THR reports Captain Marvel 2 is finally coming (in 2022), but without the original directors and with a new writer (WandaVision staff writer Megan McDonnell). Marvel is searching for a female director, while the original directors are hoping to stay with Marvel (perhaps doing a Disney+ show). The date for the film is what I've long anticipated (although I did consider early 2023). I give Feige credit for changing directors (and writers), as it acknowledges that while the original Captain Marvel was successful, it's an average film (a bit like Shane Black's Iron Man 3) that needs an upgraded sequel. The Kelly Sue DeConnick version of Carol Danvers lacks flaws and, while you can make successful movies with that kind of character (eg Superman), it's much harder and not typical of the Marvel IP (whose successful heroes are flawed and relatable, as opposed to idealized). My guess is the story will feature either: 1) a villain so powerful it threatens her (granting that's hard to do after Thanos), or 2) a situation she can't just punch/blast her way through--my hope would be the latter. There is a suggestion that her arc will focus on Secret Invasion (see below), which would fit her modern lore quite well. What I'd like to see is Rogue's beginnings here (cf), but I have no idea if Marvel wants to introduce her that way. It seems pretty logical for Ms. Marvel to appear in the film, but given that her origin show comes first it's not as axiomatic as it would be otherwise (I'd still consider it likely--the doubt that she would is that Carol presumably shows up in her show so they've already met).
GWW seems to confirm rumours that Michelle Yeoh will appear in Shang-Chi. Yeoh already had an MCU cameo (Guardians 2), but she'll presumably look different enough that it won't be distracting (Gemma Chan was painted green in Captain Marvel, allowing some separation for her role in The Eternals, although ideally she would have been cut from CM entirely to avoid confusion).
Braxter Timberlake of The Illuminerdi (which I've never heard of) says that Rosalind Chao has been cast in an unknown role (they speculate it could be as Shang-Chi's mother--a possibility, as Chao is in her early 60s and Simu Liu is 30). If this is true, thus far Marvel is following the John M. Chu approach to casting and we'll see if that continues.
Brandon Zachary (also of The Illuminerdi) says they've got hold of casting notes for Doctor Strange 2 that suggest America Chavez will appear in that film (see below). The casting is for 'a teenage Hispanic female [as] a supporting lead in the film.' There are other possibilities who could fill this role, but no other name has cropped up and Chavez's origin is tied into the multiverse. Zachary believes it's part of building up towards Young Avengers, which is plausible.
The following day Zachary said Brother Voodoo would appear in the film, based on this casting description: "[D]escribed as a supporting male lead who is of Caribbean descent, and Haiti is specifically mentioned as a nation tied to the character. It’s also been noted that the character shouldn’t necessarily feel American, although the role is still potentially open to African-American actors." Rumours about Brother Voodoo go all the way back to Wardell in December, 2018 (there's an incorrect link via that link, the proper one is here), and is a reasonable assumption based on the description.
Comments from Patrick Stewart helped clarify some rumours that have been floating around for awhile:
I met with Kevin Feige a couple of months ago and we had long, long conversations. And there have been moves and suggestions, which include Charles Xavier. Here's the problem... If we had not made Logan, then yes, I would probably be ready to get into that wheelchair one more time and be Charles Xavier, but Logan changed all that.When I first saw references to this story it sounded like Stewart had gone to Feige, not the other way around (as seems to have occurred). This reminded me of LotLB's claim back in September that the role of Wolverine was Hugh Jackman's to turn down (which, given Stewart's reaction to the same idea, Jackman certainly did if offered). This suggests that the scoop was at least partially accurate, which is a surprise because no one (other than Sutton) echoed it. The bigger question is: what was Feige's plan? I can only assume it would be tied into the multiverse, because it's impossible to imagine the incoherent whole of the Fox films being incorporated into the MCU. There are three things that spring to mind here: 1) Was the idea to help facilitate Deadpool's transition into the MCU? 2) How much does Feige's involvement with the original two Bryan Singer films impact his willingness to use those characters? 3) Marvel clearly didn't start their X-Men plans until sometime in the summer, which suggests a film is a long way off.
Deadline reports that former model Noah Mills is part of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier cast, without specifying in what role. He doesn't have a deep background as an actor so I'm unsure what role the 36-year old will have.
Murphy provided information that only comes from one source (grains of salt) about Loki:
"[A]ctors being brought on board for lead and major supporting roles in Loki are having options for a possible second season written into their deals. ... I’m told the studio is already looking into studio space in which to film Season 2 in 2021."This implies that Marvel is hoping the show is received well enough for another season (or, really, that it isn't so awful that a second season isn't possible). As Murphy says in the article, this suggests that whatever story is planned for Loki, it will not be wrapped up in Thor 4. What could the story be? Once we see the plot of the first season I think we can start making education guesses. Murphy also confirmed that the show began shooting last week.
