Charles and Charles got back on schedule this week and caught up on all the Marvel and DC news and gave their brief thoughts on their screening of Black Widow.
Tag: Wakanda Forever
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REPORT: Attuma and Namora Joining Namor in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’
Around four months ago, it was revealed that Marvel Studios was actively casting two Mayan Warriors for the upcoming Black Panther sequel. It made many of us wonder how they might connect to the story surrounding the fictional African city of Wakanda. Well, Illuminerdi just broke the news that Tenoch Huerta might be playing Namor the Sub-Mariner in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In their article, they also revealed that these two warriors are actually well-known supporting characters for the Atlantean king. They believe that the warriors are actually Namora, his cousin, and the warlord Attuma.
Now, fans of the comics will instantly recognize these characters. Namora is similar to her cousin and is half Atlantean and half mutant. She is also known as Aquaria Neptunia in the comics before taking on the nickname. Attuma is part of an Atlantean tribe that is known to be barbaric nomads. He is the leader of his kind and believes that he is the true king of Atlantis. It is uncertain if we might see some infighting or he might even be the one to nudge Namor into getting in conflict with Wakanda.
Overall, it looks like the film will include a very impressive cast of characters. Of course, the Atlanteans will be at a disadvantage on land, but we’ve seen a river that goes through the fictional country. So, they might try to steal something from the capital that ends up putting a big red target on their back from the Wakandans. We might not get any news on its development for some time. So, we’ll see if we get an official casting announcement in the near future. There is also the tease in Avengers: Endgame when some underwater tremors hit Africa by Okoye. We’ll know more once the film premieres on July 8th, 2022.
Source: Illuminerdi
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REPORT: ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ to Feature Tenoch Huerta as Namor
We’ve all been keeping a close eye on what the sequel of Black Panther might have in store for us. The tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman made its direction uncertain as director Ryan Coogler continued to push forward. The subtitle Wakanda Forever showcases that his spirit will live on in the project and Marvel Studios confirmed they will not be recasting T’Challa in the upcoming film. We’ve been wondering how they might tackle the sequel and it looks like there will be some surprises in store. Illuminerdi has exclusively shared the news that the upcoming second entry will feature the Sub-Mariner himself, Namor. It seems that the Atlantean will be played by Tenoch Huerta. It is interesting to note that the actor has already been cast for the film almost seven months ago.
There have been some rumors that he would potentially appear in the Black Panther sequel and his inclusion may hint at a big war happening between the two cultures. Atlantis has actually teased quite a long time ago in a sequence of Iron Man 2, where Fury had a marking in the middle of the ocean. Now, the big reveal regarding the casting of Huerta may also hint at a very different origin for the Atlanteans, as we know that there was some casting going around regarding Mayans for the film. As such, we can suspect that they will try to make the MCU’s version their descends. It’ll be interesting to see if we get any official confirmation on his casting in the future.
Source: Illuminerdi
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MCU Production Timelines: Infographic & Methodology
In this piece I’m just going to explain a few of the finer points behind the data I put together for the Phase 3 and Phase 4 production timeline infographic, which João has again so excellently put into a graphic. My purpose in working with João on this one is just to help people understand another piece of the puzzle of how MCU movies tend to get put together. Fans understandably love to obsess over the release slate, particularly what’s coming next and when it is coming. It can get a little confusing as to what is and isn’t further along in the timeline. Hopefully, we’ve laid that out in an understandable format.
A couple of notes I want to make on the data. First of all, this is a relatively imprecise set of information. What I’ve put into the spreadsheet is largely the dates as combed from the Wikipedia entries for each film (I did trace back the references in those articles to trade reports in most cases). Now if a director is hired in a forest and it doesn’t make a sound, are they still the director? In other words, these dates for when writers and directors are hired are based on trade reports. It may be that someone was hard at work for weeks or even months before the media found out. I’m taking the information that is publicly available. In particular, I assume the “filming start” dates are very approximate. Captain Marvel, for example, filmed a few things before the official start of filming for weird tax purposes. Also, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania did some kind of plates filming already this year, but the filming hasn’t really started in earnest yet. Again, I’m taking the Wikipedia dates in most cases and there will be some imprecisions there.
As far as director and writer hirings, I have listed the first hiring for each in most cases. Directors in the MCU haven’t changed that much in recent years. The major exception that will come to mind for most astute readers is the change from Scott Derrickson to Sam Raimi for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. As such we’ve included that change as a separate item. Writers, however, switch with much more frequency. The process for hiring writers, managing rewrites, and then deciding who gets the final credit for both writing and story is byzantine at best. To keep it simpler, we just took the first report of any writer or any director, regardless of their final involvement or non-involvement in the project. I also am somewhat arbitrarily determining what counts as this production. For some projects, development on the IP might have happened decades ago, but I’m treating those as a different project altogether.
It’s worth noting that sequels are pretty obviously different. Often the director and lead actor are already in place and returning for the sequel. As such directors get “named” essentially as soon as the project is greenlit. This is also the case of writer/directors like James Gunn.
Release dates are a little tricky on this graph, given the interference of COVID. We’re giving you both the original date and the final date in most cases. Black Widow, for example, was almost totally finished when the pandemic started. As such it isn’t that the production really took longer, it just all got delayed. Sorting out a movie like Thor: Love and Thunder is a much more complicated matter. We’ve done our best to give you a sense of the normal operating procedure and hide the confusion pandemic delays caused.
Two other major exceptions deserve a mention. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is another one that looks rather weird due to the firing and rehiring of James Gunn. The movie never officially got a release date, but I think before the whole mess it was likely that the May 2020 date would have been Guardians Vol. 3’s planned landing spot. Also, Avengers: Endgame was shot pretty tightly with Infinity War, so there is some weirdness in its extended production time. I think it is highly likely that those two Avengers productions mixed and mingled quite a bit. Certainly, the screenplays seemed to happen at the same time.
I think that is all the details. I hope you all enjoyed this. Again, this is all an exercise with approximation. I’m sure some slight variance in the data is possible if you look at different reports. Enjoy!
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‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Casting for Foreign Mercs, Diplomats
According to a report by POC Culture, Marvel Studios is currently searching for actors to portray foreign mercenaries and diplomats for an upcoming film. The report indicates that the roles are for a production getting underway in the U.S. in July and the only film that fits that description is Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The report indicates that the studio is casting for males and females, 40-60, to play a French and Dutch diplomat and males and females, 20-40, to play French and Dutch mercenaries.
Little is known about how the film will move forward with the story of T’Challa given the tragic death of star Chadwick Boseman, but should the film deal with the death of Wakanda’s protector and King, it’s likely that the nation could face threats from the outside as it deals with his passing and naming the next Black Panther. If what we’ve heard about the film is true, French and Dutch diplomats and mercs will be the least of Wakanda’s worries.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to begin production this July and will be in theaters July 8, 2022.
Source: POC Culture
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Theorizing MARVEL STUDIOS’ Interconnected Storylines
It’s been a little over three months since Marvel Studios properly kicked off its Phase 4. Both WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are now behind us, two shows that gave us but a glimpse of what is in store in the coming years in terms of the interconnectivity between the different IPs that make up the MCU. This is something Kevin Feige himself made extremely clear this past December, during the Disney Investor Day 2020:
The Cinematic Universe weaves storylines of heroes and villains across twenty-three feature films to date, and with Disney+ we’re able to extend this way of storytelling to a new format, creating series that are connected to our theatrical releases making the MCU more immersive than ever.
As for WandaVision, it managed to bring together characters from properties that seemed somewhat foreign to its titular characters (bringing them in from Thor, Captain Marvel, and Ant-Man). The Falcon and The Winter Soldier did almost the exact opposite. It grabbed most of its main characters from the same feature (Captain America: Civil War) and continued their arcs in a way that seems to hint at them diverging into several other (new) IPs. The common ground between both approaches seems quite simple: when the story asks for it, characters will come and go from whatever property that needs them to. With this in mind, and with the number of projects Marvel Studios has already announced, it’s hard to not try and envision some of the paths the stories these characters might take us on.
The existing connective tissue between properties is stronger with some than with others, even though Marvel Studios will always end up surprising us one way or another. But most of the more realistic theorizing (if there even is such a thing), taking into account the information that has already come out regarding casts, plots, and so on, seems to hint at a clear/not clear separation between what are the military-powered, skill-driven heroes and the more mystic and cosmic side of the MCU. So being, we’ll now focus on the first of these two groups.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier seems to be at the heart of the stories we might end up exploring on this side of the spectrum. With Karli Morgenthau being one of the few main characters to have (apparently) died, all the others are now ready to move on, each doing their own thing. With Sam Wilson as Captain America, he seems like a given to star in the upcoming fourth installment of the Captain America series. As for Bucky Barnes, with a Nomad series apparently in development, Barnes seems like a perfect fit. As for James “War Machine” Rhodes, he might now become the direct link to Iron Man’s legacy Riri Williams comes into contact with in Ironheart, before both move into Armor Wars, where they could be met by Sharon Carter in her newfound MCU role. Black Widow will introduce us to Yelena Belova who can seamlessly move on to Hawkeye (even if just to attend a memorial service), where Echo will be show up before staring in her own show.
Shifting our attention to the other side of the diagram, we find several connections between shows that have already been confirmed. Monica Rambeau will be back in the franchise where she was first introduced, where she will be met by Kamala Khan who will have already been introduced in the Ms. Marvel series. Both might be met in The Marvels by Talos, who will also have a role to play in the upcoming Secret Invasion alongside Nick Fury. As to Wanda Maximoff, now the Scarlet Witch, she is certain to continue her story in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which may become the epicenter of every upcoming property dealing with the Multiverse. Loki and Spider-Man: Far From Home seem like projects that are likely to have strong connections to the second Doctor Strange feature for obvious plot reasons, at the same time as they connect through other storylines to yet another set of properties. With the information coming out of Loki that Gugu Mbatha-Raw will be playing Judge Renslayer (meaning that almost certainly that makes her Ravonna Renslayer) it becomes highly likely that Kang will make an appearance, ahead of his already highlighted presence in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, played by the brilliant Jonathan Majors.
These stories alone are certain to keep Marvel gaining momentum for years to come, but what seems to be the endgame here? Establishing new properties where characters from all over manage to meet for the first time, bringing together story threads from all sides of the MCU, certainly seems like a possibility. Projects that haven’t been announced as that might somewhat spoil the plots leading up to them. It should be no coincidence that a number of upcoming projects will seamlessly allow for the introduction of Young Avengers members, much like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier managed to do with Tommy and Billy Maximoff, and Eli Bradley, respectively. Kate Bishop is already confirmed to be debuting in Hawkeye, and the rest of the team will probably soon follow, with Teddy perhaps being introduced in Secret Invasion, America Chavez in Doctor Strange 2, and Cassie Lang returning, as Stature, in Quantumania. Therefore, a Young Avengers series/movie should definitively be in the works bringing together their individual storylines. Another team being put together, even though a much different one, should be the focus of the Thunderbolts. With Baron Zemo and Abomination brought back, Taskmaster (the mantle) surviving Black Widow, and with Ghost still alive after Ant-Man and the Wasp, there is no reason for it not to be in the cards. Another feature that could serve as a continuation to John Walker’s story, maybe even bringing Yelena into the mix, and perhaps managing to dig up an Osborn to lead them, is The Dark Avengers. Marvel Studios knows that they can’t top the Avengers team they built up until Avengers: Endgame, so this focus on alternate teams, some of dubious character, would certainly be welcomed as a great change of pace.
There are a few projects that have already been announced that played no part in this theory. For all I know they might end up becoming the most crucial chapters of the MCU going forward. The Fantastic Four, due to their relevance, or the Eternals, due to their scope, certainly have that ability. But for now, this is it. Maybe in a couple of months, the script will be flipped and a new article will be in the works.
