Tag: marvel studios

Marvel Bounces Back With Phase 4 Releases And Finally… Fantastic Four!

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2020 has been the first year in a decade not to see any Marvel theatrical releases. While I’m certain I don’t need to explain why that is, the news from today’s Disney Investors meetings should keep fans of the studio’s output very happy. Buckle up, because this is quite a ride…

A slew of new releases will begin on January 15th, as WandaVision becomes the first Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series, crossing over onto Disney +. Here’s the new trailer for this extremely exciting looking show, starring Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Teyonah Paris and Kat Dennings:



Following that on the same channel, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, starring Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp and Wyatt Russell, will arrive on March 19th. Marvel dropped a brand new trailer for this:



The first trailer also arrived for the Loki series, starring Tom Hiddleston as the God of Mischief, Owen Wilson and Gugu Mbatha-Raw:



And finally we have a sizzle reel, including the first snippets of footage, for the as-yet undated Ms. Marvel, starring Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms.Marvel:



Also announced and/or confirmed without release dates, were forthcomng series Hawkeye, seeing Jeremy Renner reprise his role, alongside Hailee Steinfeld as comic book favourite, Kate Bishop, and She-Hulk, with Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, Tim Roth returning as the Abomination and an appearance from Hulk himself, Mark Ruffalo.



Meanwhile, What If…? and I Am Groot will see animated adventures on the channel, and just announced at the last minute: James Gunn will write and direct The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, for an unannounced date in 2022, and the same year will see Don Cheadle in his own series as James Rhodes, in an adaptation of a famous Iron Man comic book storyline, Armor Wars.



Looking further ahead to shows in development, Moon Knight will get his own series (apparently with Oscar Issac in the title role, as a bizarre and complex vigilante), Samuel L Jackon’s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn’s Skrull, Talos from Captain Marvel, team for Secret Invasion (another comic book series, which saw the shape-shifting Skrulls infiltrate the Marvel heroes on Earth), and finally, Dominique Thorne will play genius inventor Riri Williams in Ironheart, a series about the creator of the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.

The long-delayed Black Widow movie will finally be released, to cinemas according to Marvel Studios’ head honcho, Kevin Feige, on November 6th, 2021. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has now completed production and will be in theaters July 9th, 2021.

Christian Bale is confirmed to be joining the cast of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, released May 6th, 2022.

Meanwhile, Brie Larson returns as Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel 2 on November 11th, 2022, directed by Nia DaCosta. Joining the cast are recently announced Ms. Marvel, Iman Vellani, and Monica Rambeau played by WandaVision’s Teyonah Parris.

Peyton Reed is back to direct the third Ant-Man film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer all return. Kathryn Newton joins the cast as Cassie Lang and Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. No release date was given for this yet.

Although news on Black Panther 2 was somewhat understandably slim, Feige confirmed that T’Challa, as played by the late Chadwick Boseman, will not be recast.

And, as if all this wasn’t breathtaking enough for Marvel fans, Feige announced that Jon Watts (director of the MCU Spider-Man films) will bring Marvel’s First Family (created by Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby, in 1961), Fantastic Four to the screen at last, thanks to the all-powerful Disney returning the characters to their rightful home in the recent acquisition of 21st Century Fox. There have been two previous screen versions of these characters through Fox (including a rights grabbing abomination, infamously directed by Josh Trank in 2015), but fans of the Four have longed to see them integrated into the MCU, and now that will happen.



2020 may have been a quiet period for Marvel fans, but it’s safe to say the studio will be back with a bang in 2021.

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The MCU Gets Weird With WandaVision Trailer

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The trailer for WandaVision, the first Marvel Cinematic Universe series to hit Disney Plus dropped last night, and it looks like things are about to get mighty strange…



Not much is known about the plot for WandaVision, but it does apparently take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the events of Avengers: Endgame, which saw The Vision meet his synthetic maker (that can’t possibly be a spoiler for anyone now, right!?). That in itself makes this show intriguing, to say the least.

Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprise their roles from the Marvel movies, joined by Teyonah Parris, Kat Dennings, Randall Park, and Kathryn Hahn, while the six episodes have been written by Jac Schaeffer and directed by Matt Shakman.

No date was given for the release of the series, just a generic ‘Coming Soon,’ though since the series was originally supposed to drop in December, following Falcon And the Winter Soldier (which has been delayed in production due to that all-encompassing Covid-19), it now looks like WandaVision will kick off the Disney Plus Marvel bandwagon.

We’ll just have to wait and see when exactly this slice of Marvel weirdness will arrive on our screens, but this trailer certainly has me looking forward to it…

Marvel Cast Tatiana Maslany As She-Hulk For Disney Plus

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I have to be honest, I’m a little obsessed with Tatiana Maslany. It’s her teeth. They are, and I’ll brook no argument on this, the sexiest teeth on television.

That aside, the fact that Marvel have landed Maslany for the title role in their new She-Hulk series for Disney Plus is excellent news, because her performances in BBC America show, Orphan Black, were fabulous. Maslany was nominated for three Emmys and a Golden Globe during the show’s run between 2013 and 2017, winning the Emmy for best actress in a drama series in 2016.