Production on She-Hulk begins in July, with the search for an actress to play her having begun in late 2019. What's interesting about this is that July was Hawkeye's production start date, suggesting Murphy's prior claim that the latter was delayed is true (despite official denials).
The Witcher writer Beau Demayo has been added to the Moon Knight writer's room (as per his Twitter). Almost four months ago GWW reported that Marvel was searching for the show's lead actor, but we've heard nothing about who it will be beyond speculation (a couple of weeks ago a 4channer claimed Max Thieriot would be announced January 10th, which obviously didn't happen; prior to that was Sutton's bizarre assertion that Pedro Pascal was being considered; everything else has been empty speculation).
Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston says two unannounced Disney+ shows are in the works:
- Secret Invasion (an ever-popular rumour for an MCU film), which is intended to tie-in with the Captain Marvel films (which makes sense)
- A solo-series for an A-list character (in Johnston's words, closer to Loki than Vision levels)
The first element suggests the many rumours/speculations about Secret Invasion are correct, but perhaps on a more restricted level if it's being tied to Disney+ and Captain Marvel's IP. Is this related to the Doctor Strange 2 multiverse plot (cf), described as being like Age of Ultron in setting up Phase Five? It's not clear to me.
Johnston doesn't explain how he separates an A-list character from anyone else (is it cache, impact, screen time?), but if we're avoiding minor characters the candidates are (screen time included, excluding the original Hulk): Hulk (69:45), Nick Fury (53:00), and War Machine (49:30).
A Hulk show seems most likely--we know Mark Ruffalo was pitching ideas for the character with Kevin Feige a few months ago, and it's another way to give Universal the middle finger. Back in October of 2018 Conrad floated a rumour about a Nick Fury show, but this was immediately shot down by Peter Sciretta (although the idea was later echoed by LotLB in August); last January (same link) 4chan said a War Machine show was on its way (also echoed by LotLB in August). Given the relative ages of both Don Cheadle (56 later this year) and Sam Jackson (72 later this year), a series could only function as a torch-passing exercise. As for Hulk, Ruffalo isn't much younger (53 this year), but given that there's a She-Hulk series and that Hulkling may be coming, the torch is already being passed, so it could be a standalone story (given the plethora of 'Hulk' characters, I think it will be awhile before we see the Amadeus Cho version).
GWW writer Vicky Depledge says an America Chavez Disney+ series will be among the next announced. She broke the story that such a show was in development back in August, but until now there had been no further news from anyone (other than her possible inclusion in the roster of Young Avengers). Her story has never been debunked, which is a reason to give it credit. While the character comes up a lot in the media, she's not particularly popular and has powers similar to the DeConnick Captain Marvel (making me worry about duplication and being labelled a Mary Sue). I'm uncertain how much Marvel will follow that or not.
THR reports that two of the planned animated Hulu shows (Tigra & Dazzler as well as Kevin Smith's Howard the Duck) have been cancelled. The former had already had its entire staff fired, but this is a formal end to it. THR speculates, I think accurately, that it also means the planned team-up show (The Offenders) is dead. This leaves Patton Oswalt's MODOK and Josh Gordon's Hit-Monkey as the animated shows that will continue (as well as the live-action Helstrom, which was too far along to be cancelled when Feige gained control).
LotLB claim Glyph will be spun off into her own show from Helstrom, which (if true) would be Feige approving a decision made by Jeph Loeb months ago. Back in August Conrad suggested she was possibly the character who would appear on ABC (in response to a story from Deadline) and at that time I didn't realize Bleeding Cool had already scooped plans for the character for Hulu back in April (based on trademarks Marvel registered at the time). I'd be very surprised if anything from Helstrom goes anywhere, since Feige wasn't involved with it (this doesn't mean we won't get a Glyph show, but that I doubt it will be connected). For those unfamiliar, Glyph is a minor character created in 2015 with just eight appearances (largely confined to the unsuccessful Howling Commandos of SHIELD). She (Nadeen Hassan) has a mystical connection to Egyptian powers (much like Moon Knight). Expecting her to carry her own series is a stretch--it doesn't mean it can't happen, just that I'm very skeptical that it will.
