Some time ago, we finally got the confirmation that Clark Gregg will make his grand return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the animated series What If..?. There has been no confirmation when we might expect him, but it looks like it might be sooner rather than later. The actor took to Twitter to tease his appearance in the next episode set to release this Wednesday. He’ll join Nick Fury and Black Widow, who take center stage in this entry. While not an outright confirmation, he hasn’t shared any of the other posters. Plus, this episode seems to take place around Iron Man 2 going by various trailers and the posters, which he had a big part in.
What If…? reinvents the way we look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The franchise continues to grow in new ways, as we explore the multiverse that was unleashed in Loki. We started the first animated series by exploring a different version of Captain America: The First Avenger before we witnessed a timeline where Yondu accidentally picked up T’Challa instead of Peter Quill. We’re only three episodes in and there’s quite a bit more heading our way that may continue to challenge our expectations in new and interesting ways.
After a long wait and some teases, we finally got our first true look at Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. Not only that, but we also get the confirmation that the series will get released on the streaming service on November 19th, which will follow the adventures of John Cho‘s Spike, Daniella Pineda‘s Faye, and Mustafa Shakir‘s Jet Black. We even get a look at the space-traveling corgi Ein, which gives us a good sense of how much the first season will explore. The first look at the cast is great, as they’ve brought the original designs to life in a greater fashion. Faye got a slight redesign with the core aspects of her original design present.
There are some really interesting reveals, as we get a shot of Spike in a church, which might tease Vicious appearance in the first season. Alex Hassel was cast in the role of the series’ main antagonist, who is a cornerstone of our space cowboy’s past. The images are mostly focused on their planet-based adventures with some glimpses of the iconic ship. It’s uncertain how much will be spent in space and if we get any episodes that primarily feature space battles. It wouldn’t be the same without them and Netflix would have the budget to bring these types of stories to life. Here’s hoping we get the first trailer in the coming week, as they start rolling out the promotion for the series November release. See you Space Cowboys!
The last thing we’ve heard of this production was earlier this month with the report that The End of the F***ing World‘s Alex Lawther has joined the series. Filming has gone on for quite some time as they faced the COVID pandemic throughout production at Pinewood Studios. The Bespin Bulletin goes on to highlight that this was approached as a film with a twelve-episode run. It also required quite a few sets which adds to the production time.
We still know very little about the project besides it’ll act as a prequel to Rogue One. The Disney+ series will explore the time before he joined the resistance. Surprisingly, there are no plans to include his sarcastic sidekick K-2SO even when his inclusion was initially announced. We might get multiple seasons as we explore his first meeting with the droid in the future.
Any anime fans shutters when they hear the word “filler.” In the past, there have been too many story arcs invented for the anime adaptation due to them having already caught up with the manga they are adapting. As they play for time, they rush out story ideas that don’t truly match with the rest of the story, especially when following closely planned projects like One Piece. Netflix’s upcoming live-action adaptation will likely stick to what was set up in the manga, but there’s one filler arc I believe does deserve attention. It’s time to introduce the G-8 arc into the canon.
In 2014, the anime caught up with the manga and had a void to fill when the Merry Go drops from the sky islands into the open sea. So, the team took a different route and had the team land in the middle of the marine base known as G-8. They had to find a way to survive and infiltrate enemy ranks. There we meet the Marine vice admiral Jonathan and his wife, the head chef Jessica. Unlike most filler storylines, it has left quite the impression on viewers to this day.
As it’s a filler arc, there are no references to this location throughout any other adaptation. Also, the mangaka Eiichiro Oda has been very specific about what chapters he includes, as he loves utilizing parallels. Of course, a non-manga storyline would require some inversion to keep that theme alive and well between the Paradise and New World eras. The team behind the Netflix adaptation will very likely follow his original vision primarily.
Yet, there is the possibility of how they can include the storyline. It would be a waste not to explore one of One Piece‘s most fascinating members o the Marines, Jonathan, and further explore their history. In the anime, he is the protégé of Akainu. So, his inclusion would allow the series to introduce the character earlier on. His first appearance was during the Ohara Incident, which got explored in the Enies Lobby arc. They could also tease the CP-9’s existence and flesh out the Marines. It works as one or a maximum of two episodes after the end of the Sky Island Saga. Plus, the season-ending with them in the middle of a marine fortress would be quite an attention-grabbing way to end.
There’s also an existing parallel to this arc in the manga, which would keep Oda’s type of storytelling alive. This fact gets highlighted by a popular theory of the so-called “checkered fate.” YouTuber Totally Not Mark made the parallel between our favorite pirates’ journey on Jaya, Skypiea, and Long Ring Long Land to the Zou arc. G-8 takes place right before the confrontation with the Foxy Pirates in a Davy Back Fight, which writer Matt Owens has openly stated will get included. In a way, the Zou arc already has parallels to G-8. Rather than escaping a fortress they fell into, they need to enter a mysterious city on top of a wandering giant elephant. Also, it’s not the Strawhat pirates pretending to be someone else to save themselves, but its inhabitants, the Mink tribe, pretending to keep someone safe. It works as a parallel even if loosely. The theory actually would still work with G-8 getting included in the series’ canon.
