Marvel News

One of the funny things about keeping tabs on Marvel news is you can follow the process of rumours filtering up to bigger outlets. The barometer that is Charlie Schneider put out a video about how Gorr the God Butcher will be in Thor 4. Charlie is a summarizer, not a news breaker, so where does that idea come from? The derided We Got This Covered reported it first back in July, but their source seems to be TMSM, who claims to have seen casting calls for Gorr (and Beta Ray Bill, which Charlie echoed). WGTC is an awful source for news, but TMSM himself is still up in the air because he got himself verified by Reddit mods (not the biggest hill to climb, but it still requires some evidence). The idea also fits simple speculation, since the character is from the same creator (Jason Aaron) responsible for the story Taika Waitit is adapting in Thor 4. Back to Charlie: his theory is that Gorr is in Loki's reality and that the latter will escape into the current MCU-reality, bringing Mjolnir with him (thus making it available to Jane Foster)--there aren't many other ways for Mjolnir to return (as others have pointed out) and it lends meaning to the Loki series. I wonder if this specific rumour is why yesterday Charles Villaneuva (of MCU Exchange) was attacking WGTC on Twitter--given that they've always been a bad source, I assume there was specific motivation to attack them now.

In the video Charlie parroted the idea of the MCU working with the Sonyverse (which I'd take with a grain of salt), mirroring LotLB below. This is a change from what Charlie said just a week ago.

Olivier Richters has announced himself as being in Black Widow--it's unknown what role the Dutch giant will have.

Discussing Film has a casting call for "Fang" and Marvel wants a Chinese-American woman to play a secret agent. DF isn't sure what movie this is for, but the specificity of Chinese (rather than Asian), along with how soon Shang-Chi will be filming, makes it a lock (an opinion Conrad and I agree on).

GWW has another casting call for "David: ruler of an ancient, distant kingdom" preferring an Asian actor in their 30s/40s for a movie filming in 2020. They immediately jumped aboard the Namor train which Conrad largely accepts. I'm less convinced of this--it's possible, certainly, but there are a lot of ancient kingdoms they could be casting for. Given the timing and that it's "Asian" as opposed to "Chinese" it eliminates Shang-Chi from consideration. Doctor Strange seems the most likely given the production schedules, but it seems early to be casting for that.

There's a rumour from Film & Television Industry Alliance that WandaVision will begin filming September 21st. This would fit what Elizabeth Olsen said back in April (that the series will film in the fall).

I mentioned last time that I was unsure how they were going to handle time travel in Loki given the restrictions laid out in Endgame. Even though the rules seem to apply generally, I wonder if the MCU will allow the Tesseract to create exceptions in case they do want some timeline alterations. The other interesting thing they can explore in the main MCU-universe is how these events change this version of Loki's relationship with Thor--is there more room for development? The show could also give opportunities for characters like Heimdall, Sif, and others (just as Natalie Portman's return means characters like Darcy or Erik Selvig could reappear in Thor 4).

Variety reports Disney exec's aren't impressed with the unreleased New Mutants. I'm not sure why this is news--Fox exec's didn't like it either and the property has been at Disney for almost four months. Despite the fact, it seems like they still want to release the film into theaters, although the story suggests reshoots may not occur (why bother if it's a bomb, after all). It seems clear, from the article, that the decision to release this film and Dark Phoenix is up to Disney exec's, not Kevin Feige, who I believe would have spiked both if given the opportunity.

"[W]here it stands is now that the movie [Doctor Doom] is done and Legion is done"

Noah Hawley was asked about the status of his Doctor Doom film and his words above, given the context (Legion is finished), has everyone drawing the conclusion that the project is dead. His phrasing throws me off, but its universally thought to mean the project is dead. The last time we heard from Hawley was in July, where he said a lot, but nothing definitive about what Feige told him. If the movie is dead, it lends credence to LotLB's claim that Feige does not like villain-focused films (Loki would be a counterpoint, but I'm willing to accept that's a unique case).

