Marvel News

We've received confirmation that Thor 4 will start filming in August (which fits the fall, 2021 release). In more substantial news, Collider reports that Christian Bale is in negotiations to join the cast (perhaps in a minor role, like Cate Blanchett/Karl Urban's in Ragnarok--likely one-and-done). Murphy posted a rumour that he'll mo-cap either Beta Ray Bill or Dario Agger (aka Minotaur). I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand Taika, has shown no inclination to use minor/little-known Marvel characters; on the other hand, the latter character ties into the Jane Foster story in the comics and is far easier to move on from than someone with Beta Ray Bill's fanbase. Also of interest is that this news comes less than three years after Bale reiterated that he had no interest in making a Marvel movie.

Murphy continues to push the idea that Shang-Chi will mimic Enter the Dragon by focusing on a tournament, pointing to a casting call for various martial artists (something I think you'd need for any Shang-Chi film). What's more interesting is he says in October there were casting calls for "Razor Fist [Razor-Fist], Ghostmaker [Ghost Maker], Steel Claw [assumed to be a placeholder for Tiger-Claw] and Shadow [Moving Shadow]." I missed posting this rumour at the time (the first part comes from an audition briefly posted on Vimeo, while the rest are from Conrad). Most characters originate in the earliest Shang-Chi run (Master of Kung-Fu): the William Young version of Razor-Fist; Grigori Sovchenko's Ghost Maker; and Tiger-Claw; Moving Shadow is a more modern (2002) invention. Given the '98% Asian' casting for the film, it's quite likely most or all these characters will be played by Asian actors (it's not clear if Marvel will apply the "looking Asian enough" criteria of Crazy Rich Asians).

While the film is being cast in the same way that Black Panther was, it's taking a different approach. Black Panther tried to explode stereotypes about Africa, but Shang-Chi seems to be embracing the Bruce Lee-style martial arts shtick of the 70s. It's an interesting difference, but given that the latter came out of the Chinese community, there isn't the same need to move away from it.

Daniel posted audition tapes for WandaVision and what's getting buzz is that the dialogue references an uncle (presumably Wanda's brother, Quicksilver). Daniel didn't include the character in his October discussion of the show, although the idea of his return goes back at least to August (LotLB). As for the tape itself, dialogue from auditions isn't always from the script, and you might call a close friend of a parent an 'uncle,' so while it's suggestive, I wouldn't say it's confirmed (Aaron-Taylor Johnson told Screen Rant "I mean, I think it’s safe to say that no, I’m not gonna... there will be no appearance of me coming out or Quicksilver appearing anytime soon"--he might say this regardless, but it's worth keeping in mind).

A 4channer claims Max Thieriot has been cast as Moon Knight, saying it will be announced Friday (January 10th); he also claims the actresses playing Kamala Khan and She-Hulk will be announced at the same time. I find this hard to dismiss because the poster has set such a short deadline--a fake scooper tries to be vague to avoid definitive debunking. Thieriot is Jewish, so checks that box, and is about the right age (31) and has the look for the character, so it's a plausible suggestion at least.

Murphy posted up a listing for child actors that he believes are meant for Loki:

Male, 10 years old, British, Open Ethnicity, smart and brave with a sharp wit and life experience beyond his years…RECURRING
Female, 10 years old, British, Caucasian, in tears over a frightening situation, she relies on her intelligence and resilience to find a way out.

Murphy doesn't know definitively that these roles are for the show, but thinks it most likely (due to the shooting dates) and believes they could be for a young Loki (something the open ethnicity immediately busts), a young version of other characters on the show, or Leah (a recent, short-lived character created by Kieron Gillen). Personally, the idea of a recurring child character represents a potential nightmare for the show (there are so many examples of this failing--Deadpool 2 comes to mind), and I think all the speculation here is unlikely. Loki is one of the few shows we know almost nothing about (in terms of leaks/rumours). Michael Waldron was hired as the head writer last February, Kate Herron as the director in August, with just one plot rumour in October--that's it (there was earlier speculation last January, all of which seem debunked).

4chan claims Jodie Comer is in talks to play the role of Enchantress--grains of salt required.

Conrad says one of his sources is claiming that the MCU has regained full rights to Namor and the Hulk. This idea seems to come from here (an interview from August that was released in September). In it it's claimed "the Universal problem is no longer a problem." Back in March I went through what we actually know about the Namor rights because conflicting things have said about it officially and here's the TL;DR from that:

• 1) Universal had the rights to make and distribute films based on IP associated with the Hulk and with Namor (the two deals are separate; the latter was acquired no later than 2001)
• 2) 2006, the last reported effort to produce a Namor-film by Universal was still active (Jonathan Mostow replacing Chris Columbus on the project at that time)
• 3) 2012, Joe Quesada says Marvel has regained the rights to him (which is refuted below); I'll get into Joe's comments below
• 3) 2013, according to Kevin Feige the situation for Namor is unchanged
• 4) 2014, Borys Kit (of THR) repeats Quesada's comment above via a Tweet, but going through the thread seems uncertain about the situation
• 5) 2014, Feige says the MCU can make a Namor film, but it would involve multiple parties (this is different from the Hulk rights which only involves Universal); the comment implies Universal (just like Fox and other companies) was on a development clock where, if they failed to put the IP in active production, they would lose the rights to produce a film (thus the change in his language about what Marvel could do with the IP from just a year earlier)
• 6) 2016, Quesada repeats what he said in 2012 (I'll get into that below)
• 7) 2017, Murphy and others, buoyed by reports from Reel News Hawaii and Production Weekly, erroneously believed a Namor film or show was coming
• 8) 2018, Feige says Marvel could make a Namor film, but that it's not as 'clear or clean' as the majority of other characters
• 9) 2019, Murphy reported an uncertain rumour that Namor was scouting locations (it subsequently turned out to be for Shang-Chi)

With the Hulk we know the impediment has always been that Universal retains distribution rights--Mark Ruffalo was complaining about it leading into Endgame, so clearly the contract elements related to those rights are different than they were for other Marvel IP (like Fox where everything reverted after seven years, or Sony's just under six). If there's a clock on distribution we're now almost 12 years out. Most people assume that Namor functions the same way and if it does then that clock sits at nearly 14 years.

