Marvel News & Notes

Murphy reports that two sources have told him John Byrne's West Coast Avengers run (specifically the 'Vision Quest' storyline) has influenced WandaVision. "It looks like one of the subplots centers on Wanda going Humpty Dumpty and trying to reassemble Vision after his parts have been scattered around the world." This is a fascinating revelation because, if true, it invalidates (in whole or in part) all the plot leaks we've seen thus far--none have even suggested this as a story angle. To me it also suggests what Darcy et al will be doing (at least in part)--gathering the parts.

The Illuminerdi posted a casting list for Hawkeye:

[C]ode name, Arek. He is male, 20-30 years old, and is described as having an Eastern European background. The role is currently casting as you are reading this, and Arek is expected to appear in five out of six episodes of the series.

They speculate this is for the character known as The Clown (Kazimierz Kazimierczak, who is Polish), a mercenary. Murphy repeats this without any added analysis.

Daniel, after this dropped, said the show is casting for the Tracksuit Mafia. We've been aware of their inclusion since the show was announced (given their involvement with Kate Bishop's origin), although specific rumours arrived later.

TI followed this up by saying Hailee Steinfeld is officially onboard for Hawkeye ("While we weren’t able to find out the nature of the delayed announcement, or the details of her negotiations, she is now firmly listed as set on the project"). We know that last year Marvel approached her (cf), but her exclusivity deal with Apple prevented the signing. Conrad claims it's 99% done, but nothing is signed, while other scoopers (Murphy et al) are skeptical and have heard nothing either way. Jack McBryan (who co-founded The Direct) claims "it all seems based on an outdated document" (neither he, TI, nor Conrad have provided any documentation). This all comes out a week after Derek Cornell (link above) claimed she was long out of the picture because of the Apple contract which remains my perspective until we hear something different. On a personal note, I have no feelings on who is cast in the role, since I'm unfamiliar with all the actresses rumoured and the character herself.

Alison Brie told THR that the only thing she knows about She-Hulk is what she sees in the press (this is after her agent contacted Marvel when they heard they were casting an 'Alison Brie-type'). I bring this up because I think its illustrative that celebrity campaigning for a role is a non-factor in how Marvel casts major roles. My feeling has always been that Brie wasn't approached because of her age (38), a general issue for Marvel I discussed recently (TLDR: I believe they want younger leads to carry the torch for the MCU going forward).

Both TI and Daniel say The Illuminati is in the works, with the former providing more specifics than the later:

Marvel Studios is in the early stages of developing some kind of project based off Marvel Comics’ Illuminati team. The only confirmed details are that Marvel CCO Kevin Feige is listed as the producer for this project, and the current title of the project is Marvel’s Illuminati. There is no other talent attached and there is no confirmation on whether the project is a movie or a future show on Disney+.

Daniel said: "Heard awhile ago there is an idea for a Illuminati project of some kind and it seems like there's now a grid out for it and it's now in active development." I have no idea why he's saying it seems like there's a grid--there is or isn't--so either he hasn't seen it or what he's seen is ambiguous.

What prior rumour does Daniel refer to without naming it? Back in January Sutton said the Illuminati would appear in Doctor Strange 2 (leading to the resurrection of Black Widow). The only other mention of the group is also from Sutton in May, where he said in Secret Wars the Tony Stark from an alternative reality will be part of its Illuminati. Clearly Daniel is referring to Sutton (whose material he's used before without attribution).

The scoop sparked Murphy to propose what I think is a bizarre lineup for the group (in the comics originally Doctor Strange, Mister Fantastic, Iron Man, Professor X, Black Bolt, and Namor). These are all men, which Marvel will certainly change; one of them is dead (Stark), while four others have yet to be introduced. Here's Murphy's iteration: Strange, Hulk, Captain Marvel, Ajak, and Hank Pym. The first pick no one would question, Hulk isn't a bad idea, and Carol Danvers could work, but the list goes off the rails after that. The idea that Ajak (assuming she survives her film) is going to be a breakout character from The Eternals is simply bizarre (she will have, at best, the fifth-most screen time in that film), although the soon-to-be fifty-four year old actress would be inexpensive to lock down. The Hank Pym choice is even stranger--Michael Douglas turns 76 this year and leaning on an actor who would be filming this in a few years is more than odd. While there have been other members of the group (including Captain America and Black Panther, who are available in one form or another in the MCU), I think we can safely reject Murphy's speculation. My guess is that Feige only wants big characters in the group for it to echo the impact in the comics, and Pym and Ajak do not qualify (ages aside).

Murphy (with confirmation from Discussing Film) says Ms. Marvel will film November-March. He also says Kamala Khan has not yet been cast and guesses these dates are a clue for when Hawkeye will wrap filming (assuming it will end before this begins, which is preposterous since that only gives Hawkeye two months--the MCU has had no problem with overlapping productions for Disney+). Two days after this was posted Daniel echoed it (without attribution). This all but debunks Conrad's claim back in January that the casting was either done or down to a few actresses.

Pete Hernandez (who I've never heard of) drops a purported scoop from a 'reliable source with industry knowledge.' He makes the following claims about Captain Marvel 2 (my comments in pink):

• Ms. Marvel will have a supporting role [This isn't a scoop--there's no point in introducing Kamala Khan unless she's intertwined with Carol Danvers]
• The film will include many important Marvel characters, making it a mini-Avengers [see below]
• It will adapt Secret Invasion [This was scooped by Rich Johnston back in January, with Sutton preceding him with the idea in September (I don't think Johnston's scoop is directly dependent on Sutton)]

There is no scoop here, as the idea of it having an Avengers-like feel is exactly what Johnston and Sutton were saying because it's Secret Invasion. This reminds me of an issue I've had with everything from The Direct thus far--they seem to be imitating Full Circle Cinema is taking other people's content, adding a 'Wow, what do you guys think?' and posting it. I don't agree with that approach at all.

Back on topic, Sutton also talked about the film (which I've shortened a bit):

[T]he Skrulls appeared in both the Captain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home films [and A]ccording to my sources, all three are set to [feature in] Captain Marvel 2. [In] September [link above] on Lords of the Longbox [I scooped] that Captain Marvel 2 would feature Veranke as the main villain in a loose adaptation of Secret Invasion. The plans for Captain Marvel 2 are evolving with Secret Invasion remaining its nucleus. After the roots of Secret Invasion are planted on Disney+ [cf], Captain Marvel will be battling more than just one Skrull in her sequel. In fact, more than a Skrull but a Super-Skrull. It was revealed to me that this won't be the Super-Skrull with the Fantastic Four's powers; rather, it's a Super-Skrull with Spider-Man's abilities. And thus Marvel Studios will pay homage to Marvel Team-Up No. 62. ... I also leaked [in] September that Marvel Studios wanted Nova to debut in Captain Marvel 2 [link above]; this could either be a brief introductory appearance or, if the Super-Skrull has taken Spider-Man's powers, provide a much-needed power boost. As for Rogue, talk has been to have her cameo as a villain at the end, setting up the third movie with Ms. Marvel appearing as well.