She-Hulk, to those who are behind on their Marvel Comics’ lore, is the alter-ego of lawyer Jennifer Walters, Bruce Banner’s cousin who, at least in her four-colour origin, is tranformed into an intelligent, green-skinned giant after a life-saving blood transfusion from her (in)famous relative. Mark Ruffalo has coyly intimated he may even reprise his role as Banner for a cameo on the show.

She-Hulk’s debut on the screen is shaping up nicely, as Maslany’s casting joins the announcement from earlier this week that Kat Coiro had been signed as director and executive producer. She will direct the pilot and additional episodes of the series. Jessica Gao is writing the series and serves as executive producer and showrunner.

Coiro has directed shows including It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Dead To Me, while Gao has Rick and Morty on her resume, which suggest She-Hulk might follow the frequently semi-comedic tone taken by the best of the character’s comic book appearances (star artist/writer John Byrne produced a memorable run in the 80s, with Shulkie, as she’s affectionately known, frequently breaking the fourth wall to address readers).

She-Hulk, with a currently unknown release date, will join other Marvel Cinematic Universe shows on Disney Plus, including Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision and Loki, with Hawkeye, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel also in development.

We’ll bring you more news as it hits.



Tatiana Maslany photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

WandaVision, Loki and Falcon and the Winter Soldier Teasers: You WILL Subcribe To Disney +

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disney plus

Those of you who unsubscribed to Disney + at the end of The Mandalorian: get ready to re-subscribe:

There are your Super Bowl teasers for forthcoming Marvel TV shows: WandaVision, Loki, and Falcon And The Winter Soldier. Well, Disney +, you have my attention.

All featuring the actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, Tom Hiddleston, and Anthony Mackie & Sebastian Stan), joined by the likes of Kat Denning and Owen Wilson, these look set to be intriguing expansions of the first ten years of Marvel, ready to lead us into the next phase.

The first show up will be Falcon And The Winter Soldier (autumn 2020), which looks like it will deal head on with the space left by Steve Rogers (oh, the whole world has seen Avengers: Endgame by now, right!?).

WandaVision (following soon after) looks especially bizarre, seemingly taking visual cues from the likes of  I Love Lucy and Roseanne. It’s great to see these shows might take some creative risks.

And I feel sure Mr Hiddleston will bring a fan or two into the Disney streaming service with Loki, in 2021. Also expect this show to tie-in heavily with cinema sequel, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, sadly without director, Scott Derrickson, who recently departed the production due to those pesky “creative differences.”.

Now, where’s that TV remote? I have some planning to do…

Marvel’s Black Widow Teaser Trailer

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black widow

Things have been relatively quiet on the Marvel front post-Endgame/Far From Home, but now you can get your Marvel geek on again with the Black Widow teaser trailer…

…that looks like a whole bunch of fun.

Scarlet Johansson and Rachel Weisz are always good value, Florence Pugh is increasingly on my radar after Midsommar and, honestly, who doesn’t want to see David Harbour squeeze his dad bod into the Red Guardian’s costume (straight out of the comics, natch)!?

I’m sure we’ll be getting a more expansive trailer closer to the film’s May release, but honestly, I’m sold already.

Black Widow moves us fully into the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Four on May 1st, 2020 and I am all here for it.

The Masters Versus Marvel

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scorsese

So… Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Ken Loach and Marvel movies.

A lot of people have been asking me if I’m angry at the disparaging comments from these revered directors, about Marvel films not being “cinema”, seeing as I’m such a fan of the studio’s output.

And my response to this? Well, actually… not in the slightest.

I mean look, these three directors have made some genuinely amazing movies between them, undeniable classics of cinema, including Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Kes and I, Daniel Blake.

Scorsese, Coppola and Loach have worked long and hard in the film industry and produced an incredible body of work and now they’re all of a certain age and they’re perfectly entitled to their opinions, no matter how grouchy.

But those opinions don’t affect my love for what I consider to be far more than just churned-out fare from the Hollywood factory. I think the Marvel movies, some fair, some good and some downright amazing, constitute a bold, incredible experiment in long-form narrative, told with passion and love for the source material by creators who care about making the best in escapist entertainment.

I don’t want all movies to be Marvel movies, but they have a place in the world that fits just fine with my sensibilities (and clearly those of many others). Of course I recognise that they are part of the larger corporate design, but that doesn’t mean the creatives aren’t doing their best work within that environment.

And if I have some criticism of what Scorsese et al. are saying, it’s that it all feels a little churlish to undermine that work. Frankly, it just makes the three of them a little diminished in my eyes, a little lacking in class to throw unnecessary shade across the bow of the efforts of fellow industry creatives.

But beyond that, what they’ve said doesn’t affect me, it shouldn’t affect you, and it doesn’t change what I love about Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange or The Avengers. It also doesn’t change what I love about Casino, The Conversation and Cathy Come Home.

If these three old masters want to define “cinema” in such narrow terms, well good for them, they’ve more than earned the right.

For me, however, cinema is a broad and wonderful church, from the smallest, most personal stories, to huge, archetypal tales of soaring wonder, and everything in-between.

