Marvel News & Notes

Empire's issue for Black Widow is out and revealed or confirmed a few things (the link is from Conrad and his added speculation is marked in italics below):

• Following the events of Civil War, Natasha is hunted by Secretary Ross.
• Red Guardian is described as the “slightly budget” Soviet version of Captain America.
• Taskmaster is described as “every woman’s nightmare come to haunt her”. It’s widely believed that it’s Mason behind the mask and he’s said to be Natasha’s love interest from the past.
• Ray Winstone is playing Dreykov who is the head of the Red Room and likely the same Dreykov that Loki mentioned in the first Avengers (2012).

One of the things Conrad (link) and Murphy have done is trumpet any revelation about the film as validating the October 4chan leak about it. What's puzzling about this is the above actually debunks a couple of things from that leak:

• It posited that Winstone was playing Ivan Petrovich, not Dreykov (none of the purported leaks got this right--although all of them guessed he was playing her surrogate father)
• It said that Melina Vostokoff was the head of the Red Room, but this has Dreykov running it (possibly he did in the past and now she does, but that's not clear)

None of the leaks suggested Taskmaster is specifically a woman's nightmare--he's described as a villain and Nat's former love interest. This kind of description, if it means he's abusive, would make me believe he'll die in the end (with his role, perhaps, picked up by his daughter). Conversely, if the character survives I think Empire is overstating his villainy (as in, if Empire is merely referencing that an ex turned out to be a bad guy).

Conrad is floating a rumour that Atlantis (ergo Namor) will be teased in The Eternals, which isn't much of a stretch since its sinking is related to the Deviants (and, thus, the Eternals--aside: there's an opportunity to include an easter egg for Kull the Conquerer since Marvel has the comicbook rights back, but Cabinet Entertainment still owns the film rights, making this unlikely). Conrad did not include the source of the rumour, something he has a spotty record of doing, so where did this come from? It's from a Tweet that was mirrored on Reddit in January, where a young actor talked about 'playing the role of a kid whose father is killed by sea monsters.' Given how vague this is, it's no surprise Conrad sat on it for so long.

A thought about the IP: why are we getting this film? There are a lot of answers to this, but I want to throw in some food for thought before I give my answer. The Eternals was an ABC project (helmed by John Ridley) for years--that means it was with Marvel Entertainment and Jeph Loeb and, more importantly, Feige didn't want it. The MCU took it away from Loeb only in 2018 (the scoop that made Conrad's career), but why?

I think this was originally Inhumans--that when that film was pulled from its Phase Three slot in April, 2016, Feige still wanted to do it (the IP had been in development at the MCU since at least 2011). For whatever reason, between then and November the project was shifted to ABC (probably to take advantage of the deal with IMAX) and the show (in 2017) was a disaster. Being poorly received not only meant no future seasons, but that the brand would have to be rebuilt to launch a film franchise (many of the theories around the Ms. Marvel show is that Kamala Khan is providing a backdoor reboot to the Inhumans). Why I think the Inhumans were important in Phase Three is that, before the Fox sale, they were a window on the MCU's past and a kind of discount Mutants, in that they have innate powers for which they could face discrimination--they even have opposed factions of leadership in Black Bolt and Maximus (echoing Charles Xavier and Magneto). While the latter element is now superfluous, I think the original Inhumans MCU film would have dealt with the past performing a similar function that we'll see in The Eternals (setting up whatever is being set up). This is just a theory--I haven't seen it anywhere and there may be holes in it, but it's food for thought.

We have a Black Widow rumour from 4chan:

• Throughout the movie, there are flashbacks of Nat’s childhood in the Red Room and the Budapest incident.
• Nat was sent by the Russian government to assassinate Draco, who was negotiating with their enemies, via car bomb. [I have no idea who 'Draco' is.]
• Nat tried to abort when she found out Draco’s daughter was with him, but the Russians betrayed her and let the bomb explode.
• Draco was believed to have died, but actually survived.
• Hawkeye was there spying on Draco and received the order kill Nat, but recognized she was genuinely guilt for the girl’s death.
• The Russians went after Nat for cleanup, but Nat and Hawkeye fought them off, and he brought her to the U.S. to be recruited into SHIELD and make up for her mistakes.
• First after-credits scene is Ross’ men retrieving Alexei’s blood from the wreckage of the Red Room, which Ross orders them not to report. They also find Mason badly wounded but alive. Ross orders them to bring him Mason as he might be useful.
• Second after-credits scene is Yelena visiting a makeshift grave for Nat in Hawkeye’s farm. She says she has no family and no purpose left, Hawkeye says Nat wanted her to have both, and gives her Nat’s old stingers.
• Jeremy Renner is in it more than people expect, but he's the only one. No Chris Evans, no Samuel L. Jackson, and just archive footage of Robert Downey Jr.

The breakdown is plausible, although it's not radically different from other things we've heard. It's a little depressing that virtually every leak includes David Harbour's death (Red Guardian). The character in the comics is also short-lived, but it seems like a waste of an actor. However, for Nat to make her sacrifice in Endgame, she has to think she has no family left, which seems to have sealed his fate.

TI's Braxter has a scoop that was echoed at the same time by Daniel (almost certainly derived from the same information): two Sony Marvel IP are in the early stages of development: Solo and Man-Wolf (the latter was scooped by LotLB last June). The former looks like Cable and was clearly influenced by the Jason Bourne films as he's named James Bourne. On the other hand, Man-Wolf is an older character, J. Jonah Jameson's son who, through a bizarre event, becomes a werewolf. Daniel said there was a third, unknown property also being put into development, but as I said last time Sony develops a lot of projects that go nowhere. Will any of this see the light of day? I doubt it. This story received an update from TI's Richard Nebens who speculates that Solo will play the role of Nick Fury for Sony's Marvel films (which is a funny choice as Fury has never had his own film).

Murphy put out an odd Tweet:

I know a lot of you who are patrons may not have seen the post so heads up: for the time being, I've unpublished my Patreon. I'm not foreseeing being able to pass any info along to anyone in the near future so I'm not taking your money. Should things pick back up, I'll restart.

This is coming off Murphy saying there were no scoops while production is shut down about a week earlier, which isn't exactly true--the wheels of the industry keep on rolling even when filming stops. This suggests that all of Murphy's information is related to the mechanics of production--casting calls, set photos, etc--as opposed to inside sources. If that's the case it's more than a little self-serving for him to say there can be no news from anyone for awhile (unless the intent is to say that none of the scoopers have inside connections--a possibility outside Roger Wardell).

The next day something just as unique came from Conrad:

Unless you’re writing for a big site like Comicbook.com or IGN [Conrad used to work for IGN], a site like this isn’t a full time paying job. It’s a hobby. People who run sites like this usually have to have day jobs to pay the rent and bills. ...the Governor of California [Gavin Newsom] issued a state-wide stay at home order, which shuts down any non-essential businesses. That doesn’t mean this site is shutting down because of that, but it does potentially have grim repercussions for this site. While some people who are put out of work do still get paid, a lot of others don’t. Unfortunately my wife and I fall into that category of being self-employed with businesses forced to close we have no income to pay our bills or our house. Meaning not only are we not able to make an income to eat, we stand the chance of losing our home. And even before that happens, the web hosting for this site would have to go away. It won’t happen right away, we have enough food to last a week or so. But it’s pretty grim. I know this time is tough for everyone, and there are a lot of people in similar situations as us. But if you can, please consider supporting the site via Patreon.

I mentioned previously that Conrad's Patreon is largely dead (he's never had more than 43 since starting it in 2018), but in response to this post his numbers have jumped. I don't know what Conrad or his wife's businesses are or how far the bill that just passed in the US will support them. While I have issues with Conrad, I wish him the best as he and the rest of us work our way through the pandemic.