I think Sutton means Ms. Marvel will appear in Captain Marvel 2 as well, as opposed to her appearing in Captain Marvel 3 with Rogue. This scoop echoes, in part, what he said in May. The idea of using Spider-Man to help boost the signal power of Captain Marvel makes sense, although if this is indeed a mini-Avengers he isn't as crucial. I've said it many times before, Carol Danvers needs depth--character development--and an easy way to do that is through Rogue by removing her powers.

In a now deleted Reddit post:

[Sif] is alive, Thor will find her in an icy planet with a complete new look. She dies at the end of the movie.Also, Valkyrie is a supporting character, her sexuality will be explicit. She appears the same amount of time as Lady Sif. Thor goes to Valhalla where dead characters will appear. (This person only confirmed Idris Elba [Heimdall] appearance.) The movie is described as a road-trip comedy around the universe. The [Guardians of the Galaxy] will show up.

The same poster had another 'scoop' (WandaVision) that was preposterous, so the above is clearly made-up (there isn't enough screen time to involve a Sif death arc in the film anyway).

LotLB said Black Panther 2 will feature Namor as the antagonist. This echoes what they said back in December and it's not an uncommon idea, as the two characters have an interesting history of conflict in the comics. That scoop was via their original source (The Black Knight) and I'm not sure if Sutton (who is responsible for most of their inside information these days) shares the same opinion (if he's talked about it, I haven't seen it--in May he said Namor would be a member of The Defenders, and in July that a solo film is in development).

Sutton says the first Fantastic Four film will include Franklin Richards (son of Reed and Sue). The reasoning is to both differentiate the film from the Fox efforts, skip having to repeat the origin, and use Franklin as a way to spinoff into a Power Pack Disney+ series. Not mentioned in the scoop, but this idea would also make it easier to cast older actors in the lead roles (albeit, losing out on younger adventures for the group). The idea of a Power Pack show or film is not new and its known the MCU has been considering it for a long time--having a tie-in to the FF would help boost something I think virtually no one is interested in.

Speaking of the Fantastic Four, or at least IP associated with them, Sutton has jumped on board the Giancarlo Esposito train. A source tells him there are internal discussions considering him for Doctor Doom (whom they envision as a Darth Vader-like character--as in, a redeemable villain). I went over the history of Esposito in the Marvel rumour-mill back in May, something the actor's own comments have helped push forward (he wants to play a Thanos-like role). When going through all of this a fan mentioned that Doom is Romani (something I think was introduced in 1989's Triumph and Torment and I was unaware of)--is that representation Marvel cares about? I doubt it, but if it is, it would eliminate Esposito as a possibility. Esposito is a great actor, but this isn't the role I'd use him for (I'd much rather have an actor of a similar age to Reed Richards than the 62-year old).

Peter Shinkoda (who played Nobu) was on a #SaveDaredevil Youtube hangout (hangouts virtually no one is watching) and said the following (9:46-10:51):

"They [the writers] made me privy to a storyline [about Nobu when filming in 2014] ... that they were prevented from shooting. I'm kind of reluctant to say this, but I'm going to take it and I apologize to Tommy [presumably co-executive producer Tom Lieber] and Jeph [Loeb] and I'm going to take this moment--but I have to because...because I just have to. I'm not really into protecting, you know, uh certain things anymore. Jeph Loeb told the writers room not to write for Nobu and Gao, and this was reiterated [to me] many times by many of the writers and showrunners. The showrunners [presumably Steven S. DeKnight, Marco Ramirez, Doug Petrie, and possibly Drew Goddard] said um, nobody cares about Chinese people--and Asian people--there was three previous Marvel movies, a trilogy called Blade where Wesley Snipes kills two-hundred Asians each movie--nobody gives a shit, so don't write about Nobu and Gao [he seems to mean this was the message being relayed by Loeb to the showrunners]. And they [the writers] were forced to put their storyline down and, uh, drop it."

Subsequently Shinkoda Tweeted that neither he nor Wai Ching Ho (Gao) were invited to the season two premier (they appeared in four and one episode respectively), which they were told was an oversight.

This entire story is bizarre, but before we go into it let's briefly go over the background. Shinkoda appeared in the first two seasons of Daredevil. He was part of subplots involving The Hand that failed throughout the Netflix run--even when the group was the focus, like in The Defenders, the writing for them was a confused mess. Shinkoda's comments, if true, are horrendous (this would be a different level of racism than, say, Amy Pascal's emails). The story does, however, contain strange elements I want to go over.

The first is: why would Blade be Loeb's touchstone for what to do with his story? He had no hand in the New Line productions. I guess the idea is that Blade is about a martial arts character, so that's the parallel? I find it odd, but its a trivial point.

The main issue is Loeb's Asian racism. Why I struggle to immediately accept this is, if Loeb feels this way, why was Elektra race-swapped? This is a major character (impacting merchandising) who receives a ton of screen time in two different shows (the swap itself eliminating the most prominent Greek Marvel character--much like the Romani above, I doubt Marvel cares about representation for them). Elektra is also far from the only major Asian character from Marvel Entertainment--Colleen Wing could easily have been given less to do or cast as Caucasian (her early artwork leans heavily into that). We also have Quake in Agents of SHIELD, who (even if Joss Whedon picked the actress) has been the face of show for a long time (Melinda is another). It's not that you can't create reasons for why Loeb might have made those other choices, just that the more complex it becomes the more you crash into Occam's Razor and wonder if that's what's really going on.

Another issue is Shinkoda is claiming a lot of people were aware of this--the entire writer's room for the first and possibly second season (thirteen people if it includes the second, including the very socially conscious Lauren Hissrich who now runs The Witcher). This would be in addition to Ho and anyone those various individuals might have told. The idea that these folks never said anything or leaked something to the press, while possible, is very strange (especially with a media ready to jump on this exact issue for Iron Fist).

