To this day, the fact that Disney and Square Enix worked together on a game that combined both worlds into one with Kingdom Hearts remains one of those things that seem like pipedreams. Somehow, we’ve got three main titles and countless spinoffs. And in a surprising twist, it seems that Disney is starting to include references to the project, as eagle-eyed fans have noticed that Mickey Mouse’s Kingdom Key D was included in a brief sequence in the new Disney+ special The Wonderful Spring of Mickey Mouse.
The fact it appears while they are busy spring cleaning is a hilarious idea, as it seems that his time with the Keyblade was in the past. IThe brief tease also includes Yen Sid’s famous hat that he briefly borrowed, a character that also appeared in the Kingdom Hearts series. The inclusion is a great tease, as there have also been quite a few rumors that Disney+ was developing a series based on the franchise. We’ve sadly never heard much on it and it seemingly has vanished since.
It would be fun to see Sora appear in one of these specials, as the art style would offer a very creative take on the character. Plus, it would just be surreal to actually see them interact outside of the games. Here’s hoping that the appearance is also a tease that we may get some hints on the project as we are currently in the franchise’s 20th anniversary.
When Disney+ and Marvel Studios teased their line-up for 2022, there were some interesting projects missing. We still never got an official announcement for the untitled Werewolf by Night project even though it has already started production. And, there was no mention of if The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which James Gunn is going to direct while working on the third entry of the franchise, would release later this year.
Luckily, Gunn not only tased how “ridiculous” his take on a Holiday Special is going to be but also confirmed that we can definitely expect it to release this Christmas. His full quote is as follows:
It’s totally ridiculous, and every day we can’t believe that we’re making it. We all completely love it. It is unlike anything that anyone’s ever seen before. I can’t wait for people to see it. And it’s out pretty soon. You know, it’s out this Christmas. It’s not like people have to wait that long.
James Gunn
He even calls the project the “greatest thing I’ve ever done” which sounds quite promising after his success with The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. It’ll be interesting to see how it might not only connect into the third entry but also just how crazy he was able to make the story. Seems like Marvel Studios gave him complete free control and it wouldn’t be too surprising to even see the MCU’s version of Santa Clause make an appearance at some point in the special.
The first TV series based on James Bond has finally been ordered by Amazon shortly after purchasing MGM studio, but it turns out it’s not quite what you might expect. The series 007’s Road to a Million isn’t a continuation of Bond’s journey or world but rather a reality TV show. It’ll see contestants trying to win £1 million by following in the footsteps of the character with endurance and intelligence tests. Teams of two will take on the challenges while traveling the world.
Former Channel 4 executive Dom Bird will supervise the project for Amazon. The channel has been collecting quite a few UK unscripted projects like Clarkson’s Farm, All or Nothing, and more. Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson are working on a project that will consist of eight parts. There aren’t more details given, but it’s certainly a surprising direction for the first project to be part of the deal mainly in the form of a reality TV series.
Ironically, the project has been in development for quite some time and it’s just a coincidence that it is moving forward now that the purchase has wrapped up. It seems that it was stuck in some form of production for around four years, but it’s likely that as a result of COIVD a lot of the production was pushed back given its world traveling focus.
Paramount+ has just released what may be their first flagship series with the live-action Halo adaptation, and they’ve already set their eyes on another project. Nickelodeon’s popular series The Loud House is now also getting a live-action adaptation that’ll start production sometime in June. It’ll be a 10-episode produced by Nickelodeon that will follow the original series closely, as Lincoln Loud has to somehow manage his life with his ten sisters. Co-Head of Nickelodeon, Shauna Phelan, had the following to say on their decision to move forward with the series:
As one of Nick’s most beloved animated franchises, ‘The Loud House’ has made its way into the hearts of millions of fans across the globe. When we brought the animated world of Royal Woods to life with ‘A Loud House Christmas,’ it instantly became a holiday favorite for both new and loyal fans alike, and I just know that they will love what our amazing creative team is preparing for this new live-action series.
Shauna Phelan
The live-action adaptation will see the return of the cast from A Loud House Christmas, a special that was released back in November. Wolfgang Schaeffer will return to play the leading role of Lincoln. Tim Hobert, Jonathan Judge, and Michael Rubiner joined the series as executive producers with Hobert acting as showrunner. The pilot of the series will be directed by Judge with Nickelodeon’s Phelan and Zack Olin supervising. There is currently no release date set.