An update to my X-Men expectations in the MCU article from the fall, since the screen time of Dark Phoenix is finally posted (changes in bold and by how much in brackets):

Second Iteration (2011-17; Vaughan, Singer, Singer)

Professor X 106:15 (+21:45)

Magneto 86:15 (+13:00)

Mystique 61:45 (+10:00)

Beast 53:15 (+15:00)

Jean Grey 50:00 (+35:00)

Wolverine 30:30

Quicksilver 18:00 (+3:00)

Havok 15:45

Storm 15:45 (+6:00)

Nightcrawler 13:45 (+5:45)

Banshee 8:15

Psylocke 6:00

Angel 6:00

Kitty Pryde 4:45

Iceman 3:00

Colossus 1:30

Sunspot 1:30

Dazzler 0:30 (+0:30)

Fox Totals (minimum 10 minutes)

Professor X 137:00

Magneto 124:00

Wolverine 111:45

Jean Grey 88:00

Mystique 82:00

Beast 61:00

Storm 44:30

Cyclops 44:30

Rogue 29:15

Nightcrawler 23:15

Iceman 19:45

Quicksilver 18:00

Havok 15:45

Kitty Pryde 10:30

It's amazing that through seven films Fox couldn't find time for Storm, and that in a film that's focused so much on Jean Grey that Cyclops is minimally involved (granted that the consensus from people who liked Dark Phoenix is that it made strange story choices).

The added totals reaffirm my contention then that, because of what was emphasized by the Fox films, I think the MCU will initially de-emphasize Magneto and Jean Grey/Cyclops (the latter's central drama has been ruined twice now by Simon Kinberg in less than two decades). I don't think we'll get the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby iteration of the team and instead lean into the Len Wein/Chris Claremont original, possibly with some retro insertions of newer X-characters. For more on all of that, you can check out the article linked above.

For a couple of weeks I've been meaning to get into a list via CBR that collates the most popular Marvel characters over the last 12 years (presumably 2011-19), determined by votes on that site (the list doesn't discriminate between popular in comics or otherwise, so this is a holistic poll). I've gone through this kind of thing before and I'll reference that list below with the number after the slash. Those characters leaning primarily on comicbook popularity are in green; film/TV appearances over the time period are in brackets, with a 'c' if it was a cameo or very limited screen time:
1/3. Spider-Man (2012, 2016, 2017, 2018x2, 2019)
2. Captain America (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019)
3/7. Wolverine (2011c, 2013, 2014, 2017)
4/44. Daredevil (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
5/2. Thor (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019)
6/6. Hulk (2012, 2013c, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019)
7. Doctor Doom (2015)
8/5. Iron Man (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
9. Cyclops (2016, 2018c, 2019)
10. Magneto (2011, 2014, 2016, 2019)
11/32. Thing (2015)
12/22. Hawkeye (2011c, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2019)
13/1. Deadpool (2016, 2018)
14/4. Doctor Strange (2016, 2017c, 2018, 2019c)
15/21. Nightcrawler (2016, 2018c, 2019)
16. Storm (2016, 2018c, 2019)
17. Kitty Pryde (2014)
18/27. Jean Grey (2014c, 2016, 2019)
19/18. Silver Surfer
20. She-Hulk
21/15. Punisher (2017, 2018)
22/10. Captain Marvel (2019x2)
23. Emma Frost (2011)
24. Iron Fist (2016, 2017, 2018)
25/46. Rogue
26/40. Beast (2011, 2014, 2016, 2018c, 2019)
27/9. Black Panther (2016, 2018x2, 2019c)
28/12. Scarlet Witch (2014c, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019c)
29/20. Gambit
30/30. Winter Soldier (2011, 2014, 2015c, 2016, 2018cx2, 2019c)
31/45. Moon Knight
32. Thanos (2012c, 2014c, 2015c, 2018, 2019)
33/17. Black Widow (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017c, 2018c, 2019)
34. Mister Fantastic (2015)
35. Multiple Man
36. Namor
37/37. Nova
38/49. Luke Cage (2015, 2016, 2017x2)
39. Venom (2018)
40/19. Vision (2015, 2016, 2018)
41. Loki (2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018c, 2019c)
42. Invisible Woman (2015)
43/25. Colossus (2014c, 2016, 2018)
44/43. Iceman (2014c)
45/47. Psylocke/Captain Britain (Betsy Braddock) (2016c)
46/39. Nick Fury (2011cx2, 2012, 2014, 2015c, 2018c, 2019x2)
47. Spider-Woman
48. Ant-Man (Hank Pym) (2015, 2018, 2019c)
49/35. Human Torch (2015)
50. Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan)
/8. Groot (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019c)
/11. Rocket (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019)
/13. Star-Lord (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019c)
/14. Ant-Man (Scott Lang) (2015, 2018, 2019)
/16. Ghost Rider (2012, 2016)
/23. Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers)
/24. Cable (2018)
/26. Professor X (2011, 2014, 2016, 2018c, 2019)
/28. Drax (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019c)
/29. Captain Marvel (Mar'Vell)
/31. Spider-Man (Miles Morales) (2018)
/33. Odin (2011, 2013, 2017)
/34. Gamora (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019)
/36. Blade
/38. War Machine (2013, 2015c, 2016, 2018c, 2019)
/41. Quicksilver (2014x2(c), 2015, 2016, 2018c, 2019c)
/42. X-23 (2016)
/48. Valkyrie (2017, 2019c) - the listing is for the comic accurate version
/50. Wasp (2015, 2018, 2019c)

You have to take these lists with a grain of salt, but what they do is open a small window into who is registering with the fanbase. The unsurprising thing is that, beyond those characters who have appeared in successful films/shows, the most popular are part of the Fantastic Four or X-Men IP. The only exceptions are She-Hulk (coming to Disney+), Moon Knight (coming to Disney+), Namor (heavily rumoured), Nova (heavily rumoured), Spider-Woman (heavily rumoured), and Kamala Khan's Ms. Marvel (Coming to Disney+). How much do the rumours impact votes is hard to say, but certainly before the Fox purchase went through Feige was doubling down on anything in the vault that remained that people cared about.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Marvel News & Notes

It's no surprise that during the current pandemic the film's release has been delayed. How Disney will adjust is not yet known--if they want to wait for worldwide that delay may be considerable, however, if they decide to go on a case-by-case basis it won't be far off the original date for some places. Given the long gap between it and The Eternals I don't think even a substantial delay will really matter.

Murphy speculates Richard E. Grant will play the Immortus version of Kang in Loki and I can't help but be reminded of his Limbo hint back in October (possibly alluding to just the LLC for Loki, but that hint also brought me to this version of Kang). Daniel said in February that Kang was coming (which echoed Sutton about a week before and Reddit a month before that--link above). Could that be Grant's role? It's plausible.

Daniel claims "MODOK is on the new list of characters to use in an upcoming Marvel project that will shoot in the coming year." Conrad wonders if he'll appear in Ant-Man 3, because Peyton Reed is a fan of the character. AIM, the organization MODOK controls, has been shown in the Black Widow trailer, which is a direct hint. If true this also means the animated MODOK is (as expected) completely irrelevant in relation to the MCU.

Daniel also says Squadron Supreme is in development. Back in February he said some of the members would appear in Loki, which echoed what Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston speculation (same link). Daniel doesn't say whether it would be a film or a Disney+ show (the latter seems more probable). If this is true it's surprising how much non-FOX IP is being developed, given that (particularly for mutants) there's so much fodder that would suit the Disney+ model (if we can do Squadron Supreme then give me Alpha Flight!). Naturally, it may all be waiting for Phase Five.

Murphy talked about Spider-Woman on his podcast:

The last that I heard, they were at least having conversations with Sony about trying to make it a co-opt. I know that Feige is at least interested in making a Jessica Drew movie with Sony [my emphasis].

