Marvel News

Marvel and Sony have renewed their vows for at least another couple of films--Variety confirmed the deal and the essentials are these:

• One more Kevin Feige produced, Tom Holland-lead, Spider-Man film (due out in 2021, matching the expected two-year cycle between releases)
• Marvel will jump from 5% of the box office to 25%, while paying that much of the cost to make the film (Deadline reminds us that both items were part of Disney's original pitch)
• Spider-Man will appear in one other MCU film
• Feige talked about the character appearing in the Sony-verse films

What's interesting here is understanding what the plan on both sides is, because this is a short-term deal. What it does is allow Feige to finish his trilogy and for Sony to avoid bad PR and having to continue the story without all the MCU-elements. For Marvel I think keeping him is a nice stopgap before they truly get into the X-Men and Fantastic Four--he's an A-list character to lean on during a run of obscure IP. Once the Fox IP is on screen the MCU can easily live without Spidey. As for Sony, this comes across as surrender--they gave in to what Disney originally demanded and the only concession we're aware of is Holland appearing in Sony films (which they could have achieved on their own anyway). Feige very clearly separates what Sony does from the MCU (another universe), which avoids polluting his content with whatever Tom Rothman/Avi Arad produce.

Speaking of the deal, let's look back at John Campea's claim that if Disney paid for making the films it would threaten the rights Sony has over Spider-Man. This seemed preposterous and no one else repeated it, but Scott Mendelson from Forbes said this:

Nor is it necessarily the news that Disney will now essentially own 25% of another studio’s crown jewel IP

This is clearly a turn of phrase by Mendelson (who isn't the sharpest tool regardless), but others have leaped to the conclusion that the MCU actually has a 25% stake in the IP. Unless there's further clarification or substantiation of this idea I think we can lean on our original opinion that it's simply incorrect.

Production List has Shang-Chi beginning filming on November 1st, which is interesting because Charles Murphy thought it had been shifted to January a month ago (once again, his scoops are great, but his speculation is awful).

Murphy says the casting for Ms. Marvel has begun, with Marvel seeking an actress in the 16-24 range (I think the latter is too old, but most casting directors would disagree with me). He thinks this means she'll show up before her show, which is plausible. I mentioned about a month ago my theory that Kamala Khan will be inspired by the Monica Rambeau version of Captain Marvel rather than Carol Danvers to avoid potential White Saviour complaints (it's the easiest explanation I can come up with for having Monica in WandaVision). If my theory is right, we're seeing the casting rumours now so that Kamala can appear in that Disney+ show.

Mikey Sutton talked about his Wolverine vs Hulk film idea and said it was being discussed, which is not how the idea was being presented previously. He said the title being considered is Weapon X (a good choice); otherwise he repeated the plot given by LotLB. Sutton also claims Arcade is being considered as the villain for the X-Men (a plausible choice since Fox never used him). Finally, he debunked the rumour about Magneto and Xavier being race-swapped ("there's so much diversity in the X-Men they don't need to swap to make a point"). I've already debunked this idea, but I want to repeat that both Conrad and Murphy were happy to highlight it for the purposes of clickbait and virtue signalling.

I'd written a paragraph arguing against Daniel's claim that Kevin Feige wants Ghost Rider for the MCU (that would presumably coexist with Jeph Loeb's on Hulu), but those thoughts have shifted now that Deadline is reporting the Hulu version has been cancelled (something apparently Sutton wrote about beforehand). This doesn't confirm Daniel's scoop, but opens the door for Marvel to use him (I'm dubious that they want too--in the chat here Sutton claims they don't). Dumping the show makes sense, as I think there was no appetite for it regardless (the Agents of SHIELD fanbase is so small), and I highly doubt the character is suddenly of interest to Feige.

4chan followed up on the Ghost Rider news claiming Feige wants the character in Doctor Strange 2, but it will be the Alejandra Jones version with casting for her beginning in November-December (suggesting Bella Thorne will get the role). This is almost certainly speculation from the poster reading both the Daniel and LotLB news.

After the Ghostrider announcement Variety posted an article wondering if Marvel Entertainment would be shutting its doors on (non-animated) TV-development:

According to multiple industry sources who spoke with Variety, the perception throughout the entertainment business is that live-action productions will be mostly if not completely moved away from Marvel Television, headed by veteran exec and producer Jeph Loeb, as Feige’s unit ramps up production on its own Marvel series projects.

