up on DC roles as he joins the production of HBO Max’s Batgirl as the film’s main villain, Firefly.

Doctor Strange Sequel Plans Additional Additional Photography

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was recently delayed by two months and now we might know why. After previously undergoing 4 months of planned additional photography, the film is now scheduled for 2 more months set to take place in November and December. The film originally started production in November of 2020, so by the time it’s all said and done, it’ll have been filming on and off for over one year.

Zawe Ashton Will Live Kree and (Probably) Die Hard in ‘The Marvels’

Earlier this year, Zawe Ashton joined Captain Marvel 2 in a role, DESCRIBED BY THE TRADES, as “THE VILLAIN”; now we have a pretty good idea of who that villain will be. Ashton will be playing a gender-swapped version of an incredibly obscure comic book character named Ael-Dan. Ael-Dan was a short-lived Emperor of the Kree, meaning we’ll see the extraterrestrial race return for the The Marvels.

Ana De Armas Will Grande Jete in Blood in John Wick Spinoff

The era of the John Wick Cinematic Universe is upon us. A fourth John Wick film, a prequel series (The Continental) and now Ballerina, which will see Ana De Armas expand on the role of a character we briefly saw training in JW3. De Armas is a rising star and could easily carry a franchise of her own, so let’s hope this is just first position for the Ballerina.

2 Dune 2 Dusty

Ubervisionary megaauteur Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Part 1 has begun streaming on HBO Max and has received all kinds of positive reviews from fans and critics alike. It looks like the positivity was enough to get WB to get off their asses and greenlight the sequel, which DV says will film late in 2022 ahead of an October 20, 2023, theatrical-only release. The inspired creator has hopes that he’ll also be give the go ahead for DUN3, which could possibly adapt the novel Dune Messiah (which I just learned existed about 48 hours ago).

Shang-Chi Sequel

Shang-Chi and The Legends of The Ten Rings has been Marvel Studios’ best movie of 2021 so far and, according to GWW, the sequel is reportedly set to begin filming in 2023. The first film left some room for interpretation as to what we could expect in a sequel (though not quite as much as some people might think) and it makes sense that Marvel Studios would get a sequel on this film going again pretty quickly as you can bet stars Simu Liu and Awkwafina will have other things on their plates.

Justice Like Lightning

GWW had a big week. Not only did they report on the Shang-Chi sequel being in the works at Marvel, but they also mentioned the studio is developing a Thunderbolts film set to go into production in 2023. Fans have been speculating about this project for a long, long time and the makings of a great Thunderbolts team already exists within the MCU. We can’t wait to see what they put together and how it develops over the next couple of years.

The MCU Joins Bill Murray

Is there anything Bill Murray can’t do? The legendary comedian has joined the cast of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania…according to him…or has he? Murray told a German reporter he had joined the MCU and then quickly told Jimmy Kimmel that he couldn’t talk about his comments, joining the long list of people who have found themselves denying their involvement with Marvel. The real question here isn’t if Murray is in but rather who should he be playing if he is.

MBJ’s Val-Zod Film Finds Its Writers

In July, it was revealed that Michael B. Jordan was developing a Val Zod Superman project, and now the film, being developed for HBO Max, has a writing team! Writers Darnell Metayer and Josh Peters were hired to tackle the HBO Max’s adaptations script. It’s still unclear if Jordan will also take on the role of Val Zod, which still remains uncast. He is only set to act as an executive producer alongside Outlier Society’s Elizabeth Raposo.

October 30, 2021
The Pulse: Collecting the Biggest News of the Week of October 17th-23rd

‘Y: The Last Man’ gets canceled but might find a new home

FX’s Y: The Last Man, the adaptation of the iconic comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra got canceled before its first season came to an end. Showrunner Eliza Clark announced it through her Twitter account, all while maintaining hope that this wouldn’t be the end of it. Just a couple of days later a rumor emerged that the show might find its next home at HBO Max, something that, in a way, would bring the show back under the Warner Bros. umbrella, as the source material was published through DC’s Vertigo imprint.

Marvel Studios reshuffles upcoming theatrical release dates

Marvel Studios, hopefully for the final time, decided to push back a few of its upcoming theatrical releases. Every movie starting with Thor: Love and Thunder was moved forward by a few months, with a couple of the previously announced 2023 dates removed altogether from the schedule. Kevin Feige referred to these changes as being due to “production shifts and changes” and since Marvel has several slots at their disposal it’s something that can easily be decided upon.

Harry Styles joins the MCU

Variety senior writer Matt Donnelly confirmed that Harry Styles had joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe on a viral tweet posted the night of the Eternals World Premiere. Styles is said to be playing Eros, the brother of the Mad Titan Thanos on a post-credit scene in the upcoming MCU feature. It came as a surprise to most that someone working for a major trade could so carelessly spoil such an important introduction, depriving fans of the surprise they would surely get at the end of their first Eternals viewing.

Thanagarians to appear in new CW series ‘Naomi’

Naomi seems to be adapting the Raanian / Thanagar War plotline from the comics. A recent clip from Naomi has made its way onto the internet giving us our very first look at Alexander Wraith as Dee, the mysterious mechanic in town who Naomi believes is holding a secret the could solve the mystery of her origin. Dee is a Thanagarian war deserter, who planned to run from the conflict with his wife who didn’t make it to earth. Naomi’s adoptive father is the one who came to earth in search of Dee but ended up falling in love and staying on Earth.

Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ continues its meteoric rise

After just four weeks in release, Netflix’s Korean drama Squid Game pulled in a stunning 142 million views by member households globally. The numbers were released by Netflix on Tuesday as part of its third-quarter earnings report in a letter to its investors. “A mind-boggling 142m member households globally have chosen to watch the title in its first four weeks. The breadth of Squid Game’s popularity is truly amazing,” the letter read.

‘World War Hulk” project in development at Marvel Studos

It’s been thoroughly reported that Mark Ruffalo has, over the years, often pitched Hulk solo storylines to Marvel Studios’ president Kevin Feige. Even though World War Hulk probably won’t turn out to be a Hulk solo outing, you can’t get more Hulk-centric than this. Fans rejoiced at the prospect of bringing the iconic comic storyline to the big screen where the MCU will have to deal with the implications of such a world-altering event.

Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ might get its expected sequel

Dune: Part One is already being described and one of the biggest cinematic achievements of the past decade. Many have left theaters clamoring for the studio to deliver the sequel, as the future of the franchise seems brighter than ever before. Following the massive positive reaction to part one of director Denis Villeneuve‘s passion project, WarnerMedia Studios CEO seemingly confirmed that plans for a ‘Dune’ sequel are already being put into place.

Anakin Skywalker returns. Again.

After confirmation that Hayden Christensen would return to the Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader role in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, a trade report announced that he would also make an appearance in the upcoming The Mandalorian spin-off, Ahsoka. Star Wars continues to move forward while leaning on a number of characters from its past, from Anakin to Kenobi and Boba Fett.

October 23, 2021