Both Daniel and TI have said Sony is (independently) developing a Jessica Drew Spider-Woman film, so what's going on? GWW (same link) suggests that the news isn't that clear cut and what they saw the project is likely the Madame Web film (which is something Sony has already announced). GWW's conclusion makes sense to me, but Murphy himself (same link) seemed to buy into the idea--if so, what is his recent comment about? Either Murphy thinks the Sony announcement is in conjunction with Feige (so believes the scoops with an added element), doesn't believe the scoops and that something may be brewing behind the scenes, or he believes Sony is currently pushing a project that Feige will try to get in on via a new deal. Personally, a Sony-driven Jessica Drew project even with Feige is of limited interest. I don't mind Peter Parker's limited interactions with the MCU, but Jessica Drew is much more integrated into the wider Marvel universe (her connection with Spider-Man is relatively weak), so by locking her into Sony's little corner I think a lot of potential would be lost. Assuming, that is, that the deal Feige strikes would be the same for her (which it may not be, given that Marvel actually owns part of the IP).

LotLB repeated something they've been saying since the summer: that Charlie Cox's Daredevil will return (in a Hulu TV-series). This became pertinent, in concept at least, because independently Kevin Smith discussed Cox's return (revealing afterward the news blew-up that he got it from MCU Direct, who in turn almost certainly got it from Conrad--the ultimate progenitor of the idea). Tangentially, one thing I didn't mention back then (when dismissing it because of the rights situation--ie, Marvel only has access in November and Spider-Man 3 films July-October) is a potential way around the rights situation: if Cox still has an MCU appearance on his contract. We know he did when he initially signed and, if that's still in effect, that might allow him to appear before the Netflix window closes. Of course, by appearing he'd validate the Netflix material as canon and I don't think Feige will do that (his appearance would also exclude doing any stories about the character when he's younger--Cox turns 38 this year). Ultimately, Smith had no inside information when talking about it, so we're in the exact same situation we were when Conrad's old rumour came out in the summer.

LotLB also said that Glyph will appear in Moon Knight, which is an adjustment to what he said in January (that she'd appear in Helstrom). The idea of that character appearing isn't their scoop, as Bleeding Cool indicated it last April (in a Hulu context), which I mentioned via the link. Although they haven't stated it explicitly, it seems like their ideas for what Jeph Loeb was doing on Hulu are being shifted over to Disney+ IP like Moon Knight with the same intent (we don't know that Feige is taking that approach, just that LotLB thinks he is).

A Twitter account purporting to be Roger Wardell has popped up. The known, verified account hasn't Tweeted since June and unlike this one is following no one. Accounts pretending to be Wardell are not new and a sleuth on Reddit has already provided evidence this one is fake, but to keep tabs on rumours here's the content:

• The Changing People [a term introduced in Neil Gaiman's run], called the Deviants by the Eternals, will have a crucial role to play in more than just one movie. Altered backstory and appereance [appearance] of the race will surprise many. Their descendants are heading into Phase 4 soon enough.
• David Morrissey [56] and Robert Odenkirk [58] being eyed for the role of Norman Osborn. However, his Green Goblin alter-ego will not be happening anytime soon.
• General Ross believes he can control everything from the backseat. His pride and ambitions backFIRE badly as a new Leader shows up. Both Weapon Plus program and Extremis virus bring the long-awaited arrival of a Red Hulk.
• A version of Thor Corps will make its way into upcoming Thor 4. Notable members of the team included Beta Ray Bill, Dargo Ktor, Thunderstrike, Simon Walterson/Throg, Groot, Gamora, Sif, Angela and Storm. Roger Norvell character to appear in New Asgard.

The first and third rumours seem at least plausible to me (I'm iffy on the Leader, but saying it's a new actor is on-target). I've mentioned frequently that the Eternals IP is not popular and the Deviants that come from it are (in comic terms) basically nobodies. I bring this up because, thus far, Marvel has not promoted a little-known part of an IP to any significance, which (on its surface) makes the idea dubious. The second bullet point fits the general framing of Osborn rumours, but both actors strike me as too old. The account doesn't suggest Osborn as a new major villain for the MCU, which makes sense given the contractual situation with Sony (Mikey Sutton was asked about this and said it's not true). The fourth point is the most problematic to me--it's incredibly busy with characters (all from Hickman's Secret Wars) and includes Storm who, unless she's introduced in Black Panther 2 beforehand, is not how you introduce an iconic X-Men.

There have been a flood of rumours from 4chan and Reddit whose premise is: 'I know a guy.' Most of these are ridiculous (although on rare occasions the poster is able to prove themselves to mods), but it's not that different from general rumours. To keep tabs on the trends I'll continue to include the ones that get some buzz (as I was finishing editing this Murphy Tweeted this out: "If you ever wondered if 'scoopers' had legit access or not, feel free to pay attention (starting 2 weeks ago) to how it goes now. I'm not getting anything because there is nothing to get. It's all shut down. Places still churning out multiple scoops per day though..." Don't take that as an absolute--there's news folks have sat on and the people at home aren't idle or lost the ability to communicate, but it adds some grains of salt to what we hear).

4chan on Phase Four:

• Black Widow is getting pushed back due to Coronavirus. End Credits scene includes Jeremy Renner [Hawkeye]
• Ajak and Sprite die in Eternals. The Phastos kiss scene has been discussed being cut but no final decisions. [A scene explicitly showing Valkyrie's sexuality was cut from Ragnarok]
• Shang-Chi will introduce Fin Fang Foom. Jospeh Fiennes, Sam Claflin, and Zhang Ziyi are cast as Reston, Jack Tarr, and Leiko Wu. Michelle Yeoh plays an evil scientist named Zhang [The casting ideas are similar to a 4chan post in January].
• Cillian Murphy is in negotiations to play Nightmare in Multiverse of Madness. Emma Watson is being looked at for Clea, with Malachi Kirby in negotiations for Voodoo. Isabela Merced is cast as America Chavez. Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell have cameos.
• Spider Man 3 will be titled Home Run. Scorpion and Kraven are the main villains. Joe Keery and Jane Lynch are being looked at for roles. Henry Cavill or Jason Mamoa wanted for Kraven, but have to sign a non compete clause if interested. [This is ridiculous for latter as he's going to be filming a sequel to Aquaman]
• Christian Bale is playing Dario Agger in Love and Thunder. Groot and Rocket have supporting roles. Jodie Comer and Ryan Gosling are in final negotiations for roles.
• Ant Man 3 will be about Cassie leaving her family to be an Avenger, with Scott and Hope trying to stop her. MODOK is the villain.
• Micheal B Jordan is back in Black Panther 2. A-List actor wanted for the villain.
• Captain Marvel 2 will introduce Nova. Abigail Brand will appear.
• Blade is looking to cast many Oscar Nominees as the cast.

This is a mishmash of rumours with fan casting. The idea of killing Sprite alone destroys the credibility, as family friendly Marvel is not killing off a child character in her first appearance (if at all).

