Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: X-Men

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 9, Psylocke

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 9, Psylocke

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts.

    The Twin

    Betsy Braddock made a token appearance in X-Men: The Last Stand and was then drastically underutilized in X-Men: Apocalypse. Given the poor adaptation of pretty much every character introduced in Apocalypse, including the titular mutant, it’s safe to say Simon Kinberg and Bryan Singer must have Googled “sexy X-Men costumes” and gone from there in developing Psylocke for the film. For a character with such a rich and complex history, she was reduced to cleavage and butt cheeks. While there’s certainly precedent for that in the comics, Fox really wasted a fascinating character.

    Part of Betsy Braddock’s comic book history is muddled with some uncomfortable body-swapping business with another mutant, Kwannon, that was recently resolved following the mutant move to Krakoa. Marvel Studios would be wise to skip over all of that and keep the focus on Betsy as the gateway character to a completely unexplored corner of the world in the Fox movies: jolly old England. Betsy’s comic book history as an agent of S.T.R.I.K.E., her twin brother Brian just so happening to be Captain Britain and her connection to Excalibur make her the perfect character to open the door to the weirdness that takes place on that side of the pond.

    One of the most powerful psychics on Earth, Betsy’s comic book time as a S.T.R.I.K.E. psi-agent could be reworked to make her an agent of MI13, Marvel’s X-Files division. Having her story begin there would allow for Marvel Studios to introduce the mystical wonders of England and Otherworld and characters such as her brothers, Brian and Jamie, Pete Wisdom and her royal pain in the ass, Majestrix Saturnyne. Whether through a Psylocke series, a Braddock series or an MI13 series (I’ve been pitching that one for almost 7 years now!), Betsy should be the star of the show before moving on to join the X-Men. Once with the X-Men, Betsy should be one of the founding members of the MCU’s X-Men strike team: X-Force. Of all of Betsy’s rich history, her time on X-Force in Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force stands about among her adventures as one of her most memorable. Marvel Studios is sure to expand beyond the core team of X-Men, including teams like X-Factor and X-Force in the MCU, and an X-Force team of Psylocke, Angel, Fantomex, Deadpool and Wolverine is exactly the kind of deadly strike team the MCU deserves. Psylocke has 10 years of interesting stories in her past. By allowing her to develop in her own world before joining the X-Men, Marvel Studios could smartly open up a whole new world of stories while bringing Betsy along on her own arc before she joins X-Force. This one almost writes itself!

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 8, Shadowcat

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 8, Shadowcat

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts or, in this case.

    The Kitten

    Another victim of Fox’s focus on cool displays of powers rather than proper characterization, Kitty Pryde was reduced to meme status after being Juggernaut bitched in X-Men: The Last Stand. The character returned in 2014 for a role in X-Men: Days of Future Past where she got to touch Logan’s temples for a while and then became a teacher in the new timeline established at the end of the film. In essentially every way possible, Fox wasted a top-tier X-Men character who was portrayed by an incredibly talented actor. Outside of correctly using her phasing ability, Fox seemed to have absolutely no understanding of Kitty nor how important of a character she could be. That’s something that Kevin Feige will almost certainly remedy when he brings his version of the X-Men to the MCU.

    A bit of a child prodigy, Kitty showed genius-level aptitude in computer science and attended a prestigious engineering school as a child. She joined Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and became a member of the X-Men when she was just 13 or 14 years old. Kitty is just about the perfect poster child for Wolverine’s side of the debate with Cyclops over using teens as “soldiers” in Xavier’s crusade. Over the years, Kitty has grown close with Storm, Wolverine and Colossus, with whom she’s had an on-again-off-again romantic relationship. Kitty has arguably had one of the most chaotic and interesting lives of any X-Man and has battled demons, vampires, aliens and all other sorts of baddies and has always emerged from her battles as a central figure to the success of the team.

