Do you still think Sucker Punchwas just shy of being a truly great work? If so, Zack Snyder agrees with you—and he’s ready to make its Snyder Cut a reality.
Spoilers of the Week April 11-15
Talking to Empire earlier in the week, the director was asked about what he’d change from any of his movies. (Other than the one he already did that with, of couse.) He picked his 2011 action flick, which he says “never really got finished correctly. […] If I had the chance, I would fix that movie.” What’s stopping him from whipping up those changes is, accoring to him, both the resources and explicit permission to do it.
“They have to let me put it together,” he explained, presumably referring to Warner Bros. or Legendary Pictures. “I have the footage already shot. […] We ask every now and then, [and] we have to ask again. I think there has to be a window when no one’s got the movie.” He further implied that fans could help get the ball rolling faster, saying “if they want to start a campaign, that’s alright.”
Sucker Punch originally released in 2011 and starred Emily Browing as Babydoll, who gets sent to a mental hospital after accidentally shooting her sister while trying to fight off her abusive stepfather. Upon learning she’ll be lobotomized, Babydoll and her fellow patients—played by Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, and Jamie Chung—enter a number of fantasy worlds to find items that’ll help them escape in the real world. With negative reviews and an $89.8 million box office (on an $82M budget), it wasn’t really well-liked at the time, not helped by the flak it caught for its elevator pitch of girls fantasizing about killing monsters with swords and guns as they do erotic dances IRL.
Times have changed, though, and it’s possible the film would be better (or just more interesting?) if it’s been retooled. But would fans want to will that one into existence like they did with Justice League? That may be a little harder to determmine, since it’s yet to receive a widespread reappraisal like other movies lately.
If you were to make a list of people you’d expect to make a gritty, grounded, realistic, political thriller-slash-war movie, Alex Garland wouldn’t be on it. From his earliest work writing movies such as 28 Days Later and Sunshine to his directorial efforts such as Ex Machina and Annihilation, Garland has almost exclusively worked in sci-fi. So when his name pops up on a movie like Civil War, a cautionary action film about the political divide in the United States, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher. Garland gets that.
Denis Villeneuve on Ending Dune: Part Two That Way
“The reason I love sci-fi is because sci-fi has always permitted big ideas into it. It’s not embarrassed of big ideas,” Garland told io9 on video chat last week. “They exist in Forbidden Planet. They exist in Star Trek. There would be clear discussions or metaphors or literary analogies or whatever it happens to be. It was just allowed. And sci-fi audiences were kind of open-minded. They actually liked that… whereas if you did that in other genres, people would raise an eyebrow, like get a bit arch and a bit skeptical, in a sense… But [Civil War], if this was too sci-fi, it would reduce the texture of reality. And so it just didn’t feel appropriate. If I’d set it on a distant planet, yeah, it would have worked as an analogy, maybe, but it wouldn’t have the strength of the assertion.”
And so the sci-fi guy put that all aside and approached reality in his own, unique way. In Civil War, Garland presents a United States that is no longer united. The country has fractured into several different areas, many of which are now at war with one another. And while there is clearly DNA pulled from the current political climate, the film very specifically veers away from defining anything specifically. No one is right-wing, no one is left-wing, everyone just is, and that objectivity was not only a conscious choice in the writing, it echoes in his lead characters too.
Garland on set.Image: A24
“What I wanted the film to do was to function as a film in the same way as the reporters, which is just to show a sequence of events with a kind of studied neutrality,” he said. “Now, that doesn’t mean that it’s without bias, because a journalist reporting on something might have very strong feelings, and in fact, you could almost guarantee they would. So it’s just to do with how information is presented.”
Garland’s attempts at personifying and paying homage to objective, hard-nosed journalism even carried over to the choice of journalism depicted in the film. Though modern media is ruled by video, the main characters in Civil War are still photographers, a specific nod to the old-school way of doing things Garland wanted to pay tribute to.
“When you make a film, you try and make it work at different levels, and some of them are quite unconscious levels,” he said. “You hope it lands in an unconscious way but, in truth… [having the characters be photo journalists] reminds people of that old-fashioned form of photojournalism. Of that old-fashioned form of reporting when you had—in the 1960s and 1970s or whatever it was—these still photographers winding their camera. So it’s like a kind of trace memory.”