4chan weighs in on Thor 4:

• Christian Bale is playing the main villain, Gorr. In this version, Gorr is an alien whose race was slaughtered by Hela. He blames the Asgardians and, after years of searching, retrieved the Necrosword to wipe them out.
• Thor is having intergalactic adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy when Gorr attacks and wounds him, then announces that he will kill the remaining Asgardians on Earth. Thor goes there to protect them with Rocket and Groot.
• Thor can’t find Gorr, so he’s forced to ask Jane Foster for help. Gorr’s sword is powered by dark energy, and Jane might be able to trace it. Jane is now working for S.W.O.R.D., and director Abigail Brand is not happy when Thor shows up needing help.
• Thor, Jane and Brand go New Asgard, where they reunite with Valkyrie and time-displaced Loki, who ends up a prisoner there after whatever happens on his spinoff series. Along with Loki is a new time-displaced Mjolnir that doesn’t answer to Thor because it’s under a “different spell”.
• Gorr tricked Thor into leading him to New Asgard and destroys it with his army of “shadow berserkers”. During the chaos, Jane wields Mjolnir and fends off Gorr for the time being.
• Brand places the Asgardians under S.W.O.R.D.’s protection at an outpost near a small town in Oklahoma. Thor trains Jane to control Mjolnir and they reconnect. Valkyrie and Brand also develop a bond.
• Loki escapes and join forces with Gorr to use Jane’s research on dark energy and harness it through the Necrosword to defeat Thor. Dark energy has time-altering properties that Loki wants.
• All leads to major battle between Thor and Jane against Gorr across time and space, while Valkyrie and Brand lead the Asgardians and S.W.O.R.D. in battle against the Shadow Berserkers to defend humanity.
• During the battle, Rocket and Groot must deal with a dark energy singularity that Gorr creates before it consumes the planet, and Loki pursues his own agenda.
• Gorr will be mocap, but his pre-Necrosword form is going to be human-looking. The dark energy mutates him, and he becomes more monstrous as he absorbs more of it.
• Brand is the other major role left to cast, Marvel Studios is looking at actresses like Jodie Comer and Vanessa Kirby for the role since the character is supposed to appear in several movies like Nick Fury.
• Rocket and Groot are supporting characters, the rest of the Guardians (Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis and Nebula) are cameos. There’s some talks about having them join the final battle, but nothing final. Gamora won’t show up because her story is reserved for Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
• Same comedic tone as Thor: Ragnarok. The idea is to leave the door open for Hemsworth and Portman to return for more, but also wrap up their character arcs in case they decide to stop after this.
• Gorr is going to kill either Korg or Miek during the attack on New Asgard. Waititi still hasn't decided on who (Korg would be more impactful, but he likes playing the character).

One of my issues with this idea is the Asgardians being under threat of annihilation again. This was the plot of Ragnarok and Thanos cut down the population even more--there's only so many ways to skin a cat and I'd like to think Taika isn't that repetitive. At least the plot is much more coherent than the post that follows.

More 4chan on Thor 4:

• Yes, Christian Bale is playing Dario Agger. He is only signed for this film.
• Thor goes with Rocket and Groot on a journey. The journey backfires and they land on Earth. Thor reunites with Jane Foster, who now works at Roxxon after everything in her life fell apart. Life in New Asgard is going well until Agger threatens Valkyrie.
• Jane gets a replica of Mjolnir built by Etiri.
• Thor forms a new Revengers team which consists of himself, Jane, Beta Ray Bill, Korg, Meik, Rocket, Groot, Valkyrie, Angela and Kid Loki.
• Angela (Jodie Comer) is an Asgardian refuge who shows romantic feelings for Valkyrie.
• Ryan Gosling is playing Beta Ray Bill, who was exiled on Sakaar by the Grandmaster.
• Kid Loki is being played by Finn Wolfhard. The reasoning on why Kid Loki is around will be explained in the Loki TV series, which Wolfhard signed on to be in the final episode of.
• Quill, Drax, Mantis, and Nebula have cameos at the beginning and end of the film. Gamora isn't mentioned at all.

This is a bunch of ideas that lacks an essential: motive. Why is Minotaur (Agger) threatening New Asgard? What journey was Thor on? Why or how does Jane earn Mjolnir? It looks like a bunch of rumours cobbled together without an actual story attached.

Reddit scoop on Spider-Man 3:

• Tom Holland recently met with Sony and Marvel Studios to discuss the third Spider-Man film. I was able to find out some key information about the movie from my sources. A lot of this stuff has been speculated amongst fans, and correlates to some rumors that I heard wayyy back. Obviously I have no proof, so you guys don't have to believe this. But I'm pretty confident what I heard was accurate.
• First thing's first: the film has eight villains. Yes, eight. Kraven is the main villain. He hunts Spider-Man for the prize just like in the comics [I'm not clear if he means as his personal goal of hunting the most dangerous things, as a mercenary mark, or what]. Yes, Sony is still planning a Kraven solo film [a film whose development hasn't moved forward since 2018]. Side antagonists include Scorpion, Vulture, Shocker, Tinkerer, Mysterio, Prowler, and Silver Sable. It sounds overwhelming but it works out pretty well ["It just works," Todd Howard]. Kraven is independent and doing his own thing. Scorpion forms the Sinister Six so everyone is working as a team (he also assembles an army of extra goons that also want revenge against Spider-Man). Silver Sable is a bounty hunter who allies with Peter after finding out he is innocent, but that comes later. Silver Sable will go on to star in her own television series with Black Cat on Crackle [the streaming service is partially owned by Sony; for the Amy Pascal-lead Silver & Black projects, see below]
• The film is a cat and mouse extravaganza set a week after Far From Home. Peter is a man on the run with a whole city out for his blood. His abilities, alliances, and skills are put to the ultimate test.
• The Avengers co-star is War Machine, with Don Cheadle reprising his role. Rhodey feels obligated to help Peter because of how much Tony cared for him. Returning characters include MJ [Michelle], Aunt May, Peter's peers, and JJJ [J. Jonah Jameson].
• Sony will be casting Jessica Drew soon. I'm guessing she appears in some sort of mid credits stinger, but eh.
• Filming starts shortly before SDCC in July, and will end shortly after Thanksgiving [the same timeframe as Far From Home].
• There was discussions of a contract extention [extension between Sony-Marvel]. Feige wants to play ball with Sony and keep Spidey (and eventually Spider-Woman) in the MCU. A second trilogy is definitely on the table. Feige wants to have a longform storytelling arc with Peter and follow his adventures into college and beyond. Holland is also willing to do it, but it will all depend on what Sony decides.

Normally I'd dismiss this, but it has some odd specifics (why a week after Far From Home?). It's almost certainly speculation, but despite how overloaded it is, it's not as immediately implausible as the posts above.

Reddit on Midnight Sons:

• Feige is interested in Midnight Sons. A movie or series, I don't know. [This team-up idea goes all the way back to Deadline in April as the plan for Hulu, before Marvel Entertainment lost its control of the TV-side and has a long, long history in the rumour mill, coming from many scoopers (LotLB, Sutton, Daniel, and even Murphy)]
• He intends to have Wandavision and Doctor Strange 2 open the door to the paranormal side of the MCU. Mephisto will be introduced in Wandavision but have a bigger role in DS2. Blade and Moon Knight will start building up toward Midnight Sons. He will introduce Danny Ketch's Ghost Rider along the way. We'll hear about Ghost Rider either this year or next year. [As above the return of Ghost Rider goes back to Loeb's original Hulu plans, although which version has seesawed within the rumour-mill; Ketch is less commonly brought up, with the only reference I can find being from 4chan in January where it was said he has a cameo in Doctor Strange 2]

This is quite similar to a Reddit post (link above), with the only difference being Ketch himself.

A Redditor on Starjammers:

• I learned this info from my source who works in hollywood. I cant mention where my source works but my source knows this kinda info. According to my source a project based on marvel comics team Starjammers is in early stages of development. 
• It is unclear if its gonna be a movie or a d+ show.
• The project will be where pirates of caribbean (in space) meets cowboy bebop and marvel studios are searching for various concepts and ideas to make this project look unique.
• But according to my source this will be a part of cosmic story set in the MCU which will be started by Eternals and will be continued by CM2 and GOTG vol3 and several cosmic based projects the studio is developing.

I think this is nonsense, but could generate Starjammers rumours.

