Marvel News & Notes

Justin Kroll (Deadline) is trying to extinguish the Jennifer Lawrence flames:

All I’m gonna say is this, Marvel just started meeting with writers on FANTASTIC FOUR, there is no script and it will be awhile before this film starts shooting

This cools the idea considerably. There are two things to note here: 1) He doesn't deny the casting (which suggests he doesn't absolutely know it hasn't happened)--Blade cast its star without writers or a director, so there is precedence for Marvel to cast a lead prior to a script, 2) It's difficult to imagine sending Lawrence down to Australia for filming when there's no script to film. Kroll's reporting makes it likely that The Daily Telegraph's and The Daily Mail's stories are wrong, at least as described. This doesn't mean Lawrence isn't or couldn't be cast in the film (as, indeed, Kroll does not say that), simply that these stories can't be taken as confirmation of the fact.

We've learned WandaVision episode eight is 47 minutes (that would include credits), which leaves 60 for the finale (assuming the show is exactly six hours long). This scoop comes from Reddit, but scoopers haven't given it proper credit (this kind of thing drives me nuts). Incidentally, a friend of mine told me the Agatha song is a Modern Family nod, which I was unaware of (that doesn't make it any more effective, but does make it more thematically appropriate).

Daniel says Wanda will be the main MCU focus for Phase Four. It's difficult to tell from his simple comment what, if anything, he's saying beyond what's public knowledge: we know she's in Doctor Strange 2 and Spider-Man 3, and that her show is the lead-in and trigger for Multiverse shenanigan's. Does Daniel mean the Multiverse itself as the general element? If so, that's not news. This is only news if he means Wanda will appear in other IP.

We have yet another supposed 4chan leak (from the context the poster is implying he was in a test audience viewing):

• Wanda did not steal Vision's body. She left it there when she saw what had been done to him. [This is a unique idea, as is the Vision storyline described here]
• Hayward didn't know there was another Vision until arriving outside of Westview. He sees taking Westview Vision as an opportunity to obtain another one for Cataract.
• Westview Vision is from an alternate reality. Agnes [Agatha] pushes Wanda to try and bring him back to life after seeing him in pieces at the Sword base but she ends up pulling one from an alternate reality. [This would explain why he doesn't remember anything pre-Westview]
• Pietro is Peter from the X-Men films. Wanda at one point in episode 5 tried to bring back Pietro but she failed to do so. What she did do is bring over Peter from the FOX universe, and Agnes [Agatha] seized the moment to have him act in a way she wanted him to as to temper Wanda.
• Vision does wake up Peter before the big fight but there isn't much time for catching up before everything goes crazy. It seems he knows Agatha is the threat as he knows she hexed him.
• Hayward isn't anyone else in disguise, just a paranoid individual. When he said to prepare for launch last episode, he was talking about MCU Vision under the Cataract program. He's "white" Vision. Both Visions fight at the end and Westview Vision sacrifices himself to destroy them both. [Having Vision as the threat would add weight to Hayward's plans]
• Dr Strange does show up at the end in the heat of the battle. After Westview Vision is killed along with his mind stone, Strange reiterates the concepts The Ancient One brought up in Endgame regarding if a mind stone is not brought to it's proper moment in time, chaos will ensue. I assume this is what leads into Multiverse of Madness.
• Monica's contact was just that lady. They're Skrulls but idk if it was the daughter of Talos.
• There is another classic Quicksilver scene but it doesn't seem as long as the 2nd one. "Sweet dreams" is what was noted as being played but idk if this was temporary. [If Evans is Quicksilver there's no point in bringing him back without another iconic scene like that]
• Wanda and Agatha duke it out. The kids just hide for the most part but do help a little bit. Agatha does get away. It's not explicitly said that she's Nightmare but she does have abilities he would seem to have. Mephisto isn't seen or mentioned.
• Strange takes Wanda, her kids, and Peter in under his hospitality. A memorial for Vision is built within Westview.
• I have zero clue who Bettany is talking about as far as the actor he looks up to. I assume it was added later or not included in what I saw. So it's probably a very small role or cameo.
• Same with post credit scenes. I assume there are but I did not see any

It's 4chan, so this is most likely fan fiction, but it's restrained and plausible--nothing stands out as improbable or already debunked.

We have what looks like more confirmation of Jeremy Conrad's last scoop (albeit, he was speculating), as a casting call for a court scene has leaked that will film in a couple of weeks (there was a rumour Charlie Cox had finished shooting a month ago, but I don't think it was credible). Speaking of Conrad, after almost three months of silence he posted on his site again (about DC this time)--I'm not sure if he'll attempt a comeback or not--the scooper community hates him, he no longer has an inside source (his Eternals scoop), and he doesn't have ties to other options like Sutton does (who, for different reasons, is also hated by that community)--time will tell.