Photojournalism in full effect.Image: A24
Garland hopes when Civil War comes out, that it’ll be less of a trace memory for people and more of a gut shot. But he’s not exactly sure if that’ll happen. “It’s a dice roll,” he said. “You’re throwing this out into a polarized world where if you are not preaching to the choir that wants to be preached to, then they’ll get pissed off. Because that’s the counter. You want to hear your own biases reflected back at you.”
And from the guy who usually writes about running zombies, spaceships, AI, and alternate dimensions, it’s not doesn’t seem to be a reflection of him at all. Even though it is.
Civil War is in theaters Friday. We’ll have more from Garland later this week.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empirehas a lot of characters it’s juggling, and one of the most important wasn’t even actually in the film’s marketing. That would be Melody, played by Gossip Girl’s Emily Alyn Lind, a 16-year-old who quickly strikes up a friendship with McKenna Grace’s Phoebe Spengler. The twist? She’s a ghost forced to stay on Earth until she finds a way to reunite with her family on the other side.
Ernie Hudson on Filming Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and the Fan Base
In a recent Hollywood Reporter interview, Lind revealed that her ghost status was something even she didn’t know about until she’d locked down the role. Director Gil Kenan never explicitly said as such during their talks, and lines like “I get it. I’m like a hundred years old,” she just assumed that translated to Melody being an old soul. As for why it was kept secret, she reasoned it came from her character being “a different kind of ghost” for the series. Instead of being purely chaotic or malevolent, Melody’s “a ghost with a heart,” similar to Ghost Egon in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. “[She] has a full human relationship, so I think that there was a part of them that really wanted to catch people off guard in that sense.”
In the film, Melody’s stuck in limbo after her family died in a house fire she personally feels responsible for. Her choices in the film all stem from that survivor’s guilt, and Lind was frannk in saying she’s glad her character saw the error of her ways: for one thing, getting to team with the OG and new Ghostbusters at the end had her “so giddy,” and she loved sharing the screen with series veterans like Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts. But it also meant folks wouldn’t leave the theater calling for her head, “just like they’ve hated me in other films for fucking the story up.”
As for Melody and Phoebe’s friendship and all the subtext in the movie, Lind called their dynamic one of “two souls connecting.” While she acknowledged parts of it can be read as romantic—and that Phoebe wanted a closeness with someone—both characters are “still two kids in a lot of ways. They’re cut from the same cloth and ousiders in their own ways. […] And now they’re connecting on this grandiose level in two different dimensional planes, and they’re just trying to figure out this world together. I like that we didn’t define it as one thing or another. Sometimes, when people do that, it ruins it. It’s too concrete and absolute, and they’re so not absolute as characters.”
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now playing in theaters.
When the Monsterverse versions of Godzilla and King Kong crossed over in 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, it was inevitable that the two beasts would link up again. Surprisingly, that ended up being the immediate next movie in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire(which doesn’t sound how it’s titled), which sets the two up as allies instead of two dudes beating the crap out of each other. And how does it stack up as the fifth entry in the series?
Rebecca Hall on Filming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Like Godzilla: King of the Monsters before it, New Empire has a mixed reception in the critical circles. As with earlier movies, the human cast aren’t much to write home about, and so much of this is just a lot of setup for the monster fights. But as always, the two Titans are really impressive, both visually and in terms of the sheer spectacle of. It also helps that, as director Adam Wingard’s previously talked about, much of the movie focuses on Kong and Godzilla having wordless, human-free arcs of their own for several stretches of time.
Audiences seem to be more onboard with Empire than critics. At time of writing, it’s made $80 million in the US, significantly higher than its initial $45-55 million projections. With $194 million worldwide (at time of writing), it’s helped the franchise cross $2 billion at the box office and is said to be the fifth-biggest Easter opening ever. Folks have really taken a shine to this series, and it probably doesn’t hurt that Godzilla Minus One sparked some interest in the radioactive lizard from anyone previously uninterested.
For this weekend’s Open Channel, we want to know what you thought about New Empire. How’s it stack up to the earlier movies, and what do you want out of the MonsterVerse next? Let us know in the comments below.
Two weeks ago, Dune: Part Twocame out in theaters, and became the first big hit of 2024. Even with Kung Fu Panda 4 releasing last weekend, that hasn’t really changed—if anything, it’s looking like Part Two is going to have some hefty legs throughout the rest of its theatrical run.
