Marvel News

I was sick all weekend so this is coming out a little late, but as expected a ton of news came out of D23, so let's go through point-by-point:

• Black Panther 2 will be released in May, 2022 (the year is no surprise, although there was speculation it would be in February to match the original); it was not clear to me if it was a Phase Four or Five film (I've seen people put it in the latter, but there's nothing official)
• Deadline reported that Kit Harrington is set to join the MCU, but didn't suggest or hint in what capacity; I guessed he would be in The Eternals and that proved to be the case (playing the long-rumoued Black Knight--none of the rumours about him placed him here--Wardell's was speculative so isn't debunked, 4chan is up in the air, and Conrad's was already debunked as he had him in Endgame). Daniel says he'll be one of the leads and it will be a love story between he and Sersi (see below)--let's hope at no point Kit says "You're my queen." The casting is a bit on the nose, but we'll see what they do with it. As for Daniel's veracity, he's hit & miss, but this seems like a safe assumption.
• They announced Gemma Chan as Sersi (which means Umberto Gonzalez's old rumour was correct--the character was race-swapped--credit where it's due), and Barry Keoghan is Druig. It will be weird seeing Chan in back-to-back movies (Captain Marvel came out this year, The Eternals is next year), but it's certainly a much more substantial role than what she was given as part of Starforce.
• THR broke the Ms. Marvel Disney+ story just prior to the announcement at D23. We've known for over a year that something with Kamala Khan was coming after Feige confirmed it in an interview, albeit he wasn't clear at the time if it would be a film or a show (most agree the latter makes more sense for the character). What's interesting is that it seems the show will pre-date Captain Marvel 2, which (if that holds up) is an interesting choice (I've been thinking for awhile that she'll be inspired by the Monica Rambeau iteration of Captain Marvel rather than the Carol Danvers-version--gets them away from White Saviour complaints and gives Rambeau a purpose for being in WandaVision).
• It was announced that Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt) is playing US Agent in Falcon & the Winter Soldier. LotLB are the only ones I'm aware of who had US Agent in the show, although they bizarrely said Henry Cavill would play him (this prediction would be more impressive if they hadn't, a month later, said he'd appear on Hulu instead). It's clear Russell's character will be the government sponsored replacement of Captain America who Falcon will ultimately supplant. This remains the show I'm most interested in thus far.
• It was announced that Sharon Carter will be in the show, confirming the Deadline story from May that had scooped Zemo's involvement as well. I wouldn't say her inclusion specifically excites me, but there is potential for her character (perhaps as a romantic option for either).
• On the surprising front, Darcy (Thor and Thor: The Dark World) and Agent Woo (Ant-Man and the Wasp) will appear in WandaVision--I quite like Kat Dennings, so I'm happy to have her back in the MCU, but Woo's one-note character will need an upgrade; Matt Shakman will direct and I'm still lost on what the show is going to look like (humour is emphasized, but not the only element).
• Kate Herron was announced as the director of Loki.
• We are getting a Moon Knight show after at least six straight years of rumours; the last of those were from 4chan in January and LotLB in July; unsurprisingly it will not be R-rated, but I don't see that as a problem (the comics themselves were rarely in that category); LotLB claims Feige pulled him from Hulu recently, but he's going to go back after this series (so, again, Tim's consistent confusion on the corporate politics between Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Studios--believing it's a Loeb/Feige thing as opposed to an Ike Perlmutter/Feige thing)
• We're also getting a She-Hulk show, which as far as I know only LotLB predicted back in July (this is not the same rumour as Conrad's at that time, which in his case was her as a second lawyer option for a Spider-Man sequel)--this is a big middle finger to Universal who controls her movie distribution rights--my instincts says she'll be race-swapped, but casting hasn't started yet
• An animated Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends show (matching the LotLB prediction from a couple of days earlier, although they had this is a Sony project)--this is the middle finger to Sony who, without Marvel, can't make TV shows of their own (perhaps we'll finally see Firestar, who seems unlikely to appear elsewhere). I don't really care about animated stuff (there's also a Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur show coming out), other than they buried Dazzler on one and I'd rather have her in live action

What's apparent from all this is that the Sony/Disney negotiations did not impact what was announced--none of this seemed thrown together at the last minute. What's interesting about what we heard is that they've all been long-rumoured (eg) and are all IP the MCU controlled before the Fox acquisition. What was surprising is that everything above seems to be for Phase Four, despite being told at SDCC that we had the complete lineup already. Could there be more films in that Phase? I think only if they want to push it into 2022 (which they could).

