Just recently, The Boys first spin-off finally got a go from Amazon Studios. It faced some delays due to creative differences, but we still have the third season of the main series heading our way in the near future. Throughout the year, we got casting after casting but the show was extremely focused on highlighting Jensen Ackles addition as Soldier Boy. We even got an official first look at his new costume back in June. It looks like there are some new additions to the cast, as Deadline reveals another trio will have a recurring role moving forward.
The Boys‘ third season has added The Man In The High Castle‘s Frances Turner, Kristin Booth from The Hot Zone: Anthrax, and Marcella‘s Jack Doolan. Turner plays Monique, the wife of Laz Alonso‘s Mother’s Milk. Booth and Doolan will play the super siblings known as TNT Twins. There are no details what roles exactly they’ll have in the story but that name does not bode well. We’ve faced some tragedies in the past, but this might be a whole new level.
While fans are awaiting tomorrow’s finale of What If… ?, head writer A.C. Bradley is already giving us a taste of what Season 2 of the animated series will be like and how it compares to Season 1. A second season of Marvel Studios’ multiverse anthology has been confirmed for some time and, according to Bradley, every episode of Season 2 has already been written. The writer indicated that the series will start to focus on new characters and will be able to pull ideas from Phase 4:
Going into the second season, we’re sticking with anthology form, and it’s going to be all-new stories, lots of fun, new heroes, and pulling more from Phase Four than we were obviously able to this season…[t]he fun of What If…? is that we get to explore the entire infinite multiverse, so we try and bounce around as much as we can. I want to play with all these characters, and as much as I love Captain Carter, we’ve got to share the love. I’m very excited to show new worlds, new heroes.
A.C. Bradley
Interestingly, Bradley also hints that Season 2 may not be quite as dark as Season 1, or at least may not kill off characters as many times. She noted that while many of the first seasons episodes featured “big, let’s end the world, let’s kill everyone” arcs, but also says that next season is more character-driven. She hopes he series can show “a different side to [characters] that people don’t expect and hopefully they can relate to.”
Bradley added that What If… ? is not “designed to set up Avengers 5,” and emphasized how she approached the series as an opportunity to focus on entertaining and exploring what MCU heroes mean to us:
When I took the job, one of my rules was let’s be free. We’re in the multiverse — we should be as free as can be and go and run into the wild, into the stories the movies will never do, into the stories the TV shows will never do, and show both Disney and the fans all the possibilities of these characters.
A.C. Bradley
Bradley’s comments about What If… ? utilizing its creative freedom definitely echo some of fans’ desires for the show that weren’t necessarily met in Season 1. Either way, it looks like Season 2 could be significantly different in tone and potentially explore far more possibilities of the multiverse than the MCU has so far.
“It goes places you don’t expect. I know people are starting to get a sensation that things are building to something — and they are. And craziness ensues,” said Andrews of the finale. The director and longtime storyboard artist for the studio addes, “There’s a degree of resolution where it feels like all the stuff that’s been percolating across the episodes, the adventure that we bring you into for the ending, ends, to a certain degree.
Bradley, who also served as a consulting producer on Marvel Studios Ms. Marvel, reveals that part of that resolution will involve revisiting several characters met earlier in the season who will come together to take on Ultron whose newfound awareness makes him a threat to every reality.
We will pop into and re-meet some of our heroes from the previous episodes, including the lovely Captain Carter [Hayley Atwell], Strange Supreme, Party Thor [Chris Hemsworth], and even Killmonger [Michael B. Jordan]. Early on in the first season, like day one talking about it, there was this notion of we’re creating all these great heroes, but we only get to sit with them for 20 or 30 minutes. Wouldn’t it be great to see them again in the finale? And then once that decision was made, it liberated me to make the endings a little bit darker and bigger, knowing that we can give some sort of resolution in the finale.
As expected, the season finale will see the Watcher break his vow to never interfere and assemble a team that has been marketed as The Guardians of the Multiverse. We already saw the beginnings of this last week when Uatu visited with Doctor Strange Supreme and can expect it to be further explored in the opening moments of Episode 9.
And while we can expect a resolution to the Ultron situation, Andrews makes it clear that there are more stories to be told in each of the individual realities from which these disparate characters will be drawn:
All these universes, when we’re done with our episode, those universes continue. It’s an ongoing cinematic universe; there is stuff that happens yet to come that maybe we will see and maybe we will not see. But we don’t necessarily want to have it all tied up in a perfect bow. There is a level of buttoning up with a certain degree of things that we get into with a certain storyline.
