Marvel News

Karthik Prasad is reporting that The Guardians of the Galaxy 3's production date is now February, 2021 (this has subsequently been echoed everywhere). If this is true then it's a full two years from the original expected start date of January/February and the film would be hitting the 2022 slate (Marvel has February, May, and July carved out from that calendar).

James Gunn's script is still expected to be used for Guardians of the Galaxy 3--Variety reported that intent in August and it was subsequently confirmed by his brother Sean. James Gunn has a pay-or-play contract, but nothing that I found relating to that specifically mentioned stipulations about using the script itself.

Speaking of Guardians, the Superbro Tweeter Jeremy Conrad is so fond of has put out what he claims is a director's shortlist for the film. I have no idea how real this is (I lean towards it being fabricated), but following up the story is one way of assessing the guy as a source for information.

The aforementioned Conrad is reporting that Marvel has removed one of their planned 2020 films (the July release), leaving them with just a May and November slot on the calendar. I would be very surprised if this remains the case, although it might simply be a consequence of the Guardians delay with an inability to get anything else up into production fast enough to make up for its absence. While we know Black Widow is coming and there are heavy rumours about Doctor Strange 2, the only other film that's close to production is The Eternals, but why lose the date if it's going to appear then? Regardless, I wouldn't get too excited about the news yet.

Roughly a week after Iron Fist was cancelled his Heroes of Hire partner Luke Cage was also cancelled. This follows confirmation in September that there were no plans for Defenders 2--so what is going on with Marvel at Netflix? There are four prevailing theories:

• 1) The shows were cancelled simply due to falling popularity, cost (THR reports with LC one of the issues were 'the terms', ie money--in context seemingly for showrunner Coker and his writing staff); or due to Disney's forthcoming competing streaming service (brand confusion), and/or other entirely functional reasons
• 2) The shows were cancelled to set up a Heroes for Hired title combining both heroes
• 3) The characters will persist in other shows, but not have their own title
• 4) Disney is buying back the IP from Netflix as part of a broader plan to reclaim all of its IP

I like #2 and it's certainly what fans want, but I think if that was the intention both shows would have been cancelled at the same time with an announcement for that show. The #3 option seems very unlikely to me--granting that Luke Cage folds very easily into Jessica Jones (an IP with a very thin lineup), but where can you really put Danny Rand? Between the other two options it's difficult to say, but I think if #1 is true then that would lead to #4 regardless--what point would there be for Netflix to hold on to IP it isn't using? My guess, then, is that the characters are on their way back to Disney. With that said, I wouldn't expect either to appear in that context soon--the fears of brand confusion remain (that's not to say there isn't the potential for the characters to simply move over to Disney streaming as-is, but I'm not sure how feasible that is logistically). [A late note: Deadline says there are no plans to bring Luke Cage to the Disney streaming-service.]

I haven't looked at a hypothetical Fantastic Four film yet (I don't remember ever reading an FF comic, but it turns out I actually have an issue, #320 (late 1988) in my collection), but I do have a theory related to it. I believe that, just like with Spider-Man, the MCU is going to avoid doing their origin. Why? Fox already put out two origin films (2005 and 2015), as Sony did with Spidey, which I think will make Kevin Feige want to avoid it and enter new territory (using comments, flashbacks, and perhaps an introduction in someone else's movie--ala Civil War--to deal with their beginnings in the MCU). This differs from how I think the X-Men will be handled (as discussed), because in that case Fox only did one true origin movie for them (First Class) and that's easily approached differently (as I go through in the aforementioned article).

Another toy leak has come out which some are theorizing means Pepper Potts will get her Rescue-suit from the comics (first introduced in 2009). Toy-releases don't guarantee anything, but its certainly plausible (albeit's not a big deal since Pepper already had a moment with super powers in Iron Man 3). If Gwyneth Paltrow was a little younger--she's 46--you could theorize doing something more with her in the future, but if it is true I think it's largely an easter egg, much like her prior moment having powers (Pepper doesn't move the needle much for fans, thus her disappearing from the MCU for four years despite two ensembles--Age of Ultron and Civil War--where she could have appeared). Speaking of Paltrow, it doesn't appear that the various problems her company Goop is having has impacted her time with the MCU (for those who want to go down the Goop rabbit hole, these links are a good start: 2016 NAD inquiry, pseudo-science, dangerous coffee enema, and the 2018 payout).

When I posted my breakdown of the supposed Avengers 4 trailer on Saturday, no reputable source had touched it. That's all changed now as it went viral through all the usual places. Charlie's video was the most entertaining because while he thought it wasn't real his only specific problem was how much time travel was cited and the fact that they were stealing the Infinity Stones--there's no real reason to fault those elements anymore than any other (Charlie is on board with Conrad's five-year gap, so he's fighting that bias). For myself, it was a plausible film framework, but that's all we can say at this point.

Not surprisingly, after the first rumour arrived a rival trailer description on Reddit appeared (Charlie preferred it, albeit it isn't getting the same amount of traction). I don't put much stock in it and briefly these are my issues: to be charitable the dialogue is corny (how many dramatic pauses do we really need?), and this specific statement line from Tony ("I’ll do whatever it takes so that never happens again") makes little sense to me--he'll never let Thanos delete half the universe again? Never let Spider-Man die again? You can stretch and say he means another calamity like that, but it implies a kind of acceptance of the status quo and it doesn't resonate with me, reading like much less polished fanfiction.

The oft-referenced Conrad has gone on record to debunk the first trailer and he has two points of contention:

Just to be clear, I’m only addressing the “Hulk rematch” description here, as that’s the one that’s going viral and people are actually believing it. The real teaser trailer will be much shorter, and not spoil too much of the actual plot. It’ll feature dialog and scenes that give a hint about what happens in the next Avengers movie, without laying out specific plot points or story lines.

Presumably he's restricting himself to that one element because he doesn't want to be on the record opposing the rest of the content while still debunking the trailer. I agree with him that this trailer (and the other) are both far too clear on the plot to work as teasers (think of how Infinity War was teased). What's interesting to me is that Conrad is only debunking that one element (as opposed to others), suggesting he has (or thinks he has) insider knowledge--if true it adds further fuel to my contention that the 4Chan theory from five months ago is also false.

As the process towards the approval of the sale of Fox to Disney rolls on Disney has already
announced the corporate structure that will exist at Disney's Fox once that approval is in place. I note it not because I find it particularly interesting, but just to show how far down the road we are in this process.

Opinion Revisited

One thing I forgot to include in my comments about online entertainment news specific to the MCU was Armin from ComicBookCast2 (you can find references to him in my earliest posts). I came across Armin very early in my process and it didn't take long to realize his problem: he credulously believes everything. Armin has no filter at all and any piece of news that comes his way is the truth and a reason to pump out a three minute video. He rarely (if ever) reflects upon his many missteps, so while I love his enthusiasm, he's utterly useless as a purveyor of news.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)