At first I found the timing odd--Jeph Loeb is gone, as is Marvel Entertainment (absorbed into Marvel Studios). However, it's possible that as long as ME was functioning, Shinkoda was either hoping for more work or didn't want Loeb to impact himself or those he respected still working there (I'm speculating because he's said nothing about the timing). By making this statements now, other than adding a horrific rider to the history of ME's productions, it has no impact going forward at all (except, perhaps, on what remains of Loeb's career).

When this story broke I was told on social media that "this is far from the first time Loeb has been noted or accused to some pretty racists comments," so I went looking. Beyond his Karate Kid outfit during the Iron Fist 2 ComicCon panel (shown above), and general unhappiness from some about the Iron Fist IP (accused of cultural appropriation), I found nothing (Deadline, for example, just echoed what I've included here). This is extremely odd--there is no risk for anyone to come forward at this point, but it hasn't happened yet. I also asked a couple of people who had (directly or indirectly) inside sources at ME if they'd heard anything--they had not.

None of this means Shinkoda's story is false, just that we are missing facts supporting it. Racism and sexism are rarely subtle (an easy example is Marvel Entertainment owner Ike Perlmutter: refusing to produce Black Widow toys because he claimed they wouldn't sell; his purported comments about no one being able to tell the difference between Terrence Howard and Don Cheadle when War Machine was recast; his resistance to making either a Black Panther or Captain Marvel film; etc; these internal matters were leaked almost immediately to the press). What's my conclusion? I am baffled. This isn't likely something Shinkoda would make-up, but at the moment his experience hasn't been reflected anywhere else across Loeb's many productions. That might change in time, but I don't like jumping to conclusions.

Does this revelation have any impact on the MCU? For the most part, no, although it may push back (or kill) any chance we have of ever seeing Iron Fist (who I believe can only be presented as a lighthearted version at this stage since Shang-Chi is so similar to him otherwise--this is ironic, because all the people who hated Iron Fist wanted the edgy, Immortal Iron Fist iteration).

We have another Sutton Q&A to go over:

• Dacre Montgomery is being considered for Johnny Storm [Sutton previously brought up Dacre as a possible Adam Warlock]
• Squadron Supreme discussed, but it's not coming any time soon [This first hit the rumour-mill in March when Daniel said it was in development]
• Warriors Three will return for a Journey into Mystery Disney+ show [This idea seems related to a Discussing Film scoop from 2019 which said a Sif Disney+ show was coming (which Daniel echoed a month later); Journey into Mystery has only ever been teased on Reddit back in May (in connection to the Loki show)]
• Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom team-up film still planned (Triumph of Torment) [Echoing what he said in June]

I frankly don't believe the Warriors Three idea unless it's attached to Sif (and even then, she needs help for fans to care). The trio were almost non-existent in the Thor-films and, outside hardcore comic fans, made no impression (otherwise Taika would have faced more resistance in killing them in Ragnarok). The main takeaway is tacit agreement with Daniel's idea for Squadron Supreme.

4chan gives us a preposterous version of Spider-Man 3:

Working title is Spider-Man: Home Run

Peter is attacked by Scorpion in his apartment, the two fight and eventually Peter catches him on fire and he flees.

Aunt May is fine, but Ned is seriously injured after getting thrown across the room as Scorpion busted in, prompting Spider-Man to leave New York.

Secretary Ross hires the world's best bounty hunter, Kraven, to stop Spider-Man. Kraven tracks Spider-Man as he makes his way across the country, before trapping him in Chicago which he has transformed with his own devices and traps.

After running thru a city full of traps, Happy Hogan rescues Peter and they flee to Nebraska, thinking nobody can find them there. Peter ditches his phone so he can't be tracked.

Ross has captured Aunt May, [Michelle], and an injured Ned.

Ross broadcasts a message nationwide, giving Peter 36 hours to turn himself in, or he will drop nuclear bombs on New York and Los Angeles.

The military infiltrate Ross' headquarters, but they are slaughtered by his newly created Spider Slayers.

Kraven and Scorpion ambush Happy and Peter as they approach New York, Happy gets shot in the stomach, just before he dies, he blows up his plane, killing Scorpion as well.

Peter attacks Ross, and figures out that he's not actually Ross, but Mysterio disguising as Ross using his drones. Peter finds the corpse of the real Ross.

Beck betrays Kraven, forcing Kraven and Spidey to work together in the third act. They face the army of Spider Slayers. The Slayers aren't real, it's the projecting drones, who are circulating around the nation demolishing buildings including the Empire State Building, Chinese theater, and the White House, and leveling small towns.

Nick Fury pages Captain Marvel, she arrives to help destroy the drones wreaking havoc across America.

Peter and Kraven prevent both atom bombs from launching. Kraven dies from his injuries from fighting the "Spider Slayers", Peter rescues his friends and Beck escapes.

Captain Marvel helps clear Spider-Man's name. Mid credit scene features Vulture and Morbius contacting Mysterio about a team they're building.

Post credit scene shows Doctor Strange re-enter NY through a portal, he is shocked at all the destruction.

This is ridiculous, but I post it here just to keep tabs on anyone who borrows from it.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Marvel News & Notes

THR reports that director team Amber Finlayson and Katie Ellwood, along with Rhys Thomas, will be directing Hawkeye. This is the first Disney+ series that hasn't leaned on just one director for every episode (for whatever that's worth).

Speaking of the show, Derek Cornell (who runs The Disinsider, ie, the Disney Insider) claims popular Kate Bishop-pick Hailee Steinfeld is long out of the picture. I thought this was clear months ago, due to her exclusive contract with Apple, but that message has not seeped very far into the fanbase. Given how soon the show is, Marvel would have moved on from her a long time ago and it wouldn't surprise me if the role was already cast. After this came out, Conrad said Taissa Farmiga and Olivia Cooke were rumoured for the role--I couldn't find another source that suggested them, so either it's an actual scoop of Conrad's or simply his speculation (I'd lean towards the latter).

There was some unintended drama within the fandom over the release date of WandaVision courtesy of an offhand remark by Borys Kit of THR (who you may remember did something similar regarding the Namor-rights long ago). Hill goes through this and, ignoring her surmise about the show (which was debunked via Kit's subsequent correction), it was clear Kit mis-remembered when WandaVision was supposed to release because he wasn't claiming that the date had changed. Not long after this he Tweeted that he'd made an error and nothing has changed.

Back in June I discussed Murphy's analysis of comic images shown during the Expanding the Universe vignette specific to WandaVision. At the time Murphy had no idea who would fill-in for the role of Charles Xavier. My thought at the time was perhaps Doctor Strange, but Cumberbatch could only do so if he was appearing throughout the series, and that's not the case. In doing research for my upcoming WandaVision Theory File, another possibility occurred to me: Agatha Harkness (a magic user and possible mentor-like figure).