Speaking of LotLB, they were part of a scoop from Sutton part one, part two, and part three:
- Sony can use characters they own who have appeared in the MCU on a case-by-case basis in limited doses, which was part of the new deal with Disney; as we've heard elsewhere, Marvel is free to ignore anything Sony does
- Marvel is interested in a live-action Spiderverse film
- Marvel has avoided using Gwen Stacy because of the performance of Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 [I find this a bit hard to credit, although Feige does prefer avoiding repeating what's come before, ie Mary Jane Watson], but the character is incredibly popular, particularly with a younger female audience; they want an MCU Spider-Gwen film, teaming her up with various young Avengers, but discussions have only just started
- Reiterated the old Bleeding Cool/LotLB rumour originally for Hulu [which Murphy recently echoed via speculation] that Blade would lead into Midnight Sons; the roster will be Blade, Man-Thing, Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Moon Knight, and Hellstrom [it's not made clear if the latter will be the same character from the show--it's implied, but Feige doesn't like things he wasn't involved with]; the plot would have them facing Mephisto and Marvel zombies [this is what Sutton said back in October (which echoed Deadline), except that the group was Spirits of Vengeance; tangentially, Daniel (also in October) said Man-Thing was in early development, but not specifically in this context (for those who don't know, Lionsgate produced a Man-Thing film in 2005 that was so bad they refused to release it in theaters); LotLB's persistence with Marvel Zombies is likely because in two of the three iterations of Midnight Sons that's been their opposition]
- Sony wants Morbius to meet Blade, but no negotiations have occurred and the performance of Morbius will impact the idea ([here's no reason for Marvel to cooperate, barring very large concessions from Sony]
There is no onus on Sutton to explore the mechanics of how any of this would work, but why would Sony give up Spider-Gwen or the Spiderverse? Steamrolling Tom Rothman in a deal isn't hard, but even he isn't going to give the keys to the well-known IP for nothing and I think we're near the end of where Feige will compromise. In the prior agreement Marvel only surrendered money (making the films), and now Sony has been given the Loeb black hole where nothing they do matters. Sony only needs to look at where Marvel Entertainment is to see what that concession does for Sony. The only way forward is for Disney to buy the IP back, Sony to sell it's film studio (which would default the IP back to Marvel), or for a break in the arrangement entirely.
When we got the easter egg for Captain Britain in Endgame I wondered why they were teasing Brian Braddock in the 1970s. It's era appropriate for the comic (he debuted in 1976), but if that was him he'd be long past his prime in 2023. It could simply be an easter egg (a tip of the hat to fans), it might be his father John, but it made me wonder if Betsy will have that mantel in the MCU. The latter is unlikely (she's Brian's twin sister), but under Hickman she becomes Captain Britain (something she'd done previously), and perhaps Marvel doesn't want all their 'captain' characters to be male. I'm just speculating, but having read the current Excalibur run (put in motion before Feige was in charge), it's a possibility I hadn't considered before.
An implausible plot description appeared in a now deleted Reddit post:
Hey guys! So, I have learned from my source at Marvel some interesting info about the upcoming third Spider-Man film. I'm not going to be revealing the entire plot, because the movie's plot is still being decided and the script is in very early stages. Now, here is what I have heard. Please take it with a grain of salt, as nothing is set in stone.As I point out in my notes above, while this echoes other rumours we've seen, it has two fundamental problems which make me dismiss it: 1) Marvel doesn't need to 'get back' the rights to Netflix--they are on a clock and return shortly (November this year), 2) It leans very heavily into Norman Osborn, which is improbable while Sony retains the rights to the character and the current deal with Disney ends so soon.
The Kraven movie is officially not happening, and Sony is letting Marvel use him as the main villain for Spider-Man 3. Jon Watts actually threatened to walk away from the project if Kraven wasn't used as the main villain, since Watts has a major story arc in mind for the character. [No one has reported this--rumours of Watts walking away were connected to Sony abandoning the MCU]
Sony and Marvel (mostly Sony) are discussing having Spider-Man wear the Symbiote suit in the film. If so, the Venom 2 ending will be tweaked. I'm hearing that, if Marvel agrees, Venom 2 will end with Eddie [Brock] losing the Symbiote in New York, and the end-credits scene will feature it being captured by OsCorp, which brings us to another aspect of the film...