    What Fox failed to understand about Kitty Pryde is that despite being introduced in the comics as a teenager, she’s no sidekick. In fact, used appropriately, Kitty is probably the perfect point-of-view character to launch the MCU’s look at the inner workings of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. That’s not to say that the other characters aren’t incredibly important, only that Marvel Studios could take the unique approach of giving the audience Kitty’s perspective of entering the madness of the mutant world. Though Fox’s X-Men were always in danger, the question of whether they should have been was never fully explored in the Singer or Kinberg films. The Fox films never explored the true nature of Charles Xavier (as detailed here), something that could be done wonderfully by changing the lens through which he’s viewed. Marvel Studios has many characters from which to choose as they think about which character they want to be the eyes through which they meet the larger world of the X-Men, but there’s no better choice than Kitty Pryde. Shadowcat should be right out front as mutants step into the spotlight in the MCU.

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 7, Krakoa

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 7, Krakoa

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts or, in this case, an X-Men fixture that Fox left on the bench.

    The Island That Walks Like a Man

    If you’ve been reading along throughout the 12 Days of X-Mas, you may have noticed that many of the characters from the first six days have something in common: they all first appeared in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1. Nightcrawler, Storm and Colossus were among the group of mutants Charles Xavier sent as an extraction team when two previous teams of X-Men disappeared on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The events of Giant-Size X-Men #1, which introduced the sentient, mutant island of Krakoa, were monumental in 1975, set in motion the events of Chris Claremont‘s iconic run on Uncanny X-Men and led to the modern era’s greatest X-Men stories in Jonathan Hickman‘s House of X/Powers of X run. Any self-respecting live-action adaptation of the X-Men must include a proper representation of Krakoa.

    Hickman has displayed a penchant for devising clever retcons in his time at Marvel Comics, providing rich new history for characters as important as Apocalypse and Reed Richards…and he did it again with Krakoa. At NYCC ’22, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski made mentioned an interesting bit of symbiosis happening at Marvel now that Kevin Feige has truly become the One Above All. According to Cebulski, the comic branch tries to stay “about 10 years ahead” (which seems to really mean 7-12 years ahead) of Marvel Studios and that timeline puts Hickman’s Krakoa retcon on track to be fair game for the studio right around 2026 which, coincidentally, is probably when the Marvel Studios mutant takeover will begin.

    Fox really teed up Marvel Studios when they failed to use Krakoa in their X-films. Certainly, nobody could have predicted Maestro Hickman’s genius being turned loose and retconning Krakoa into one half of the ancient island, Okkara, that once was home to Apocalypse and his family before being torn asunder and separated as the other half, Arakko, was sealed away in another dimension. Whether the Marvel Studios Parliament chooses to introduce Krakoa as it was in 1975 and then develop the backstory or jump right into the new history of Krakoa as relayed in 2019, the reality is they have a can’t-miss character with a rich and fascinating history that truly relays the weirdness that is and has always been the X-Men. Of course, by bringing The Living Island into modern day, Marvel Studios gets the added benefit of easily working in one of the coolest and most underappreciated X-Men: Doug Ramsey, aka Cypher. Thanks to Fox and much like Ryan Day, Marvel Studios finds themselves on third base without having to have legged out the triple.

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 6, Colossus

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 6, Colossus

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts.

    The Russkie

    Piotr Rasputin was given a pretty fair shake in Deadpool and was characterized pretty much in line with who he’s been in the comics since first appearing in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1. However, much like his buddy Nightcrawler, Piotr’s best work comes as part of a team, something which he wasn’t able to be in Deadpool and was certainly robbed of in the nearly criminal portrayal of him in the X-Men films. A metal man with a soft heart, Petey may be more defined by his relationships with others than any other member of the team. Time and time again, Colossus has proven his willingness to sacrifice himself for those closest to him, including his sister, Ilyana, his friends Nightcrawler and Storm, his fastball special buddy, Wolverine, and the love of his life, Kitty Pryde.

