The VFX department at Marvel is banding together to unionize amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
On Monday, a group of more than 50 on-set employees gathered to petition for an election to be represented by the Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) with the National Labor Relations Board, reports Vulture. The election is hoped to be held as early as August 21.
This petition is a historical highlight, making the first time a VFX department has ever demanded the same rights, wage protections and professional watchdog oversight that most entertainment industry experiences.
VFX organizer for IATSE, Mark Patch, said, “For almost half a century, workers in the visual-effects industry have been denied the same protections and benefits their coworkers and crewmates have relied upon since the beginning of the Hollywood film industry. This is a historic first step for VFX workers coming together with a collective voice demanding respect for what we do.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s female trio, who are ready to go higher, further, and faster, will be saving the world together in the upcoming film, The Marvels. Fans worldwide are eagerly anticipating where this unprecedented team-up will take the MCU storyline. Despite various theories about this exciting team-up, there is also much speculation about Carol Danvers (AKA Captain Marvel) and her absence from the MCU since Avengers. It’s about time someone addressed this topic!
One of the most anticipated questions was finally answered by Brie Larson herself, she said, “The way I was able to tap into it and understand it is the concept that Carol kind of became a workaholic, and she lost touch with her heart and with family and friends,” Larson shared in an interview about her MCU whereabouts. “That’s certainly something I can relate to.” Since Endgame, Marvel Studios has released ten other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all of which had Captain Marvel largely absent, much to the disappointment of the fans.
The most recent MCU TV series, Secret Invasion, could potentially feature a reference to Captain Marvel in its final two episodes, or possibly even feature a post-credits scene setting up The Marvels. Revealing an interesting tidbit on this, Secret Invasion star Samuel L. Jackson admits, “He’s been calling her, and she’s off in galaxies far, far away.” He further adds, “She’s like, ‘Fury, why are you calling me? I told you not to use this [number].’ He’s like, ‘You gave it to me, so I’m gonna use it. And I’m calling you because I need your help!’”
The Marvels features an incredible cast including Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Samuel L. Jackson, Zawe Ashton, and Park Seo-joon in important roles. Directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Kevin Feige, this upcoming film follows Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau on a cosmic mission to save the world.
The Marvels is scheduled to hit the theatres this Diwali on November 10 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Elizabeth Olsen is offering advice to future MCU actors.
The actress, who’s starred as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2014, revealed a business-minded game plan on how to get more “creative control” in the universe for actors thinking about joining.
Her advice is simple — “just give them one [Marvel project]” — the “WandaVision” star shared during her appearance on Josh Horowitz’s the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast.
“That way you have more control over… If you, let’s say, ‘Oh my God, this is the most fun I’ve ever had and I love this character so much, I want to do it again,’ you now have more creative control for the next one,” Olsen said.
“Don’t tell [David] Galluzzi that. [He’s] business affairs at Marvel,” she joked.
Over the years, the actress has reprised her role of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in several Marvel projects, including the last three “Avengers” films, two “Captain America” movies, 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, and the Disney+ spinoff series “WandaVision”, which won three Emmy awards in 2021. Olsen’s performance in the show also scored her a nod for lead actress in a limited series.
Last year, Marvel president, Kevin Feige, told Variety that the studio “[only attempted] something like ‘WandaVision’ because Lizzie is such an outstanding actor.”
Meanwhile, a new “WandaVision” spinoff led by Kathryn Hahn, titled “Agatha: Coven of Chaos”, is currently in the works.
Furthermore, Feige noted that “there really is so much more to explore” in Wanda’s future. “We still haven’t touched on many of her core storylines from the comics.”
Victoria Alonso had been a producer for and executive at Marvel for a very long time. She joined the studio back in 2006, well before the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe blew up. When she joined, she became the head of visual effects and post-production. She was an executive producer on the first Iron Man which of course, really got the whole thing kicked off. She also served in various producer roles on films like Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. She was an executive producer role on The Avengers, one of the highest-grossing films to date. She did so much great work for Marvel that in 2021, they promoted her to president of physical and postproduction, visual effects and animation production.
With that kind of tenure, it’s hard to believe that she’d end up getting fired, but that’s what happened back in March 2023. Although no real response was given publicly, The Hollywood Reporter was contacted by a source who said that it was a result of her working outside the studio. She produced recent Oscar nominee Argentina, 1985 for Amazon, which apparently was a big no-no. According to their sources, doing so ended up breaching her contract. There may also have been another reason for the firing though.
