Marvel News

Discussing Film says Ms. Marvel will begin filming next September (2020), with Bisha K. Ali as the showrunner.  I'm inclined to believe them (they have a pretty good track record, although there's no sign of the Lady Sif Disney+ show they mentioned in January), as including a specific showrunner in the scoop risks being debunked almost immediately. Ali has no prior experience in showrunning, with her only credits as a staff writer on shows that aired this year. This isn't necessarily a problem, as Kevin Feige is very good at assisting creators in areas where they lack experience (such as getting another director to help the Russo's with action scenes in Winter Soldier). As always, shows (or films) boil down to their writing, since there will be plenty of money and expertise for the aesthetic. Casting the lead will be challenging (finding the right actress to play her), because it's more difficult to grab a prominent name with teenage actors.

Conrad claims the MCU's creative team is getting together to plan out Phase Four and Five shortly, just as they did for the Infinity Saga back in 2014. He doesn't cite a source for this (or claim one--he rarely does), but it's plausible enough. If true it suggests that Black Widow, now filming, and The Eternals, about to film, are only setting up the broad strokes of things going forward (the former simply the new iteration of the character and its presumed sequel; the latter the building blocks of the MCU going forward).

LotLB (and Sutton) claim Disney has backed off talks with Sony because Amazon, Apple, and possibly Netflix are trying to buy Sony Pictures. If Sony is purchased the rights to Spider-Man revert to Marvel, so there's no need to bargain for a new deal. Sony Pictures' financial position has been precarious for quite some time with rumours of its possible sale predating the current battle over Spidey. Tim (and Sutton) believe this won't be resolved until next year, as a bidding war is what Sony wants. I'd wait for independent confirmation before buying into this, but it is plausible.

Tim also updated his Hulk vs Wolverine rumour: he clarifies that the Immortal Hulk angle is this: something happens to push the Hulk into a darker place where he no longer has Bruce Banner's morale holding him back. It's in this more dangerous state that he comes to Canada and Department H sends Weapon X (Wolverine) to deal with him. The details, as Tim admits, are the reverse of the original report, but make much more sense. He repeats it's Hugh Jackman's part to turn down, but I frankly don't see what the MCU could get out of the soon-to-be 51-year old actor. While I think Feige would want to honour Jackman for the job he did with the character, there's no sense in him playing the same role in the MCU (unless you want to really go down the rabbit hole with X-23, but the bean counters at Disney want their toy money, so that's just not realistic).

Sutton has weighed in on the Netflix IP (with clarifications provided by me in square brackets):

After the Netflix freeze is over, The Defenders -- all of the specific shows [Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Punisher] -- will awaken from suspended animation on FX, at least for first-run episodes [for "first-run" see below]. ...I need to clarify a few items. Netflix does not own these shows nor these versions of the characters, which are, tweaked or not, based on Marvel Comics [they were made by Marvel Entertainment]. Rather, they own and have exclusive rights to broadcast the seasons they paid for, all of which are currently streaming. That's all. Once the restriction has expired two years following the cancellation of the specific programs [October 12th for IF, October 19th for LC, November 29th for DD, February 18th for JJ and TP], Disney can revive the shows. But why FX? Disney's Kevin A. Meyer [Mayer, who is in charge of Disney streaming] and Hulu's Craig Erwich [senior VP] both publicly addressed the possible return of these shows on Disney+ and Hulu. ... Disney owns FX now [as part of the Fox deal], and they want MCU content on their channels. ... The current plan is to make episodes debut on FX initially and then make them binge-able later on Hulu. Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb said a few months ago that he is planning on bringing back the old crews depending on their availability. There is no recasting or rebooting even being discussed. These were successful programs, and there's more to Netflix's "cancellations" then what is brought to the surface. As these shows do not follow the fall debut schedules of network series, there is more flexibility of time with the actors (a greater concern are the showrunners, who may have signed exclusive deals elsewhere by then.) Marvel has a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude with returning properties. ... As for the "back issues" on Netflix, sources tell me it's a matter of time before Disney buys them. Having new episodes of the Defenders on FX will hurt Netflix because anyone seeing those programs on Netflix for the first time will then want to subscribe to Hulu to binge the latest seasons. Common sense. ... Netflix wants to focus on their own IPs.