    Colossus was central to many of the X-Men’s major adventures in the pages of Uncanny X-Men over the years and again in the early 2000s in the pages of Astonishing X-Men. Astonishingly enough, not only did Fox fail to utilize Colussus to his full capacity, they also didn’t adapt any of the wonderful stories to which he was so vital. From the rescue mission on Krakoa, to the major conflict with the Shi’ar, to his “adventures” in the Savage Land, to the horrors of Inferno and the sacrifice of his own life to help cure the Legacy Virus, Marvel Studios will have its pick of great stories involving Colossus thanks to Fox’s desire to make Wolverine and the X-Men films.

    Marvel Studios should have no problem providing a prominent role for Piotr in their X-plans. A proper presentation of Колосс may not require a story spread out over several solo projects, like Storm, for example, it’s essential that any stories being told involving Colossus touch on a few key things. Peter’s place as a mountain of a man who would rather not stand out in a crowd has always been an interesting part of his group dynamic. His bashfulness in the comics has always played such an integral role not only in his reluctance as a leader but also in the development of his romantic relationship with Kitty Pryde. His fearlessness in the face of danger, especially where his sister, the X-Man known as Magik, is concerned has often found him on the frontline where even his strength and stamina are stretched to their limits. Finally, the conflict that often brews within him as he balances his desire to live a peaceful life with the rage he feels when he sees wrong being done in the world. His inner conflict and sense of duty have pulled him in many directions over the years and are among the reasons he and Kitty drift apart and find each other again. It won’t take much planning for the creatives at Marvel Studios to find their way to a much more complete portrayal of the X-Men’s Chrome Dome should they choose to bring him into the MCU.

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 5, Storm

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 5, Storm

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts.

    The Goddess

    Fox’s mishandling of Ororo Munroe stands as one of the most egregious mistakes of the X-Men trilogy…and the second X-Men trilogy. In what seems to be a common theme, the Fox X-films chose to focus on the enormity of Storm’s Omega-level powers over delivering an appropriate characterization. The results: some flashy VFX, a line of dialogue that’s on the top of everyone’s “Worst Lines Ever Spoken in a Superhero Film” list and two very forgettable adaptations of one of the X-Men’s greatest leaders. The good news moving forward is those mistakes are simple to remedy.

    Marvel Studios’ record of comic-accurate characterization isn’t bulletproof, but it isn’t anywhere near as assailable as Fox’s. MCU Steve Rogers is comic book Steve Rogers. MCU Tony Stark is, in all honesty, a more interesting version of comic book Tony Stark but still comic book Tony Stark. Like these two men, Ororo Munroe has the comic book cachet to lead an entire trilogy of solo films, should Marvel Studios be so inclined. And much like the two mentioned above, Storm could and should find herself in an ideological disagreement with another one of the X-Men’s greatest leaders: Cyclops.

    Marvel Studios has time but they don’t have all the time in the world to tell all the great X-Men stories. One that seems right in line with what the studio has done in the past is an adaptation of the Schism arc. While that arc was about an ideological disagreement between Cyclops and Wolverine, Marvel Studios doesn’t adapt one-to-one, instead choosing some snazzy titles and making movies that have something in common with the comics but are also different enough to avoid comic readers being bored. Since the hope is that Marvel Studios does not turn their version of the mutants into Wolverine and the X-Men, a Cyclops vs. Storm schism would be something to see.

    Ororo has evolved into an incredibly strong leader in the comics, one not even the gruff soldier Wolverine balks at taking orders from. Allowing Storm to grow into the role of leader over time and then challenging Cyke when he goes off the rails would both be in line with the comics and make for an MCU event film in line with Captain America: Civil War. Whatever the case, Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios Parliament have a tall order before them to give Ororo the respect she deserves while hopefully making fans forget about the less-than-stellar big screen iterations of the past.

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 4, Nightcrawler

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 4, Nightcrawler

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts.