More fun from LotLB's (three videos: the first, second, and the third variously embedded below); I go into what I think of his general veracity below:

• Says his source ("the Black Knight") is a connected collector/speculator whose scoops are derived from the speculative market (the implication being that they have insight into what's coming up from Marvel, something they'd have a strong financial motivation to know)--elsewhere he's said TBK is a Marvel insider, but the former seems more likely (albeit the ideas are not mutually exclusive); LotLB claims this group of speculators are the source of Umberto Gonzalez's MCU information, which is an interesting thought (take it with a grain of salt given that casting seems outside this purview)
• Peyton Reed is in talks to write/direct Fantastic Four and the story will borrow from the John Byrne and Jonathan Hickman runs; the latter may be true (Feige likes Hickman), but I'm dubious that Reed will be given the keys to Marvel's first family after failing with Ant-Man twice--this feels like the conflation of wish-fulfillment and the fact that Reed was associated with an FF project long ago 
• There will be a lot of Hickman in Phase Four (a safe prediction, as he's the most relevant and successful of Marvel's current writers)
• Claims Deadpool will be in the end credits of Black Widow and appear in the next Avengers film (he'll meet with Taskmaster at a bar in the former)--this is the kind of hyper-specific claim that is very useful for judging LotLB's veracity
• Echoes the Wardell rumour that Brother Voodoo and an Asian-Clea will be in Doctor Strange 2; he adds that the pair will have a Disney+ show called Strange Tales (plausible if unlikely as they don't seem like the kind of IP you use for a show by themselves)
• Hercules will be in Thor 4 (plausible, although I'm not sure where he fits into the Unworthy Thor storyline, granting that I haven't read it yet)
• Claims the Conrad rumour about Giancarlo Esposito being up for an MCU-role is for Dracula in Blade
• Says the MCU has reserved Moondragon, Puck, Pip the Troll, and the Gibbon for use from Marvel Entertainment (the latter idea I think is preposterous, but the rest are all plausible)
• Repeated that Kamala Khan will appear in Captain Marvel 2 and in a Tweet clarified his confusing statement in a previous video (where he implied she would debut in the MCU, but then be on ABC): he says ABC wants to make a Ms. Marvel show. I think he's conflating the old rumour about John Ridley's (now cancelled) secret project for ABC (which was for The Eternals and not Kamala Khan, but she was the popular rumour); he also believes that the MCU and Marvel Entertainment are now in sync (for which there is no evidence whatsoever), thus conflating them
• Feige will be producing Venom 3: this is such an odd thing to claim given the rights situation--his idea is that Sony wants Spider-Man in the film and this is the only way to do it, but I don't know what the motivation is for Feige is to oblige them--he really doesn't need Sony at this point--when Captain Marvel can achieve better box office than Far From Home the necessity for Sony's other properties fades away (Fox IP is just the icing on the cake)
• The New Mutants (not the Fox version) will be a Disney+ show (which seems plausible, although I would expect it to be awhile from now if it happens)--he'd previously claimed that X-Factor would be there (he hasn't retracted the latter, I'm just pointing it out)
• He echoed the old 4chan rumour that we'll get a War Machine show
• Says there are early discussions about an original Human Torch show on Disney+ (oddly saying Chris Evans is being sought); he adds that they also want Evans to be part of a Peggy Carter show that goes through their time together in the alternate timeline (I find both the Evans ideas and Peggy Carter revival preposterous)
• Says negotiations for a Guardians 3000 with the Stallone-version of the Guardians on Disney+ are ongoing (I think Stallone would do it, but at 73 would Marvel?)--I don't see the point of producing a show like this (where does it take the MCU that the other Guardians don't?)
• Man-Thing and Moon Knight will be on Hulu (claiming for the latter he was intended to appear in Iron Fist 2, but that was changed when Marvel learned that Netflix was pulling the plug on their shows, so they replaced him with Typhoid Mary)--this idea seems plausible, as Feige seems disinterested in the character (despite innumerable rumours)
• Scarecrow and the Orb will be the villains in the Ghostrider show
• Quake (and possibly other Agents of SHIELD characters) will be on a Hulu Agents of SWORD, which is an added detail from their original rumour a few weeks ago
• When the Netflix IP returns to Marvel they will be used on the FX Channel (with the same actors in the roles)--I don't believe this at all (the actors/continuity at least)
• Previously (in a video now deleted along with his old channel) he'd mentioned Werewolf by Night would be on Hulu (I didn't bother including the info at the time because of my general indifference to Hulu); he Tweeted out the same thing so maintains that prediction--it fits, conceptually, what Jeph Loeb told Deadline about what he was doing on Hulu ('terror' shows)