A Marvel Television insider told Variety that the company has several live-action projects at various stages of development. ... While Loeb’s Marvel TV still falls under the purview of Isaac [Ike] Perlmutter, Feige reports directly to Walt Disney Studios’ Alan Horn. ... Marvel Television’s two current live-action shows are “Runaways” at Hulu, which launches its third season in December, and “Cloak & Dagger” at Freeform. The latter show ended its second season in April with no word yet on whether it will receive a third. The only live-action show Marvel TV has in development with a network partner that has been announced is “Helstrom” [along with the animated shows.]

Let's be clear that this is Variety's speculation--that externally the logic would be to shutdown Jeph Loeb's projects and let Feige run all of Marvel. I agree that this makes sense abstractly, but internally at Disney it's not clear if that's possible given Perlmutter's continued presence and influence at Marvel. There's still a chance Hulu's Helstrom gets cancelled, but until it does we have to expect it to roll forward.

More from LotLB (and here) [the former from 'The Black Knight' and the latter from Sutton]:

• There are still plans to use Ghost Rider on Hulu, he just won't have his own show
• Sutton says the villain for Captain Marvel 2 will be Veranke (she's the queen of the Skrulls); he also claims Nova will appear and be trained by both Carol Danvers and Nick Fury--this is plausible, although I don't feel like Carol has earned that as a character (unlike Captain America, she didn't have to overcome much in her first film--we still need her to have a flaw I think, unless the MCU wants her to be Superman)--the Nick Fury angle is something they predicted back in August
• Secret Wars will wrap up Phase Six
• Long term spec list (all for Hulu): The Alejandra Jones version of Ghost Rider; Jennifer Kale; Topaz; Foolkiller; Zarathos; Deathwatch; Hag and Troll; Group: Legion of Night
• Sutton says Spider-Man will appear in Secret Wars and will be mentored by Reed Richards in the first Fantastic Four (this would require a new deal with Sony to happen, which he claims is coming)
• Sutton says the Spider-Man deal is short because they were in a rush to get the third film moving and Holland needs to sign a new extension with Sony before they can move forward; that there have been discussions to have Venom appear in the MCU; Feige also wants Holland to voice an animated version of Spidey for Disney+ (they could do this without Sony's permission, but want to play nice)
• There have been more discussions about Dwayne Johnson playing Namor (this echoes what they said in June, but as I mentioned at that time, the ultimate source for that comes from Movie Hole in May)
• Said their old rumour about She-Hulk appearing in Spider-Man 3 as his lawyer is back on the table in light of the deal (I would think Marvel would remain reluctant to debut IP in a Sony film, although it would be a different kind of middle finger to Universal)
• In the chat (second link) Sutton said the MCU is considering Henry Cavill for a role (he didn't say which); he also said Charlie Cox would return as Daredevil, but it wasn't clear in what context (the Loeb ghetto presumably, especially given Sutton's prior comments, although in theory he still has an MCU-appearance on his contract); LotLB has been pitching Cavill since at least July (a 4channer echoed the idea earlier this month, for whatever that's worth)

As always with these gentlemen (Sutton included), take this information with a grain of salt until we have more results to judge them.

I don't think I ever voiced my theory on what happened to Jeremy Conrad after his Eternals scoop (I reference it here): that was a legitimate leak, albeit far smaller than the massive pile that went to Charles Murphy not long after. Marvel wasn't ready for that film to be announced and I feel like they set up him up with the idea that the title of Avengers 4 was Annihilation in order to discover the source of leak. If you go through his scoops since then there's nothing weighty at all. To sum up: I think he briefly had an inside source that got stopped quickly. Fortunately for Conrad, he's able to make a (tenuous) living off that one successful scoop.

This is as good a time as any to update our old Conrad Prediction Chart. Those in red were completely wrong; those known to be stolen from elsewhere (right or wrong) are in blue; where he's right they are in green).

