Marvel News

Not long after I posted my last article I discovered that Jeremy Conrad's idea about Black Knight appearing in the MCU was taken from a 4chan post (mirrored here). Let's go through its full contents and I'll comment as I go:

"Black Widow begins filming in February. Movie alternates between 16-year old Black Widow in the year 2000 in a storyline revolving around the Y2K bug, and 24-year old Black Widow in the events directly preceding Iron Man 2"

This pairs up with what we've heard about Black Widow (cf), including Omega Underground's contention about when the filming will start (my previous post), without including the debunked storyline THS was flogging in October (the first link). Conrad has been pushing the Y2K narrative consistently (the appeal, if true, is presumably name recognition). What's new here is the suggested lead-in to Iron Man 2. I'm at a loss over why the film will explore two separate periods in the past--presumably one will be the film's 'present' with the other being confined to flashbacks. I'm still holding out hope, probably pointlessly, that it's not going to be a prequel.

"The Eternals will begin shooting later this year. They would originally be introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, but since that's been delayed, they might cameo in Avengers: Endgame. The movie will explore the 'origin' of the MCU and mostly be set thousands of years into the past. Hercules will be part of the cast, and Thanos is expected to appear in some capacity"

This is pretty vague, but matches what's been confirmed about the GotG3 connection and when the filming will start. It also echoes the Hercules speculation that THS had via their casting list back in November. There's nothing new here.

"There are plans to introduce Black Knight in the MCU. The concept would be that he would be trapped in the Quantum Kingdom, a subatomic city first glimpsed in Ant-Man and the Wasp. The Quantum Kingdom would feature people from across time and space who were accidentally pulled into the Quantum Realm, among them Black Knight, who in the comics is a time-displaced Arthurian Knight"

I talked about the possibility of the MCU introducing the Black Knight back in October due to his distinctiveness (there's no other character like him currently in film). The idea of the Quantum Kingdom is an easy way to introduce the character. That angle, trapped in the Quantum Realm, is the most unique idea presented here.

"There are plans to revamp the Avengers franchise post-Endgame with a combination of the comics' New Avengers and Young Avengers. Basically, a team that mixes up established MCU heroes like Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel with a new generation of teenage/young adult heroes inspired by the original Avengers. The idea is for the project to play up the eclectic cast (wizards, aliens, gadgteers, vigilantes, etc) and the 'culture clash' between the two age groups"

There have been many rumours about a Young Avengers or New Avengers in the future. The idea of mixing old and new is what I suggested not long ago--there must be a bridge between the established and new characters. There's nothing new here however--not even speculation on who would be added, so it's a pretty empty as news.

"There are talks about Dark Avengers, which in the comics is a group of supervillains assembled by Norman Osborn to masquerade as the Avengers to advance Osborn's plans of world domination. There reportedly are plans to introduce Osborn in the MCU as essentially 'evil Tony Stark,' a wealthy entrepreneur and technological genius who uses his intellect and resources for evil, and sponsors and spearheads his own team of villains. He might not even become Green Goblin"

This is wholly or largely borrowed from a THS report back in October, with the only changes being a further explanation of the role Osborn would play (something wholly dependent on a continuing deal with Sony).

There aren't a lot of unique elements other than the Black Knight story, but even it is very slight on substance. Beyond that the only nuance from what we've heard before is the specific connection to Iron Man 2 for Black Widow, and speculation that we might not get a Norman Osborn version of Green Goblin. This is a very thin set of rumours and most of the content seems gleaned from THS articles.

I won't cover every 4chan post. For example, there's a ridiculous but popular one that includes chestnuts like the MCU doesn't know what it's going to do with the X-Men and Fantastic Four--a preposterous assertion, implying that Kevin Feige has done nothing with the years of preparation he's had ahead of the purchase and that, inexplicably, the spec scripts they routinely write for returning characters (like Spider-Man) don't exist in this case.

In reference to THS: I've gone over before how they get legitimate scoops, but their speculation tends to be terrible. We have another example of this fact as two days after posting that they thought it was unlikely that Doctor Strange writer (and Scott Derrickson buddy) C. Robert Cargill would be back for Doctor Strange 2...they confirmed that he would be writing the sequel. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Derrickson would get to keep his writing buddy (as I mentioned back in November).

Mario-Francisco Robles of Revenge of the Fans is claiming he knows that Frigga will appear in Endgame. It's not clear if this is from a source because Robles doesn't specifically say so. What he does say is that he doesn't know the context in which she will appear. Her appearance has been rumoured for a long time (as I covered in my speculation article), based on her stylist posting an image on Instagram in May, 2017, that was tagged for Infinity War (she would have had no idea which film the scenes were for, assuming the post indicates that). Given the certainty of time travel and possibly flashbacks, her appearance wouldn't be a surprise, but take it with a grain of salt, as I'm unfamiliar with Robles.

Disney has made an SEC filing for their acquisition of Fox and according to reports it means the transaction will be completed in June. This means the March estimation by Variety that came out a few weeks ago is wrong (it has been echoed enough to believe the June report). This would put the acquisition back towards the summer closure we heard about this past summer.