Denis Villeneuve on Ending Dune: Part Two That Way
Per Variety, the sci-fi film is more than likely going to make over $500 million by Monday. At time of writing, its global take is $494.7 million, putting it slightly over the $434.8 million of the original movie. While the 2021 film had a simultaneous HBO Max release to contend with , Part Two was touted as being exclusively in theaters, and has the word of mouth to keep it going. (If you have Twitter, you’ve probably heard of the guy who’s seen it nearly 20 times by this point.) Currently, i’s the highest-grossing movie in all of 2024 both domestically and worldwide. Going past $500M would make it one of the few movies to do so in our (not entirely) post-pandemic times, and analysts have speculated the movie will do around $600M when all is said and done.
Even with Dune’s new milestone, Kung Fu Panda 4 managed to secure the top spot in the domestic box office. Dreamworks’ animated sequel netted another $30 million in North America and $39.6 million internationally. At $176.5 million worldwide, it still has a ways to go before it touches the box office of the first three films, which each made $500-600M during their individual runs.
Next week, both movies will have some mighty competition in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which has been getting heavy promo in recent weeks. (That, and folks love them some Ghostbusters.) On March 29, the kaiju will go to war in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, though that one may be hurt (or helped) by the recent success of Godzilla Minus One. Given how well it’s doing so far, WB might keep Dune around in theaters for longer than normal—but if not, there’s always streaming.
Hope you like Blumhouse movies, because the company is re-releasing some old ones into theaters later this month.
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Hoping to start a new annual trend, the five day-long Halfway to Halloween film festival sees Blumhouse partnering with AMC Theaters (across 100 theaters in 40 US cities) from Friday, March 29 to Tuesday, April 2. Splitwill kick things off on the 29th, followed by The Purge(March 30), Ouija: Origin of Evil (March 31), Insidious (April 1), and 2020’s The Invisible Man (April 2). In the case of Insidious, that’ll also mark the film’s 13-year anniversary. Each screening will also give viewers the chance to win a giveaway or see a recorded message from a particular film’s director or cast.
For those wincing about ticket prices wherever they live, Blumhouse has got you covered: tickets will run $8 a pop each day. The entire point of the festival, accoding to Blumhouse founder Jason Blum, is to “celebrate local communities of horror fans…with a fun, affordable and slightly evil night at the movies.” Along with big cities like Boston and Miami, theaters in Wichita, Spokane, Dallas, and New Orleans will be a part of the festival.
It’s looking like this’ll be a summer of re-releases. Along with Blumhouse, Dreamworks recently confirmed it was bringing Shrek 2back to theaters to celebrate that film’s 20th anniversary. Sony’s allegedly bringing its eight live-action Spider-Man movies back, too. Not only does Columbia Pictures turn 100 this year, the second entry in each Spider-Man era hits a significant milestone: Spider-Man 2 will turn 20 on June 30, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be 10 on May 2, and Spider-Man: Far From Home hits five years on July 2. (These re-releases may also have something to do with Madame Web underperforming, but who can say?)
You can get tickets for the Halfway to Halloween festival here.
Last year’s Fast Xcame and went with a more muted fanfare than we typically get form the long-running franchise. In the months since its release, Universal’s been relatively mum on the series’ next installment, Fast XI, but leading man Vin Diesel is reaffirming that the film will be a definitive end for the series—and possibly give him a reason to bow out altogether.
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On Friday, he posted on Instagram about a meeting he’d had with the Fast writers and teams, wherein he really underlined that Fast XI will close the door on the series. “To say the excitement for our finale was incredibly powerful is an understatement,” he wrote. “This grand finale is not just an ending; it’s a celebration of the incredible family we’ve built together. Hope to make you proud!”
Diesel’s post serves as the first real status update on the series after he’d been sued last December by an ex-assistant for sexual battery during Fast Five’s production. Because he’salso been a producer on the films since Fast 4, it’s been a mystery as to how that suit would affect the franchise. At the time, he’d denied the allegations, but he’s largely stayed out of the spotlight—as noted by the Hollywood Reporter, last week’s American Cinematheque Awards marked his first public appearance since the suit in December.
At time of writing, Dwayne Johnson is still meant to headline another spinoff focused on his character Luke Hobbs, and it’s likely Universal will eventually resurrect the entire series after a few years. Fast XI, meanwhile, is still on scheduled to release on April 4, 2025, with the primary Fast X cast all currently set to return.
Once Star Wars: The Force Awakensbrought back Luke, Han, and Leia to massive box office success, legacy sequels really started working overtime to keep the original (and available) franchise stars around when possible. Ghostbusters: Afterlife brought back the still-living Ghostbusters from the original two movies, and they’re back again alongside an also-returning Annie Potts for March’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
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Talking to SFX Magazine, director Gil Kenan promised the fifth film will do right by the original cast by having them be actual characters. Some legacy sequels bring back the older stars just to collect a paycheck, but Kenan promised the veterans would be “more fully fleshed out” here. “We had a duty to make those legendary characters integral to this story.”
Kenan co-wrote both Afterlife and Frozen Empire with Jason Reitman (who directed the former). As a fan of the series, having Winston, Venkman, and Ray show up in Afterlife was “really thrilling,” because he felt the film “redefine itself” with their arrival. “[They]grew and became more fully fleshed out in a way that speaks to the promise of the original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2,” said Kenan. “There’s a direct line from there into who they are now and how they act here in our new story.”
Afterlife was dinged for overly relying on fan service, a criticism that’s stuck to Frozen Empire with some of its marketing so far. If the new film is going to have more to offer than seeing the original cast suit up One Last Time (again), hopefully that’s better conveyed so audiences know what to expect.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire releases in theaters on March 22.
LONDON—Eliciting loud gasps from spectators as he posed for photos, actor Timothée Chalamet stunned at the Dune: Part Two premiere Thursday night by wearing a metal saucepan on his head. “It was a daring fashion choice, but Chalamet certainly made a statement by donning a 3-quart All-Clad stainless steel saucepan on the red carpet,” said fashion critic Eric Jeffries, adding that the pan, which was a vintage 1995 model, covered his hair, eyes, and nose, making it difficult for the 28-year-old to see. “Although Timothée initially had trouble walking due to the pan obscuring his vision, he was ultimately able to pull off it off with confidence and panache. And to top it all off, he completed his cyborg-chic look with a whisk in his left hand and a big wooden spoon in his right. Fashion will never be the same.” According to reports the crowd at the premiere gasped when Chalamet changed into a big cardboard box covered in duct tape with the word “robot” written on the front.
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Amazingly though, Godzilla himself is probably the least impressive visual effect in the entire movie. A new video released by Toho pulls back the curtain on the film’s Oscar-nominated visual effects which, yes, includes Godzilla. But also shows the incredible ways the team achieved all the water sequences, recreated old cities, and more. Plus, the video breaks down how all of this was achieved by fewer people than a Marvel movie probably has preparing its food. Check it out.
The Visual Effects of Godzilla Minus One
So, again, while Godzilla certainly looks awesome in the movie thanks to the team’s VFX, I watched this and was fascinated to see how everything else was achieved. How all of the ships were created using just one small set. How the actors themselves had to sway back and forth to simulate the waves. Just how little was shot practically of the crowd scenes compared to what we see in the movie.
Plus, the brief scenes inside the offices of director Takashi Yamazaki scooting around while everyone worked are just plain delightful. Even if those were captured after the fact, which they almost certainly were, the way it conveys the size of the team and streamlining of the process is a nice little window into the filmmaking process.
Godzilla Minus One, io9’s choice for best genre film of 2023, is still playing in some theaters. Fingers crossed we can get our hands on a physical copy sooner rather than later.
BURBANK, CA—Announcing the Beauty And The Beast character was available for public use as of Jan. 1, 2024, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed Tuesday that the company was relinquishing the rights to LeFou decades before the film’s copyright expired. “Go ahead, put LeFou in whatever silly slasher films you like—we do not care for him, and we never have,” said Iger, who called upon DreamWorks, Warner Bros., or “whoever the fuck” to go ahead and use the character in whatever creative projects they like. “If you want to use LeFou, we won’t sue you. So go on. You have my word. Technically, the copyright isn’t until 2086, but we hate that little shit. Just promise you won’t try to make him look cool because he’s not cool—he fucking sucks.” At press time, Iger added that anyone who tried to touch Lumière would be fucking dead.
From his critically maligned but fan-favorite Sucker Punch to his infamous internet darling “Snyder Cut” of 2017’s Justice League, Zack Snyder is no stranger to drumming up discourse whenever one of his films nears release. His latest effort for Netflix, Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire, has already sparked discussions of an R-rated, three-hour director’s cut to give his fans an alternate taste before Rebel Moon — Part Two hits the streaming platform early next year. But while Snyder may do his best to invent a dark, gripping universe to engross viewers, Rebel Moon is a limp, soulless regurgitation of tropes stolen from much more formidable films.
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Written, directed, produced, and shot by Snyder, Rebel Moon follows Kora (Sofia Boutella), a battle-hardened soldier with a tragic past. Though she’s attempting to live a low-profile life on a peaceful farming colony, Kora is forced to once again take up the mantle of warrior when the Motherworld sends a military contingent led by the brutal Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein) to occupy her new home. With the help of a humble farmer (Michiel Huisman) Kora sets off on a galaxy-spanning adventure to recruit a ragtag group of fighters to defend her homeland.
Attempting to establish an original, engrossing science-fiction world is no small task, even for the most adept of writers, and it’s painfully clear that Snyder took heavy aesthetic and stylistic notes from genre classics like Star Wars and Dune, without understanding the story and emotional beats that made those aforementioned franchises so beloved. Certainly, there’s all manner of science-fiction spectacle in Rebel Moon to gawk at: the characters are all dressed in tattered greyscale robes, wielding retrofuturist weapons and talking about the “Motherworld” and the “Imperium.”
But while every element of production design, costuming, and worldbuilding is certainly specific, none of them are inspired or purposeful. Instead, Rebel Moon’s stylistic sensibilities feel like Snyder simply tossed all the sci-fi greats into a blender and called it a day. Extensive attention is paid to plotting out lore and history, but Snyder forgets to flesh out the characters that populate his meticulously detailed universe.
Aside from Kora, whose tragic backstory and brutal upbringing are delivered entirely through clunky monologues of exposition that bleed into extensive flashback sequences, the rest of Rebel Moon’s sizable ensemble castare eacg allotted five minutes of dialogue, if that. Kora and her crew flit to a new planet, are treated to a dazzling display of their new ally’s combat prowess, given the CliffsNotes version of their tragic backstory (is there any other kind?), and then that character simply falls in among the ranks, never to be examined or explored with any real intentionality again.
As for Kora herself, Boutella brings the customary strength and stoicism expected of a YA dystopian protagonist with none of the heart or passion. Constantly glowering out from underneath her dark crop of hair, Kora is a painfully uninteresting hero whose stoicism is certainly understandable given her history, but whose personality could not make for a more tepid protagonist. Though she’s plenty ferocious in combat, Kora is detached and distant when not embroiled in a fight, giving the entire film a remote, inaccessible emotional core. At two hours and 15 minutes, Rebel Moon is a laborious moviegoing experience—why should the audience care about the film’s events when the protagonist herself barely seems to?
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire | Official Trailer | Netflix
Rebel Moon’s lack of interest in exploring its own characters is made all the more frustrating by the cruel, visceral nature of its villains—while we don’t get much personality from Kora, Gunnar, and the other wannabe heroes, we are treated to several extended sequences that revel in the cruelty and violence of the Imperium. The vaguely fascist ruling faction is clearly an underbaked stand-in for Star Wars’ Empire, but Snyder mistakes onscreen brutality for effective writing. The film’s first act subjects viewers to an extended sequence of Imperium soldiers attempting to rape a villager, a scene that serves no other purpose than making explicitly clear to the audience that the authoritarian military occupiers are, in fact, bad guys.
The world Snyder has created is a cold, brutal one, utterly lacking in any kind of charm, whimsy, or excitement. The closest Rebel Moon ever comes to eliciting any kind of emotional response is during the action-packed, slo-mo heavy combat sequences. Stories like Star Wars and Dune soar by using far-fetched worlds and fantastical settings to interrogate relatable, deeply human ideas. Rebel Moon, on the other hand,trades in the aesthetic trappings of those classics without making the effort to engage on any emotional or philosophical level.
Though Rebel Moon ends on a relative cliffhanger with the promise of a sequel on the horizon, it’s difficult to imagine why one would want to subject themselves to another two hours in this soulless slog of a universe. Certainly, Snyder is a master of his particular brand of highly stylized action sequences, but the sheer lack of emotional stakes and memorable characters renders Rebel Moon toothless.
Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child Of Fire begins streaming on Netflix December 21.
A new Spider-Man 2 launchtrailer debuted just ahead of its October 20 release, and it’s got a brief clip that has anime fans going wild. The trailer, which shows off villains like Sandman, Mr. Negative, and Venom, also has what looks to be an attempt at an iconic move from the beloved 1998 anime film, Akira. Unfortunately, fans aren’t thrilled at Spider-Man 2’s tribute to the anime film—they’re laughing.
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Akira is a touchstone in the animation community and beyond for its accomplished storytelling and stunning hand-drawn animation. The most memorable moment from the two-hour film is what fans call the “Akira Slide:” a two-second clip where protagonist Kaneda skids his 200-hp motorcycle on the highway. The anime move is so iconic that it’s been replicated in numerous anime, cartoons, video games, and live-action films like Jordan Peele’s Nope. Regardless, any media that has the Akira slide tends to get cool points on the internet— that is unless you’re Spider-Man 2.
In a brief scene from the Spider-Man 2 launch trailer, Mary Jane Watson does her own version of the Akira slide (around the 54-second mark) but things don’t go according to plan. Namely, she falls off her motorcycle before it reaches a complete stop. To her credit, we don’t know the context for why MJ biffed the Akira slide. Maybe she was being chased by one of the many goons Spider-Man is always dealing with and slid out of desperation rather than in an attempt to look cool. Regardless, lack of context hasn’t stopped less-than-charitable anime fans on Twitter and Reddit from dubbing MJ as the first fictional character to botch the Akira slide.
“Nah MJ fucking up the Akira slide gotta be the top 5 craziest fumble of all time,” Twitch streamer GamesCage wrote on Twitter.
“I actually found this funny bcs you don’t see people actually failed doing the ‘Akira Slide’,” ADC_Vr said.
“Mj busting her ass doing the Akira bike slide is some of the funniest shit I didn’t know I needed to see lmfaooo,” Anim0nk wrote.
“Yoshida-sama has been slighted by this homage through the scarlet woman,” fudgedhobnobs wrote on the r/Spiderman Reddit.
While some fans are trouncing MJ’s vehicular oopsie as developer Insomniac Games “not [understanding] the assignment” others offered the Marvel heroine an out by reminding fans that they don’t have the context for the clip and that the Akira slide is difficult to replicate in a real-world setting.
“No one can land it, the Akira slide is literally impossible on pavement unless it’s icy or your tires are greased up,” Red_Naxela_ wrote.
It’s unclear what set up the Akira motorcycle scene but perhaps we’ll learn more about it through an MJ-centric story mission.
Spider-Man 2 will release on October 20 exclusively on the PlayStation 5.
Image: Production I.G / Studio Khara / Crunchyroll
At New York Comic Con on October 13, Crunchyroll announced Kaiju No. 8, a popular Shonen Jump sci-fi monster fighter series, will come to the anime streaming service exclusively next spring.
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Kaiju No. 8’s elevator pitch is basically what would happen if an adult Peter Parker was smack-dab in the middle of a Godzilla story. The series follows Kafka Hibino, a 32-year-old who let his dream of fighting on the front lines alongside his childhood friend Mina Ashiro pass him by. Kafka works a thankless blue-collar job as a sanitation worker tasked with cleaning the aftermath of cataclysmic metropolitan kaiju battles. Meanwhile, Mina serves her country as the fearless leader of Japan’s Kaiju Defense Force.
Kafka’s life is one of missed opportunities. That is, until a freak encounter with a monster gives him the ability to transform into a humanoid kaiju. A Kaiju Man, if you will. Now, Kafka must keep his newfound alter ego under wraps while pursuing his childhood dream of becoming a kaiju fighting hero with Mina.
Animation powerhouseProduction I.G (Ghost in the Shell) will produce the anime alongside Studio Khara. Studio Khara’s involvement in Kaiju No. 8 is kind of a big deal (pun intended) in light of its previous work on director Hideaki Anno’s Neon Genesis Evangelion rebuild films and his tokusatsu films, Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, and Shin Kamen Rider. Studio Khara will provide kaiju designs for the series as well. Safe to say Kaiju No. 8’s anime adaptation is in good hands with folk who are intimately familiar with the genre.
During Crunchyroll’s NYCC industry panel, Kaiju No. 8’s creator Naoya Matsumoto shared a special note to fans, saying:
[Kaiju No. 8 is] a story about someone struggling in a harsh world without ever giving up, in the hopes of leading people into an even slightly brighter future. To anyone dealing with the complexities of reality that reads this manga, I hope it can help make your future a little brighter, too.
Just in time for Pride, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse moviegoers think the summer box-office phenomenon offers some pretty compelling evidence that one of its heroes, Gwen Stacy, is trans.
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While the film never explicitly raises the issue of whether or not Gwen Stacy is trans over the course of its two-hour and twenty-minute runtime, some Spider-Verse viewers feel that her character arc, which includes a painful coming-out of sorts to her father, functions as a trans allegory. And the visual motifs that the film employs during this pivotal scene only serve to drive home that interpretation.
Throughout the film, the watercolors lending their hues to the background of Gwen’s universe shift to match the emotions she’s feeling. It lends her whole world a similar look to that of Robbi Rodriguez’s cover art for her 2015 comic book, Radioactive Spider-Gwen.
However, during a pivotal scene where Gwen reveals to her father, Captain George Stacy, that she’s Spider-Woman, the entire backdrop of the Stacy household is awash in white, blue, and pink watercolors: the same colors that make up the trans pride flag. The tri-color art direction during Gwen’s anguished confession about an aspect of her identity she fears her father won’t accept underscore a conflict that resonated with many trans viewers.
“I truly thought the ‘Gwen is trans’ stuff in ATSV was just Twitter doing its usual thing but no it’s AGGRESSIVELY loud about it,” Twitter user Blankzilla wrote. “Being draped in the trans colors while giving a speech about having to hide half of yourself from the people you love is as subtle as a brick.”
“Thinking about Trans Gwen Stacy and her entire plot being about centered around her father’s struggle to believe her and accept her identity,” tori_af said.
“Mfs be like ‘gwen stacy isn’t trans’ and then they have a four minute sequence in the movie where she’s just the trans flag colors,” Moshy_Maybe wrote.
Aside from Gwen’s confessional with her father feeling akin to a trans person coming out to their family for the first time, eagle-eyed Spider-Verse viewers also spotted a bunch of items scattered about her house as evidence supporting their ongoing fan theory. For example, one Twitter user pointed out that Gwen has a trans pride pin on her jacket and a “Protect Trans Kids” sticker on her wall, and her dad has a trans pride flag on his police uniform.
Kotaku reached out to director Kemp Thompson and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller for comment.
Sony Pictures Animation
Gwen Stacy’s visual motif is like a ‘mood ring’
Spider-Verse fan theories about Gwen Stacy being trans might not be entirely off the mark. In an interview with Cinema Blend, Gwen Stacy actress Hailee Steinfeld revealed that Spider-Verse director Kemp Thompson and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller described the watercolors of Gwen’s world as “like a mood ring.”
“It will visually change as her circumstances change, and the emotions she feels we will feel in the audience on screen,” Steinfield told Cinema Blend, adding, “I’m biased, but Gwen’s world is pretty beautiful.”
If the filmmakers had the wherewithal to drop a visual hint that Miles altered his fate from becoming Prowler back in Into The Spider-Verse, who’s to say they didn’t also deliberately drop the most obvious artistic clue that Gwen is trans in Across The Spider-Verse?
Whether or not Gwen is trans, Twitter user RawbertBeef perfectly encapsulates what Spider-Gwen means to the trans community by saying, “even if the movies never outright confirm it…if she can make somebody feel represented, who are you to tell them they’re wrong?”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in a weird phase right now, and no, I don’t mean Phase Five which began with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Over just a few short days, it became clear that the shared movie universe is undergoing a lot of change, and not for the best reasons. From actors to workers and even top leadership, Marvel’s going through it right now.
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Marvel as a subset of Disney was just part of a huge set of layoffs earlier this week, with Mickey Mouse and friends slashing over 7000 jobs. Only the first wave of those cuts happened this week, and the final 7000 number is expected to come sometime in April. Company-wide, personnel is being dropped by one of the biggest corporations in the world, but even outside of egregious labor issues, Marvel has been dealing with a few more precise changes in its workforce.
Top executives are being let go
Marvel recently fired Victoria Alonso, who AV Club describes as “one of the biggest architects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” having been with the connected universe project for over a decade before her leaving the company earlier in March. At the time of her departure, she was Marvel’s president of physical production, post-production, VFX and animation. According to a Variety report, this came as part of a joint decision between Disney’s human resources, legal department, and executives including but not limited to Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman. Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, reportedly didn’t intervene, and Alonso was “blindsided.” The entire situation is wading into legal territory. Disney says Alonso’s firing came as part of a breach of contract because of her production work on Argentina, 1985, a non-Disney film, though Alonso’s team claims she had permission to do so.
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On top of this, there seems to have been conflict between Alonso and Disney/Marvel in regards to queer issues within the company, according to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Alonso, who is gay, reportedly clashed over an issue where Disney wanted a scene in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania altered to blur out a shop window that included Pride memorabilia in Kuwait, which has anti-LGBTQ+ laws in place. This is after she publicly spoke out against then-CEO Bob Chapek at the GLAAD awards for Disney’s reaction to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and was told she would no longer be allowed to do press for Marvel. Attorney Patty Glaser, who is representing Alonso, released the following statement to Variety:
“The idea that Victoria was fired over a handful of press interviews relating to a personal passion project about human rights and democracy that was nominated for an Oscar and which she got Disney’s blessing to work on is absolutely ridiculous,” Glaser says. “Victoria, a gay Latina who had the courage to criticize Disney, was silenced. Then she was terminated when she refused to do something she believed was reprehensible. Disney and Marvel made a really poor decision that will have serious consequences. There is a lot more to this story and Victoria will be telling it shortly—in one forum or another.”
While Alonso’s influence on the MCU is significant and dates back to the earliest films like the original Iron Man, she’s also been named in ongoing reports about the dire state of the animation industry as reported by Vulture and allegedly blacklisted artists working on Marvel projects that she took issue with. In general, Marvel’s animation and VFX workers have been coming forward about apparent toxic work environments and unfair contracts while working on the studio’s projects. This has reportedly been especially difficult on Disney+ projects like She-Hulk, with smaller budgets and shorter turnaround times still expecting movie-quality work.
Another high-profile departure is that of Ike Perlmutter, who was let go from the company this week. Perlmutter has had a long, storied history with Marvel, including a stint on the board of directors (as well as the chairman of the board), working as the vice chairman of the company in the early 2000s, moving up to the chief executive officer position in 2005, then remaining the CEO after Disney acquired the comic company in 2009. He oversaw Marvel Studios up until 2015 while reportedly being very tight on production budgets and also claiming Black people “look the same” regarding Don Cheadle’s replacement of Terrence Howard as James Rhodes in the MCU. He operated as a chairman from 2017 until his eventual layoff.
Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence case is ongoing
While executive departures will have an effect on things down the line, the most immediate problem Marvel movies have to contend with is the ongoing domestic violence case against actor Jonathan Majors. The actor, who plays Kang the Conquerer most recently in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, was arrested in Manhattan on assault, strangulation, and harassment charges. Majors’ legal team led by attorney Priya Chaudhry claims he’s innocent and released text messages allegedly sent by the victim in the case. The texts say this was “not an attack,” claim fault for the dispute because she was “trying to grab [Majors’] phone,” and disputed the strangulation charges. The alleged texts say the authorities were called due to the woman fainting, and that when there was a suspicion of a domestic dispute, Majors was arrested per mandatory arrest laws associated with domestic abuse cases in New York.
Majors’ future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is unclear as the investigation is ongoing, but the U.S. Army has pulled ads featuring the actor until the investigation is complete. The reason this is so significant in Marvel’s view is Majors’ character, Kang the Conquerer, is essentially Marvel’s main villain right now. He’s only appeared in two projects thus far, one being the Loki Disney+ show, and the second being Quantumania. But the shared universe franchise is leading up to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, both of which are set to feature Kang as the primary antagonist. He’s a Thanos-style character that Marvel can’t simply pluck from the story. Should the investigation lead to a guilty verdict, it’s likely Majors will be recast.
While all of these developments have happened for different reasons, whether that be corporate greed, office politics, and a domestic violence case, Marvel as a production is seeing some serious shake-ups right now. Not all of it seems to be of the company’s volition, but things are changing for Marvel at a time when the brand has been losing a lot of its staying power. Quantumania is the last movie Marvel released in theaters, and it was one of the series’ most poorly received and is sitting at a 47 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
While Marvel movies still make more money than you or I will ever see in a room at once, the franchise has been trending somewhat downward at the box office. Quantumania still made $470 million in its theatrical run, but that’s significantly lower than Ant-Man and the Wasp made in 2018, which was around $623 million. Several Marvel movies have made below the half-a-billion mark in recent years, such as Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Black Widow is one of the lowest-performing movies in the franchise’s lifetime with $379 million but was notably hindered by the covid-19 pandemic making fewer people willing to head out to theaters in 2021. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever did manage to bring in over $859 million, but that was even down from the original’s $1 billion.
It’s unclear what, if any, changes this might bring to the franchise, but figureheads and workers that have been with the brand for a long time are gone. Reading over it all now, ultimately, I sympathize most with the workers who were subject to the layoffs. Alonso and Perlmutter will be fine, but the people who worked (and apparently suffered) under them are in a much worse position.
We’ve reached out to Marvel, Majors, and Alonso for comment on this story and will update it should we hear back.
Update: This piece has been updated with information about Alonso’s reported disputes with Disney regarding queer content in its movies.