The Spidey post above is an excuse to briefly update the status of various Sony projects (excluding those already filmed or in production, ie, Morbius and Venom 2); I've included the Sony exec responsible in brackets, keeping in mind only Palak Patel's projects have gone forward thus far (they are listed in chronological order by announcement--those in red have had no news in a long time, those in green seem to still be moving forward):

• The Sinister Six (Arad) - cancelled in 2015, but Pascal said in 2018 the project was back on when director Drew Goddard was available (keep in mind Pascal says a lot of things); Goddard signed a four-picture deal with Fox last year after Pascal's comments, which is now in Marvel's hands, so Sony is at Feige's mercy to produce his film (there's been no news since Pascal's comment)
• Silver & Black (Pascal) - cancelled in 2018 (due, apparently, to Feige objecting to the use of Norman Osborn in the film); Pascal indicated last year that the film was back on, but beyond her words there have been no updates
• Kraven the Hunter (Arad) - Richard Wenk was hired to write a screenplay in 2018, but the writer hasn't talked about the project since the fall of that year; the film has no director and Spider-Man 3 director Jon Watts wants to use the character, so it seems more or less dead
• Nightwatch (Arad) - in 2018 Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker was writing the script, but there haven't been any formal updates (I have a vague recollection of Coker saying he hadn't worked on it in quite some time, but as I can't find that comment take that with a grain of salt); no director is attached
• Silk (Pascal) - announced in 2018 when they were seeking a writer; there has been no news since and with the character slated for animation it's presumed dead
• Jackpot (Arad) - announced in 2018 when they were seeking a writer; there has been no news since
• Black Cat (Pascal) - born out of the cancelled S&B, there was no news until Pascal said the original project was back on a few months later
• Silver Sable (Pascal) - born out of the cancelled S&B, there was no news until Pascal said the original project was back on a few months later
• Madame Web (Patel) - writers were hired this September for the film; it lacks a director
• Unknown Robert Orci project (Patel) - "The property comes from a different corner of the Marvel universe that Sony has access to," which is a difficult statement to parse other than the implication is it's not as explicitly attached to Spider-Man (which is hard to imagine since he's the source of all the Sony IP); it could be Madame Web for all we know

As I've said repeatedly over the last couple of years, thus far only the projects that Patel is heading have made it to screen. My speculation is that the Arad/Pascal live action projects are just sops to their enormous egos and that Sony has no intention of funding them--other than occasionally hiring writers Sony has put no money towards the A/P projects and I see no sign of that changing. Given that, most of the slate above is meaningless.

A bit of housekeeping: I think the source for Sutton's old Valkyrie show rumour was speculation based on the Jane Foster Valkyrie comic that launched back in July.

An LotLB note: the gang held an auction recently (pretty common for YT channels that cover comic speculation) and I was interested in the books being sold which included: the classic (70s) Ms. Marvel run, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and a lot of Excalibur and Ghost Rider books. These are all failed (or at minimum, delayed) specs--the former is worthless because the MCU Carol Danvers is ignoring her original history; the next is an animated show on Hulu that's not connected to the MCU; and the third and fourth are at best a long way away. It's significant that they bought books they were specing on and that they've given up on those particular IPs (to some extent, at least).

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Marvel News & Notes

The final Black Widow trailer dropped and it's quite good (up until now the marketing has been mediocre). The trailer efficiently gave us the plot, illustrated the relationships in the film, and provided Natasha's motivation. The previous trailer/teaser had only bred confusion (the only buzz was Red Guardian's weight and wardrobe jokes). In terms of set-up, it's made clear Taskmaster is in charge of the Red Room and creating more Black Widows--that is what Nat wants to stop and to do so she needs the help of her former family. The only element we're not clear on is why she's not making a call to Cap, but I think that's a minor issue.

One thing I'm curious about: since the 'reveal' of O-T Fagbenle as Taskmaster has been an open secret for months, I wonder if the re-shoots will de-emphasize the mystery. One other Taskmaster thought related to the rumours about him both dying and showing up in a post-credit scene: as the main antagonist he has to be out of commission so that Black Widow's story can both end satisfactorily and without him remaining a threat throughout Endgame. He needn't die to achieve that (capture works and is better than a fake death), but if they want to continue using the character he can't actually die. In relation to this, Murphy wrote a long theory post where he posits:
1) Taskmaster's daughter is in the Red Room program
2) He is killed in the film
3) She takes over his mantle seeking revenge on the murderer (presumably Yelena)
This is plausible and would make sense of the 'he dies but is in the post-credit scene' via leaks.

Daniel has described the Eternals trailer on his Patreon and the description has filtered out. Here's the paraphrase:

"The trailer doesn’t have a lot of dialogues as it won’t give us what the story is about, but it does feature a lot of set shots which are split equally between time periods as fans know from set photos the film will take place millennia ago as well as the present day. Furthermore, the film’s stars will also be seen equally dressed in civilian clothing and their superhero outfits. Kit Harrington’s Dane Whitman can be seen suited up as Black Knight. In the trailer, he will be seen riding a horse. Even though Gemma Chan’s Sersi and Harrington’s Black Knight are the film’s leads, the trailer focused on Angelina Jolie’s Thena and Richard Madden’s Ikaris."

This sounds a lot like the footage shown a few months ago at Brazil's ComicCon. The approach is very interesting and exactly what I would do in Marvel's place when it comes to marketing. Neither Chan nor Harrington are proven, bankable stars, but Jolie absolutely is (or was) and her character's key relationship is with Ikaris, so those are the characters to focus on initially. I still think the mountain to climb for marketing the film is huge because it's so busy and so weird (Guardians was obscure, but the genre was not--it's like Firefly and similar shows). I still dread the love triangle we'll see in the film--romance is usually so poorly done I fear it will sidetrack the story.

Murphy continues to push for the validity of the Reddit plot leak from October; it might be accurate (even if Shang-Chi having Multiple Man's powers is bizarre), but I think he's reaching to validate it --there's a scene involving a fight on a bus trip--he wonders if this is on the way to the tournament (?!).

Daniel echoes the rumours that Fin Fang Foom will appear in the film. He also believes the tournament idea (just as ubiquitous on the rumours).

Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons (neither of whom I've heard of before) reports that a source has told him Florian Munteanu (Creed II) has a secondary villain role in the film (he is in Australia where the filming is taking place). Excluding cameos and children (below), we have 11 or 12 of 14 cast members who are Asian, meaning Feige's "98% Asian" isn't that far off.

Tessa Thompson told Entertainment Tonight that Christian Bale is part of the Thor 4 cast, which seemingly makes it official (it's been confirmed by Daniel, so the concerns I'd have over her Valkyrie show boondoggle have been put aside--only Sutton, in October, ever repeated it). There's a lot of wild speculation on Bale will play, even though the comments made by Murphy (and TI) narrow it down considerably:

• It's not a cameo because Bale is unavailable while Thor 4 is being filmed
• The role isn't 100% motion capture, but motion capture is involved
• An agent wanted to know who 'Dario' was, because that was the role Bale was playing
• He's an alien and the lead villain--as per usual, TI didn't quote the actual description which is 'an intergalactic villain' (via Daniel, which you can see below)
• We can be reasonably sure Bale won't commit to more than one film

Most fans reject the Dario Agger/Minotaur identification because he's a relatively new character (2014) and not that interesting (he's the head of Roxxon, which from set photos we know is appearing in Loki). However, as I mentioned previously, the character is involved in the Jane Foster Thor story.  On the flipside of that argument, he's not an alien, the 'Dario' name could be a placeholder, and a character like Gorr is also involved in the aforementioned story, so the jury is out. Bale notoriously rejected the idea of doing Marvel films for years and when speculating what might have changed his mind, one thing I didn't include previously were his kids (he has two, with his daughter old enough to be a fan). Much like the Harry Potter franchise years ago, for many older actors the enthusiasm of their children (or grandchildren) can play a part in wanting to participate.

It's being reported that the Guardians of the Galaxy will appear in Thor 4, which makes a lot of sense given the ending of Endgame. I'd expect a cameo, although Daniel (below) suggests more than that.

