Marvel News

Official dates haven't yet been provided for the Disney+ shows announced at D23, but just in terms of how they fit on the schedule it looks like Ms. Marvel is early 2022, Moon Knight mid-2022, then She-Hulk towards the end of that year. This also suggests that Black Panther 2 is part of the Phase Four lineup and that another film, towards the end of the year, will be added.

GWW claim an America Chavez Disney+ series is in the early stages of development. Chavez is not only a character of colour, but also LGBT (her parents are a lesbian couple to boot). Whether the scoop is true or not (or if it's development carries through to an active series or not), the speculation seems good as it ticks all the boxes for Marvel. Amusingly, Conrad posted an article saying roughly the same thing without attribution. I saw his before GWW's and thought he was ripping off speculation from WGTC back in January (not dissimilar to my own in October), but it's clear it's GWW he's "borrowing" from. His article is very vague and seems designed to piss off people who would be triggered by her (the mention of Captain Marvel serves no other purpose), but I doubt any one like that reads him.

I have two quick asides about GWW (also using the label Omega Underground):

• Recently, within the last six months or so, the site has been filled with supposed MCU scoops--prior to that they weren't that relevant in terms of getting information, so they've presumably found a source recently
• When I saw KC Walsh (TheComixKid) commenting on the Charles Murphy vs Tim/LotLB argument on Twitter, I assumed he was 14 or 15 given his behaviour. However, the guy is an adult with a family--I have to remember that age and parenthood are completely unattached to levels of maturity.

Another rumour from Conrad is the return of the Inhumans royal family (in what context isn't clear); he says this isn't imminent and the basis of his theory seems to be that if Ms. Marvel is an Inhuman, it would follow that we'd get their leaders. I think the speculation, as far as it goes, is plausible enough, but this whole idea seems to simply be speculation. It's also possible he's recycling a WGTC rumour from June. The last time we had a story about the team was back in December when Adam McKay talked to Feige about the IP. I actually think the ABC show did the characters a favour as it was so bad it hasn't tarnished the IP (much like the terrible Fox Fantastic Four films make them easier to adapt).

Andre offered his summation on the current status of the Sony-Marvel deal and I recommend watching it in full, but to summarize: 1) the two groups/people responsible from the initial deal are either gone from Sony (Amy Pascal) or else mollified by the success of Venom and Into the Spider-verse (Sony suits in Japan), 2) the financial success of the former and critical success of the latter have empowered Tom Rothman (who has never gotten along with Disney or Marvel) and Avi Arad to pull away from Disney, 3) Disney's original offer was a 25/75 split on financing, which Sony rejected, then six months ago Disney made the 50/50 offer, which was also rejected. Sony then stopped talking to them. This is in contrast to the story people like Campea are pushing.

Items from LotLB just keep coming (bring your grains of salt):

• Tim claims that Sony-MCU will likely announce a new deal within a week or so, with a chance that it could still fall apart. This was echoed on the same day on Facebook by a guy named Mikey Sutton (of ComicBookMovie.com), who apparently broke the 2015 Sony-Disney deal (this is prior to my time covering the MCU). On social media Tim said the current sticking point of the deal is that Sony wants a Dark Avengers film with Norman Osborn, but Feige won't do it without creative control and the film being from the heroes perspective.
• He reiterated that Captain Britain is coming at some point; claims Feige is a big fan of Excalibur and wants a series or film for it (in the second link below he clarified it was a film), but the Black Knight would be added; the team would consist of he, Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde), Captain Britain, Psylocke (Cap's sister), and Nightcrawler--this would differ from the comics with the addition of Kit Harrington's character and Betsy Braddock, along with the removal of Rachel Summers (Phoenix/Prestige) and Meggan (Cap's girlfriend). I'd like to believe this rumour, but it seems far more likely that Black Knight will be a new Avengers character.
• Says Red Hulk will be in the She-Hulk series (along with Abomination and the Leader); rumours about characters from The Incredible Hulk just don't go away (Wardell's from December about a Thunderbolts project comes to mind).
• Claims the Paladin will appear in the Moon Knight series, something his source has known about since March (the last time the character was rumoured for anything was two years ago when Charles Murphy (then at MCU Exchange) thought he'd appear in Jessica Jones season two); Tim adds the reason the show is on Disney+ instead of Hulu is for budget reasons (as in, it would be prohibitively expensive for Hulu); he also claims Doctor Strange will make an appearance, as will Nighthawk (which is approaching overcrowded if true, unless they are simply cameos).
• Says Feige will take the shelved Fox Gambit movie and turn it into a Disney+ show (I don't believe this at all).
• There will be a Nick Fury show on Disney+, which echoes an old Conrad rumour from October that got nuked at that time and I don't believe it now either.
• Gargoyle will debut on Hulu (the idea, I think, is he'll appear in someone else's show--I believe they made this prediction a month or two ago, but because it was on Hulu I didn't include it).

One thing I didn't go into when talking about D23 was how well, at this stage, I feel pitched on the various Marvel projects. I went into obscure properties like The Eternals and Shang-Chi with no interest whatsoever. The latter hasn't received a push yet, so we can't judge it, but thus far nothing about The Eternals has struck a chord. That could change--I was down on the Loki show until I learned more (I remain confused by WandaVision), and I couldn't care less about What If? (that's not something the MCU can ever make work for me, however). Back to the film, unlike Black Widow, where the more I hear the better it sounds, The Eternals remains a massive shrug of the shoulders. Nothing about the premise or the characters intrigues me (outside the Black Knight to some extent, although if his focus is a romance that isn't appealing--I've talked before about how poorly the MCU has generally done romances). This doesn't mean I won't like the film or that my feelings about it won't change, just that the marketing and buzz around it aren't impacting me. It reminds me of the early days of Captain Marvel, where until the second trailer (just two months from release) I was disinterested.

Finally, just a follow-up thought to my comment about Adam Barnhardt--I've paid a bit more attention and his role on CBC seems to be as a contrarian--to write things that upset people to draw traffic.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)