We received confirmation that Adepero Oduye is playing Sarah Wilson, Falcon's sister. Oduye was spotted on set way back in November of 2019, but at the time there was debate over whether she was his sister or girlfriend Leila Taylor (Sarah felt like the correct guess). This doesn't carry us very far, as there's little indication that Sarah is a major part of the show (simply backstory and character building for Sam). As I've been saying for awhile, this really does seem like The Falcon Show, but with Bucky shoved in for marketing purposes. A lot of commentary about the show compares it to 80s buddy cop films Lethal Weapon and 48 Hours, but in both of those films there was an age/experience dynamic between the pair and while Bucky is technically older than Sam, I'm not sure he can take on the same role--it will be interesting to see how similar the show tries to be in that respect.

We briefly had one of the most baffling scoops I can recall from DisInsider Derek Cornell, who said Big Hero 6 characters are coming to the MCU. I barely knew what that was, but originally they were a Japanese superhero team born out of Alpha Flight that Marvel licensed out to IDW in 2019. The team originally included two Marvel characters I'm familiar with: Sunfire (briefly a member of the X-Men) and Silver Samurai, but both are disconnected from how the IP is now known. While never popular at Marvel (thus the IDW deal), it was successful as an animated film in 2014 (making almost double the box office of Into the Spider-Verse), which spawned three seasons of an animated series beginning in 2017. Cornell had no idea where they would appear, guessing Secret Invasion, Doctor Strange 2, or Agents of Atlas (the latter isn't confirmed). The day after this dropped Variety (Adam B. Vary) debunked it saying:

the “Big Hero 6” crew are not currently set to make their live-action debut within the Marvel Cinematic Universe ... Disney announced that Walt Disney Animation Studios was producing the TV series “Baymax!” for Disney Plus — suggesting Disney still sees value in further exploiting the animated feature. A different version of the same characters introduced by Marvel would inject the kind of consumer brand confusion that Disney has scrupulously avoided within its various divisions. There is always the possibility that Marvel Studios could turn to “Big Hero 6” in the future

What Variety confirmed is there aren't current plans for them to appear, with the rest of the article being his surmise (I agree with Vary about the problems of brand confusion). In response to this, DisInsider head Skyler Shuler answered ambiguously "I'm definitely not worried about [the debunking]"--meaning what? Is he taking the lose or does he still believe Cornell's scoop? The only prior Cornell scoops I've covered he was wrong both times: Hailee Steinfeld wasn't going to be Kate Bishop and Travis Knight was approached to direct Guardians 3 (cf). DisInsider isn't really the place for MCU scoops (Shuler, for instance, believed the Captain Marvel directors would direct Ms. Marvel, cf), so I'll happily side with Variety.

One thing I should briefly go over that I've alluded too in discussing WandaVision is my general distaste for sitcoms. I don't dislike all sitcoms--a few work for me--but the ones the show has been inspired by are not to my taste at all. Given that, I'm not the intended audience for that style of humour and, at least judging by the mixed reactions to the first three episodes of WandaVision, neither are most MCU fans. I'm curious how or if this will impact She-Hulk, which will be a straightforward sitcom. Showrunner Jessica Gao's claim to fame is being a writer for season three of Rick and Morty--something laudable--but the rest of her credits are a mixed bag and her immediate material afterwards (a sitcom for Disney-owned ABC) went nowhere. Feige is very hands off his projects, so it will be interesting to see if Gao can actually make it work.

We know one of the reasons Sam Raimi was picked to direct Doctor Strange 2 was his ability to bring back actors from the Sony Spider-Man IP. There's a possibility that the casting of Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight fulfilled a similar purpose, as Ethan Hawke makes it clear his involvement in Moon Knight was key to signing on for it.

Sutton put out a rambling post about an upcoming Daredevil show with Cox as the star. Within it he says that Marvel wants Vincent D'Onofrio back as Kingpin and is considering using the following villains: Bullseye (despite appearing in both the Fox film and the Netflix show), Mister Fear (there have been four versions), Stilt-Man, and Jester (a classic if minor villain for the IP). If Marvel wants to make a Daredevil show with Cox, it would be incumbent on them to do it sooner than later (to capitalize on the goodwill he still has, as well as to get the most use out of him while he's still young enough to perform the role). With that said, it's still unclear if Cox's appearance in Spider-Man 3 is a glorified easter egg before a reboot or something else.