2018
April - predicted Black Widow in 2020, something I beat him to a month earlier (this was a very easy thing to theorize about, so he didn't get this from me)
May - predicts that the reason Nick Fury paged Captain Marvel was because he feared a Skrull invasion (debunked by Captain Marvel)
June - his claims about Dark Phoenix are debunked
July - predicts Kronos will have a cameo in Endgame
August - predicts Hydro-Man will appear in Far From Home without revealing that he got the information from an Instagram post
September - claimed Black Widow will involve Y2K
October
Claimed the title for the fourth Avengers film was Annihilation
Endgame will begin with a five-year jump
Claimed a Nick Fury series was in development, which got slapped down by Slash Film immediately
November
Suggested a Hawkeye Disney+ show was being discussed, but was too hesitant about it to say it was in development (this is pretty easy speculation as rumours about Kate Bishop go back several years)
Claimed Katherine Langford's character was playing the adult daughter of Tony Stark (claiming she would have to be sacrificed); Roberto Gonzalez had scooped Langford's appearance in October and in Conrad's article he admits her role is someone else's rumour he's repeating
Predicted that 'Karen' and 'Piper' from The Eternals will be teased in Endgame

2019
January
Steals the idea of Black Knight appearing in the MCU from a 4chan post, claiming he will be set-up in Endgame
Thought the rumour of an R-rated Black Widow was credible (funnily enough this seems to have come from Murphy's Twitter feed, albeit possibly indirectly since Conrad cited another source)
February - Claimed 'Karen' is archaeologist Margo Damien (yet to be determined, but at this point seems unlikely)
April
Rips off Charles Murphy's speculation about Hercules appearing in The Eternals from October
May
Rips off Roger Wardell's claim from December that Power Pack was coming to Disney+
Claims the MCU plans to integrate Deadpool in the MCU (something Charles Murphy echoed; I honestly haven't tried to track down if Conrad publicized this first, although given Bob Iger's repeated comments about the IP previously this is speculation hundreds of people made)
June
Rips off 4chan to claim Keanu Reeves is in negotiations to be part of The Eternals cast (this appears to be false, but can't be completely ruled out yet)
Claims the MCU is planning a 2022 release for Fantastic Four--this is something Roger Wardell claimed was false (yet to be determined)
July
Claims Daredevil or She-Hulk will appear in Spider-Man 3 (the former is preposterous given the rights situation)
August
A double ripoff as he piggybacked a Discussing Film scoop about Loki with an unattributed copy/paste of a THR article (all the substance about what the show at the time was goes back to Roger Wardell regardless)
Claims Tyrant will be the herald of Galactus (yet to be determined)
Says the ABC-Marvel property being considered is either Squirrel Girl or Glyph (yet to be determined)
Claims Giancarlo Esposito is up for the role of Norman Osborn (an idea borrowed from GWW, but he actually gives them credit here--GWW's own speculation being borrowed from a couple of earlier 4chan posts)
Agrees with GWW's speculation that Namor is being cast in Doctor Strange 2 (yet to be determined)
Rips off WGTC's story from June that the Inhumans would be appearing in the MCU
Rips off GWW's story that America Chavez is coming to Disney+
September
Rips off WGTC's story from March that Doctor Doom won't be the initial Fantastic Four villain

Including his original Eternals scoop everything else he gets right seems to be correct speculation. We have at least 13 incorrect items above and the list lacks any sense of an inside source (it's very easy to compare him to Charles Murphy or Roger Wardell, who have had legit inside scoops, and see the difference). His willingness to steal other people's content is horrendous, but it hasn't had any noticeable impact on him (his content was banned on Reddit for spamming failed scoops rather than ripping people off).

Finally, you may remember back in August I came across a Reddit sock account I believed was either Conrad or someone close to him. The reason for my surmise was because it was spending all its energy attacking Marvel scoopers not associated with Conrad or Conrad himself (who is a very popular target there)--it attacked Murphy, LotLB, TMSM, and defended Daniel--the attack on Murphy excludes prominent scoopers who get along with him (Daniel, the guys at GWW, and current and former MCU Exchange contributors). I called this out at the time and the account went very quiet up until today, when it attacked Mikey Sutton. In a post that has since been removed, it claimed someone who happened to have the same name committed a crime over a dozen years ago... except the site linked isn't a police report, it's a website where people can make any claim they want about others without offering any proof (it's banned in a couple of European countries)--so the incident, whether it was the same Sutton or not, not only never went to court, but no charges were ever laid. This is an awful attempted smear and should get the account banned.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)