To clarify what "first-run" means: it's when a show appears for the first time on one network, but with the intention to sell the rights to air its reruns elsewhere. In the above context the idea is to move to Hulu. I question Sutton's idea of Marvel's approach (at least Feige's), where with returning properties his attitude has typically been 'banish it to the Loeb graveyard' (massive IP from Fox notwithstanding, he's done this with Daredevil, Elektra, Ghostrider, and Punisher--Blade is an exception, but there's a strong indication that Mahershala Ali is the reason for that), but he might be referring to Loeb (the only example of which would be Ghostrider moving from ABC to Hulu).

As for the idea itself, it matches exactly what LotLB said back in August and makes me suspicious that Sutton is LotLB's source (Tim continues to distinguish the two, however). What about the substance? Let's look at the evidence for his claims:
1. Netflix does not own the IP, just the seasons they paid for
This is 100% true and not something I've seen anyone dispute
2. Kevin Mayer talked about the return of these shows
He's referring to a THR article from last December where Mayer said this:

"They [the Netflix shows] are very high-quality shows. We haven't yet discussed [their return], but I would say that's a possibility. ... [W]e want a general entertainment service, which would be Hulu."

Mayer said nothing about FX so I included the Hulu comment just to gauge his intentions. There's no substance here--he's just saying maybe--I wouldn't read into it either way.
3. Craig Erwich talked about the return of the shows

He's referencing an interview in February by The Wrap where Erwich said:

"Marvel has a ton of titles we’d be interested in. It kind of just depends on when they’re ready, [and] who, most importantly, is going to be behind these things."

The final comment seems to be about whether it's Jeph Loeb or Kevin Feige in charge, although that doesn't seem like an ambiguity. This is vague and, again, isn't remotely specific about those characters with the same actors/creators returning.
4. Jeph Loeb says he's bringing back the old crews if available
I can't find anything remotely like this, the best I can do is reference his open letter when the last of the Netflix shows were cancelled in February:

"As Matthew Murdock's Dad once said, "The measure of a man is not how he gets knocked to the mat, it's how he gets back up." To be continued...!"

This is innocuous and I think more about Loeb himself, who (along with Agents of SHIELD) was seeing most of his shows cancelled (at the time only Hulu's Runaways and FreeForm's Cloak & Dagger remained). When hunting for comments I found a much more specific statement from him made to Deadline this August:

"Marvel Television will be doing shows with Disney+, we just haven’t announced what we’re going to do there. … [W]e were blindsided [by the Netflix cancellations] and the things that were to come weren’t finished yet. … Now, we’re going to do it again with the animated series, and then we’re going to do it again with the fear-based series. It’s now become, for us, our model. We would rather try to find ways of putting together a group of characters so that when a platform meets with us to talk about what we want to do, we’re trying to create a family on that platform."

He doesn't talk about the Netflix characters coming back at all, just that he wants to follow-up the idea of groups of shows coming together in a team-up. It sounds like Loeb will have some series' that appear on Disney+ along with Hulu (he's never, from what I can tell, mentioned anything on FX), but this would still be the Marvel Entertainment brand, not Feige's Marvel Studios.
5. Netflix prefers to focus on their own IPs
This is broadly true, but ignores corporate politics where Netflix might be happy to make it difficult for Marvel to reuse those characters (much like Comcast-Universal has refused to sell the movie rights for the Hulk and Namor back to the MCU, even though Marvel can use the IP as much as they want outside of solo films, ergo Universal makes no money by retaining those rights).
Conclusion
None of the supporting evidence Sutton cites can be confirmed, so unless he has specific inside information this idea (which I rejected out of hand when LotLB brought it up) is busted. Would I like to see the Netflix IP return? For the most part, yes, even though it's an older cast and I dislike how they were disconnected from the MCU and how disconnected they became from each other after The Defenders (a huge mistake by Loeb). What's likely to happen is that, other than Daredevil, the Netflix IP will be rebooted in the Loeb graveyard on Hulu (I think DD will graduate to Disney+ and the MCU, as the damage Fox did to the brand with the 2003 film has been fixed--as I discussed last year).