That sounds like a pretty perfect way to give a satisfying end to the current arc while leaving enough room to allow the characters we’ve already seen be available for future stories whether those be further animated adventures or live-action appearances.
Episode 9 of What If…?, “What If…The Watcher Broke His Vow”, streams tomorrow on Disney Plus.
A May release does open up a few questions surrounding Disney+’s potential schedule for 2022. Also, a May 4th release to celebrate Star Wars Day seems like the perfect timing to release one of the most anticipated series for the streaming service. There are rumors that Marvel Studios‘ Ms. Marvel series is eyeing an early 2022 release, which gives The Book of Boba Fett its time to shine once it premieres in December.
Of course, these are two distinct franchises that the service is okay with letting release simultaneously. There’s still the possibility that we get some kind of trailer to tease upcoming projects, but Disney’s Investors Day could also take place in December to take over that role. Right now, we’re still waiting for a trailer to give us a glimpse into the upcoming The Mandalorian spinoff.
It looks like Shang-Chi’s director, Destin Daniel Cretton, has already found his next project. According to Deadline, he will adapt the action-comedy American Born Chinese for Disney+. It’s an adaptation of the 2006 graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang. He’ll also act as executive producer for 20th Television alongside Bob Burger‘s exec Kelvin Yu and Charles Yu, who will write the series.
Melvin Mar, Jake Kasdan, and Gene Luen Yang also will join the production as executive producers. Kelvin Yu will serve as its showrunner. They are currently preparing for casting. Disney Branded Television president, Ayo Davis, shared the following on the project:
We are delighted to continue our relationship with Melvin Mar and Jake Kasdan and thrilled that Destin Daniel Cretton is set to direct. The team are visionaries in bringing character-driven adventures to life, and we cannot wait for our audience to experience this fantastically memorable and imaginative adaptation of the graphic novel. This is a great universal story that moves between worlds and explores the impact of culture, identity, and acceptance through the lens of adolescence.
Ayo Davis
Mar and Kasdan might be familiar to fans of the Fresh Off the Boat ABC series. They’ve recently expanded with the Disney+ original Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. Their work on the only Asian-American series to pass 100 episodes is a cultural landmark, and it’s great to see them continue it with American Born Chinese. Cretton’s hot off his success with Shang-Chi and the Legends of Ten Rings, which seems likely to get a sequel in the future after its box office success. It’ll be interesting to see if he will tackle it after this series wraps production.
Murphy’s Team-Up brings the team together every Sunday to give their hot takes on a hot topic. This week: the finale of Marvel Studios first animated series, What If…?. Take a look at what the members of the team hope to see in the finale.
Anthony Canton III
I want to see what actually defeats this Ultron. In a lot of these scenarios normally you can appeal to the villains humanity but that doesn’t apply here. As far as the Watcher, what will be the price of his interference and the additional interference? I want to see that story be told. Finally, will Supreme Strange have a connection to Multiverse of Madness? He’s seemed like the most important character in these stories.
Charles Murphy
At this point I’m eager for the series to come to an end. I haven’t loved too many episodes and I feel like in most episodes they’ve made some really weak choices with how they’ve dealt with what could be a really freeing premise. So for me, I’m hoping that as the first season of the series comes to an end, we see some of the heroes step through a portal and morph into the live-action versions of their characters that we are rumored to see in upcoming films. I’m also hoping that once this is over, we get our first trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Mary Maerz
I would like to see Ultron upgrade himself one final time, and that upgrade just so happens to be voiced by James Spader. The series did very well with dark themes and stories without happy endings—so I’m rooting for Ultron. I’d love to watch him take down the array of multiverse Avengers/Guardians we’ll get and be established as an ongoing and genuine threat for the series and maybe even the MCU at large. I would also be a bit disappointed if we didn’t get some sort of tease of how What If… ? can or will connect to the Sacred Timeline.
