Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: TV News

  • BREAKING: Gael Garcia Bernal Boards Marvel Studios’ Werewolf by Night

    BREAKING: Gael Garcia Bernal Boards Marvel Studios’ Werewolf by Night

    Gael Garcia Bernal is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

    Per The Wrap, the actor is set to headline the forthcoming Disney+ Halloween Special from Marvel Studios believed to be Werewolf by Night. Details on the forthcoming project are sparse, however, production is slated to begin in early 2022.

    With the project thought to be Werewolf by Night, it seems likely the actor is playing the Jake Gomez iteration of the character. Gomez, of course, was the second Werewolf by Night of the character, having debuted in Werewolf by Night #1 by Taboo, Benjamin Jackendoff and Scot Eaton. Prior to Gomez, there was Jack Russell, the first Werewolf by Night, who was created by Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog and first appeared in a 1972 issue of Marvel Spotlight.

    Bernal is a huge get for Marvel Studios and Disney+. The Mexican-born actor has built up quite a resume throughout his career, having starred in Coco for Disney, as well as nabbing the leading role in Amazon’s critically-acclaimed Mozart in the Jungle. He most recently starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s Old. Up next for the actor is the HBO Max miniseries Station Eleven, based on Emily St. John Mandel’s novel of the same name.

    Prior to Bernal’s casting, it was thought Marvel Studios was eyeing Anthony Ramos (In the Heights, Hamilton) for the leading role.

    Source: The Wrap

  • ‘Hawkeye’ Producer on Drawing Inspiration from the Fraction/Aja Run in the Comics

    ‘Hawkeye’ Producer on Drawing Inspiration from the Fraction/Aja Run in the Comics

    Fans are eagerly awaiting Hawkeye, the next Marvel Studios original Disney+ series. Recently, Marvel Studios executive producer Trinh Tran spoke about how actress Hailee Steinfeld was basically made for the role of Kate Bishop, the young archer Clint Barton teams up within the series. Steinfeld also apparently feels quite attached to the character. In an interview with EW, the actress shared that, “[d]iving into all the information out there on Kate Bishop felt like a dream.”

    In an interview with EW, Steinfeld revealed that much of her inspiration for her character came from the critically acclaimed Hawkeye comic by Matt Fraction and David Aja. While we already knew that the series would draw heavily from the well-known run, apparently, the comic particularly influenced the dynamic between Kate and Clint. In the same interview, Tran explained:

    “The Fraction/Aja style and tone is what we were really gravitating towards…[o]nce they encounter each other and go off on this journey together, there’s so much they can bounce off each other.”

    Trinh Tran

    The witty mentor-mentee relationship between the two archers was certainly a standout aspect of the Fraction/Aja comic– if Hawkeye can manage to pull off something similar, or successfully adapt any of the other Hawkeye comic components, the series may end up being something quite special.

    The first two episodes of Hawkeye premiere on Disney+ later this month.

    Source: EW

  • Hailee Steinfeld Was Marvel Studios’ “Go-to-Girl” for the Role of Kate Bishop

    Hailee Steinfeld Was Marvel Studios’ “Go-to-Girl” for the Role of Kate Bishop

    For well over a year, fans rode a roller coaster as rumors of Hailee Steinfeld signing on as Kate Bishop ebbed and flowed. She was in; she was out; she signed on the dotted line; the project was delayed and might have cost her the role; the project was delayed and allowed her to land the role. In reality, nobody knew what to believe and it wasn’t until we got the first photos and videos of Steinfeld on set that anyone was sure she had landed the role of Bishop in Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series Hawkeye.

    Hawkeye is set to stream (beginning with a 2-episode premiere) on November 24th and from the footage we’ve seen so far, it looks like Steinfeld is not only a great fit for the role but truly gets the role. According to Marvel Studios executive producer Trinh Tran, even though fans rode the rumor mill roller coaster, the studio always knew they wanted Steinfeld for the role.

    I remember the very first day when [executive producer and MCU mastermind Kevin Feige] and I sat with Hailee to talk about it. We were just like, ‘This is Kate Bishop.’ When you read the comics, you get that energy from Kate — that wit and those smarts. And meeting Hailee, you see she’s so incredibly talented. Just look at the body of work she’s accomplished at such a young age. We knew having her be a part of the MCU one way or another would be very exciting, but when we started talking about this particular project and this character, she just became our go-to girl.

    As Tran says, Steinfeld is a huge star at just 24 years old and brings with her to Marvel Studios an already incredibly well-established fan base of young people. Steinfeld is very much primed to become one of the faces of the MCU’s future and it certainly doesn’t hurt Marvel Studios to have one of those faces be as instantly recognizable as hers. Bishop’s entrance into the MCU will mark the appearance of yet another comic book Young Avenger and as that number continues to grow, it’s only a matter of time until those characters get their own property, one that will certainly see Bishop in the lead. When you think about that future, you can understand why Steinfeld was always Marvel Studios go-to-girl and why they were willing to do what they had to do to find a way to bring her into the MCU.