Cinema is whatever each of us wants it to be.


– Dave King, Editor In Chief, is a multi-hyphenate, which sounds rude but isn’t. He is an animation director-producer-writer-lecturer-bon viveur whose work has been seen in books, newspapers, magazines, comics, TV and web series, commercials, music videos and documentaries.

He is also an Englishman in Norway, which means he drinks from the skulls of his enemies but lifts his little finger while doing so.

Spider-Man: Sony and Marvel Stick Together (For Now)

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spider-man-far-from-home

In news that, while not entirely shocking, is most certainly welcome, Sony and Marvel have come to an agreement to continue working together on Spider-Man.

Variety announced today that Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman, Marvel’s Kevin Feige and Walt Disney Studios’ head Alan Horn have been involved in top-level negotiations to allow their successful working relationship to move forward.

Right now that means the third film in the “home” trilogy (after Homecoming and Far From Home) will fall under the deal, as well as the option for Spider-Man/Peter Parker to appear in one future film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I am thrilled that Spidey’s journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it,” said Feige in a statement. “Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.”

This is much better news than fans of this iteration of Marvel’s famous web-slinger could have hoped for in recent weeks, given the very public rift between the two companies, which was based on movie profits and merchandise rights.

Thankfully, level web-heads have saved the day and Spider-Man will swing where he belongs. At least for now.

Marvel Finds Its Kate Bishop For Hawkeye TV Show – Hailee Steinfeld!

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hailee

Variety are reporting that Marvel are close to signing Hailee Steinfeld to play Kate Bishop, in their new Disney Plus limited series, Hawkeye.

Jeremy Renner will move across from the movies to play Hawkeye, and Steinfeld will play Kate Bishop, a character who took on the mantle of the Hawkeye name, while Clint Barton was off doing dark deeds as Ronin (as seen in Avengers: Endgame).

We’re big fans of Steinfeld, here at Out Of Dave’s Head Towers, from her breakthrough role in the Cohen Brothers’ 2010 remake of True Grit, through to her superb turns in films including The Edge of Seventeen and the Transformers film it’s okay to like, Bumblebee.

Since these series on Disney Plus will be more directly linked to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (unlike the ABC and Netflix shows, which drifted further away from the MCU over time), it will be intriguing to see whether Steinfeld as Bishop will eventually cross over into future films.

Hawkeye will string his bow on Disney Plus in autumn 2021.

Game Of Thrones Comes To Marvel (And What That Could Mean For The Cinematic Universe)

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kit-harington

There’s been a lot of news coming from Disney’s D23 expo this weekend, so let’s catch up on the fact that Game Of Thrones’ Kit Harington, better known as Jon Snow, is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Harington will join his Game Of Thrones buddy, Richard Madden, in Chloé Zhao’s The Eternals, to play a character called Dane Whitman. This is intriguing for a whole bunch of reasons we’ll unpack here.

Dane Whitman, as all good comic book readers know, is the alter ego of the Black Knight, a character who wields a mystic ebony sword (with a blood curse) and a long-time member of The Avengers.

In more recent years, the Black Knight’s story was closely connected to Marvel’s UK superhero, Captain Britain, a character that the geek rumor mill has been in overdrive about for the past couple of years, suggesting that Marvel are gearing up to bring him to their Cinematic Universe.

While Whitman and the Black Knight have been connected to The Eternals in the comics (via a romantic entanglement between Whitman and Eternal, Sersi), you might begin to question why they’re being brought together for the movies, it seems unlikely someone with Harington’s star power would be brought in for a one-off cameo, and…

Well, that’s a lot of conjecture and putting two and two together to make five, but hey, what else can we do with so little solid information coming from Marvel at this early stage!?

Will this be a full-on introduction for the Black Knight? Will that lead to a Black Knight movie or series (Harington would fit in nicely with the other Disney Plus Marvel shows)? Will that open up a doorway to introduce Captain Britain? Will the UK cease to exist after Brexit?

Feel free to add your tuppence ha’penny worth’s of opinions in the comments below.

Meanwhile, the Game Of Thrones alumni will join Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, and Don Lee.

The Eternals will hit your local cinema next November.

Avengers Assemble At Disney Parks

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Avengers Campus

Marvel’s The Avengers want you to Assemble. Strictly speaking, they want your credit card to assemble, but they’ll welcome you along for the ride.

The previously announced news that Marvel’s characters would join the famous parks was confirmed at today’s D23 expo, where they gave more information on the upcoming super-hero lands.

The Disney Parks blog announced:

“When guests visit Avengers Campus, they will become part of an interconnected, global story that spans from California to Paris to Hong Kong with the Avengers recruiting new extraordinary people to join them.”

Avengers Campus will open at various Disney theme parks in California and Paris, joining the just-opened Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attraction to lure in geeks. They will will incorporate the existing Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! and a new Spider-Man attraction that will invite “new recruits to “suit up” alongside Spider-Man with the Worldwide Engineering Brigade (WEB).”

The first phase of the Anaheim Avengers Campus is expected to open in 2020, so you’d better start saving your pennies or deciding which part of your soul you’ll hand to Disney now.