So why has Quesada claimed (for nearly a decade) that Marvel has the rights to make a Namor film? If we exclude the most probable answer of ignorance, the most positive framing is that each comment reflects two different realities: in 2012 they could have made a film (with Universal), much like they did for The Incredible Hulk; in 2014 Universal only retained distribution rights, so Marvel could make a film, but not without complications.

What we know for certain is that something changed about the rights in 2014, but why did Feige mention multiple parties? The only comment I've heard related to this comes from Armin (of all people) who said because Namor is a mutant (named as one back in 1991), Fox would also have a stake in a film about him. This makes sense and would explain why a film featuring him was so complicated to make. I believe this reality was echoed in Feige's comments in 2018, before the Fox purchase was complete. What's not clear is if Universal still retains distribution rights. Presumably Marvel could buy those rights if Universal was willing to sell them, but I expect if such a move occurs it will pop-up in the trades (at a time for maximum publicity, of course, lest we forget the many denials about the initial Sony deal until it was announced).

At the end of the day the truth almost doesn't matter. The rights complications are only relevant if either character gets their own film, otherwise the MCU is free to do whatever they wish. I'm hesitant to believe the rumour because of how many prior failures we've had.

A final note: Campea is hesitant about the idea because it comes from Conrad, but as I mentioned above it's not really from Conrad. I bring this up largely because the comments about Conrad reflect what Campea said back in November, 2018, when he took shots at him (I'm not clear why, albeit Conrad is a difficult person to like).

Conrad reported another rumour (again from one source) saying the Netflix IP was being worked on (his article currently contains an error, which is that Iron Fist and Daredevil were cancelled first, when it's IF, Luke Cage, and then DD). The idea of the returning IP being used has been bouncing around for months, beginning with LotLB in August (claiming they would be on FX as-is), Sutton in September (repeating LotLB), and then Conrad in October (echoing the idea without specifying FX, and saying it might be only some of the same cast).

Conrad's current rumour, however, is quite different: he says Marvel is actively working on the characters (before the end of the two year moratorium) and that what's being done could be completely unrelated to the Netflix shows (the actors or the events). The latter is what I've expected all along (a clean slate, just like the other Loeb-produced projects, such that their arcs are fully controlled by Feige), but legally I'm not sure Marvel can work on the IP yet.

The latest trailer dropped and the film still looks pretty generic to me--by that I mean the fact that the characters are mutants and have powers seems to have no impact on the usual horror movie tropes. Granted, it's just a trailer, so the film could be entertaining. Given that the IP is presumably one-and-done, it's hard to summon any enthusiasm for it regardless.

We have yet another 4chan post about Shang-Chi which seems cribbed from one posted about a week ago:

• I work near Australia, where filming is about to begin for Shang-Chi, Here’s what I know:
• Shang-Chi enters a tournament led by the Mandarin. The winner of the tournament wins the 10 Rings. [This is the common refrain among rumours from October onward--prior to that the story was that Shang-Chi was part of MI6]
• Awkwafina, Sam Claflin, Kelly Marie Tran, BD Wong, Ralph Fiennes, Zhang Ziyi, Karen Fukuhara, Harry Shum Jr, and David Gyasy are cast in supporting roles. [This is similar to the post linked above, but with Fukuhara and Gyasy added; the latter appeared in a prior 4chan post]
• Sam Rockwell and Ben Kingsley have small appearances as Justin Hammer and Trevor [Slattery]
• Donnie Yen singed [signed] on for a cameo in the film. I’m hearing he’s playing The Ancestor. [The idea of that character appearing goes back to Reddit in October]
• Several obscure Marvel characters will be contestants at the tournament. [This matches the most recent 4chan post about the film, which itself matches the October casting news referenced above]

The first problem I have with this is the opening--I work near Australia? That's like saying 'I work near America' or 'I work near Africa.' The normal thing to say is 'I work in Brisbane' or 'I work in Atlanta' or whatever, to establish you are geographically sharing the same space as the filming. That aside, there's nothing here to suggest veracity, as everything just echoes prior posts.

Collider

During the lifespan of this site I've discussed Collider's Youtube efforts exactly once (back in 2018), but never as a source of news or commentary. At the time I mentioned that I thought the site was imploding, having brought in underwhelming talent (mostly from Popcorn Talk), who would bring it crashing down (Red Letter Media's 'Nerd Crew' videos are a clear parody of Collider). While the site remains, the recent cancellation of most of their iconic shows is a sign of cracks in the foundation (there's an entertaining rant from Campea about it). I should say, however, that the insipid content that includes unlikable personalities does not always mean the kiss of death (New Rockstars, who I stopped paying attention to back in 2017, is doing fairly well--for those unfamiliar, it's an Emergency Awesome-clone. The irritating Sam Bashor seems to be gone, although that change isn't enough for me to watch it).

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)