We don’t know how closely the Netflix series will follow the original manga series, as they have quite a bit of story to bring to life. We might even see game stories or films make it into the series as additional entries due to Netflix not abiding by classic seasonal structures. Yet, it seems unlikely as Oda is heavily involved with the series and, as revealed by Owens, wants the core story to remain. Still, G-8’s inclusion might also help define a seasonal arc, as they can build up to the Water Seven arc and keep the massive Enies Lobby for a follow-up season. It’s also an arc storyline that fits right in with any other arc, for some even more so than the Davey Jone Fights. The big twist of that arc would be a perfect way to end that to keep viewers on their toes. So, one of the best filler arcs ever put to the screen might help the live-action adaptation’s structure and remain within Oda‘s original vision. Also, it would just be great to see more of Jonathan in the series.
We’re only two episodes in for Marvel Studios’ first attempt at an animated series with What If…?. The first episode explored a different take on Captain America: The First Avenger with Peggy Carter taking on the Super Soldier serum. In the latest entry, we explored the Guardians of the Galaxy films through T’Challa’s eyes, as he was the one that got picked up by Yondu.
That’s the fun thing about having the What If…? series now; we can explore questions just like that. And I will say, just as season 1 is tapping into films and storylines from the MCU that you’ve seen up to this point, season 2 will definitely incorporate movies from Phase 4.
Kevin Feige
Hopefully, What If..? becomes a long-running series that continues to explore various scenarios as the franchise continues to expand. Sadly, the reference seems to focus primarily on films of Phase 4. So, it’s uncertain if we might even get an alternative scenario from any of the series like WandaVision, Loki, or Falcon and the Winter Soldier. As the franchise continues to expand, it’ll be curious to see how they continue to reinvent their stories and characters.
It looks like the Armor Wars series has finally found its head writer, as Deadline reports that the Don Cheadle-led project has added Yassir Lester to pen the Disney+ series. The project is still in early development with no director attached to the project currently. Kevin Feige will once again produce the project, as he does with every entry in the franchise. Lester has worked with Cheadle in the Showtime series Black Monday and he made a very promising pitch that has the executives and its main star quite excited.
Armor Wars will continue the Iron Man franchise in an unconventional way. As Tony predicted, it took another ten years before they would catch up with his technology. The time has come and his worst nightmare became a reality, someone got their hands on his tech. There’s also a good chance that the upcoming Ironheart series will tie into it, as Riri Williams builds the most advanced suit since Tony’s armor. She will make her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever which might even build upon what we can expect from the Disney+ series.
It’s long overdue that Cheadle‘s War Machine gets a series, and it’ll be interesting to see how it builds upon his past journeys. We don’t know if he might even take over the mantle of Iron Man, as he did in the comics. Tony Stark is known to have passed away during the battle with Thanos, but his appearance could create an interesting dynamic. Yet, it would be better to see him carry on his own mantle to not live in the shadow of the man that gave him the armor.
So, it’s not too uncommon for franchises to take a new direction under the supervision of a new director. Thor: Ragnarok proved that very point. There hasn’t been any information on it and we were left wondering when we might expect the second season. Luckily, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige offered an update on the series in an interview with Collider. In it, he stated that:
It is underway. We’re developing it as we speak. The hope is that much of the same team will return. Kate is going on to bigger and better things, so the director search will begin shortly.
Kevin Feige
The CEO did point out he wasn’t trying to be evasive, as they can’t currently pinpoint when it might enter production. He hints that they are “not sure exactly where it falls between next year and the year after.” It’s a strong hint that the second season might not enter production until 2023, as highlighted by Collider, and it’s hard to say if the series will release in that same year.
The ending teased the arrival of Kang the Conqueror, who will appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. So, it might act as a continuation to that series, as Loki tries to find his place in this new version of the Time Variance Authority. Once Marvel Studios announces the new director we might have a better idea of when production might start.
After a relatively strong start for Titans, Episode 4 is starting to show a few more cracks in the operation. We interrupt a functional story with a new side story that doesn’t quite land on the same planet we’ve been working with. Optimistically, Episode 4 may just be an innocent stumble along the way to a satisfying story. Pessimistically, the episode might be foreshadowing the slow unraveling of the rest of the season—only the coming weeks will tell.
The episode briefly explores the emotional aftermath of Hank’s dramatic death last episode. Dawn is shockingly composed given the fact that Hank’s death is technically, or at least directly, her fault. This is all used as an excuse for her character to exit the series for the foreseeable future. It’s fully cemented that Titans has no vision to see Hank and Dawn as two separate people, but while it may have been interesting to explore her individual character more, the show never made her a particularly interesting one, to begin with. She and Hank always came across as unneeded filler, and maybe the series is trying to remedy that.