    Source: EW

  • Daniel Dae Kim to Play Fire Lord Ozai in Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’

    Daniel Dae Kim to Play Fire Lord Ozai in Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’

    Netflix just announced that actor Daniel Dae Kim is joining its cast for Avatar: The Last Airbender on Twitter. He will tackle the role of Fire Lord Ozai, the father of Zuko and the leader of the fire nation. We just recently heard the news that they were potentially looking to cast the rest of the nation of fire benders. So, it’s great that it didn’t take long for the confirmation of Kim’s addition to the cast in the iconic role.

    Ozai was mostly kept in the shadows throughout the earliest seasons. So, we might spend a bit more time with the character if they already announce the casting now. There was also a rumor that they might already cast Azula for the series’ first season. Western adaptations tend to tease characters in adaptations much earlier. So, this casting might be our first hint that Azula might get an official casting in the near future as well. It’ll be interesting to see if it stretches out its adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender over multiple seasons rather than abiding by the same structure of the original.

    Source: Twitter

  • Sofia Vergara Tackling the Role of Griselda Blanco for New Netflix Mini-Series

    Sofia Vergara Tackling the Role of Griselda Blanco for New Netflix Mini-Series

    Here’s a casting you wouldn’t expect. Deadline has reported that Sofia Vergara will take on the role of drug lord Griselda Blanco in an upcoming miniseries for Netflix simply titled Griselda. It’ll simply be titled Griselda and explore her life building one of the most profitable cartels in human history. She was infamously known as “Black Widow” as she balanced her criminal and family life.

    Empire’s Ingrid Escajeda will act as showrunner, writer, and executive producer on the show. She’ll be joined by Eric Newman, Andrés Baiz, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro, who were the creative team behind the popular series Narcos. They, however, confirmed that there is no connection between the series.

    [UPDATING]

    Source: Deadline, Illuminerdi

  • Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillip’s ‘Newburn’ Already Optioned for TV

    Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillip’s ‘Newburn’ Already Optioned for TV

    Today saw the release of the first issue of Newburn, a crime comic published by Image that follows a private detective, Ed Newburn, as he navigates the NYC underworld. Chip Zdarsky (Stillwater, Daredevil) and Jacob Phillips (That Texas Blood) worked together on the project which has debuted to very positive reviews so far.

    Apparently someone believed in the book early on as the duo revealed that Newburn has already been optioned for a TV series, which the duo revealed last night during a live stream with the guys at Comic Book Club. The talk about Newburn comes up around the 18 minute mark.

    While they didn’t reveal which service has optioned the book, Zdarsky does mention that whichever studio it was needed nothing more than the first 3 issues to make the call. You can probably pick up a few copies of Newburn at your LCS today and flip them for a profit in the near future!

    Source: Comic Book Club

  • Son of Satan Creator Doesn’t Think ‘Helstrom’ Took Enough Influence From the Comics

    Son of Satan Creator Doesn’t Think ‘Helstrom’ Took Enough Influence From the Comics

    During the fall of Marvel Television, the company managed to squeak out a single-season adaptation of the character Daimon Hellstrom, also known as the Son of Satan. Titled simply Helstrom, the live-action series took several liberties in bringing its characters to life. Jeph Loeb and the folks at Marvel Television took steps to ensure Daimon and his sister Satana, renamed here as Ana Helstrom, would come off as more grounded and a little less fantastical. Roy Thomas, who co-created the characters back in 1973, revealed in a recent interview with ComicBook.com that he took issue with the changes to his work.

    As he bluntly states, Thomas feels the creatives should have leaned more on the source material:

    They should’ve followed the comic books. Somebody doing the series should’ve read the comic book. Maybe they could’ve made a good series out of that. They could have even left the extra ‘L.

    Thomas went on to expand his frustrations to other live-action adaptations, citing the successful live-action Incredible Hulk series as another example of changing too much from the source material:

    I mean, the guy who did the Hulk show, he just buries the Hulk various times. He thought, ‘Oh, I paid no attention to that comic book. I went to things like Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,’ And gee, obviously Stan Lee and Jack Kirby could never have been smart enough to think of something like that. These guys have to think they’re reinventing the wheel every time they do something in order to justify their enormous salaries, I suppose.

    With Marvel Television having closed its doors last year, a renewal for the series seemed unlikely from the start. Unfortunately, those hoping for a second season were upset to receive official confirmation that the series would not be returning last December.

    If you’ve yet to check out the Helstrom siblings, you can catch Helstrom in it’s entirety on Hulu.

    Source: Comic Book

  • Keith David Joins ‘Stargirl’ Season 3 as Mister Bones

    Keith David Joins ‘Stargirl’ Season 3 as Mister Bones

    The second season of Stargirl saw the arrival of Eclipso to Blue Valley, a villain who effectively dismantled the Justice Society, member by member, while barely lifting a finger. The second season just recently wrapped up its run on the CW, and filming is already underway for Season 3. Not much is known about what’s to come in the next season, but it seems a minor mention in a previous episode season will indeed set the stage for the upcoming season of Stargirl. 