As many people may know,before Tom Cruise was the face of Mission Impossible, the franchise actually began as a 1960’s TV show for CBS. Reportedly, the series was almost set to return to the realm of television via Paramount+, but the show never came to be.
With Paramount+ needing to bolster its offerings to compete in the streaming wars, the obvious answer is to create sequels, spin-offs and reboots to their biggest franchises. Naturally, Mission Impossible is of course a prime candidate. The streamer reportedly wanted Tom Cruise‘s production company to develop a show in the same universe, but it never came to be, likely because of the release disputes over MI:7. The production crew was also pitched a Days of Thunder show, also as a streaming exclusive, but that one fizzled out as well.
With Paramount+ definitely needing content when compared to the juggernauts like Disney, HBO, and Netflix, these potentially large and exciting projects must be a tear in their plans. While the shows aren’t going forward right now, things are constantly changing in the industry. Maybe another opportunity will arise after Mission Impossible 7 releases next year.
After being one of the longest rumored characters to get a solo project, Deadline has finally revealed that Richard Rider, better known as the intergalactic hero Nova, will be getting his own project. Marvel Studios is developing the adaptation but there are no details if this will be a Disney+ series or a solo film outing. As per usual, Kevin Feige will take on the producing role while Moon Knight writer Sabir Pirzada is attached to pen the project. The project has been teased for quite some time, and many rumors made the rounds on a potential project being in development. Deadline’s Justin Kroll did highlight that sources seem to indicate this is very likely a limited series heading to Disney+.
While unknown whether it would be a movie or series sources say likely to be limited for Disney+ https://t.co/7VLtwVTMgK
While the article highlights Richard Rider as the potential main character, there’s a chance that it’ll focus on Sam Alexander. As the name implies, he is part of the Nova Corp but unlike the others we’ve seen in Guardians of the Galaxy, he has superhuman abilities. A special helmet was passed on to his son after his apparent demise, which gave him the same abilities as his father. With the Young Avengers on the horizon and the apparent destruction of the Nova Corp, they may skip straight to the legacy aspect of the character similar to what Ant-Man did when it focused on the second generation holder of the mantle.
It appears HBO’s The Last of Us series may have cast a few integral characters without anyone noticing. A new set photo making its way around Twitter is seemingly giving fans their first look at brothers Sam and Henry in all their live-action glory. The image shows a pair of actors, whose ages and appearance match the aforementioned duo, standing alongside Pedro Pascal‘s Joel and Bella Ramsey‘s Ellie. It’s not clear enough to determine who the actors potentially playing Sam and Henry are, but the image could very well be the first confirmation that the characters will be in the adaptation.
In the original video game, Sam and Henry are a pair of brothers who Joel and Ellie meet while they traverse their way through a dystopian Pittsburgh. The boys temporarily team with the protagonists to get past the malicious Hunters, a violent group of survivors who have taken over the city and leave behind no prisoners. The four leads hit it off at first, with the younger brother Sam even forming a blossoming friendship with Ellie.
Unfortunately, like most things in The Last of Us, the partnership ends in tragedy. Franchise creator Neil Druckmann has gone on record to say some major events from the game will play out differently on the show, so perhaps there’s still hope for Sam and Henry when the series begins to air.
Netflix has been quite busy with their live-action adaptations of classic animated and Anime projects. Most notably, they are currently in production on an adaptation of One Piece and Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. Especially the latter has been in production since last year, as it’ll tackle one of the most populated Western animated series. Luckily, we can offer an update on the project which is currently starting to cast some key members of the Northern Water Tribe.
The series, which is currently in production under the working title Blue Dawn, is looking to cast recurring guest performers of Indigenous descent to appear in approximately two episodes. While the characters are being cast with code names, their descriptions give us hints on who exactly they are playing and confirm that they are key roles for the adaptation of the Sieg of the North storyline from Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s first season.
Let’s start off with a character by the name of “Chief Red Crow.” They are actively looking for an Indigenous actor in his 40s up to his 50s. As his name implies, he’s the leader of his tribe, and the description highlights that he’ll lead his people into a battle. He also has a daughter named “Grace” that is the most important thing to him, as he wants to make sure she is happy. The description matches the Northern Water Tribe’s Chief Arnook, especially with the mention of his daughter who is likely Princess Yue.