    The Elf

    Romantic. Demon. Swashbuckler. Theologian. Baseball fan. Bestie. Teleporter. The Amazing Nightcrawler!

    Kurt Wagner made his way into both of Fox’s X-Men trilogies and, surprisingly enough, was not characterized nearly as poorly as many of his teammates. In fact, both Alan Cumming and Kodi Smit-McPhee brought the requisite pathos to their performances to make the character memorable despite not really playing a major role. Fox did a nice job with the look of both versions and found clever ways to showcase his trademark BAMFing. However, one of the greatest shortcomings with Fox’s X-Men films was responsible for inadvertently giving Nightcrawler short shrift.

    Though the character was created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum for 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1, the personality of Nightcrawler that comic book fans know and love was, by and large, the creation of legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont. In a 2019 interview with SYFY, Claremont described Nightcrawler’s core characteristics and inadvertently (or perhaps deliberately) captured the problem with Fox’s character.

    The thing with Kurt is, in his heart of hearts, he wants to be Errol Flynn, he wants to be a swashbuckler, he wants to kick the living daylights out of bad guys with a sword. Actually with three swords, using his tail as well. And he wants to be a romantic lead, and he wants to save the day, and he wants to be friends with everyone.

    Chris Claremont

    While Fox’s X-Men films were certainly quite full of teams of X-Men, they never really felt like teams. Short of some cool scenes where the X-Men teamed up to use their powers together in some neat sequences, the writing often made the X-Men feel like a collection of individuals rather than the close-knit surrogate family they often were in the comics. For lack of a better counter-example, Fox’s X-Men never had the same family feel as James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. No character suffered more from this than Nightcrawler who, as Claremont said, wants to be friends with everyone.

    Claremont, of course, is right. Comic book Kurt is a friend and sounding board to so many of his teammates it’s hard to pinpoint just which one he means the most to. Wolverine? Storm? Colossus? Kitty? While there’s no argument that he is Wolverine’s best friend an easy argument could be made that he means just as much to the others it’s only that Wolverine’s otherwise loner status makes his relationship with Kurt seem more important. As Marvel Studios begins to outline what’s sure to be an X-Men universe within a universe, establishing a greater sense of family within the teams of X-Men should be a priority allowing for a truer portrayal of Nightcrawler’s greatest power: his love for his friends.

    Source: SYFY

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 3, Polaris

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 3, Polaris

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts.

    The Mistress of Magnetism

    As is the case with a lot of female characters written in the 60s, 70s and 80s, there are some parts of Lorna Dane’s comic book history that would be better off left in those pages and left out of any adaptation of the character into the MCU; however, Fox made a poor decision by leaving Lorna out of their live-action films entirely. Though not one of the original five members of the X-Men, Lorna was brought on board in the first wave of recruits beyond the five giving her a longer history with the team than Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and Kitty Pryde. Fox may have stayed away from Lorna because of the identity of her father: Magneto. That’s a mistake Marvel Studios should actively seek not to replicate.

    While Scott Summers and Jean Grey are the foremost mutant power couple, Alex Summers and Lorna Dane aren’t far behind. Focusing on Alex and Lorna, both individually and as a couple, allows Marvel Studios to explore all sorts of fascinating parallels and differences between them and their more famous family members. Though she’s the daughter of a terrorist and one of Marvel’s most compelling and complex villains, Lorna grew up free of his influence (indeed she didn’t know he was her father until later in life) and is one of the X-Men’s great leaders and heroes.

    Lorna and Alex are to X-Factor and Jean and Scott are to the X-Men and Marvel Studios will almost certainly allow multiple mutant teams to exist simultaneously within the MCU. Beyond X-Factor, however, Lorna played a major role on the mutant paradise of Genosha, the House of M and one other part of the X-Men mythology that Fox completely ignored: Shi’ar space! Along with Havok, Lorna had a major arc in The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire and War of Kings as a new recruit of the Starjammers, led by the father of Scott and Alex Summers and involving the third Summers brother, Gabriel.