A footnote to LotLB: given the behaviour of a sock account I stumbled across on Reddit, I'm now inclined to blame Jeremy Conrad or someone connected with him for going after the channel. Why Conrad? Very few people are aware of the Twitter fight between LotLB and Charles Murphy (neither have many followers--500 and, until recently, 2,000), but almost no one who is would dislike both and aggressively attack them on Reddit (which this account does). The attacks were on scoopers not associated with Conrad (the account name is a clear shot at TMSM and it also attacked Discussing Film; it avoided attacking Twitter friends Daniel Richtman and Umberto Gonzalez, both of whom have colourful histories when it comes to failed scoops). Conrad has the pull to get a small channel nuked and he dislikes both Murphy and LotLB (he has both blocked on Twitter). It's not Richtman or GWW (who both get along with Murphy, so wouldn't attack him), and while Umberto Gonzalez may have a reason to dislike LotLB (see above), if he was going to target him he would have done so years ago. That's my two cents on the matter and take it with a grain of salt (although if I'm right it makes me think Conrad has Google alerts set-up for his name, which would explain why he preemptively blocked me on Twitter despite never having talked to him or followed him there).

The Veracity of Leakers (to this point)

Roger Wardell (Twitter) - excellent, with scoops no one else has
Charles Murphy (Twitter/Podcast; formerly That Hashtag Show and MCU Exchange) - good; receives irregular scoops, but these tend to be marred by his erroneous speculation
Umberto Gonzalez (The Wrap) - poor; rarely has MCU material, isn't always accurate, and when he is they are inevitably very small scoops (LotLB presented a theory about the source of his scoops that I'd never heard before, referenced above)
Jeremy Conrad (MCU Cosmic; formerly at IGN) - poor; steals a lot of his material from others (mostly Reddit/4chan) and outside of his Eternals scoop hasn't had anything remarkable (that scoop seems to have hurt his reputation with the MCU--I think they set him up for the Annihilation title failure for Endgame as well his trailer release date fail, but that's speculation on my part)
The Marvel Scoop Master (Reddit) - TBD (verified by Reddit mods so he's had something in his background supporting his credibility, but as yet he hasn't scooped anything I'm aware of)
Lords of the Long Box (Youtube) - TBD (I think some or most of his material is a mix of other people's rumours, market changes in the speculation market, and his own wishlist, but I'm not ready to say none of his information is authentic yet)

Wardell is almost certainly a pseudonym and no one knows anything about him (just his irregular Twitter history); TMSM is also irregular and the only other scooper who doesn't provide opinions outside of his rumours/analysis of the MCU. Otherwise Murphy, Gonzalez, Conrad, Richtman, Villaneueva, the guys at GWW, etc all have the same world view and opinions--in terms of what they offer as people they might as well be the same person. I find LotLB entertaining (your mileage may vary) and I've had fun going through his speculation, whether I agree with it or not. To sum up: most of these guys (and they are all guys) come across as smug, egotistical, preachy, and are never wrong (there's always an excuse)--I find that off-putting.

Speaking of Murphy, I want to talk about his bizarre Tweet about an exciting film coming out in May, 2024. I'm not sure what his intention with that is--if he can't talk about it, what's the point in bringing it up? Marvel will have an exciting release in May of every year and by being vague he can't claim credit for whatever it is when news reaches the public. Unless he obliquely hints at the specific it's an empty scoop (what excites Murphy isn't always what excites most Marvel fans). He's not making this up--he has a scoop--but I think how he's handled it makes it meaningless without more context [he unironically re-Tweeted his buddy mocking someone else for doing the same thing].

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)