Yue’s code name is also once again mentioned with the character of “Henry.” Not only is the battle mentioned again, but he is highlighted as in love with Grace, while she has eyes for someone else. Henry isn’t too far away from the character of Hahn. He was a strong warrior that was arranged to marry Yue. The only difference is that the character was quite self-centered and egotistical in the original series, who was interested in Yue due to her being the chief’s daughter. He was constantly fighting Sokka, who is played by Ian Ousley, who is the “other” mentioned in the description.
The next major casting is for the role of “Brother Rain.” The character is the village’s “martial arts master” and the teacher of the village’s warriors. This description matches Pakku, who was the one to teach Aang (Gordon Cormier) how to master their waterbending techniques. There’s also a line that highlights he loves “adhering to tradition over progress” which would hint that Pakku’s storyline of only teaching male waterbenders will also have a role in the upcoming adaptation.
He’s not the only teacher in this village, as there’s also the character of “Ayana.” The description highlights her as a healer that teaches women of their tribe. The description perfectly matches Yugoda, who thought Katara (Kiawentiio) some healing techniques while she also continued to pursue Pakku to break his tradition to teach her. The castings are currently hinting that the Avatar Team’s visit to the Northern Water tribe will take place over approximately two of its eight-episode run, which is quite substantial and highlights we’ll get to see quite a bit of this cast.
In the age of competing intellectual properties and streaming services, the Microsoft video gaming brand Xbox is gearing up to bring one of its most iconic properties to live-action with Halo on Paramount+. American Gods actor Pablo Schreiber is set to star as Master Chief in the series. Like any leading role in an action project, Schreiber has been fancast in plenty of Marvel roles.
Perhaps some good news for fans of the actor, apparently a Marvel role for Schreiber is not too far-fetched to dream about. During an interview with the Bingeworthy podcast, the Halo actor has has “a bunch of discussions” with Marvel over the years:
Yeah. You know I’ve seen things pop up a lot. I’ve had a bunch of discussions with Marvel at different points in my career. We’ve never been able to find the right thing at the right time, but I’d certainly be open to that. But yeah it’s just staying open to the right path and I don’t know exactly what that is, but I’ll know it when I see it.
Pablo Schreiber
Schreiber, who is Canadian, even expressed interest in playing the MCU’s Wolverine. Notably, the actor mentions that he and Marvel “flirted” with the idea of that casting:
Oh goodness yeah, well we flirted with that one for a while. That’d be fantastic, that would certainly be a dream casting. He’s actually my favorite hero, from a child he was always my favorite comic book. So I’ve had a long flirtation with that guy, so you know obviously that’d be a dream
Pablo Schreiber
Whether Schreiber is speaking about talks with Marvel for Wolverine purely in the past tense or not is not entirely clear, but it definitely notable that he speaks so highly of the potential role and implies he and Marvel have had somewhat of an ongoing relationship with Marvel throughout his career.
While Wolverine is still very much viewed as Hugh Jackman’s character, X-Men characters are expected to make their way into the MCU now that Disney owns the film rights to the characters. Who exactly will take on the iconic role is unknown at this time, but Marvel clearly has been working on casting for some time. Schreiber will make his debut as Master Chief in Halo on March 24 on Paramount+.
One Piece is the series that keeps on giving, as more set photos have leaked online. This time around, we get a good look at another new ship under construction. While only parts of the ship are finished, the figurehead is quite telling on what they are working on. While we only see half, you can clearly recognize the dog’s ears and nose. Plus, we also get the spiked collar as part of its design. The only part that is unsure if it makes it into live-action would be the bone the dog head is holding in its mouth. The images come courtesy of @OP_Netflix_Fan.
— ONE PIECE NETFLIX FAN (@OP_Netflix_Fan) March 23, 2022
The biggest aspect of this reveal is that it further solidifies that the cover stories from the East Blue, most notably the one involving Helmeppo and Coby, are going to be part of the upcoming series. The upcoming live-action adaptation of One Piece will likely take liberties with how it approaches the original story. They may try to connect some story points to the overarching narrative, as they will adapt it to Western storytelling in some regards.
Garp’s casting did make some waves in the community, as he is a character that doesn’t have a real role in the East Blue Saga. Plus, he doesn’t become that relevant to the story of One Piece until the Post-Enies Lobby arc, where his identity and connection to Luffy are revealed. It’ll be interesting to see if they will hint at it, or be a bit more straightforward with his role in the story. The inclusion of his ship does hint that there are definitely are some plans.
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