Sutton put out a much more plausible rumour that Ant-Man would be going to Disney+ (he doesn't add substance to this, merely saying it was headed to the streaming service). I'm uncertain if this will happen, but the films were relatively cheap and most of the actors involved are as well, so it's possible.

A very specific 4chan post dropped:

Michael Angarano recently was cast as a main cast member in a Disney+ show. It's definitely mcu related seeing as those shows are the only ones that are really casting right now. According to the source he's almost certainly a main character in Moon Knight, maybe not Moon Knight himself but you never know. His role is all speculation but his involvement is almost certain. He was also rumored to be playing someone in [an unannounced/unconfirmed] Silver Surfer but this pretty much proves that rumor wrong, although (speculation) he could play the same character in both which might further support his involvement.

They aren't casting Moon Knight yet so this conclusion is definitely wrong. If Angarano has been cast in an MCU show it would either be Falcon and the Winter Soldier or WandaVision, as those are the only shows gearing up for production. I am, however, not convinced that Disney+ is only casting MCU characters right now.

Andre addresses a Conan-in-the-MCU rumour I'd never heard before, based on Moon Knight appearing with the character in the comics. Ultimately Andre dismisses the rumour and I do as well. As he points out, the reason Moon Knight is appearing in various comics isn't about Conan, but about raising the profile of the character before his Disney+ show. It's extremely unlikely that either Marvel Studios or Marvel Entertainment would want to use Conan, even though the IP has a great deal of resonance. Marvel already has a pseudo-Conan in the form of Ka-Zar (I discuss him briefly here and his cohort, Shanna the She-Devil, has come up in rumours attached to the Savage Land, whose IP was packaged with the X-Men). It's far more likely that if Marvel wanted to use a character like this, they would do so with the comicbook IP while saving Conan for yet another reboot of the movie franchise (Amazon passed on a show about him recently, as CEO Jennifer Salke finds the IP offensive--this no doubt has Robert E. Howard spinning in his grave, not that Salke would know anything about him or the stories the character is based on).

Whatever happens with the Netflix IP, one thing we won't get is the return of a few sparkling supporting characters. I want to highlight my favourites since they were either re-envisioned versions of lackluster antecedents or demonstrated what one could do with a difficult character to portray (I'll skip David Tennant--we all know how good he was).

Ward Meachum, Joy Meachum - the Meachums are early Iron Fist characters who were poorly constructed and dull in the comics; these two shine in the Netflix series, Ward in the first and Joy in the second. They are, in fact, more complicated and interesting than Iron Fist himself
Karen Page - a milquetoast character Frank Miller (and Kevin Smith) ruined in the comics, Netflix reimagined her as a much more interesting version of herself (even though I think her origin episode in DD3 is not very good)
Typhoid Mary - an interesting comicbook character who, while changed quite a bit for IF2, was portrayed fantastically
Wesley - a sad casualty of DD1, the performance shifted a routine Kingpin flunky into someone with gravitas and emotional weight
Micro - a very different slant on The Punisher character, but a welcome one and the second season had a giant hole in it due to his absence (they even made his family interesting, which is something most shows struggle with--five seasons of Breaking Bad and they couldn't do it)
Cottonmouth - pulled a Meachum and outshone the lead of the series (so much so that I think he cast a shadow over everything else in Luke Cage that followed)
Scarfe - yet another brilliant actor who gave life to a limp character that Coker threw away in the first half of his first season--like Mahershala Ali, Frank Whaley was much more interesting than the lead he was supporting
Turk - while underused throughout, this bumbling stereotype was given life and vitality and left you wanting more
Wil Simpson - Wil Travel's nuanced and fascinating character was thrown away pointlessly in the disastrous second season of Jessica Jones season two, but he gave subtlety to a cartoony, ridiculous one-note character from the comics

These were all great performances that included significant character revamps that have been flushed down the toilet (either within the shows themselves or due to the cancellations). It's fantastic that we got to see them, but sad to let them go.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)