Sutton has expanded his Inhumans scoop (his prior comments were in February, saying they would appear in Fantastic Four 2, and then in July that Vin Diesel still wants to play Black Bolt--this echoes a very old rumour from the Diesel himself):

When a group of explorers rocket into his hidden city in the Himalayas, Black Bolt launches a ferocious attack on the ship’s crew, the Fantastic Four. Reed Richards and his wife Sue; her brother Johnny Storm; and Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm, find themselves in the cockpit of an exploding jet. Sue quickly envelops her family with a force field to protect them, but they quickly adapt into action. Johnny flames on, his body on fire as he soars down to fight the surprised enemy below.
But Blackagar Boltagon is not alone. He has a family of his own, a Royal one. Medusa; Crystal; Gorgon; and Triton. All in full costume, in their Jack Kirby glory. Marvel TV once attempted a no-budget take on the Inhumans. It went nowhere, fizzling fast. The current plan is to recast and reboot the Royal Family; all the build-up from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will finally pay off.
It’s unknown exactly where the Royal Family will debut in the MCU first, but they are planning on having them appear in Fantastic Four 2. Long-range goals have always been the Marvel Studios way. Discussions begin years in advance before directors or screenwriters are hired. And that’s where the Inhumans are at the moment, waiting in the Himalayas of the imagination before the sound that can be heard around the world.

All of this is plausible to me except for one element: Agents of SHIELD. Sutton and I have a fundamental disagreement on Feige's approach to Jeph Loeb's properties. He believes Feige will integrate the old ME IP--his current Netflix theory is rebooting them with the same actors (for those with good memories, I went through Sutton's theory about this back in September--his reasoning has changed since (cf), but it's good to be familiar with the antecedents) and canonize AoS. I don't believe either is true for this reason: Feige wasn't creatively involved in any of them and he's never allowed anything in canon that he didn't work on himself (Deadpool will, presumably, be our first exception to this rule, but I believe that's a command from on high, ie Iger). This does not mean I think Sutton's general idea for the Inhumans is invalidated--it's entirely plausible--although it does fly in the face of the many scoopers who believe they will be rebooted in Ms. Marvel (eg Daniel, GWW, and Conrad). If they appear in Kamala Khan's debut, it's hard to conceive of the encounter as described above, which comes across as a first encounter.

We have another Sutton Q&A (my comments in pink):

• Beast will appear on Agents of SWORD [This is a new claim, but he was part of the org in the comics]
• Kitty Pryde's main series will be Exalibur [Ergo, not X-Men; this was originally an LotLB scoop in August, which Sutton repeated in November; I've mentioned before that this would disappoint me, as Kitty's early days with the X-Men are charming and I'd be sad to lose them (nearly a hundred Claremont issues of X-Men, 129-212)]
• Reiterated that all the Netflix actors (except Finn Jones) will return [This is something current for Sutton since November, link above, although the basic idea goes back to Conrad last July]
• Helstrom not part of the MCU [This was never in question for me, although Daniel thought he would be back in April--granting he may have meant 'MCU' in the wider sense; it's an interesting opinion for Sutton to have since he broadly believes the Marvel Entertainment properties are going to be folded back into the MCU]
• Darkhawk being developed to be the best friend of Nova [Sutton was the first to suggest that he'll appear in the MCU when he made this claim back in May]
• Gabriel Luna will return to play his version of Ghost Rider, although the Johnny Blaze iteration will be the main one in the MCU [I believe this is a new idea from Sutton, although it originally cropped up on Reddit back in October and was repeated by Daniel at that time (something that, oddly enough, refuted his own claim a month earlier on his Patreon, where he said Feige doesn't want to use anything of Loeb's); I frankly don't believe this, although it fits the metanarrative Sutton believes in--if memory serves, I believe Luna has said Marvel hasn't contacted him since his show was cancelled]
• Reiterated that Black Knight will be part of Excalibur [This was first suggested by LotLB back in August, then repeated by Sutton in November]
• John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are still front runners for The Fantastic Four [This matches what he said back in February, although in April (same link) he thought Blunt was less likely]
• He believes two of Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Leonardo DiCaprio will take on MCU roles in the future (he also added Ben Affleck) [DiCaprio is the obvious exception, since all three of the others have already appeared in superhero films, which means the prediction itself is plausible (but also easy speculation to make)]

Unrelated to this Q&A, Sutton says Owen Wilson is playing Kang in Loki. If this sounds familiar, it's because that was Murphy's theory back in February. I'm not that familiar with Kang, but if Wilson is playing him then I can't imagine that he's a serious villain. I think the more prevalent theory, that he's Justice Peace, is more plausible.

4chan weighs in on Black Widow (this is long and I think it's fanfiction, but to track these things I've included it; comments in pink):