For those of you with good memories you may recall that as far back as the summer of 2019, LotLB (TBK) claimed Marvel was interested in using characters from Western-styled comics in the MCU. Sutton took up the idea, but it hasn't come up in a year or so. We finally have resonance for it, as one of Murphy's writers has written to advocate for such a thing (the article is unremarkable, so I won't link it here). I don't think articles like this are an accident--there's no obvious reason to speculate about such a thing now, so it has me wondering if Murphy has heard something echoing the old TBK idea, but without proper confirmation he's farming it off to a lesser writer. It's just speculation on my part, but if there was solid info Murphy (or Hill) would have written about it. Food for thought. 

A bit of trivia that's going to matter mostly to me, but related to MCU coverage. I did not realize that Murphy writer Joseph Aberl is an editor at MCU Exchange. This isn't a big surprise, since Editor-in-Chief Charles Villanueva is buddies with Murphy and also writes for his site. More interesting is that Pierre Chanliau--former Reddit mod and writer for The Direct--is also an editor at MCU Exchange. This gives you an idea of how small the world of MCU fan writers is and why they tend to all have the same opinions.

Various things can nudge me down memory lane and Andy Signore's involvement with Fandom Wire reconnected me with his post-Screen Junkies buddy, Jody of Jody's Corner (a YT channel). I'm bringing up Jody in reference to the Snyder Cut because of claims he's made, but we need a little background for those unfamiliar with him. I'm hardly an expert, but I ran into Jody's channel in 2017 or so, around its peak popularity. I was not by any means a regular viewer, I just noted his various reactions and reviews. He became well known enough to appear on Collider's Heroes in 2018 (my favourite video of his remains this one, however). He is, or has become, a tornado of drama and outside Signore seems to have lost whatever goodwill he had within the fandom (in part for his endless war against Ray Fisher). When I first encountered him he was a hardcore DC fanboy (you can still watch his incoherent Infinity War review). Jody talks incessantly about how 'real' he is, but his Wonder Woman 1984 review illustrates the limitations of that.

Why is Jody stirring up drama with DC? Specifically he's at war with Snyder Cut fans--I don't know what started it, but the two sides have attacked each other for a long time. Why should we care? Because Jody claims he had an inside source at WB that gave him the scoop over what was happening with Zack Snyder during all the turmoil surrounding Justice League. In a long, rambling video he talks about what he was told. Jody's claim is that he was on-set at WB in 2017 or 2018 and talked to still photographer Clay Enos (someone apparently very close to Snyder). Enos told him the following: Snyder had a vendetta against those who ousted him at WB and recruited Ray Fisher (and possibly others) to stir things up to get revenge on them. We know that Jody was on a WB set at that time and he probably did talk to Enos, but we only have his word for it (Enos is unlikely to confirm it). This makes Jody's comments hearsay and he has an axe to grind--what can we make of it?

The problem I have with the idea, for the sake of argument accepting the basic premise that what Jody is reporting is true, is the timing. Jody's theory is that Ray Fisher's accusations (in July) were motivated by the Black Lives Matter movement--timed for maximum effect. The problem with that idea is if he's a proxy for Snyder, the director had already won by that point--AT&T gave the greenlight for the Snyder Cut in May. The only way to buy into this idea is that revenge matters more to Snyder than anything else and that Fisher wasn't bright enough to understand Zack couldn't guarantee him a Cyborg film (that's Jody's claim--that a film was dangled as bait for Ray), but revenge on who? It's very hard to parse Ray's accusations as part of a Machiavellian scheme, because most of the figures involved in Justice League already had seen their careers suffer:

• Jon Berg was fired in January, 2018, after Justice League bombed
• Geoff Johns lost his position controlling the DCEU as a consequence of Justice League bombing
• Joss Whedon lost Batgirl in February, 2018, after Justice League bombed
• Kevin Tsujihara was ousted in March, 2019, as a consequence of being MeToo'd
• Walter Hamada wasn't on the scene at WB until after Tsujihara was fired, so had nothing to do with Snyder's Justice League

Other execs at WB opposed the Snyder Cut, but Fisher hasn't attacked any of them specifically, so where is the vendetta? While Fisher's accusations pushed Whedon out of The Nevers, it's his former stars from Buffy and Angel that have sunk Whedon's career. I don't know if Jody's conversation with Enos happened as described, but the timeline doesn't match the stated conspiracy at all--as early as March, 2019, any 'revenge' Snyder wanted had already happened as a result of Justice League.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)