    In recent episodes, we saw Courtney and Pat make their way to the Helix Institute in search of Jenny Hayden. Jenny, of course, is on her own mission as she looks for her brother Todd Rice. Upon their departure, there’s a brief scene in which Louise Love, head nurse at Helix, makes a phone call to one Mister Bones. While it’s not clear, we can assume he is the mastermind behind the operation at Helix. At the very end of the Season 2 finale, we finally see the reveal of Mister Bones himself. Bones is on his way to Blue Valley, Nebraska, in search of more candidates for his experiments at the institute. The most shocking part of this reveal was that the person voicing Bones is none other than Keith David, best known for his work on Spawn, The Thing and The Princess and The Frog.

    We previously speculated that Helix and Bones would be returning to Stargirl as possible villains in season 3. It’s still unknown if other characters like Penny Dreadful, Baby Boom, Kritter, or Tao Jones will join Bones on his way to Blue Valley. It’s also unclear if Jenny will reunite with her brother Todd.

    A release date for Stargirl‘s third season has not yet been unveiled.

    SOURCE: Stargirl

  • Roy Thomas, Co-Creator of Marvel’s Iron Fist, Praises Finn Jones and Netflix Series

    Roy Thomas, Co-Creator of Marvel’s Iron Fist, Praises Finn Jones and Netflix Series

    Marvel Television set the bar high on Netflix when it premiered Daredevil and Jessica Jones in 2015, but the success of those shows was short-lived. Iron Fist dropped two years later to much worse reviews, with many fans and critics feeling that the show and lead actor Finn Jones had failed to live up to the immense potential behind Marvel’s Living Weapon. Yet, during a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Iron Fist co-creator and industry legend Roy Thomas revealed that he actually very much approved of Jones’ performance and the show at large.

    When asked what he ultimately thought of the live-action series, Thomas explained:

    Oh, I watched all of it. Yeah. Iron Fist had a few problems here and there, but I really liked the actor who played Iron Fist. I liked the general concept of it and everything.

    Marvel’s Iron Fist ran for two seasons on Netflix before it became the first of the shows to be axed, in what would eventually be the demise of the entire Defenders franchise on the small screen. The first season of Iron Fist was run by Inhumans showrunner Scott Buck, with showrunner Raven Metzner signing on for an ever-so-slightly improved sophomore effort.

    While the series has plenty of problems, from writing to fight choreography, Jones’ casting was controversial from the start. Many fans hoped an actor of Asian descent would have landed the role. Although Danny Rand’s future within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently unclear, the character remains a hot topic. Since the show’s cancelation, one of the show’s stunt coordinators’ has come forward with claims that Jones did not put in enough effort when it came to training for fight scenes.

    Nonetheless, Thomas continues to have only good things to say:

    Just wonderful. They were all reasonably good. Of course, The Defenders wasn’t that popular, that brief series, but I thought that was great because I’m an old superhero group fan, and I thought that was wonderful. But I really liked them all. I met many of the actors, [Mike] Colter who played Luke Cage, and Iron Fist and so forth…

    Both seasons of Iron Fist are streaming now on Netflix.

    As it stands, no plans for the character’s appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been announced.

    Source: Comic Book

  • Brenton Thwaites Confirms ‘Titans’ Season 5

    Brenton Thwaites Confirms ‘Titans’ Season 5

    This past season of Titans saw the team hit a bit of a bump in the road, as the death of Jason Todd brought the heroes from San Francisco, all the way back to Gotham City. The absence of Batman led the team to stick around and defend the city as Scarecrow and Red Hood began their reign of terror. The series just recently wrapped up its third season at HBO Max with a fourth season confirmed to be in the works at DC FanDome. It seems like fans of the series need not worry about the future of the Titans though. 

    In an interview with Matt Sheehan, actor Brenton Thwaites, who plays Dick Grayson on Titans may have confirmed that the series has already been renewed for a fifth season before the fourth had even begun production. While asking a question on what’s in store for Dick and Kory, and the potential future we saw for them in the finale of season 3, Thwaites let it slip that season 5 would be happening.

    “So I knew it was a placeholder for whats to come in Season 4 and 5, and I just, I just asked that they were very confident that they were very confident that would happen”

    This past season of Titans saw the team hit a bit of a bump in the road, as the death of Jason Todd brought the heroes from San Francisco, all the way back to Gotham City. The absence of Batman led the team to stick around and defend the city as Scarecrow and Red Hood began their reign of terror. The series just recently wrapped up its third season at HBO Max with a fourth season confirmed to be in the works at DC FanDome. It seems like fans of the series need not worry about the future of the Titans though. 

    Titans is one of the most popular series on streaming and it’s not shocking to see it be renewed beyond season 4. The next season is still very early in development so it’s unknown as of right now just when filming will begin or when the next season will release.

    SOURCE: Twitter