Disney is in a real fuckin tizzy trying to figure out what to do with Mulan and Black Widow with all these Covid delays. They've been showing the movies to all sorts of different teams to see what the best way to re-coup their investment is. My marketing team was one [This is preposterous--Disney would not need to show their films to marketing companies to decide what to do because of the pandemic]. I feel safe sharing this because of the sheer amount of people in this industry I know who've seen the movie.
For starters, a review, it's okay. Basic capeshit. The story is uninspired and generic, a lot of the jokes aren't funny. The action makes an attempt at a clean John Wick style but really only achieves it twice. I'll describe what I can, as limited by human memory [This is way too long to be someone's memory and doesn't match the premise of a marketing team's approach, which would take notes in order to provide coherent feedback].
So the movie opens with RDJ's voice over a timecard setting up that it's right at the end of Civil War. He tells Nat she needs to run, because they're gonna come after her the hardest due to her past. She gets on a motorcycle and drives away from the Avengers facility and we get the Marvel logo. [The idea of RDJ appearing via cut footage from Civil War is widely believed]
The next scene is a flashback to young Nat. She's talking with young Yelena in a hallway, she's been asked to kill a diplomat or something and she's unsure if she can do it. She tries but can't bring herself to pull the trigger. She goes out into the hallway and cries, the woman leading the red room leads Yelena in and through a opaque glass door, we see her shoot the man without a thought.
Back in the present/past/when the fucking movie is set, Nat goes to Budapest. She's looking for something to make her/Cap/Sam be untraceable. There's a voice cameo of Anthony Mackie as she relays info to him. She knows that Yelena can find it, because the Red Room used to use it for its Widows. [This references the 4chan/Reddit MacGuffin, cf, although he avoids using their term for it--no doubt to seem original]
She tracks her down to her apartment. They fight (second best fight in the movie) then once they know they aren't gonna kill eachother, they have a beer. They talk about guilt. They bond. Yelena tells Nat she can't give her the thing because the Red Room still has it. Dreykov has started up a new program and started training new Widows. [The first part of this is summarizing the first trailer]
Another flashback shows slightly older young Nat(de-aged ScarJo) escaping the Red Room program. it's run by Rey Winstone and he's got his daughter with him who isn't part of the program, probably like 7-8 years old. She does a bunch of spy stuff to escape but she gets caught by Dreykov, she says something about always being taught to shoot first and tries to kill him but he attacks her and somehow she shoots something that makes the hallway explode. Seemingly killing Dreykov and his young daughter who was hiding behind him. Nat survives by jumping out a window into a river. Her underwater face transitions to her in a bath in Yelenas apartment. They have beef over the fact Nat abandoned her and never came back. Suddenly they're attacked by Taskmaster and his goons. Someone doesn't want them talking. Taskmaster looks stupid as hell but is actually kinda cool. He trounces both of them easily. They escape. [This borrows the accidental kill scene from a different 4chan post in March, link above, followed by more cribbing from trailers; it's difficult to say if the poster misunderstood the Loki reference made in The Avengers--by 'Dreykov's daughter' he seems to mean Natasha--or if he's reapplying the reference as motivation here (which isn't a bad idea, although I don't buy it from this)]
They decide they need to find out what's up with him and also end the Red Room program for good. They travel to the Swiss Alps to find Melina, who was an older widow who was matronly to them. She's retired, living a quiet life and is happy to see them. She knows that the Red Room is active and that the new Widows are being trained by a mysterious mercenary called Taskmaster. His ability to memorize the fighting styles of others makes him invaluable to the program. She reluctantly agrees to help them take him down but they all concede they'll need help. [A mishmash of common speculation and what's known]
We see Taskmaster in a command center. He's watching footage of Nat fight from the movies we've seen. Also watching footage of Yelena. Dreykovs voice over an intercom gives orders to the Widows to follow his orders and let him teach them. He takes on several Widows at once and wins easily. Dreykov tells them to do better. [Cribbed from trailers]
Meanwhile in Siberia, we get the most fun sequence of the movie. Nat, Yelena, and Melina all do a full fun spy movie Charlie's Angels style prison break to get Alexi, their father/big brother figure out of a Russian state prison. [Trailers]
They succeed. Family reunion scene in the cabin that you've all seen in the trailers. They go to the old Red Room facility that's been long abandoned but can't find much. We get another flashback that I honestly don't remember much of. Just generic young teen spy frustration from Nat and Melina giving her advice. Young Yelena is jealous of their bond.
Melina hacks an old computer that's got a list of the programs safehouses on it. They head to the most likely one, trying to find Dreykov. Taskmaster is secretly watching them. [Trailer cribbing along with a tiny bit of invented plot]
While crossing a border they are captured by CIA agent Rick Mason. Nat and him used to fuck. He reveals he's working for Thunderbolt Ross directly to bring them back home. Ross and Widow make a deal that if Mason accompanies them the whole way, and she turns herself in after, they'll be allowed to continue shutting the Red Room down.
We see a flashback of a younger Ross and younger Nat making a similar deal when she's recruited into Shield. Ross wanted her for his own reasons but says something like "Fury always gets what he wants ever since he saved the world from aliens or whatever"
I'm butchering it but Hurt's delivery of it was maybe the best joke in the movie. [Mix of trailers, public info, and common speculation]
They go to the safehouse. It's empty. Big obvious trap. Explosion separates them all. Giant fight scene/chase scene where Taskmaster shoots at them with the bow and arrow. He uses all the MCU greatest hits in this movie. [Trailers/common speculation]
Nat escapes on her own and goes to a bridge where they planned to rendezvous but Taskmaster is waiting for her. Coolest fight of the movie happens here. Really shows off his gimmick. She actually gets a hit in that slightly cracks his helmet, and he jumps off the bridge. [Trailers]
Shortly after, Yelena appears. Then Mason, then Melina and Alexei.
Mason and Nat tend to eachothers wounds at a campsite. They kiss. Nat pulls away and says she doesn't have the best luck with men. "My last boyfriend flew away into space or something" Mason agrees, saying his last girlfriend literally shot him in the head, showing her his scar. They seemingly hook up. [Poster invention]
The next morning, as they prepare to leave, "Taskmaster' attacks. "He" seemingly kills Mason with his sword. Nat is devastated, but Yelena makes her leave with them. Melina was scouting ahead in the city and comes back and comforts her. Telling her the story of how she had a husband, a daughter, who died. Nat is shocked to learn she had a child and Melina says that the sterilization procedure didn't work on her and she had to hide the fact she was pregnant by faking that she was a prisoner of war. Saying "we all do crazy things for our family" [Meant to fit the many rumours of Taskmaster dying, as well as gender confusion over who was playing him, link above; the rest is invented]
This leads us to the big finale in the mountains you've all seen in the trailer. Black Widows, Taskmaster, goons, and Red Guardian all duking it out. Theres a some kind of bioweapon that's gonna be launched with this crane thing as the Red Rooms current mission. It's a REALLY sudden mcguffin that no one I watched the movie with was paying attention enough to know where it came from. But there was probably some exposition dump that explained my brain glossed over. [He's nuking his premise, as missing a large chunk of exposition makes no sense at all]
Anyway. Huge set piece. Skydiving from exploding crane. Taskmaster and Red Guardian have a pretty decent fight. Tasky kills him in front of Yelena Melina and Nat. [Common speculation]
Melina holds him off while Nat and Yelena fight their way inside to where they think Dreykov is. Turns out, he isn't. It's just a computer that's been changing the voice of someone to sound like Dreykov. You guessed it, it's Melina. Her and Dreykov were in love, and had a daughter together. Nat killed both of them. We see lots of flashbacks during this. Like Saw movie amounts of flashbacks. [Matches rumours of Melina in charge, but with his own twist for why]
Taskmaster is revealed to be Mason. He tells Nat she trusts to easy and he just works for the highest bidder. Melina is pissed he killed Alexei but he justifies it saying "he was in the way of my target." Melina wore the suit when Mason was "killed" [Mason as Taskmaster has been known for a long time]
The 4 of them fight. Melina escapes to suit up in this pretty sick armor thing. They are surrounded by Widows and Taskmaster says he's won but then Nat and Yelena give a real "girl power" speech and the Widows decide to help them. They overwhelm Taskmaster by attacking him all at once. Nat and Yelena using eachothers moves(something else set up in flashbacks) to confuse him. They finally have him beaten and on his knees but Nat won't kill him because of their past. Yelena doesn't hesitate and shoots him through his cracked mask in what to me felt like super cringey moment. She tells Nat go ahead. Nat's bleeding and her suit is cut open so Yelena gives her her vest and says she'll see her on the other side. [Yelena killing Taskmaster is another old rumour, link above]
Nat and Melina have a one on one showdown. Nat is overpowered by the advancements of her suit, but remembering the training Melina herself gave her, outsmarts her and uses her Widows bite to short out the system. Nat says that killing Dreykovs daughter has haunted her for 20 years. That she never meant for it to happen. She gives Melina a chance to forgive her, but she doesn't and Nat has to push her off a ledge. Falling to her death. [Melina dying is another common rumour]
Post resolution was a scene where Nat and Yelena meet up. They hug goodbye. Nat tries to give the vest back but Yelena says she doesn't want it because Nat got "her stink all over it" then smiles and says "it looks better on you anyway." Yelena feels bad that their whole family fell apart or died. But Nat says that this made her realize she already has a family worth dying for in the Avengers. She offers Yelena to come with her, but Yelena says saving the world isn't her thing. Nat points out they just did and Yelena smiles and says "well that was a one off" then rides off. [Mirrors common speculation]
Last shot of the movie is Nat realizing that Yelena stole the "impossible to track" gadget from her when they hugged goodbye and smiling to herself. [This doesn't make much sense, since the whole point of the MacGuffin was to explain why Nat, Cap, and Falcon couldn't be found from Civil War to Infinity War]
Credits.
Post credits 1 is Yelena walking into a dark warehouse. A bunch of soldiers point guns at her. Her casually puts her hands up and throws the device on a table. Sitting at the table is Thunderbolt Ross. Taskmaster is there and Yelena gets pissed saying that he killed her friend and that wasn't part of the plan. He takes off his helmet to reveal a bandage and points out that she returned the favor by shooting him in the head. She points out it's not the first time she's done that. She says to Ross "I think that relieves me of our deal" And Ross responds "oh no, we're just getting started" [Terrible dialogue writing, but that aside, this is also directly from an old 4chan post]
Final credits scene is Clint looking at Natasha's grave with his kids. Nice tender moment, but honestly a bit of emotional whiplash from the twisty turning spy movie that preceded it. [From the exact same 4chan post mentioned above]
That's pretty much it. I'm sure there's some scenes I forgot or glossed over a part of. But overall that's the gist. I really feel like the movie isn't gonna come out until next year now and I know the nerds are hungry so feast on this for a while to tide you over.