Nathan Miller
I hope to see some thematic cohesion between the characters brought together in the What If…? finale. The somewhat abrupt ends of some episodes alongside an unresolved confrontation from What If… Ultron Won? suggest The Watcher will bring together a team to resolve those loose ends. When the Avengers came together they were all lost despite being powerful enough to be Earth’s mightiest heroes. They each found some sort of purpose they had been individually lacking in becoming a team. Whatever team might form in the finale of What If…? does seem like it has a couple of members that are lost like Captain Carter and Supreme Strange. Potential members T’Challa Star Lord, Party Thor and Killmonger each seem content in their universes so it will be interesting to see what the thematic thread between them is that pushes them to join a multiversal team.
Hunter Radesi
If there’s one thing Marvel’s What If…? is lacking, it’s long term consequence. The show has thus far utilized immediate, dramatic effect to highlight it’s differences in universes, but this takes away from the subtle charm that always drew people to the comics. There, a story would often start with an obvious change and end with some unexpected butterfly effect far down the Marvel timeline. If the finale of the show’s first season finds time to revisit any of the worlds it set up in prior episodes, it would do well to show the audience how the likes of Captain Carter’s existence ended up changing the modern MCU time period as well.
Dalbin Osorio
For me, I want to see what comes out of the finale. During Endgame, time-travel was explained to us, but it wasn’t until Loki that we found out that this was just how the Avengers understood time-travel. In Loki, we figured “ok, this is the accepted framework for time.” What If has played in that sandbox, with variants and what have you, but there’s still a little bit that is unclear. Namely, is the Watcher pulling all the Guardians from different universes, or do some of these stories overlap? If so, what does that mean for the overarching MCU story that’s going on right now? I hope What If…? begins to clarify the rules because time is a confusing plot device as is, but it can cave on to itself if it isn’t explained correctly. I expect What If…? to do just that.
John Sabato
I hope to see the finale episode of What If…? really set the stage for what’s to come. The series has yet to really wow me and I hope they can do that here. I think I’m mostly looking forward to to seeing what could be Chadwick Boseman’s final performance.
The finale of Marvel Studios What If…? streams this Wednesday on Disney Plus.
Early in the week, I got the go ahead to share just a little bit of information about the roles of Kingsley Ben-Adir and Killian Scott in Marvel Studios 2022 streaming series Secret Invasion. Nobody was going to be surprised that Ben-Adir, who was cast as the villain in the series, would be playing a Skrull; however what puts a little more meat on the bone of his role is that he’s playing one that has a shared history with Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos. Speaking of Skrulls, it looks like Scott will be playing one as well, partnering up with Ben-Adir’s character.
Fans Have Much More Marvel Studios Content Coming
Newly promoted Marvel Studios exec Victoria Alonso gave fans something to chew on when she revealed in an interview that the studio has 31 projects currently at some stage of development. Even the hardest of the hardcore have a hard time coming up with all 31 could be, but with 13 films scheduled between 2022 and 2024, a half dozen or so Disney Plus series and some animated shows on the list, we know there’s going to be diversity not only in the type of projects we’ll see, but also in the people creating and starring in them.
Star Wars Fans Won’t Have It So Bad, Either
It’s not quite 31, but it’ll do. Disney Plus has plans to release 10 series set in a galaxy far, far away over the next few years. We know that will start on December 29th with The Book of Boba Fett and we know a few other titles, but it seems Disney Plus still has a few surprises up their sleeve.
ScarJo and Disney Are Friends Again
After taking a $40M settlement from Disney, Scarlett Johansson is ready to make some more movies with the studio after suing them over the hybrid release of Black Widow. Disney and Johansson are expected to continue their collaboration with the upcoming Tower of Terror film.
As we draw nearer to the release of the Disney Plus series The Book of Boba Fett, it’s appropriate to reflect on the now iconic character’s humble origins. Fett first appeared briefly in the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special before having the briefest of appearances in The Empire Strikes Back and then, inexplicably, developing such a cult following that he is now one of the faces…helmets?…of the franchise and set to star in his own series. With Marvel Studios now heading down the holiday special route with the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special set for 2022, a fan asked director James Gunn if he would use the show to introduce any new characters to the MCU. Gunn not only answered, he also gave fans a reason to be even more excited about the event.