We have a description of the clip shown at the Disney's shareholder meeting:

The footage shown felt like an extended trailer, starting with Bucky paying a visit to Baron Zemo in a state of the art prison, who tried to unsuccessfully activate his Winter Soldier programming. Bucky told him that someone has recreated the Super Soldier Serum.
Another clip showed some kind of a rally where cheerleaders and a stage were decorated with red, white, and blue Captain America insignia. The announcer introduced the new Captain America and then the camera cut to someone backstage in silhouette with the shield. It was unclear if it was actually Falcon in the suit. [This is John Walker, as we've seen set photos of this scene]
A montage of action sequences included Zemo fighting in his iconic mask from the comics. It wasn’t clear from the short clip if he was fighting with Falcon and the Winter Soldier or against them.
Lastly, we saw Bucky approach Sam Wilson and discussed that they’re not really friends. More like two guys who had a mutual friend who now need each other.

It's nice to see a bit more Bucky here, although it remains to be seen how much he's actually co-staring in the show.

Murphy posted up videos from the filming of Falcon and the Winter Soldier and posits that it depicts the Grapplers, a group that includes Songbird (cf; aka Screaming Mimi), Titania (I thought I remembered hearing her name in rumours before, but realized I brought her up in my unpublished theory article--she's the most obvious inclusion for She-Hulk given her sparse rogue's gallery), Poundcakes, and Letha. One thing their inclusion might clear up is those Deathlok rumours we heard from Deadline last April--the group first appeared in a Marvel Two-in-One that featured that character, so if word got out that Marvel was researching that comic someone jumped to the wrong conclusion.

Murphy also discussed one of the plot elements revealed by set photos, which is that a G20 summit will be under threat during the series and that Walker and Bucky will be working together to defend it.

Murphy, while discussing Samson development, brought up the likelihood that Flag-Smasher would appear in the show. This has come up previously back in February via set photo of graffiti. When that came out both Conrad and Murphy referenced it to a 4chan post from the previous January (link above) which both believe is credible. When discussing this before I didn't go into the background of Flag-Smasher (who has been dead in the comics since 2006), but his name is in reference to him believing that nation states are outmoded in the pursuit of world peace and unity. In essence, he (and the group he later joins in the comics, ULTIMATUM) believe in using violence to achieve world peace. Whether he would have the same goals in the show is unknown (it feels a bit too radical for the MCU).

Discussing Film reports that Richard E. Grant will appear in the show in an unknown role (Variety clarified it will be for only one episode). Slipped into the bottom of the article was that actress Sasha Lane may also be in the cast, which I hadn't heard before (I'm not sure what role the young LGBT actor would be targeted for).

There's a rumour on Reddit that Enchantress will be Loki's biological daughter, which is possible, although I'm not sure what the point of that would be (the poster also claims that Di Martino is playing the adult version of her).

Writers have been signed for Hawkeye, as Katrina Mathewson and Tanner Bean (of Pitch and Versus) Tweeted out that they've been hired. The two writers worked with Hawkeye showrunner Jonathan Igla on Pitch.

Braxter with She-Hulk info: "The logline for the show she is described as being successful in her profession and specifically seeking cases in superheroic law. Furthermore, the description goes on to state that she occasionally throws down in superhero battles as the She-Hulk."

He adds they are looking for a "26-28 year old" actress as her best friend, which is oddly specific. Braxter speculates this is for the role of Jill Stevens (a very short-lived best friend), but I'd take that with a grain of salt.

The show is seeking a "29-35 actress" called 'Meg' who plays another lawyer. Braxter speculates she's Mallory Book--given how MCU casting calls have steered away from matching the first letter of the call to their comicbook counterpart, I'm leery of this idea. It's difficult for me to speculate who this is because I'm largely unfamiliar with the IP (it's important to remember that She-Hulk has mostly been a secondary character in other people's comics).

Braxter confirmed Hulk (Ruffalo's) appearance in the show. This has always seemed like a lock to me--very much like Clint Barton in Hawkeye--it's a way to anchor interest in the show via original Avengers. I mentioned last time that this show and Ms. Marvel would need an assist from an established MCU-character to help generate interest. I would expect, given the cost of using Hulk, that we won't see Ruffalo that much (perhaps using flashbacks to when he's Bruce Banner for a good chunk of his screen time).

Incidentally, Braxter includes this throwaway line, "Could we one day see Walters actually defend Peter Parker if Sony and Disney keep playing nice?" This is a direct reference to an old Conrad rumour from July (which claimed Matt Murdock would be Peter's lawyer, but if not Daredevil it would be She-Hulk). This was echoed by LotLB, but it hasn't had any other resonance (outside of places like Cosmic Book News and WGTC, who in late December were touting the original Conrad idea, even though Marvel can't legally use Daredevil while Spider-Man 3 will be filming).

We have what I think is fanfiction posing as a rumour from 4chan:

• Marvel's Quake is an upcoming MCU film for phase 4 among other surprises that will pop-up very soon. Please, don't ask me how I know, I'm not going to tell you but it's up to you whether you believe it or not. Here's what I know about the plot so far.
• PART I
• Agent Johnson is following a lead on a mysterious organization named Serpent Society that imposes itself on global domination with the aim of converting the entire human race into a host for a "symbiotic cybernetic exoskeleton" program and prepare humanity against future alien threats. [The appearance of Quake echoes LotLB in July and more particularly August; since then only a solitary 4chan post from November has chimed in; I haven't seen the Serpent Society mentioned by anyone, other than a 4chan F&tWS post from November that included the Rachel Leighton Diamondback]
• H.A.M.M.E.R. industries created a snake-like Iron Man suit built from stolen Chitauri and Stark technology. The Serpent Society is led by former Hammer Industries CEO Justin Hammer who is now known as the terrorist King Cobra and press an infusion of vibranium with his symbiotic cybernetic exoskeleton to ensure an indestructible global military power.
• Agent Johnson's lead leads to an underground organization in New York City.
• Anaconda, a Serpent Agent invades a Wakanda port and steals the Vibranium needed to create an army. Shuri contacts the former White Wolf, Bucky Barnes, and asks for his help since T'challa is overseas on an important business trip.
• Bucky tracks down Anaconda to New York City with the device Shuri planted on her airship before she left the Wakanda airspace. Bucky encounters Agent Johnson in the Serpent Society underground base and they defeat Anaconda who had an experimental symbiotic cybernetic exoskeleton suit.
• Daisy takes a sample of the material to some old friends from S.H.I.E.L.D. who are living in the countryside and they create a device capable of deactivating the symbiotic technology without having to fight the host. This measure is taken because the hand-to-hand combat against the symbiotic cybernetic exoskeleton is almost impossible thanks to the properties of the amorphous liquid matter of the suit.
• PART II
• Bucky follows the plan of the former S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent who seeks help from her childhood friend, Matt Murdock, the Daredevil of Hell Kitchen to track down the Serpent Society who have been using old routes that The Hand used to use.
• Bucky, Johnson, and Murdock arrive at an oil platform where they acquire plans that lead to the symbiotic liquid being released into the ocean from a freighter that's headed for the UK.
• Arriving at a port facility in England, they find Tanya Hammer, daughter of Justin Hammer connected to an experiment tube in a lab. Justin Hammer arrives and confronts them letting them know that his daughter has cancer and the symbiotic technology is the only way to keep her alive.
• Marc Riemer who is Hammer's right hand betrays him after learning that his wife Blanche Sitznski (Anaconda) is dead and takes all the vibranium liquid into himself and becomes Boomslang.
• A Hulk-sized Boomslang fights Agent Johnson who uses her vibration powers to weaken the vibranium. King Cobra is taken down by Daredevil and Bucky uses an "anti-vibranium" serum created by Agent Johnson's scientist friends to stabilize the symbiotic cybernetic exoskeleton and takedown Boomslang.
• In the end, Justin Hammer is taken back to prison, Marc and Blanche die, and Tanya Hammer is taken into special custody for treatment. Matt Murdock part-ways with the team and gives them both his business card in case one of them needs a lawyer. Agent Johnson and Bucky report back to Nick Fury. Agent Johnson gives Murdock's lawyer card to Fury and speaks highly of her friend. Fury keeps the subjection in mind and initiates project S.W.O.R.D.