For the most part the poster leaned on a couple of old 4chan posts mixed with trailer footage. His only innovation was Natasha's life-changing error and Melina's motivation (the latter, as I said above, isn't half-bad, but I don't think it's what we'll see).

I dropped a Sutton scoop about Agents of SWORD a few days ago and it was interesting to see how minimal the response to it was versus the Wolverine scoop from a month ago (roughly 4-to-1). It's what I'd expect, but there are some hardcore Agents of SHIELD fans in the scoop community who I think have an inflated sense of how invested fans are in that show.

Other than the Russo brothers, all the MCU directors who have made more than one film have produced a sequel worse than its forebearer. From Joss Whedon to James Gunn to Peyton Reed to Jon Watts, all have seen a decrease in quality with their sequels. This isn't an MCU-specific phenomena either, as the Netflix shows that kept the same showrunners saw a precipitous decline (Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Punisher), and I'd argue it's largely the case across the board in film. What's interesting is that, typically, part of the problem with a sequel is that there were no clear plans for the follow-up--something especially true in the past. The MCU doesn't work that way however, so there are plans, so why are these sequels weaker?

In all the MCU cases, while the director remains the same, the writers have changed. Here are those transitions:

• Whedon: Zach Penn had a story credit on The Avengers, even though Joss tossed his script, but Age of Ultron is all Whedon (I think most people would accept that plot has never been Joss' strong suit)
• Gunn: Nichole Perlman wrote the initial treatment of Guardians, but the sequel is all Gunn (the humour is on par, but the other elements are tangibly weaker)
• Reed: Edgar Wright and his writing partner Joe Cornish, along with production rewrites from David Callaham were part of the original film; the sequel lacked those three and added Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari (part of Rudd's writing team), along with Far From Home writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (much like with Gunn, the humour remained consistent, but the other elements were weaker)
• Watts: Writing teams Watt and Christopher Ford, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daly, and fixes from Eric Pearson did not carry over (again, the humour was consistent, but the other elements were weaker)

The Russo brothers, unlike the examples above, have always worked with Markus and McFeely and that combination has produced the best Marvel films.

I wanted to dive into something that I've touched on before--the sources of information about what Marvel is doing beyond what's official (by which I mean the categories and who is or isn't connected to them among the scoopers):
Insiders - Someone working for the MCU (directly or indirectly); the real Roger Wardell is the only person who fits this bill (I assume he's someone's kid); Sutton also claims inside sources, which seem genuine at Sony, but are less clear at Marvel Studios (a bit clearer at Marvel Entertainment)
Agents - Some insider information makes its way to agents; Murphy is the only one who has ever cited an agent as a source
Production Weekly - A subscription based site that puts out casting calls and production information; this is, as far as I can tell, the only 'inside' source for Daniel and it's used (directly or indirectly) by Murphy and The Illuminerdi
Set Leaks - Photos, videos, and eye witness reports; Murphy seems to have the best connections for the first two, while the latter is extremely hard to judge
R&D - Marvel and Sony have to do research when they want to put something on screen and that means making a request through the company to the comic branch for source material (undoubtedly some low level admin actually puts these things together--there would be physical and digital resources required); this is the process LotLB's original source ('The Black Knight') seemed connected to, as does Sutton (although the pair apparently have different sources for this--perhaps Sutton via Sony and TBK via ME, but I'm guessing); we know Geoff Boucher (formerly?) at Deadline briefly had this access (perhaps indirectly), because his erroneous scoop about Deathlok is clearly based on him misinterpreting why Marvel was researching his first issue (which, we now know, is because of The Grapplers in Falcon and the Winter Soldier)
Ancillary Information (social media, IMDB, etc) - Murphy uses this extensively and it is the primary source of information for Conrad (I'll talk about his Eternals scoop below)
Questionable Information (Reddit, 4chan, etc) - The other Conrad domain--he spends a lot of time trawling through this material looking for things that seem plausible. Plenty of other scoopers, but for most its supplementary

Excluding actual insiders, all of these avenues of information have issues--they require detective work to unravel (and if its not well-reasoned, you get a Geoff Boucher face plant). You can see this process in action if you go back a few years--Murphy (when at MCU Exchange) figured out that Marvel's casting calls would always use the same first letter of the real character and he got very good at figuring out who they were based on descriptions. In light of that, Marvel changed their approach and his speculation promptly became no better than anyone else's (without that constraint he's as libel as the rest of us to push towards things he wants rather than what's most likely).