Some reports claim Alonso also clashed with Marvel and Disney over the depictions of certain LGBTQ themes in Marvel movies; like gay pride imagery that was reportedly censored for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s release in Kuwait. Alonso supposedly fought with Marvel and Disney on this issue specifically. Whatever the reason, THR now reports that Alonso and Disney/Marvel have reached a settlement over her dismissal.
Given the backlash to developments in the MCU and theStar Wars franchise, Bob Iger has good news. Both universes are going to be more measured in approach. Iger recently spoke Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, explaining how Disney intends to move forward. It’s a necessary bit of damage control when only a week prior, it was announced that two upcoming Star Wars projects were shelved. Both Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron and a mysterious, untitled film from Kevin Feige have been canceled.
Iger said in clear terms that this isn’t an outright halt to upcoming projects. It’s just a way to make sure that the franchise is telling the right stories. He said: “We’re still developing Star Wars films, but we’re going to make sure when we make one, it’s the right one. So we’re being very careful there.”
He also cited the disappointing box office returns of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which seems to have been released right in the middle of a huge market flood for the shared universe. The film was also one of the most expensive ever made, costing a whopping $275–300 million dollars. It did break even, but after that much bankrolling, $393.2 million isn’t the prettiest number.
Iger also addressed the future approach to the MCU, which is also in the middle of a difficult time. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is also suffering some middling reviews and a less-than-stellar box office profit. In regards to this, Iger said: “I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we’re mining. If you look at the trajectory of Marvel in the next five years, there will be a lot of newness. We’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise with a whole new set of Avengers, for example.”
Steven Yeun is stepping into the MCU, joining the cast of the upcoming Thunderboltsfilm. There’s no word yet about who exactly he’ll play, although we do know a pretty extensive amount of the actors we can expect to see. The main characters are as follows: Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova/Black Widow), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Wyatt Russell (U.S. Agent), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Valentina Allegra de Fontaine).
Yeun is perhaps most well-known for his years-long stint on AMC’s The Walking Dead. Unfortunately, a big turning point for the viewership of the show was his character Glenn’s tragic death at the hands of Negan. He also went on to star in a number of acclaimed films like Burning and Minari. At the moment, he’s probably most recognizable as the voice of Mark Grayson from Invincible. He was also recently seen in Jordan Peele’s Nope.
The director set to helm Thunderbolts, Jake Schreier, has worked on a few films, such as Robot & Frank, as well as Paper Towns. Most of his career has actually been in directing music videos for some pretty high-profile artists, as well as a number of commercials.
We don’t really know much at all about the actual plot of the upcoming film, but we do know a good bit about the characters, and the nature of the team they’re on. The Thunderboltsare a team made up of reformed (or mostly reformed) supervillains, trying to atone for their past sins. Perhaps Kevin Feige put it best when he said: “It tells you a lot about the team when beloved Winter Soldier is the most stable among them.”
Thunderbolts is set to start filming in June of 2023, with a release date of July 26, 2024.
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Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man series is synonymous with superhero movies… And there was almost a fourth. We now have new info about the film.
Whether you love or hate the Raimi trilogy, it helped pave the way for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it today. The planned fourth entry in the series unfortunately never got made thanks to some disputes with Sony along the way, but we do know a few things about it. First of all, it was going to feature the Vulture. Secondly, Anne Hathaway could have shown up as Black Cat. But how would this all have played out?
Well, thanks to an interview with /Film, we know. They spoke with Jeff Henderson, a storyboard artist for the movie. Henderson revealed that:
The Daily Bugle was going to get bought out by a huge multinational conglomerate, kind of like a Daily News or a TMZ. They wanted to turn the Daily Bugle into a gossip rag. And for all of JJJ’s faults, he was still a newsman. He’s still old school like Walter Cronkite, ‘News is news, this is bulls—,’ that kind of thing. I thought thematically that was a really good way in, because you have that conflict between the modern and social media sensibility about news versus the old school version. So JJJ kind of got cast aside. The reveal was that the female executive who’s in charge of the buyout, who’s overseeing the company that’s taken over The Bugle, ends up being [Vulture’s] daughter.
In the same way that Harry Osborn became the new Goblin to avenge his father, this new, original character, who would have been “The Vulturess,” would have held a similar grudge against Spider-Man. Perhaps it’s a little too similar to the other major arc in the series, but interesting nonetheless.
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David Harbour is branching out from his Stranger Things fame to develop his MCU character, Red Guardian. After previously appearing in Black Widow, Harbour now says the upcoming Thunderbolts will bring something new. Thunderbolts, the final film of Phase 5, sees Red Guardian thrown into a whole new scenario. In the movie, he’ll be joining a Suicide Squad-like team of anti-heroes.
In addition to Harbour’s Red Guardian, there are plenty of other “heroes” on the Thunderbolts team. Based on concept art, the group also features Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina, and the list goes on. Additionally, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, will also appear in the film.
Colliderrecently spoke with David Harbour, and while the conversation wasn’t centered around Thunderbolts, things understandably drifted in that direction. He shared the following thoughts on the film:
It’s really cool. We introduce a thing that’s super cool. It’s vital. I’m psyched that Julia Louis Dreyfus’ character is going to be, in a bigger way, explored … I just love this mercenary element in the MCU. MCU has always been sort of elevated in a certain way. Captain America, even Iron Man, although he has egos, are always in it for the right reasons or ultimately does the right thing. And I like these guys who are a bunch of losers or a bunch of guys who can’t quite get it right. And so far what they’ve pitched me just feels really cool
As of now, Thunderbolts is slated for release on July 26th of 2022.
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These great Marvel characters have yet to make the jump to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Black Panther: Wakanda Foreverhas a whole lot riding on it, and according to critics, the filmmakers managed to pull it off. The film is sitting at a nice 86 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. As one of the last projects in the MCU’s Phase 4, and a major sequel to a cultural landmark, expectations were high. While it’s not quite as highly ranked as its predecessor, 86 percent is really nothing to sneeze at.
Critics have said that the film really manages to feel like a touching tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, while also managing to forge its own identity. Another major contributor to the film’s success was the appearance of Namor, who’s apparently an excellently written villain. Tenoch Huerta has also been praised for doing one of Marvel‘s oldest characters justice in his first major appearance.
The movie is expected to make about $365 million dollars in its opening weekend, and that Rotten Tomatoes score will definitely do it some favors in that department. Luckily, despite a meandering Phase 4 that some detractors have criticized as lacking direction, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever seems to get things back on track. In fact, the Critical Consensus section on Rotten Tomatoes calls the film: “A poignant tribute that satisfyingly moves the franchise forward, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever marks an ambitious and emotionally rewarding triumph for the MCU.”
Despite the fact that it’s one of the best-ranked Phase 4 films so far, it’s still trailing behind Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. In fact, it’s technically only tied for number 15 overall out of all of Marvel’s feature films currently listed on Rotten Tomatoes. Of course, there’s still time for more reviews to come in, and the number is subject to change.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to debut in US theaters on November 11, 2022.
How Wakanda Forever Sets Up MCU Phase Five
Here are all the upcoming movies and shows spinning out of the Black Panther sequel.
MCU fans are returning to Wakanda for the first time since Avengers: Infinity War, to join the fictional African country in honoring the death of Chadwick Boseman, aka King T’Challa. The mantle of the Black Panther will pass on in this film to continue the story but there’s enough returning cast to maintain a cohesive story between the first and second movies.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be available to watch in cinemas next week, with Ryan Coogler returning as writer-director. Other returning stars included Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, and Daniel Kaluuya.
Another returning element is the phrase ‘Wakanda Forever’. The name of the sequel is referenced in the first movie – but what does it actually mean? Here’s what you need to know.
Wakanda Forever Meaning Explained
The title of the film is a play on the salute and chant used by the citizens of Wakanda, the MCU’s fictional African country where vibranium is mined. Many fans of the first Black Panther film adopted the salute themselves back in 2018, crossing their arms across their chest and bowing their heads while saying the phrase.
The gesture is also used as a greeting by Wakandans, as well as a symbol of utmost respect and a war cry. T’Challa yells it to encourage his army into action against Thanos’ army in the Battle of Wakanda in Avengers: Infinity War.
Wakanda Forever signifies longevity and meaning well beyond the framework of the first film, while also becoming a symbol for Black pride in real life. As such, the title Black Panther:Wakanda Forever is also testament to the lasting legacy of the first film and Boseman himself, as the first Black MCU lead.
While Boseman cannot continue in his role, he undoubtedly changed the MCU and cemented his place in its history for good. The story may shift away from King T’Challa but in keeping ‘Wakanda Forever’ in the title, it highlights the ongoing connection to the first film and the impact that Boseman and his character had on the franchise.
Ultimately, putting ‘Wakanda Forever’ in the title of the sequel highlights that Wakanda as a people and as a representation of Black identity and power is here to stay, even if the titular character has changed. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is expected to further explore the society of Wakanda and the royal family reside, demonstrating there is still plenty more to discover.
Inspiration comes from all places, even the unlikely ones. Still, it’s a little strange to hear that Terminator 2: Judgment Day was an inspiration for Wakanda Forever. Writer/directorRyan Coogler takes a unique but ingenious approach to villains. Rather than drafting an evil cardboard cutout, he creates a reasonable character with unreasonable methods. Looking back on Black Panther, it becomes obvious how this works out. Killmonger wasn’t wrong per se, it’s just that his modus operandi put him at odds with T’Challa.
Coogler recently sat down for a chat with Collider to speak about his method for creating villains, as well as Namor, the key antagonist in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In regards to villains as a whole. He also delved a bit more into how exactly he came to take inspiration from James Cameron’s Terminator 2.
Terminator 2 is a big inspiration for this movie. Big time. And you think about what T-1000 wants, and what Arnold Schwarzenegger’s robot wants. They both want John Connor, but T-1000 wants to kill him, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character wants to protect him. That’s the movie. And I look at it like that and also try to spend time with them. Not too much, you know what I’m saying? But enough that you understand where they’re coming from and that you believe them when they make threats.
Coogler also compared that approach to the Terminator character to his version fo Namor, noting “That’s what makes Namor, I think, so cool in the books. In most publishing runs of him, he’s very arrogant. But you also know he has the capability to do what he’s saying he’s going to do. He walks in in his underwear and says, ‘Hey, I’m going to kill everybody.’ But you believe it because you know he is capable of it.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters on November 11, 2022.
How Every MCU Phase Four Movie and Show Is Connected
Seven movies. Eight shows. One theme unites them all — and here is how.
Marvel’s Phase 4 can feel a little disjointed depending on your perspective. That’s why it’s helpful that Kevin Feige explained how it all works out. People have a few gripes about Phase 4 and the state of the MCU in general right now, but hopefully, those are on their way to being fixed.
A lot of people feel like Phase 4 has been all over the place, with more Disney+ series than movies. The movies have also been of wildly varying quality. During the previous three phases, most of the films that came out were universally loved. That’s not the case now. Movies like Eternals and Thor: Love And Thunder got amongst the worst reviews in Marvel history, and reactions to She-Hulk have been mixed.
Despite all of that, excitement for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is at an all-time high, and if all goes well, it could be one of the best films in Phase 4. One of the biggest elements of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the introduction of Namor. Namor’s extremely important to a ton of Marvel stories, and beyond that, he’s just cool. In the comics, he’s from Atlantis. He also dates back to Marvel Comics #1, which was released in 1939.
According to Kevin Feige, Namor and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are the key to understand what all of Phase 4 of the MCU — starting with WandaVision on Disney+ and concluding with Wakanda Forever in theaters — has been all about. At the Wakanda Forever premiere, Feige explained…
The reason [Black Panther: Wakanda Forever] anchors Phase 4 — and the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special — is because the phases are all about introductions. And Phase 4, think about all the characters we’ve met. And now, finally, in the finale of Phase 4, looking at it by phases, we meet an entire new kingdom and a character who is the very foundation of what we do at Marvel.
You can watch the whole interview with Kevin Feige below. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters everywhere on November 11.
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Marvel‘s always extremely careful to keep new developments under wraps. That’s why it’s so strange that they may have leaked the identity of Emilia Clarke’s character. Fans have known that she’d be appearing in Secret Invasion for a while, but nobody knew who she was playing. The show is coming to Disney+ next year, and it has huge implications for the MCU going forward.
Marvel was reportedly adding gifs from Secret Invasion into the Tenor GIF database. Eventually, they added one of Emilia Clark saying the phrase: “It’s the beginning.” When fans took a look at the filename in the database, they realized something. The filename was “it’s the beginning abigail brand.” They matched it against the other files of known characters, which pretty much followed the same format.
That seems to mean that Emilia Clark is almost surely playing Abigail Brand on Secret Invasion. But who exactly is Abigail Brand? In Marvel Comics, she’s the leader of S.W.O.R.D., which is a sister organization to S.H.I.E.L.D. S.W.O.R.D. is responsible for defending the Earth from extraterrestrial threats. Aside from all of her affiliations, she’s also just a really interesting character on her own.
In general, a lot of people tend to be fairly wary of Brand, especially Nick Fury. At least in the comics, Brand is also half-alien, with her father belonging to an unnamed race. While Nick Fury is a little suspicious of Abigail Brand, she’s extremely important to the Secret Invasion storyline. When the Skrulls show up and start wreaking havoc on earth, she quickly becomes one of the main players in driving them away.
As of now, there’s no official date for the Disney+ premiere of Secret Invasion. All we know is that it’ll be streaming on the service sometime next year.
There is an endless debate with a few different sides to it regarding Rotten Tomatoes that crops up every time a new big movie or show comes out. Either the critics score is the most important because they’re professionals and audience scores can be overtaken by fanboys. Or critics are snobs and the only score that matters is what the audience thinks. Or neither matters, and you should just decide for yourself. But I mean, who has the time to test-watch everything?
I’ve seen all the angles. Sometimes it seems like critics get it wrong. Other times it seems like audience scores are warped by positive or negative mass bombing. But one theory is that if you average the two scores, you get a more accurate picture of where the truth lies. So I’m going to try that.
I am going to rewrite an old list of the best MCU movies and shows (DCEU later) based on what happens when you combine the two scores together. And we’ll see where we are at the end of that. If there’s a tie, I gave it to critics score.
Spider-Man: No Way Home – 95.5 (93% critics, 98% audience)
Shang-Chi – 94.5 (91% critics, 98% audience)
What If…? – 93.5 (94% critics, 93% audience)
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD – 93 (95% critics, 91% audience)
Iron Man – 92.5 (94% critics, 91% audience)
Spider-Man: Far From Home – 92.5 (90% critics, 95% audience)
Avengers Endgame – 92 (94% critics, 90% audience)
Guardians of the Galaxy – 92 (92% critics, 92% audience)
Loki – 91 (92% critics, 90% audience)
Marvel’s The Avengers – 91 (91% critics, 91% audience)
Captain America: Civil War – 89.5 (90% critics, 89% audience)
Ms. Marvel – 88.5 (97% critics, 80% audience)
Avengers Infinity War – 88 (85% critics, 91% audience)
Black Panther – 87.5 (96% critics, 79% audience)
Doctor Strange – 87.5 (89% critics, 86% audience)
Moon Knight – 87.5 (86% critics, 89% audience)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – 86 (85% critics, 87% audience)
Black Widow – 85 (79% critics, 91% audience)
Ant-Man – 84 (83% critics, 85% audience)
Ant-Man and the Wasp – 83.5 (87% critics, 80% audience)
Marvel’s Agent Carter – 81.5 (86% critics, 77% audience)
Jessica Jones – 81.5 (83% critics, 80% audience)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – 79.5 (74% critics, 85% audience)
Avengers: Age of Ultron- 79 (76% critics, 82% audience)
Luke Cage – 78.5 (87% critics, 70% audience)
Iron Man 3 – 78.5 (79% critics, 78% audience)
Captain America: The First Avenger – 77 (79% critics, 75% audience)
Thor – 76.5 (77% critics, 76% audience)
The Defenders – 74 (78% critics, 70% audience)
Iron Man 2 – 72 (71% critics, 71% audience)
Thor: The Dark World – 70.5 (66% critics, 75% audience)
The Punisher – 71 (64% critics, 78% audience)
Thor: Love and Thunder – 70.5 (64% critics, 77% audience)
The Incredible Hulk – 68 (67% critics, 69% audience)
Captain Marvel – 62 (79% critics, 45% audience)
Eternals – 62 (47% critics, 77% audience)
She-Hulk – 60 (85% critics, 34% audience)
Iron Fist – 52.5 (37% critics, 68% audience)
Inhumans – 27 (11% critics, 43% audience)
So, a few trends. Audience scores are generally higher than critics, but sometimes the two groups agree almost exactly like with What If…?, Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel’s The Avengers. Everyone seems to agree that Iron Fist and Inhumans are the worst-ever things in the MCU. The top 5 are a little surprising, including Shang-Chi’s bonkers high audience score, which is impressively tied with No Way Home.
Okay phew, this will be much easier with the DCEU.
Before the death of Chadwick Boseman, Marvel had a totally different plan for aBlack Panthersequel. The film initially revolved entirely around Boseman’s T’Challa. In fact, earlier versions of the movie’s script were structured completely differently from the current one.
New trailers for the film show Wakanda mourning the loss of its greatest warrior. In the original script, the film would have instead been about T’Challa learning to cope with his new role as his country’s leader. Ryan Coogler and Lupita Nyong’o spoke about the initial plan with The Hollywood Reporter, shedding a little more light on the film, as well as backlash surrounding the decision not to recast Boseman’s role. Coogler said:
The script we wrote before Chadwick passed was very much rooted in T’Challa’s perspective, It was a massive movie but also simultaneously a character study that delved deeply into his psyche and situation.
“That is not the death of the Black Panther, that’s the whole point. It’s laying to rest [T’Challa] and allowing for real life to inform the story of the movies,” added Nyong’o. “I know that there are all sorts of reasons why people want him to be recast, but I don’t have the patience. I don’t have the presence of mind, or I don’t have the objectivity to argue with that. I don’t. I’m very biased.”
In the version of the film coming to theaters, T’Challa’s friends and loved ones must move on from his death while dealing with the threat of an invasion from Namor, who comes from an underwater civilization whose technology is nearly on par with Wakanda. In the MCU, Namor hails from Talocan, a mythical city derived from Aztec mythology. He’s quite a force to be reckoned with.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is slated for release on November 22nd of 2022.
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After the untimely passing of William Hurt as a result of stomach cancer, Thaddeus Ross will be portrayed by Harrison Ford instead. Hurt announced that he was diagnosed with the disease back in 2018, and passed away in March 2022. In addition to tons of incredible roles back in the day, he played Thaddeus Ross in a number of Marvel movies. Hurt’s list of Marvel credits is actually pretty long. He started with The Incredible Hulk, then appeared in Captain America: Civil War, followed by Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Widow.
Harrison Ford is a big get and with Thunderbolts on the way, it’s not actually going to be his first appearance in the MCU. At least according to reports, that would instead be the upcoming Captain America: New World Order. For those who aren’t familiar with the general plot of Thunderbolts, think something akin to Marvel’s version of Suicide Squad. Sometimes the Thunderbolts are rounded up by a government agency and sent on a mission, and in other iterations, they create a fake superhero team to slowly replace the Avengers.
Despite his age, Harrison Ford has been extremely busy lately. In fact, he’s been filming a new Indiana Jones movie. We can’t say for sure what exactly the MCU holds for him in the future… but interestingly enough, in the comics, Thaddeus Ross ends up turning into a Red Hulk. Now, we aren’t saying that Harrison Ford is going to put on a mocap suit and portray a giant rampaging monster, but it would be pretty cool.
Marvel’s Upcoming Phase Four, Five, and Six Movie and TV Lineup
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Everyone was a little caught off guard by the recent announcement, and imminent release of Werewolf by Night, a horror project based on some pretty obscure comics that was being directed by musical composer Michael Giacchino.
But as a one-off special on Disney Plus and an unusual entry into the MCU, turns out it’s pretty great. And right now, it has attracted the highest audience scores of any series Disney has released on the streaming service to date. And it’s top three in terms of critics scores, too.
Here’s the list as it stands now that Werewolf by Night has arrived:
Ms. Marvel – 97% critics, 80% audience
What If…? – 94% critics, 93% audience
Werewolf by Night – 92% critics, 94% audience
Loki – 92% critics, 90% audience
Hawkeye – 92% critics, 90% audience
Wandavision – 91% critics, 88% audience
She-Hulk – 87% critics, 36% audience
Moon Knight – 86% critics, 90% audience
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – 84% critics, 83% audience
A 94% puts it above everything else on the list including What If…? though it may drop be become tied with it. Generally speaking, audience scores are between the 80-90% range for most of these projects, outside of the absurd review bombing that’s happening with She-Hulk, which has sunk it to a goofy 36%. 44% below the next closest score, Ms. Marvel, which was also review bombed for a time, though not nearly this bad.
Werewolf by Night
Disney
If you’re not sure whether to watch Werewolf by Night or not, or even really know what it is, here’s the official description:
“On a dark and somber night, a secret cabal of monster hunters emerge from the shadows and gather at the foreboding Bloodstone Temple following the death of their leader. In a strange and macabre memorial to the leader’s life, the attendees are thrust into a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic—a hunt that will ultimately bring them face to face with a dangerous monster. Inspired by horror films of the 1930s and 1940s, the chilling special aims to evoke a sense of dread and the macabre, with plenty of suspense and scares along the way as we explore a new corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
It’s a classic horror homage, and a pretty good one, by all accounts. It’s literally just an hour long, a single “episode” telling the story, unlike really anything else the MCU has done to date. I expect to see more experimental projects like this in the future, because that’s the kind of flexibility Disney Plus can offer, when used correctly.
Glad to see the MCU branching out, and now I’m curious what it might look like if they let Michael Giacchino direct a full series or movie, instead of just scoring them…