Norman Osborn will finally make his long-awaited debut in Spider-Man 3. Sony is much more lenient with Osborn than they are with Spider-Man, since they don't have big plans for Osborn in the SUMC. Norman Osborn will be revealed as "The Benefactor", and he will possibly have ties to Spider-Man's origin. Osborn is a narcissist who hates superheroes and wants to replace Tony Stark's role in the world. He was actually helping Mysterio's team the whole time in Far From Home, and is using Spider-Man being framed as an opportunity to have one less hero in the world. His appearance in the movie will mainly be to set him up as a major antagonist in future films. Spider-Man will have a lawyer, and it will most likely be Matt Murdock. Marvel is already trying to get the rights back for the Netflix heroes, and things are looking good. [The idea of Osborn being behind Mysterio goes back to rumours about Far From Home, eg; the Benefactor idea comes from a GWW scoop in June whose scenes were to be shot in 2019 for an undetermined role they guessed was Osborn (clearly not); finally the idea of a lawyer for Peter is an old Conrad rumour from July, whose problem has always been that the rights aren't back soon enough (beyond simply being unlikely)]
Something similar also comes from 4chan (if you wonder why I look at 4chan/Reddit it's for two reasons: 1) to keep track of where rumours are coming from, and 2) occasionally genuine leaks occur --Rise of Skywalker's plot and production was completely leaked, as was the storyline for the first season of Picard, for example):
[Film is] code named JailerA number of problems stick out to me: people think Tom Holland's Spider-Man i's a woman? Night Monkey? Marvel having a direct hand in The Sinister Six? I've included it all because I think the spine of the story is along the right lines, even though I think the poster has simply cobbled this together from various other posts.
The are gonna be some changes going on with the script of this movie, but the basics are staying the same.
PART I
Peter won't be on the run. Neither will he have a lawyer.
The Daily Bugle - a web news media outlet - is a conspiracy theory and fake news website owned by it's host J. Jonah Jameson. As the general public is in disbelief of Spider-Man's secret identity to be that of a male-teenager, and debates online begin to surge that Spider-Man is really a young woman, something about Spider-Man's spandex and an "arse" joke is added in the context of the debate.
Peter's friends at school begin to treat him like he is Spider-Man which makes Peter the most famous kid in high school. Flash is mad at Peter and in denial and begins to stalk Peter to find the truth. Michelle has some side plot drama with Peter on how he is enjoying the "school fame" and all.
Herman Schultz [Bokeem Woodbine] returns as the villain with an exoskeleton power suit armor. Half-way into the film Night Monkey is fighting Schultz in the same prison where Adrian Toomes was jailed. At the end of their battle Schultz suit explodes inside the prison and we are to believe he is dead.
Steven Strange will have a cameo at the end of the movie. He visits Peter's home in Queens, NY to ask him about something that he has been tracking, but is interrupted when "Shocker" attacks both of them after obtaining the superpowers of his armor after the explosion in the prison.
Strange helps Peter "defeat" Schultz who's power now allows him to vibrate the fractures in reality that were let open by "Multiverse of Madness" and he is able to open gate ways into the multiverse and summon "copies" of himself from other dimensions. Schultz can summon thousands of "Shocker" clones of himself that have the ability to fire lightning.
PART II
Jake Gyllenhaal [Mysterio] is hinted to be alive in one sentence during the fight against Shocker, but is not shown or confirmed.
Strange basically tells Peter that he was tracking Eldritch magic in Prague and Venice and somehow the trace let him to Peter's home. And asks him if Peter had recently fought someone who had magical abilities similar to his own to which Peter answers no.
The real Schultz is taken down and knockout into one of his own portals and we never see him again in the movie.
Peter loses Aunt May at the end of the movie as one of the dimension collapses on top of their home swallowing the building, thanks to the portals created by Schultz. Strange holds one of the portals long enough for Peter to go through to go save his aunt.
Strange stays behind to deal with the threat and closes all the portals in the area. Strange sees Dormmamu's face briefly in one of the final portals that he closes.
Mac Gargan [Scorpian] and Adrian Toomes escape through the chaos created by Schultz in prison using a prison bus in the first post credit scene alongside other unnamed characters.The end-credits scene will set up The Sinister Six, which will essentially be a Sony/Marvel joint production. Mysterio will be revealed to be alive. The members of the team will be Vulture, Mysterio, Kraven, Scorpion, Venom and Morbius, with Doctor Octopus acting as a shadowy Nick Fury-type figure with ties to Spider-Man's past. It's pretty much set for a late 2021/early 2022 release.
Someone going by mcu_india on Instagram is claiming they saw a screening of Black Widow. Something similar cropped up on 4chan a few days previously, but I didn't copy the post because all the specifics weren't original (just opinions added), which made it clear the poster never actually saw the movie. The claim of authenticity for the Instagram account is that they correctly described the film's trailer (I'm not sure which one), but as I'm unaware of how true that is and the comments about the film are superlatives limited to 'amazing' and 'Florence Pugh is fantastic', it's something we safely ignore.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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