You can also work some things out from this. It's been pretty clear to me that TBK (the original LotLB source) had strong connections with Marvel Entertainment--a lot of his information steers that direction and he's been largely silent since Feige deleted it. He was also not aware that the Feige axe was coming--neither were most of the scoopers (a decision that would have been made months beforehand, albeit I thought it was pretty obvious the moment Disney+ was announced). The reason I can rag on Conrad is because  he's been frequently wrong or caught stealing--where are his scoops? The big one he had (Eternals) feels like something out of ME (my guess is he was told the show at ABC had been cancelled because Feige wanted the IP for the MCU).

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Mikey Sutton Exclusive: Agents of S.W.O.R.D.

Let me start by thanking Sutton--he's almost unique in this space by being open to opinions that differ from his own. Before we delve into the specifics of the scoop, a bit of housekeeping: a couple of weeks ago I teased an Excalibur scoop (what I thought was the missing element from Sutton's scoop-jam in May), but this was a mistake on my part, as what was missing wasn't IP-related. Instead what we have is an alternative to which show besides Excalibur Joss Whedon is being considered for. That show is Agents of SWORD. Here is the quote from Sutton:

Agents of S.W.O.R.D. is essentially a cosmic, big-budget spin-off of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which had become increasingly sci-fi and weird in its final seasons [five onward]. S.W.O.R.D. finds [Joss] Whedon at the top of the list for showrunner, and appropriately so: it has his fingerprints all over it [Joss' brother Jed is the showrunner for AoS]. Whedon actually co-created S.W.O.R.D. [the comic in 2004], and its green-haired star Abigail Brand, for Marvel Comics. Not only that, but he played an integral role in having AOS' Quake, Chloe Bennet, ending up in the MCU [he means in Agents of SHIELD]. The global pandemic may be reshuffling production schedules but insiders tell me that S.W.O.R.D. is a priority for Disney+. Whether Whedon ends up with the series is another matter. No negotiations have started yet but stay tuned.

Let's briefly go over what SWORD is: an organization based in orbit around the earth meant to protect the planet from external threats. It was created in 2004 as a subdivision of SHIELD, but has been defunct since 2013 (as per the Incursion event), seemingly replaced by the Alpha Flight Space Program. This group, the AFSP, not only includes members of Alpha Flight, but also Captain Marvel and Abigail Brand. I should note that I've never read anything SWORD has appeared in, so my knowledge of it is entirely secondhand.

Some additional context: there was a possible rights situation with the IP in the past. Back in Thor (2011), a line of dialogue referencing the org was cut and there's speculation that the reason it was removed was because the IP was at Fox (since SWORD first appeared in Astonishing X-Men). I haven't seen this definitively said one way or the other by someone with access to that information, but plenty of Marvel IP have bizarre rules associated with them (Kingpin, Jessica Drew, Emma Frost, etc), even if the IP largely moved away from its original mutant context. In terms of this scoop it's not important to resolve the issue, since Marvel has the Fox rights.

Before I fully dig into the meat of the scoop, I need to go over two points that Sutton and I either definitely or probably disagree on (putting my cards on the table, as it were).

• 1) I believe Joss Whedon's involvement with Agents of SHIELD is overstated--while instrumental in its creation, he directed just one episode in the first season and has none of the other credits you'd expect from someone deeply involved in its production (there's no comparison at all to his own shows). From the outside, it's hard not to see the show as simply a vehicle for his brother (Jed's jobs seem to be directly or indirectly via Joss). I should add that I've never watched AoS (even in the beginning it was apparent it wasn't relevant to the MCU). From my perspective, Joss' lack of credits and the long periods when he was preoccupied with his own work (production and promotion of Age of Ultron (2013-15), producing the short Lurk as well as directing Justice League (2017), and showrunning HBO's The Nevers (2018+)), precludes him from being very involved. This isn't that relevant to the matter at hand, just offers context on where I'm coming from
• 2) The second point I know Sutton disagrees with me: Agents of SHIELD is not part of the MCU--the great irony of Marvel Entertainment is that the tagline 'it's all connected' was a fiction. While the show rigorously tried to remain within the MCU's continuity, Feige and his team studiously ignored it. The most obvious demonstration of this is Coulson's continued existence on the show, something the films would have addressed if it was canon. In my opinion, other than Agent Carter (which Feige actively took part in), nothing made under Jeph Loeb is part of the MCU. This is my perspective--we can't know if this remains the case until Phase Four gets rolling--but as it stands I believe it's the case

My opinion doesn't invalidate the scoop. It's entirely plausible that we get an Agents of SWORD show that Whedon gets consideration to run (whatever your opinion of Joss, he has an excellent track record with his own shows). My disagreement above only questions the inclusion of a Chloe Bennet's Quake (and any other actor from Agents of SHIELD), as well as any sense that SWORD is a continuation or sequel to AoS.

Sutton is making two assertions with his scoop:
1) An Agents of SWORD Disney+ show is coming
2) Joss Whedon is on the list as a potential showrunner, but has not been approached
The first is a definitive claim--a decision at Marvel has been made and the show is coming. The second is more tentative, in that it supposes a list of names which has yet to be explored. We'll go through each element and then delve into what function a show like this could fulfill for the MCU.

Disney+ Agents of SWORD

The first scooper to suggest such a show was coming was LotLB (via their original source, which is to say, not Sutton) last July. At the time they said it would be on Hulu, but LotLB's understanding then was that all Marvel productions going forward would be part of the MCU (correct in spirit at least). They echoed this scoop twice in August--in the second instance mentioning Quake being involved. Unbeknownst to me (until I did the research), in September Sutton made claims almost identical to the scoop above (Agents of SHIELD spinning off into Agents of SWORD and including Quake), but without the Whedon attachment.