Gunn’s always interacted with fans and isn’t one to make promises he can’t keep, so it’s great to see him come out with this here knowing he’ll follow through. It’s nearly impossible to predict, however, just to whom Gunn may be referring. No corner of Marvel’s comic book universe has been more underrepresented on screen than the Cosmic one, with thousands of characters-and at least a few dozen of them memorable-from which to choose. Should Gunn chose to take inspiration directly from the Star Wars special and introduce a bounty hunter to the MCU, a character like Monark Starstalker (who is 100% tailor-made for Gunn’s buddy Nathan Fillion) could be a possibility. If he wants to go another route and introduce a character he’s expressed his love for in the past, Gunn could bring Beta Ray Bill, a character for whom he has professed his love in the past, to the MCU, making fans incredibly happy. Whoever the character is, they’ll have one helluva time following the impressive trail blazed by Boba.
Daredevil is trending following a rumor that the Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series Echo will see much of the cast of Netflix’s Daredevil return and “serve as sort of Daredevil Season 4.” While there’s been some clarification about exactly what the rumored returns would entail, the series is still rumored to heavily feature those characters. That’s a big problem for Disney and Marvel Studios, should they chose to do it.
Charlie Cox is set to suit up as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home and rumored to suit up as Daredevil in She-Hulk. Vincent D’Onofrio is rumored to be returning as a beefed up Kingpin in Hawkeye. These are great actors whose portrayals of their respective characters were so beloved by fans that they became synonymous enough with the roles to survive and make the jump to the MCU’s Sacred Timeline. Both of these characters have rich comic book histories with Maya Lopez, aka Echo, and should rightly be a part of her story. However, giving one or both of them the spotlight in Echo while also using it as an opportunity to bring some of the rest of the Netflix cast to the MCU would only serve to undo some of the great strides Marvel Studios has made in their efforts to make the recent entries into their cinematic universe more representative of the real world.
All signs point to newcomer Alaqua Cox having made quite an impression in her role as Lopez inHawkeye. Cox came in and stood out in a series with returning MCU star Jeremy Renner and multitalented megastar Hailee Steinfeld; stood out so well, in fact, that they made the decision early on to spin her off into her own series. And that series stands to be nothing short of groundbreaking…but not if they decide to go the rumored route detailed above. Echo will feature Cox, a deaf, female, Native American amputee in the lead. The writers’ room is expected to include Native American staff, potentially including Bobby Wilson, who has worked on Reservation Dogs and Rutherford Falls. These moves by Marvel Studios are truly unprecedented in the superhero/CBM genre. Making Echo the answer to #SaveDaredevil’s prayers would undo all the good will and great strides they’re making.
With Cox and D’Onofrio reprising their roles, the rest of the “main cast” of Daredevil is comprised of mostly white actors and actresses who, in comparison to Cox and D’Onofrio, just didn’t bring the same sort of unforgettable gravitas to their roles. But to be completely honest and fair, the talent of those actors isn’t really the issue. Surrounding Alaqua Cox, in her own series, by a primarily white cast who don’t look like her would be nothing short of insulting and undermine having made her the star to begin with. Making Murdock and Fisk big parts of the series would steal the spotlight from Maya Lopez’s story. Marvel Studios has the chance to do something special with Echo and making it Daredevil Season 4 is simply not it. Nobody is going to say no to a Marvel Studios Daredevil series, but let that be its own entity. Failing to give Echo the spotlight in her own series would be a giant leap in the wrong direction.
In the crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, we got a glimpse of the multiverse that was plunged into chaos by the Anti-Monitor. To stop the crisis, seven paragons had to come together. Among them was Ryan Choi, played by Osric Chau. The character would briefly show up in this event before going back to his normal life after many thought he’d be suiting up and replacing Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer. Luckily, it seems they are making up for it soon, as revealed by a leaked set photo shared by @Themyscirabound.
Chau‘s Ryan Choi is sporting a very different look than the previous Atom. He’s finally ditching the exoskeleton and embracing the character’s original red and blue spandex. It’ll be interesting to see how Choi developed technology and if Palmer passed on the mantle. Brandon Routh is set to return as Ray Palmer in the Armageddon crossover event. The special will consist of eight individual and smaller crossover episodes between the heroes of the Arrowverse.
Chau and Roth will be joined by many fan-favorite characters. The list includes Cress Williams as Black Lightning, Catherine McNamara as Mia Queen, Javicia Leslie as Batwoman, Chyler Leigh as Sentinel, Tom Cavanagh as Eobard Thawne, and Neal McDonough as Damien Darhk. Hopefully, Chau will join the Arrowverse permanently. Perhaps there’s a future for the character as part of Team Flash moving forward.
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