I've been thinking about what other characters could be on their way to the MCU. As mentioned above I've gone over this previously (looking at potential X-Men characters as well as those outside the Fox purview). Popularity isn't the only measure, but I thought it might be fun to go over everything not already in the MCU with popularity lists...or rather list, as I found it very difficult to find recent fan voted-ones like this one (most are either editor curated or top-ten lists). Below I've excluded Deadpool characters since there's some evidence they will be folded into the MCU; I've also constrained myself by listing just at the top-50 (to avoid eye-bleeding length; those controlled by Marvel and available right now are in bold; Fox characters are in yellow, and those currently on TV shows are in italics):
2. Wolverine (Fox)
10. Daredevil (Netflix) - available to the MCU in November, 2020
11. Jean Grey (Fox)
12. Storm (Fox)
13. Professor X (Fox)
14. Silver Surfer (Fox)
15. Rogue  (Fox)
16. Punisher (Netflix) - available 2 years after cancellation
17. Cyclops (Fox)
19. Gambit (Fox)
20. Nightcrawler (Fox)
21. Beast (Fox)
23. Iceman (Fox)
26. Ghost Rider (ABC)
29. Human Torch (Fox)
34. Psylocke (Fox)
35. Thing (Fox)
36. Kitty Pryde (Fox)
40. Luke Cage (Netflix) - available to the MCU in October, 2020
41. X-23 (Fox)
43. Moon Knight
45. Blade
47. Iron Fist (Netflix) - available to the MCU in October, 2020
48. (original) Captain Marvel
49. She-Hulk (Universal)

We have to take this list with a grain of salt, but in it we can see both the impact of the MCU (occupying, with Deadpool, eight of the top ten spots), Netflix (four of the top-fifty), along with the general irrelevance of network TV (just one character from ABC and one who, arguably, didn't appear enough to get a boost from it; neither of the Fox shows, The Runaways, or Cloak & Dagger have made a noticeable impact). Two members of the Fantastic Four appear (three if you include Silver Surfer), along with thirteen X-Men characters. There's almost nothing remaining, other than two characters who have been heavily rumoured for shows or movies of their own. The very surprising inclusion of the Mar'Vell version of Captain Marvel is so odd I think it must be some kind of meme. It's also interesting to note how little impact the recent Fox films have had--with all the focus on Mystique she doesn't make the list. This illustrates why the MCU digs deep for characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy or The Eternals--there aren't many popular characters waiting in the wings to be depicted without those acquired from Fox. For the sake of transparency, here's the other already-owned characters in the top-100: Nova (#58), Black Bolt (#59), Namor (#61, Universal), Adam Warlock (#62), Elektra (#63; available November, 2020), Spider-Woman (#66), Red Hulk (#74, Universal), Hercules (#76), Jessica Jones (#78, available two years after cancellation), Beta Ray Bill (#82), Captain Britain (#87), Sentry (#89), Ms. Marvel (#95), Cloak & Dagger (#97), and Wonder Man (#99). All of the names here, except for Red Hulk, have cropped up in MCU rumours and its entirely understandable from the perspective of a pre-Fox purchase world (all of them, with the exception of Mar'Vell, were discussed in my speculation article linked above).

We all expect The Punisher to be cancelled as Netflix moves away from Marvel IP and it appears they are following the same routine they used for all the other cancelled shows: Business Insider puts out an article claiming ratings are down just before (or after) the decision. Their story about Daredevil's drop was subsequently debunked hard and I believe we can infer the same for Iron Fist and Luke Cage--I suspect that, if there's a follow-up on Punisher's viewership, we'll learn it was just fine. These stories are designed to provide justification for the cancellation to obfuscate the very simple truth of corporate competition.

We all remember Jeph Loeb's favourite phrase: "It's all connected." While it has been clear for a long time that the Netflix shows didn't count when it came to that, I think we can safely say the TV-properties controlled by Marvel Entertainment (Agents of SHIELD etc) are also in their own separate little universe. I don't mean that the shows won't reference the MCU, but that it will remain a one-way street other than the Disney+ shows.

The trailers Sony puts out for the Tom Holland Spider-Man films have never been strong and thinking about that made me want to talk about Amy Pascal's impact on the films. A lot of fans forget that while Pascal was demoted after the Sony hacks in 2014 (as well as being forced to apologize for racist comments), she's still in charge of the Spider-Man films at Sony (including the plans for a Sony-based spinoff Silk, which I don't think will ever see the light of day). The arrangement with Marvel is that they pay them make the Spider-Man films (keeping all the profits) in exchange for the MCU using him in their films. Pascal retains a lot of influence over casting (including the push for Holland in the role). How much veto power she actually has I'm not sure, but it leads to a theory I have about the Michelle character.

I believe the push for the "MJ" label is coming from Pascal, who wanted another diverse member in the cast via Peter Parker's usual love interest Mary Jane Watson (switching ethnicity ala Ned Leeds, Liz Allan, and Flash Thompson). I've gone over before how Feige holds the line at switching out core characters in the MCU and my guess is he refused to simply re-cast her--as a compromise he proposed the Michelle character but with that nickname--this gave Pascal her diverse cast without enraging fans of the classic MJ character (from both the comics and the Sam Raimi films). It's just a theory, but I can't think of any other reason why the comicbook character Michelle would suddenly have that iconic Spider-Man appellation.

While in the past we're used to WB making announcements about DC films and then having it fall apart, I think we can take the latest announcements as locked in: June, 2021 for Batman, and August, 2021, for Suicide Squad 2. It seems like, at least for the immediate future, the WB will stick with two comicbook movies a year. How Shazam is going to perform squished between Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame will be interesting to see.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)