Unfortunately, it seems as though the show decided that the exit of two peripheral and plot-overflowing characters was the perfect time to add another significant character alongside a side plot that overpacks the existing story in the same way. While the Red Hood chronicle continues, Kory a.k.a. Starfire is handed a major arc in the form of her sister, Blackfire. The lazy arc origin does suit the story itself sadly – it’s bland. How the murderous, vengeful, Queen Blackfire managed to find herself completely helpless in a government lab secured by one person is supposedly explained, but it will just never be okay.
The situation makes both sisters and their powers come across as relatively arbitrary and insignificant. This is more a shame considering that Starfire’s character already suffered from that. It begs the question of whether the series is concerned with her being overpowered and is going out of its way at every turn to dampen her. Spending episodes with her blacking out and having visions just felt like a return to her amnesia in the first season. In any event, maybe the dynamic between the two rivals could have dormant potential, but hope for that feels lost on the delivery. At times it could be hard to watch given the dry and empty performances which automatically took you out of any scene.
Turning to our main story, it’s obvious that history repeats itself. While it could be an interesting theme to explore, it still sometimes seems unintentional at this point. Despite overwhelmingly constant reminders throughout the series as a whole that no Titan should go out on their own to confront a villain, Dick decides to once again do exactly that. Instead of being “a better Batman”, he is being as “Batman” as he can be. On one hand, it seems to suit his character—it’s fun to see him act so in control and with so much dark confidence, but the outcome is the same and he inadvertently lets both Jason and Scarecrow loose.
The good news is that having them together should fuel their master plan. However, the bad news is that the master plan doesn’t seem like much of a plan. Sure, we will probably get more elaboration on what the pair are up to down the line, but it’s looking like Scarecrow will more or less reduce Jason to assistant villain without anyone taking the place of head villain. Suffice to say, Titans has more “villain problems” on the horizon. Unless someone can truly climb the criminal ladder and sit on a throne of captivation, it’s going to be underwhelming.
Overall, the fourth episode keeps the Gotham City plot intact, though its potency may be severely threatened by the shift in villain dynamics now that Scarecrow is more in play. The episode tries to spice things up with the Starfire-Blackfire arc, but it is genuinely not compelling nor well-executed. The noticeable housekeeping and streamlining of storylines and characters Titans undertook at the beginning of this season is, unfortunately, looking to be in jeopardy now. Fingers crossed things will reorganize themselves, take a look in the mirror, and be better Batmen.
Here’s a rather curious surprise. It seems that Netflix has planned out two entries in the He-Man franchise, as they just unveiled a brand new trailer for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. No, this isn’t the second part to Kevin Smith‘s franchise but a remake of the original. Masters of the Universe: Revelations acts as a sequel to the original franchise while this CG animated series is a complete reimagining of the franchise. It will premiere on the streaming service on September 16th.
It’s a curious decision to release two different entries in the same year, but we have to keep in mind these series have very different audiences. This CG remake is for a younger audience and will introduce a new generation to the franchise. Revelation continues where the previous one ended, which is more for people that already spent time with the franchise. Though, there has been some vocal backlash against the direction the first animated series took.
Still, it’s great to see this iconic franchise make a return. It’s the second time Netflix reimagined a series from the He-Man franchise, as we also got the modernized take on She-Raand the Princesses of Power a few years ago. Perhaps the move to push out a second series was also inspired by the direction the Revelation version took to give people some more time with He-Man in the series. The very distinct art style means we won’t get a crossover between any of these series, but they still serve a very specific audience.
It looks like She-Hulk may have wrapped production, as the show’s stunt coordinator Monique Ganderton shared an Instagram story confirming that production has wrapped. In it, she doesn’t directly refer to the series but confirms she got herself a wrap gift for finishing a production. It matches up with Normally, productions hand out these gifts with some kind of connection to the production, like the one for Matrix 4 that accidentally leaked the official title for the film.
Ganderton has worked on quite a few projects with Marvel Studios. Most notably she was involved with Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. Her last project was another Disney+ series with her involvement as stunt coordinator for Loki. She also helped develop Proxima Midnight’s fighting style in Avengers: Infinity War for which she shared a video a few days ago that was planned at one point for the character’s action sequences.
We haven’t heard much about the series since the casting of Arrow alum Josh Segarra back in July. We theorized he might be this series’ Augustus Pugliese but there has not been any official confirmation on his role. Marvel Studios has been good at keeping most of the production under wraps with only a few images finding their way online. Most notably one featuring Mark Ruffalo decked out in his motion-capture suit. Here’s hoping that with the production wrapped we’ll get an announcement in the near future for when we can expect the series alongside a first look.
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