    Given the scope of Lorna’s history in the comics and the fact that Fox left her sidelined, she seems as good a bet as any to not only join the ranks of the mutants in the MCU, but become a leader and key player as they expand beyond Earth-bound stories. Of course, there’s also plenty to explore with her parentage and plenty of built-in drama once she learns who her father is. Come to think of it, Marvel Studios could probably get a lot of mileage out of the children of Magneto and Xavier, mileage that Fox chose to ignore entirely.

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 2, Havok

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 2, Havok

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts.

    The X-Factor

    One of Fox’s most mysterious decisions in rebooting their own X-Men franchise in 2011’s X-Men: First Class was the choice to make Alex Summers the older brother of Scott and a member of Xavier’s first team of X-Men only to sideline him fairly quickly. Without being able to access the depths of Simon Kinberg’s mind, it’s impossible to know why Alex was underutilized but it really just seemed like Fox didn’t have a long-term plan for him. That’s good news for Marvel Studios because it allows them to make the easy choice to introduce Alex alongside Scott and then set him on his own path; a path that sets him on course to become the leader of his own team: X-Factor.

    Telling the best version of Alex’s story means having him separated from Scott. Rather than being given the advantages provided to Scott by Xavier, Alex’s struggles with his self-confidence and his emerging powers result in an alpha-level mutant whose lack of control makes him fairly dangerous. Ultimately though, like Scott, Alex is a born leader and allowing him to grow into his powers and then put together his own team would be a fantastic way to set him apart from Lucas Till’s forgettable version.

    Among its many failures, foremost of Fox’s foul-ups was that it never allowed its X-Men universe to grow and evolve beyond the core X-Men teams. The comics are loaded with mutant teams outside of the X-Men: X-Force, Excalibur, Generation X, hell even X-Statix all exist. Other than the brief assemblage of X-Force in Deadpool 2 and the ill-fated New Mutants, Fox stayed away from these teams. That means Marvel Studios can (and almost certainly will) dive headlong into developing them and Havok’s X-Factor should be one of the first and most important. While the team was originally just Scott’s X-Men working with the government, Alex put his own squad together and that squad is among the most memorable and powerful versions of X-Factor to have existed.

    Marvel Studios would be wise to let Alex grow into a leader of X-Factor and ultimately come into opposition to his brother and his more authoritarian approach to leadership. Though the brothers can’t harm one another with their powers, they could certainly go toe-to-toe and break out the fisticuffs should Havok still be around long enough to see his brother cause a schism among mutantkind. Marvel Studios certainly loves brother vs. brother drama. Beyond that, a Havok-led X-Factor team provides a fantastic way to grow the mutant-corner of the MCU beyond the adventures of the core and introduce some other incredibly important characters who were criminally underused by Fox: Polaris and Jamie Madrox. Whatever it is Marvel Studios has planned for the mutants, they should certainly make room for a proper portrayal of Alex Summers.

  • 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 1, Cyclops

    12 Days of X-Mas: Day 1, Cyclops

    The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios has no small task ahead of them in making sure that the iconic team can lead the franchise in Phase 7 and beyond. Marvel Studios is also sure to make every effort to separate their adaptation of the team(s) from what came before. To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we’ve decided to put together a list of which characters might play a key role and how Marvel Studios can ensure nobody will confuse them with their Fox counterparts.

    The First X-Man

    No character took it on the chin harder during Fox’s reign of terror with the X-Men than Scott Summers. The original trilogy sideline James Marsden‘s version and the Simon Kinberg films reduced him to a guy who just screamed an awful lot. A properly planned out X-Men franchise within a franchise should take Scott Summers on a 10-year arc from Xavier’s yes-man to a controversial mutant revolutionary. Anything less is doing the character yet another disservice.

