Marvel News

The idea that Rocket is going to be a primary focus for Guardians 3 has been partially confirmed by James Gunn, who calls the film the completion of his character arc. His comment doesn't mean that the 4chan leak (which I think is based in part on the information dumped on Charles Villanueva a couple of years ago--he'd heard about the involvement of the High Evolutionary at that time) is completely accurate, but I won't be surprised if some of it is. A more interesting question, and one Deadline (the link) doesn't ask, is how much Gunn will revise the script in light of the extra time he's had to digest and think about the story. I anticipate tweaks, if nothing else.

We have what might be a hint of when the Black Widow prequel will take place, although this is a report of something said by Sebastian Stan (Bucky) that's as yet unconfirmed. Stan implied the film will occur after Civil War, which is a good ten years later than most rumours have suggested and long after Jeremy Conrad's bizarre Y2K prediction. "After Civil War" could mean at any point before Infinity War, so up to the MCU's 2018, but no earlier than late 2016. That timeline is when Cap, Falcon, Widow, and Wanda are on the run, leaving room for appearances by any or all of them (although I'd expect only cameos, if anything). We have very little idea what the group was doing before Infinity War and it won't retread what's been hinted or is already known about Natasha's past (Budapest, the Red Room, etc)--this would help overcome most of my objections to it being a prequel. It would also overcome the issue I brought up previously that there's no point in casting a young actor like Florence Pugh if she's appearing seventeen or more years in the past (leaving her no throughline for future films). This timeline would suggest, however, that we won't see Bucky, who is being cured and is then out of commission in Wakanda from Civil War until Infinity War (no Hawkeye either, as he's under house arrest).

Kevin Feige did his first ever AMA on Reddit and in the midst of it confirmed future plans for the Mandarin, which is what the 4chan leak indicated (granted it wasn't hard to speculate, as both I and Robert Meyer Burnett did, cf the link). I discussed, when going through the 4chan post, that this makes a lot of sense. One of the major problems with using the Mandarin in the Iron Man films were arguments that he'd be a racist stereotype--this ceases to be an issue if he's in an Asian-lead film like Shang-Chi. Another clever thing the MCU is doing by having Shang-Chi be their first, premiere martial artist, is that you can add Iron Fist later on and avoid much of the white washing complaints about the character (they regain his rights next fall, although it's probable Kevin Feige has no use for him and he'll get dumped on Loeb-land on Hulu).

Apparently there have been three call sheets leaked for the The Eternals (the first is the THS leak in November), but it's not clear what other sheets are (they have not, as far as I can tell, come out en mass to the public, given that the other two apparently don't name Ikaris). Villanueva, who provides this information, has a theory that "Karen" is in fact Moondragon--I feel uncertain about this if the latter is going to be in Guardians 3, since presumably James Gunn would want to introduce her. If she does appear in The Eternals and is, as expected, Drax's daughter, she could be the tie-in between the two franchises. The push for her diverse casting would match Marvel's tendency to race-swap alien characters (ala Mantis etc).

We have a 4chan leak about the cast to examine:

Keanu Reeves is cast as [the] main villain Druig; Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Luke Evans, Shawnee Smith, Kumail Nanjiani, Millie Bobby Brown, and Michael Obiora are the main cast

Jolie and Nanjiani are already confirmed, with Madden also seemingly set, but there's no Ma Dong-seok (assuming we can trust Umberto Gonzalez's scoop) or Conrad Ricamora (same link, but via THS, who said he was being considered). I've heard both the Reeves/Brown/Luke Evans rumours before, but not Smith or Obiora. What do I make of it? I don't have any reason to accept or reject it--the inclusion of Reeves/Brown does make it sound like fan casting, however.

One thought Murphy/Villanueva presented in their podcast fits a supposition that I've had for a long time: I don't think we're going to get a direct sequel to Ant-Man and the Wasp--neither it nor Ant-Man were successful enough to warrant it. However, that doesn't mean the characters can't move forward and the M/V idea is that they get folded into either a New Avengers or West Coast Avengers movie. This seems far more viable to me, although it would likely mean shedding much of the supporting cast from the franchise (as you can only have so many characters--albeit I don't expect the decimation of the Thor-cast we've seen--likely they simply won't be there). This would also presumably mean saying goodbye to director Peyton Reed.

We have an apparent comment from Disney CEO Bob Iger where he says all the Disney+ shows will occur after Endgame (in the MCU timeline). What makes this interesting (since for three of the shows I think that goes without saying) is the Loki show--everyone has been calling it a prequel. Assuming the source is a good one and that Iger didn't misspeak, this presumably would have to be the Loki who escaped with the Space Stone in Endgame--except, in theory, he should be part of another timeline, so...I don't know what to make of it. I'll hold back on speculating until there's further confirmation, but it's food for thought (I don't want a prequel Loki, but it's hard to imagine it as anything else).

I've been mentioning for a long time that Shazam's box office is not good (360 million at the moment, putting it 39th out of 43 major comicbook films since the MCU dropped--list via the link). Despite lurid praise from critics, along with talk of a sequel, we're getting solid rumours that WB won't be making a sequel. It's interesting how long it has taken anyone else to discuss the possibility despite the lackluster return (very apparent after its opening weekend). Admittedly, the commentary via the link isn't insightful (with both John Campea and Burnette bending over backwards to convince themselves everything is fine), but the fact that it is being discussed is what's important.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)