No one seems to have reflected on Feige changing his mind about Phases. He said they were going to move away from that label, but clearly decided it was impossible to do so since it was so ingrained in the public's mind (for my sake I'm glad, although I wonder if the desire to move away from it was to avoid having to punctuate each with a team-up film).

One of my concerns about The Eternals is how bloated the cast is (the two leads aren't in the picture above). That's eleven characters--it's simply not possible for all of them to get much screen time, so I wonder how many will get Starforced into oblivion. My assumption is that Sprite is there just for a few one-liners, but if Black Knight and Sersi are the focus, with Druig as the villain, who else gets a spotlight? I have to imagine Angelina Jolie doesn't join to be a bit player, so Thena and presumably Richard Madden's Ikaris will get significant screen time, How much will we see of Kumail Nanjiani's Kingo, Selma Hajek's Ajak, Lauren Ridloff's Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry's Phastos, and Don Lee's Gilgamesh? I haven't read the Neil Gaiman run that seems to be the basis of the film (see below), so I can't add insight from that perspective, but going by prior experience with Marvel there's only enough focus for 5-6 characters.

Charlie posted an explainer for what he believes The Eternals story will be about, saying it's based on Gaiman's run on the comic (which is funny since so many people, like Charles Murphy, are saying they would be based on the Kirby original--the MCU likes Kirby's aesthetic, but to this point have ignored his stories). The MCU-version will be about 35,000 years old rather than a million like the original comics (this fits the 4chan leak in March which, as far as it goes, remains accurate). The Gaiman conceit is that most of the Eternals don't know that they are Eternals--Ikaris starts to remember who he is. In that run Thena (who doesn't remember who she is) is working for Stark Industries (in context presumably being run by Pepper Potts or some surrogate). The villains in Gaiman's story are the Celestials, which Charlie believes is the eventual "Thanos-level" event. Keep in mind, Charlie doesn't have inside information, he's not a scooper, so take this with a grain of salt (will the film need the Eternals to not know who they are?). To me, however, it was always more likely Marvel would go for the more modern take (that's Feige's preference, in terms of story and character--there's nothing of Carol Danvers' pre-2012 history at all in her film, for instance).

Taika Waititi has debunked Deadline's report (Anthony D'Alessandro) that he'd completed his script for Thor 4. This is the same reporter at Deadline who erroneously claimed Doctor Strange 2 would be a 2020 release--worth keeping in mind going forward.

GWW is reporting that the MCU will be having the Werewolf by Night character debut in an upcoming show (their guess is Moon Knight, which is plausible). This echoes LotLB's news months ago that a show would be on Hulu with this character as a lead. While Tim's confusion over the Loeb/Feige split is exasperating, and it's possible he's simply making guesses with his predictions, quite a few very odd and specific scoops of his are coming to fruition at least in part. Food for thought. My theory about Tim at the moment? His source hear's about IP that's being considered and makes educated guesses over how.

In terms of the general reaction to the Disney/Sony split, I was surprised John Campea joined the Sony side as I wasn't aware of his attachment to them (unlike his former employer Warner Brothers). He's always gone full Kevin Smith with his unobjective adoration for LucasFilm, but his Marvel coverage has been tinged with bizarre bits of criticism, something I'd assumed was related to connections at Fox. He deliberately avoided bringing up some of the necessary context of the split and relied on a known Sony shill for all his information, so take that for what it's worth (god knows, you shouldn't be watching him--let me suffer for you).

One argument Campea makes (which would run contrary to Midnight's Edge story in July) is that so long as Sony finances the MCU films they retain the intellectual copyright--this would be why they'd reject Disney paying for some of those costs (presumably language in an agreement could prevent the IP from being threatened, but that's not something he addresses). His argument, then, is that by allowing co-financing Sony would find itself in the situation ME describes in their video (characters in dispute, therefore Sony can't use them). No article I've seen has echoed this opinion, so take it with a Campea-sized grain of salt.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)