    One of the easiest ways for Marvel Studios to set their vision for the X-Men apart from Fox’s is to put Scott, in fact, the entire Summers family, at the center of it. One way to ensure the Summers become integral to the future of the X-Men in the MCU is by introducing them and telling their story through a Starjammers trilogy. The first film could introduce Christopher and Katherine Sommers and their two, young sons, Scott and Alex, tell the tragic story of their separation, and tell parallel stories in space and on Earth. On Earth, Scott and Alex end up in an orphanage and come under the care of Doctor Essex, setting up a villain in Mister Sinister that Fox failed to capitalize on.

    In the comics, Sinister took a great interest in Scott Sommers and believed that the child of Scott and Jean Grey would perhaps be one of the most powerful mutants to ever live. Starting Scott’s MCU story at a young age and including the connection to Sinister would put the spotlight on the Sommers’ line and set up an ongoing antagonist who could cause all sorts of problems over a decade of X-Men stories. Of course, that’s only a part of Scott’s potential MCU story.

    The real work ahead for Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios Parliament is to find a way to evolve Scott over the course of 6 or so films. Cyclops is a divisive character in the comics and while they certainly won’t go beat for beat in adapting him to the MCU, they should certainly take inspiration from his journey over the years. Introducing Scott as a strong, young leader of the X-Men who whole-heartedly believes in Charles Xavier’s dream and then setting him on a path to develop his own, radical ideas about what Xavier’s dream really should be and ultimately rebel against Xavier would present a compelling character arc. After doing so much to save humanity time and time again, Cyclops became convinced that humanity would never accept them. It’s a lost opportunity for the MCU if at some point in time in Cyclops’ story, they don’t find a way to work in one of the most popular Marvel Comics memes ever: Cyclops was right!

  • The Sunday Paper—December 4, 2022

    The Sunday Paper—December 4, 2022

    There were several revelations from the 2022 CCXP Disney Panel in Brazil on Thursday. Marvel Studios unveiled both the first trailer and synopsis for the awaited Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The trailer offered us our first look at several new players, including Lylla. Here’s who we theorieze might die in the movie. See the full trailer below:

    In non-Marvel news from CCXP, the title for the fifth Indiana Jones movie was revealed—Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny—and Season 3 of The Mandalorian got an official release date of March 1, 2022. Separately, Marvel Studios debuted new trailers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and Loki at APAC Showcase 2022. 

    However, a new rumor seems to shake up what we thought we know about a potential Scarlet Witch solo project. Apparently, such a spinoff may not be happening at all. But there is good news for Marvel fans wishing to see more of underutilized-in-the-Marvel Cinematic Universe characters. Past Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel Studios has plenty more of the character in mind in the MCU’s future, which is suggested by some information on some actors’ contracts.

    This week, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige teased more mutants in the MCU’s near future. During the Q&A after the CCXP event showcasing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was asked on if we can expect more mutants in the near future and he definitely seemed optimistic: “No, look, we’ve already met a few. There’s a new Mutant named Namor that you might’ve met recently. So, more to come.” 

    Of course, the head of the production company is not going to give away what we can expect. We do know that Deadpool 3 will give Hugh Jackman one more chance to play Wolverine; hopefully finally wearing his iconic outfit. And, there are many opportunities to slowly introduce various versions of these characters throughout upcoming projects. Now, we just have to wait and see if the X-Men will get their time int he spotlight or if they even existed throughout MCU’s history to begin with.

    Of course, rumors keep swirling about whether Tom Holland has officially signed on to play more Spider-Man in the MCU. A new rumor this week suggests Holland’s return could be as early as 2024. We took a look at how that release date could impact Marvel Studios’ current 2024 theatrical slate. On an unrelated “Spider-Man 4” note, this week fans got a new look at the Vulture wings that never made it to Sam Raimi’s fourth Spider-Man film. 

    Check out some of our reviews from the past week: