The release date of The Marvels is fast approaching, but with the Marvel Cinematic Universe mired in uncertainty, the film has been plagued by doubt and delays. Now, director Nia DaCosta has addressed criticism that she received for leaving the production early to work on another film.
Jake Hamilton, interviewing DaCosta for his YouTube channel Jake’s Takes, asked about DaCosta’s supposedly controversial departure from the film. Earlier this month, Varietypublished an exposé on Marvel Studios, in which an unnamed source stated that “If you’re directing a $250 million movie, it’s kind of weird for the director to leave with a few months to go.”
However, while interviewing DaCosta, Hamilton pointed out that it’s not unheard of for directors’ productions to overlap, citing Steven Spielberg leaving Jurassic Park early to start working onSchindler’s List.
DaCosta’s response was enlightening.
“For me, personally, it was literally just that [Marvel] moved [the release date of The Marvels] four different times, and so instead of being a two-year process, which I was deeply committed to, it became a three and a half year process …. They knew the entire time that I had an obligation, a green-lit movie with people who were waiting for me, and I pushed that, and I pushed it again, and then I pushed it again, and then eventually we all knew like, okay, if this gets pushed again, I’m not going to be able to be in L.A. to do the rest of this in person. So we just figured out a way to do it remote.”
DaCosta also explained how she worked with the rest of the crew to finish the film. “We figured out the best process,” she said. “At the time that I left to go to London to start prep on my next film, everyone was so clear about what the film was that we wanted, everyone knew what I wanted, so it really wasn’t the dramatic sort of thing that people think it is.”
DaCosta added that directors finishing one production while beginning another “happens quite a bit” in the film industry, despite the judgement coming from Marvel’s anonymous source.
The Marvels opens in theaters this Friday, November 10.
This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the work being covered here wouldn’t exist.
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
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.
James Cameron‘s Avatar The Way Of Water is performing extremely well at the box office in India. The film packed a very strong first weekend of over Rs. 128.5 cr nett and the film is far from slowing down as it has a lot of business left to do. The holiday season is yet to start and it is certain that the film will not slow down, courtesy the not-so-strong local competition, atleast for another three weeks, looking at the advance bookings.
Avatar: The Way Of Water held very strongly with a 50 percent drop from the first Friday, which only goes on to indicate a strong hold. The film added a figure in the vicinity of Rs 19 – 21 crore on its fourth ticketing day. Interestingly, the first Monday of the film is higher than the opening of all Hollywood releases of 2022 in India, barring Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. With a hold like this, one can be sure that the Christmas and New Year holidays are going to be bumper for the film. It will be fancying its chances to record a higher eighth day than the first day of the upcoming Bollywood release Cirkus and that will be a huge achievement.
Avatar grossed over Rs. 435 million dollars in its very first weekend worldwide. India emerged as the third biggest global market, only behind USA and China in terms of number of tickets sold. It is to be seen how many tickets India is able to contribute in the film’s full run. Based on projections, a number of 1.5 crore tickets should be a reasonable ask, given that total sales have already surpassed 80 lakh.
Have a look at the day-wise box office collections of Avatar: The Way Of Water:-
The custom made Xbox set evokes the iconic Wakandan salute from the films.
Microsoft
The highly anticipated Marvel Studios release Black Panther: Wakanda Forever sees Letitia Wright’s tech genius Shuri take center stage. And as young women and other STEM hopefuls look up to this new role model, Microsoft and Marvel Studios have joined forces to push the power of her example even further.
On November 3rd, the two companies invited journalists, creators, and community leaders to the Microsoft Experience Center in New York to reflect over Shuri’s example and celebrate the real world efforts of women in tech.
The evening began with a special video from Letitia Wright herself emphasizing the power of the Black Panther story to inspire. After this, Editor-at-Large at PEOPLE PEOPLE Janine Rubenstein took the stage and introduced the panelists: Microsoft’s Q Muhaimin, Product Manager for Xbox Experiences and educator Erica Buddington, founder of Langston League and champion for culturally relevant and identity-affirming educational programs.
Rubenstein guided the panelists through reflections on each of their journeys into the tech world, and the identify-based struggles that involved. The women brought up their successes, their challenges, and the role models that lifted them up throughout, much like Shuri would be able to do, now, for so many.
Janine Rubenstein (L) talks women in tech with panelists Q Muhaimin (M) and Erica Buddington (R).
Microsoft
Additionally, as Rubenstein called out, Microsoft and Marvel Studios’ efforts around maximizing the impact of the new film would not end here. The layered collaboration also includes community theater buyouts with local content creators in order to bring the film to under-resourced communities, a dazzling drone performance in the night sky, the first ever “Wakandan HBCU Lecture” delivered by Professor Jacoby DuBose at Howard University, and a new, easy to follow coding curriculum teaching youth powerful tech skills via making their very own Black Panther video game.
But of course, the star of the event sat on its pedestal to the left of Rubenstein: a custom designed Xbox Series X stylized with patterns, controllers, and charging stations all crafted to evoke the iconic Black Panther Wakandan salute. The set itself is both part and exemplary of this entire initiative and the power sitting behind the Black Panther symbol. And so that is why Microsoft and Marvel Studios plan to hand it over to a few lucky winners via a special Twitter giveaway.
The first Black Panther film met not only critical and commercial success, but set off a cultural wave that reverberates throughout the world still today. And now, the sequel is poised to expand that impact even further, this time shining an even brighter light on women of color who wish to become tech leaders and warriors in their own ways.
This collaboration then, hopes to just nudge all that along.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing in theaters. The film stars Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta, and Angela Bassett and is directed by Ryan Coogler.
Microsoft’s giveaway contest for the custom Black Panther Xbox Series X is now active and ends on December 1st. See here for details on how to submit via Twitter for a chance to win.
Disney and Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the sequel to the 2018 blockbuster Black Panther, earned $84 million on its opening day Friday, making it the 10th highest opening day sales ever, beating Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness—and it’s expected to finish the weekend with nearly $200 million.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actor Lupita Nyong’o, one of the stars of the Marvel sequel.
WireImage
Key Facts
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s $84 million opening day total includes the $28 million the highly anticipated sequel to director Ryan Coogler’s Oscar-winning Black Panther earned in previews on Thursday.
That beats this year’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in opening day earnings ($54.7 million)—that Marvel sequel had the biggest opening weekend of the year ($187 million).
The Black Panther sequel, which opened in 4,396 locations Friday, has big shoes to fill, however, in order to outperform its predecessor in opening weekend earnings (The first Black Panther made $200 million domestically on its opening weekend, and has since grossed more than $1.3 billion worldwide).
Wakanda Forever is expected to earn between $185 million and $200 million this weekend, according to Variety, although Deadline puts its weekend earnings slightly lower, at $175 million to $185 million.
So far, it’s received favorable ratings, with critics giving it an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 68% on Metacritic, while audiences have given it a 95%.
Big Number
$716 million. That’s how much Top Gun: Maverick has earned domestically since it opened in May, making it the highest grossing film this year, followed by Doctor Strange ($411 million), Jurassic World: Dominion ($376 million) and The Batman ($369 million), according to Box Office Mojo.
Key Background
The original Black Panther was Marvel’s first movie to be nominated for the Academy Award for best picture. It also won Oscars for best costume design, original score and original song, and was nominated for best picture at the Golden Globes. Two years after its release, however, Chadwick Boseman, who played the lead role T’Challa, died of colon cancer, sending shockwaves through Hollywood—he hadn’t previously made his diagnosis public. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige made the decision not to recast the role, saying, “it just felt like it was much too soon.”
Surprising Fact
The movie’s impressive opening day could also be attributed to Veterans Day falling on a Friday, meaning kids were off from school and many adults were off work.
Tangent
Another big release on Friday was The Fabelmans, director Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film about his own childhood and the movies that inspired him to become a filmmaker. The movie has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 83% rating on Metacritic.
A “WandaVision” spin-off, tentatively titled “Vision Quest,” is reportedly in the works at Disney+, Deadline reports.
Paul Bettany is set to reprise his role as Vision, the synthezoid created from vibranium. The series is expected to center around Vision “trying to regain his memory and humanity,” per the outlet.
Fans will remember that the eighth episode of “WandaVision″ showcased the first appearance of White Vision — a being who was rebuilt and reactivated by S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division) using Vision’s body — and tasked to destroy Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and her “Conditional” Vision.
The two Visions ultimately squared off in a battle royal in the final ninth episode of the show.
The episode has led some to unofficially refer to the upcoming show as “the White Vision project” based on the most recent on-screen version of the character.
Olsen could also potentially return as Wanda Maximoff in the upcoming spinoff, according to the outlet.
Nonetheless, Bettany hinted last year to Deadline that fans could see Vision again in future projects.
“We really found a lane for ourselves, and this was different in tone from those movies,” he told the outlet in August 2021. “But you never know with Marvel whether you’re done or not. So I don’t want to call it the end yet. This was one of the most creative experiences of my life, joyful and free, making this show. To see it embraced by an audience the way it was, was so wonderful.”
Another “WandaVision” spinoff is also on the horizon titled “Agatha: Coven of Chaos.” Although Marvel has been tight-lipped on the plot details, it’s been announced that Kathryn Hahn will reprise her role as Agatha Harkness from “WandaVision.” The series will premiere on Disney+ in winter 2023.
Both shows will be reportedly spearheaded by Jac Schaeffer, who served as WandaVision’s creator, head writer and executive producer.
The first season of “WandaVision” is available to stream on Disney+.