This is mostly original, but I don't credit it. Feige has no interest in Marvel Entertainment's IP (Agent Carter being the exception, as he was involved with that) and Chloe Bennet's constant complaining about being excluded won't have been received well (Charlie Cox has been much smarter in trying to curry favour with the MCU, but I think there's no hope any of Jeph Loeb's material is ever incorporated).

I'd assumed that with social media and sites like Full Circle Cinema that all of Daniel's content was out on the Internet for broad consumption. This assumption was checked when going through Pierre Chanlieu's scoop list I used to contribute to and I saw a number of items that I wanted to go through (both to track various rumours as well as explore things no one seems to have discussed). The funny thing is, the meatiest content Daniel provides are cast lists that the other major scoopers have, but often they sit on them (for whatever reason) and when they do use them its paraphrased rather than the raw information. With that preamble away, let's dig into the interesting bits.

September

• Silver Surfer movie is now in active development. [It's unclear if he's stealing GWW's scoop, vice versa, or if they heard the same thing from the same source; regardless, only LotLB and Sutton keep repeating the information]
• Marvel have plans for the characters Phyla-Vell and Moondragon. [The former I've only seen come up before in KC's theory video in May, which is unlikely to have impacted Daniel; LotLB put the latter on a reserve list in August]
• Marvel have plans for The Savage Land in the MCU. [LotLB said as much back in May and I suspect they are the ultimate source of the information (only WGTC repeated it, saying it's a Phase Six movie)]

October

• Marvel are [going] to use the Ms. Marvel show to reboot the Inhumans into the MCU. Feige also want [wants] to use some of the Netflix characters and reboot others into the MCU. Iron Fist is being talked about for a reboot. [He seems to be the source of the GWW story that came out not long after; he reiterated the former idea to LotLB (same link) and the latter was repeated by Sutton a few weeks later, presumably with Daniel as the source]
• Nova is now in active development [I don't think this idea ever goes away]
• Marvel have plans for Dark Legion [This is a minor Ghost Rider character whose mother is Lilith (who came up in Discussing Film speculation in January), but I've not seen this idea repeated elsewhere]
• Marvel started test screening for actresses for Ms. Marvel and in the script they got for the audition Ms. Marvel is being interviewed by [Captain Marvel] and she's talking about watching the New Avengers on the news and how she got her powers and that she's an Inhuman. [This is the content of the leaked video that came out c.November; the actress would be reading a dummy script for casting, so I'd ignore the specifics]
• Open casting, 30s-40s for She-Hulk. While it's early I also heard they plan to have General Ross in it and maybe even bring back Liv Tyler as Betty Ross! [We can see how the age request has changed below; no one else has pushed the latter suggestion]
• They are considering casting Vin Diesel and Aaron Taylor Johnson in different roles in the MCU. [This was aggressively rejected by a Redditor afterwards; putting the former in another role would be easy, but it's hard to imagine the latter getting Gemma Chan'd into another role]
• Marvel are talking to Josh Brolin about reprising his role as Cable in the MCU [for Deadpool 3]
• I'm hearing Secret Invasion and Annihilation are the next big arcs they are aiming towards. [Rich Johnston confirmed the former in January; the latter echoes a Sutton scoop from September that's attached to Nova, which likely comes from Matt McGloin's post about the IP in July--there he posits the Fantastic Four were part of the MCU's Hank Pym era but have been frozen in time in the Quantum Realm--possibly being responsible for the release of Annihilus (and thus leading to Annihilation)]
• I hear Feige wants ti [to] bring Jon Bernthal back as Punisher to the MCU. [Fits his earlier idea about the Netflix IP, which was echoed Sutton/LotLB not long after, but the latter had been pushing the general idea since August; I have a hard time seeing the MCU using Punisher or validating the Netflix shows and Murphy said in January that nothing official was going on with them (not that anything official could go on until the rights expire); the ultimate source of the Netflix reboot idea seems to be Matt McGloin of Cosmic Book News, who put out the story in July]
• Fantastic Four movie is now in active development news should come soon not sure how soon. ['Soon' hasn't happened yet; there's nothing paralleling this, although in June Conrad and GWW claimed a film was coming in 2022, something Roger Wardell actively debunked]

November

• [Ms. Marvel casting:] (Muneeba Khan) 40s-50s, Female. Pakistani-American; (Yusuf Khan) 40s-50s, Male. Pakistani-American; (Amir Khan) 20s, Male. Pakistani-American. [Discussing Film got this cast sheet out just before Daniel did]
• They [have] started casting She-Hulk. [In response to a question in this post Daniel claimed there was a chance Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin could return, which fits his Netflix posts above, but I think that's extremely unlikely]
• They are currently casting an unnamed female character [for Moon Knight] who in the audition script talking about a magical mirror and is offering it to someone. [This is almost certainly Stained Glass Scarlet, whose appearance Sutton scooped in September, which Conrad either stole just before Daniel's post or used the same primary evidence for it]
• Repeats that Nova is in active development [Did he forget that he already said it in October?]
• [Ms. Marvel casting] [Male Lead] Pakistani male 17 - 25 years old, can have American or Pakistani accent.

December

• Sparky the dog from the Tom King Vision run is in WandaVision. [I believe this was on a LotLB long-term spec list, but I left it out because of how goofy and irrelevant it seemed]
• Daniel Radcliffe is one name in the mix for Moon Knight. [In response to a question he said so were Andrew Garfield and Shia LeBeouf; WGTC made the Radcliffe claim in September, but Radcliffe himself debunked the idea in February]
• [Ms. Marvel casting] They are casting four main leads for the series, two Pakistani, 17-25, male and female. One black woman and one adult man as the villain open casting. Kamala herself is in the final stages of casting an offer will be coming soon for one actress. Casting announcement likely in Jan. [The latter idea was echoed by Conrad in January, but as of yet we've heard nothing; the leads are presumably Kamala herself, her two love interests, and the main villain]
• Werewolf by Night [Jack Russell] and Dracula will be in the Moon Knight show [The first echoes LotLB in early summer who thought the former would have his own TV show, and then GWW in August who guessed the former would appear in the show; LotLB also had the latter first, again on Hulu, back in July]

January

• [A now dated Doctor Strange 2 description] Cast: Christine Palmer: Rachel McAdams, Script: Jade Bartlett, Director: Scott Derrickson, Seeking: [Female Villain Role] 30s-40s, Female. Open Ethnicity; [Male Villain Role] 30s-40s, Male. Black. [Three things to note here: 1) Christine Palmer returns, 2) Bartlett's script was current, 3) Mordo isn't listed--see below]
• [Dated MCU Disney+ Production:] Ms. Marvel will start shooting in April. They are casting her family, villain and two classmates. Moon Knight in August, they are casting the lead, female lead, female and male villains. She-Hulk still TBD but this year as well and they already started the casting for the lead. No other casting yet [We can see the adjustments to this schedule below]
• They are casting Teddy [Hulkling] for an upcoming Untitled Marvel project. 15-20. Not sure which project but my guess would be WandaVision, Ant-Man 3, or an upcoming untitled D+ show. [GWW either lifted this from Daniel or simply made the same connections with the same source]
• As my friend Joe Dekelmeier [That Hashtag Show] reported America Chavez will make her MCU debut in Doctor Strange 2. With a Disney+ show to follow. Another set up for Young Avengers! [Vicky Depledge is the name on GWW's article from August, but the news about a show to follow hasn't been repeated; TI echoed the former news in January]
• [A] new and more updated grid that one of them is indeed Brother Voodoo. Working on getting the other one confirmed. [Later post] Clea is the female character and an offer went to A-List actresses for the role. [The appearance of both these characters was revealed by Wardell way back in December of 2018]
• Awhile ago I got a grid and posted about it here for a female trans character they are casting for an upcoming Marvel project. Now we [got] a new Loki grid [so that] I know the character was for Loki. But it does say on the grid the character could show up in the movies as well. [TI repeated this information subsequently from the same grid]

February

• A production grid is saying [Guardians 3] will start filming on Jan 2022 until May 2022. UPDATE: Sorry my bad the date on the grid seems to be a placeholder. Still looks like it'll shoot sometime in 2022 for a 2023 release. [I've included this simply because we see a plethora of supposed dates for the film and to demonstrate sometimes official grids are placeholders]
• A new production grid says Ms. Marvel will now start filming on June this year. [see below]
• On a recent casting grid for Ms. Marvel it is said they'll need the actress to be available from June 2020 till July 2022. Since the show will only shoot from June till September this should mean multiple cameos/roles for Kamala in other Marvel projects they'll need the actress for. Captain Marvel 2 is clearly one of those. As for the rest could be anything. Young Avengers? She-Hulk? Something else? [This filming info was also echoed by TI]
• Christian Bale to play an "Alien Villain" via a new grid. [Again, echoed by TI]
• I hear the reports are true and there really is a kind of Secret Invasion related show in development for Disney+ that will lead straight into Captain Marvel 2 which I told you awhile ago would likely be Secret Invasion. I hear the show would likely focus on SWORD and the Invasion from the side of the Skrulls and Kree and Captain Marvel 2 from the side of the heroes. [See above; no one has echoed the story details as yet]
• [MCU Production Slate] Ms. Marvel; August 2020; She-Hulk; August 2020; Moon Knight; TBD Fall 2020-Early 2021; Hawkeye; TBD Summer-Fall 2020; Thor: Love and Thunder; August 2020; Ant-Man 3; TBD Early 2021; Black Panther 2; March 2021 [Differences from Murphy's Disney+ slate posted a couple of weeks later: Hawkeye in September; She-Hulk in November; Moon Knight in November]
• [She-Hulk] New casting breakdown confirm they are open to any ethnicity for the role, 25-34. Comedy experience a plus. Confirms Bruce/Hulk is in it [see above] and that She-Hulk will join the Avengers. [We can see the shift in age down from 30-40 to someone younger]
• Ross as Red Hulk is set to appear in the MCU in an upcoming project. [GWW say She-Hulk, something LotLB scooped back in August]
• [Loki cast] TI posted the same casting call sheet, so the notable thing is that in the comments Daniel confirmed the male lead role was Owen Wilson's
• [Shang-Chi cast] (Mom) Rosalind Chao Role description under wraps. [Her casting was scooped by TI in January]; (Clive Reston) Supporting Male 40-50 Caucasian An old friend of Shang-Chi's and member of MI-6. Formerly [Shang-Chi's] partner. (Leiko Wu) Supporting Female Late 20s-30s. An elite MI-6 agent. She is Shang-Chi's ex and Clive Reston's wife. She had strong feelings for Shang-Chi but after his departure from the world she chose Clive. (Black Jack Tarr) Supporting Male Caucasian. 30s-40s. An MI-6 Agent who works with Clive. He's an elite martial artist who enjoys the thrill of battle. (Kwun) Supporting Male 50-79 Chinese A leader of his village. Speaks Mandarin fluently. Martial arts ability a plus. [Seems to be a film invention] (Younger Brother) Supporting Male (16) Asian Chinese-American; as of now he ONLY speaks English in the pages they've seen, but they're confirming if he'll need to speak Mandarin as well. (Kid Wiz [Wiz Kid]) Supporting Male Asian 11 years old, male, Chinese. Computer whiz/hacker with big glasses. Speaks English. Ability to speak Mandarin a plus. [This information was put out on social media by Daniel, but he didn't mention the character was being changed from Japanese to Chinese] (Amy) Supporting Female Asian 4-5 years old, female, Chinese. Ability to speak Mandarin a plus. (Eric) Supporting Male Asian 7-8 years old, male, Chinese. Speaks Mandarin fluently with accent of native speaker. Martial arts ability a plus. (Nathan) Supporting Male Asian 10 years old, male, Chinese. Accomplished martial artist. Speaks Mandarin. (Steel Claw [aka Tiger Claw]) Supporting Male 20s-40s, male, imposing physical presence (over 6'1). Athletic/fight experience required, martial arts experience preferred. (Yaeko) Supporting Female 20s-early 30s, female, open to any ethnicity. Fun, and has a sense of humour. Simu's partner. Standard US accent required. [She seems to be a film invention and I don't know if 'partner' indicates love interest, MI-6 agent partner, or current associate] (Henry) Supporting Male, Open Ethnicity, 20s - 40s. An avid member of the neighborhood watch club. Enjoys bowling, spending time and gossiping with his friends. (Ming) Supporting Female This role works heavily throughout the shoot. Character details will be sent directly to actor. ([Moving Shadow] Shadow) Cameo Male 20s-50s, male. Athletic/fight experience required, martial arts experience preferred. (Ghost Maker) Cameo Male 20s-50s, male. Athletic/fight experience required, martial arts experience preferred (Razor-Fist) Cameo Male 20s-50s, male. Athletic/fight experience required, martial arts experience preferred. (Comedic Cameo) Cameo Unknown (20 - 40) can be either male or female, they are only looking East Asian for the moment. (Kane) Cameo Male (25 - 30) one scene; comedic, 20's male (any ethnicity) who's on a bus with the main characters as they get into their first large scale fight - and he livestreams and narrates the whole event. [Seems to be a film invention] [This long list clarifies that the metric ton of characters appearing in the film are largely cameos for the fight sequences; none of the descriptions of the fighters designate ethnicity, but it may simply not be included in this list; I have no idea why a bunch of kids are also included--flashbacks? We also have the love triangle more clearly stated]
• [Doctor Strange 2 casting] (New Female Role) Lead Female (30 - 45); contemporary to Benedict. Was offered to an A-List actress [dating back to Wardell, link above, this was for an Asian actress, but the sheets we've seen have listed the role as 'open'--my guess is that decision was made before Shang-Chi was pushed up the slate]; Mordo; [Black/African-American Male Role] Supporting Male (25 - 45) Black Should “feel like a star”. Not necessarily a physical part, but a great actor. [Young Latina] Supporting Female (16) Hispanic / Latino definitely needs to feel like a teenager and not an adult; maybe they could cast 18 but not older. [Compared to the previous cast list we've lost Christine, added Mordo and the Latina role that's assumed to be America Chavez--it's fair to say the latter two might have already been part of the cast and simply didn't appear on the grid above (or they had smaller roles initially)]
• SOME of the Squadron Supreme are indeed planned for Loki. I don't know who but not the whole team I hear [This seems to be in response to Rich Johnston's article]

March

• [Thor 4 casting:] Male Lead 1 (35 - 50) Villain role. Alien and other-wordly (Christian Bale); Male Lead 2 (35-45); Female Role (26-44) Any ethnicity; Villain Lead Unknown [This doesn't tell us very much]
• Heard [the] Owen Wilson character in Loki is Justice Peace agent of [the] TVA [This was my guess a month earlier]
• [Thor 4] I hear that not only will the Guardians of the Galaxy be a part of the film but Rocket will actually have a good supporting role. [The latter would fit the relationship the two developed in Infinity War]

This was a massive amount of content to go through, but I think it served a useful purpose. At minimum nearly all of these items made their way out into the world (and some clearly game to him from others), but there are exceptions and in some cases less detail was included externally.

Sony has tapped Amazing Spider-Man 2 writer Roberto Orci to write an unknown Sony Marvel film. This is only notable because Palak Patel is behind the project and his films are the only ones that have been made thus far--my guess is that this is for the Madame Web film announced in September.

Patreon Update for the big scoopers:
Daniel 260 (+34)
Murphy 202  (+81)
Conrad 39 (-1)

Conrad's Patreon is essentially dead (much like his YT channel, which hasn't experienced growth since Endgame--his videos have less viewership than LotLB despite a higher sub count). Daniel's growth is solid, while Murphy's is transcendent.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)