Following that, we have claims from 4chan (November) and Reddit (January), with the former including Nick Fury and the latter repeating Quake (first link above). In February Sutton said Nova will work for Fury, who is the head of SWORD (echoing LotLB from August, although I don't believe they attached that specifically to SWORD). The next scooper to throw their hat in the ring was Vicky Depledge (then at GWW), who said in May that, not only was the show happening, but that it would be titled Secret Invasion and lead into Captain Marvel 2. Murphy backed part of this idea (same link), saying Secret Invasion was in development (which echoed earlier scoops from others--see below). About a week later Sutton repeated his February scoop and a couple of weeks after said Quake would be part of the team (repeating his claim from September); in response to Chloe Bennet's denials that she'd been contacted by anyone from the MCU, he speculated she had to say that due to an NDA (a cynic would call this special pleading, but it's not impossible that Marvel would want to hide her involvement to preserve the buzz for later). Finally, this July Sutton said the show will reference or introduce the Shi'ar Empire.

That's a dense wall of text, so let's summarize: LotLB, Sutton, and GWW have all said the show is coming (with indirect support from Murphy, Daniel, and Rich Johnson, all of whom say Secret Invasion is coming). The organization was teased in Far From Home and revealed by the set photos from WandaVision, so there's no question we're getting SWORD, just a question of if we're getting a show.

As for Quake, only LotLB and Sutton have supported the idea (unlike the return of the Netflix characters, where other scoopers have jumped onboard), and as I've brought up with all the Loeb-properties, while its doable, Feige has shown no interest in playing with someone else's toys. We also need to be clear that Agents of SHIELD is not popular by any metric--recall that ABC would have cancelled it after four seasons [2017], but were not allowed by their corporate masters at Disney. This means there's no obvious payoff in using the IP (unlike with Daredevil, for example). It's also worth mentioning that Bennet has complained loudly and often about not being included in the MCU (eg, unlike Charlie Cox or Vincent D'Onfrio, who simply express the wish to be included), something I don't think is received very well. Back to the question at hand: could Bennet be brought into the MCU? Yes--this isn't a question of mechanics, but of Feige's intentions. To me, seven years of indifference is proof enough that it's not going to happen.

The second part of the scoop--and the element that's truly new from Sutton--is our potential showrunner. The idea of Whedon participating in the MCU again isn't new from Mikey, as back in September he said he was being considered for the X-Men franchise (a much bigger and more prestigious IP). As I pointed out then (the link), Whedon seemed a better fit for Disney+.

If this was four or five years ago this idea wouldn't receive any pushback at all. Whedon was widely beloved and, even if the reception of Ultron was mixed, he had plenty of good will in the bank. Whedon's reputation, however, has suffered lately. Let's briefly go through why.

"When I was running Buffy [1997-2003], I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women. It felt like I had a disease, like something from a Greek myth" - Whedon explaining his infidelity to his wife

2017: Kai Cole's, Whedon's wife (1995-2012; divorced in 2016), published an article in The Wrap where she called him a hypocrite as an outspoken feminist because of his rampant infidelity. What hurt Whedon most, in my opinion, was the ridiculous letter he sent to his wife from which we get the above quote--anyone less famous would have been laughed out of the business
2019: Charisma Carpenter was written out of Angel because she was pregnant (2003); until 2019 Carpenter didn't make any comments of outrage related to this, but (via the link) has begun to do so on social media
2020: Ray Fisher claims Whedon was abusive on the set of Justice League (2017); we've heard only one other actor echo this, James Marsters from his days on Buffy, but the latter comment sounds like a one-off and Marsters said he'd still work with him

Whatever you think of the above--how valid or serious the complaints are--Whedon is still well thought of in the business (there was a biding war for The Nevers in 2018), Marvel still talks to him, and the other MCU directors respect him (eg). Despite his infidelity he's never been MeToo'd (no one, that I'm aware of, has even admitted to being one of his paramours). Marvel is, however, risk adverse--ie the drama of James Gunn's firing (clearly an Alan Horn issue, but Horn remains). I don't think the above is enough to eliminate him from consideration, but could be a factor.

The other pertinent question I have: is he available? Whedon is showrunnering The Nevers, whose first season wrapped in 2019. The actors are signed for five seasons (very much like Amazon's The Lord of the Rings series), so unless the show fails or has a big gap in production, it's difficult (if not impossible) for Whedon to run anything else. Because of that, I don't think Whedon is going to be involved with the MCU in the near future. Does this mean he wouldn't be put on a list of potential showrunners? Not necessarily, although given that he signed his HBO deal in 2018, it would be surprising (granted, they might contact him purely as a courtesy).

Do I think an Agents of SWORD show is coming? I think it or something very similar is likely (I'm iffy on the title, as I don't think Feige wants the association with AoS). What I'm dubious of is both Whedon's involvement and actor carryover from Marvel Entertainment. I could be wrong--maybe Feige isn't bothered about Loeb anymore or the wonky ME association and/or continuity. For now, I don't think we'll see anyone from Loeb's creative output reprise their role in the MCU.

What could an Agents of SWORD series do for the MCU? It's usefulness is not related to the characters created for it, as even the most prominent (Brand) is not particularly popular (she's appeared exactly three times in the comics since 2017 and is nowhere to be seen on popularity lists). What the organization ties into is the second Secret Invasion (the Brian Michael Bendis version), which was scooped as coming by Johnson back in January. What SWORD has is a strong connection to the modern (ie the rebooted Kelly Sue DeConnick iteration) Captain Marvel--it provides an easy way to surround that character with a supporting cast and allow for some much needed character development (we can infer Marvel thinks she needs help because they changed directors for her next film, despite the first making over a billion).

I don't think we'll see Brie Larson performing regular duty on a Disney+ show, so how would you anchor something like this in terms of fan engagement? Nick Fury would be an obvious inclusion, although I don't think Marvel would lean entirely on the soon-to-be 72-year old actor. The show would need someone involved with pull--either an established character (and I can't think of any that would match this IP and fulfill that need), or someone new with cache. Given that, someone like Nova, Quasar, or Sentry (all of whom have had rumours about them) would help.

More broadly, I'm not really a fan of Secret Invasion conceptually, but it could work and isn't the kind of story other comic films have tapped into yet (I'll point out that Sutton hasn't made a claim related to that here). I feel like in general this kind of premise (Agents of SWORD) doesn't have a lot of staying power as its own IP, but what it offers is supplemental utility to other IP (as witnessed in WandaVision). It's interesting food for thought and I'll be keeping an eye out for further developments.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)