Yesterday was a big news day on the future of Marvel. It began with reports that Kevin Feige was moving away from the Kang storyline and star Jonathan Majors, and continued with director Destin Daniel Cretton dropping out of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Clearly, the two items are connected, and so is this latest rumor which involves the search for Cretton’s replacement.
According to Jeff Sneider, Marvel wants one director to take over both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. The films are seen as essentially being a two-parter, but that also leads to another question. If they are moving away from Kang to a new villain, will we be getting a title change announcement soon? Will they suddenly become Secret Wars Part 1 and Part 2?
The tease at the conclusion of The Marvels could lead in a number of directions. Maybe Doctor Doom? Or Galactus?
Previous rumors have suggested that Marvel wants an established filmmaker to take on Secret Wars. While Black Panther director Ryan Coogler was reportedly up for it, he denied any talks have happened. Others said to be in consideration are Iron Man filmmaker Jon Favreau and Sam Raimi of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
For now, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is set for May 1st 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7th 2027.
In the realm of horror, a child’s imagination can be a scary thing. This morning saw the debut of the Ted television series, a comedy about a boy and his talking teddy bear sidekick. Well, take a similar concept and put it in the hands of Blumhouse and the result is Imaginary, a film that adds a sinister element to a child and her imaginary pal. Beware Chauncey the Bear!
The film is directed by Jeff Wadlow, who is best known for horrors like Cry Wolf, Truth or Dare, and the comic book sequel Kick-Ass 2. He also co-wrote the script with Greg Erb and Jason Oremlandstars.
Jurassic World: Dominion‘s DeWanda Wise leads the cast, joined by Tom Payne, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Veronica Falcon, and Betty Buckley.
Here’s the official synopsis:
From Blumhouse, the genre-defining masterminds behind “FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S” and “M3GAN,” comes an original horror film that taps into the innocence of imaginary friends – and begs the question: Are they really figments of childhood imagination or is something more terrifying lying just beneath?
When Jessica (DeWanda Wise) moves back into her childhood home with her family, her youngest stepdaughter Alice (Pyper Braun) develops an eerie attachment to a stuffed bear named Chauncey she finds in the basement. Alice starts playing games with Chauncey that begin playful and become increasingly sinister.
As Alice’s behavior becomes more and more concerning, Jessica intervenes only to realize Chauncey is much more than the stuffed toy bear she believed him to be.
Hard to believe it’s been more than a decade since Seth MacFarlane gave us the foul-mouthed teddy bear, Ted, in a duo of R-rated comedies that combined for nearly $800M worldwide. While the second film wasn’t well-received and ended any hope of more sequels, a new prequel series on Peacock is bringing the vulgar sidekick back for another go.
A new trailer for Ted reveals MacFarlane’s Peacock series, which is a prequel set in the ’90s and follows a young John Bennett. Originally played by Mark Wahlberg, the character is now played by Parenthood actor Max Burkholder.
And yes, MacFarlane is back voicing Ted, while also acting as a writer and director of the series. He’s joined by writers/showrunners Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh. Also in the cast are Alanna Ubach, Giorgia Whigham, and The Orville actor Scott Grimes.
The trio of creators said in a statement:
“Our series is a prequel to the ‘Ted’ movies. It takes place in the nineties but is based on the timeless truth that being sixteen sucks. The only thing that makes it tolerable is going through it with a friend, even if that friend is a has-been magical teddy bear with a foul mouth and a proclivity for drug use.”
Here’s the synopsis: In this comedic prequel event series to the Ted films, it’s 1993, and Ted the bear’s (Seth MacFarlane) moment of fame has passed. He’s now living back home in Framingham, Massachusetts, with his best friend, 16-year-old John Bennett (Max Burkholder), along with John’s parents, Matty and Susan (Scott Grimes and Alanna Ubach), and cousin Blaire (Giorgia Whigham). Ted may be a lousy influence on John, but at the end of the day, he’s a loyal pal who’s always willing to go out on a limb for friendship.
Ted hits Peacock on January 11th 2024 with all seven episodes.
Disappointing box office from the animation division as well as Marvel has led Disney to do some belt-tightening. And while there will be fewer projects for now, we’re seeing how CEO Bob Iger plans to emerge from this situation: by leaning on the established franchises he knows are like printing money. And they don’t get more lucrative than Frozen, and the possibility of Frozen 4.
In a new interview with Good Morning America (via Variety), Iger not only talked up Frozen 3which we know is in the works right now, but also another sequel with Disney princesses Anna and Elsa…
“”Frozen 3” is in the works, and there might be a “Frozen 4” in the works too,” Iger said from Disney’s Hong Kong theme park where a new World of Frozen attraction is opening. “But I don’t have much to say about those films right now. [Director] Jenn Lee, who created the original “Frozen” and “Frozen II,” is hard at work with her team at Disney animation on not one but actually two stories.”
This is a no-brainer moving forward with Frozen 4. 2019’s Frozen II is the record-holder for highest-grossing animated movie with $1.45B. The original film in 2013 scored $1.2B, and a third movie has the potential to top them both.
Iger’s strategy is no different than when Pixar, after years of animation dominance, hit a slump. They got out of it (somewhat) by turning to sequels of their most popular films. That said, recent failures on big-budget sequels (lookin’ at you Indiana Jones 5!)have shown that this strategy might not be effective anymore. It’s tough to imagine the rules applying to Frozen, though.
Like the immortal gods themselves, valuable IP is never truly dead. In the case of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson novels, a successful big-screen adaptation in 2010 didn’t lead to the mega-franchise Fox was hoping for. Now under the Disney banner, it’s being given a second shot as Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a Disney+ series coming our way next month and featuring an all-new cast.
Sorry, Alexandra Daddario fans. She ain’t got nothin’ to do with this one. I miss her, too.
Anyway, the cast is led by Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson, a normal kid who discovers that he’s actually a powerful demigod, attending a high school for other teens just as gifted as himself. When he’s accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt, Percy and his friends must go on a dangerous adventure to clear his name.
Also in the cast are Aryan Simhadri and Leah Sava Jeffries as Percy’s best friends Grover the satyr and Annabeth Chase who is the daughter of Athena. They’re joined by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Megan Mullally, Toby Stephens, Virginia Kull, Jason Mantzoukas, Jay Duplass, Glynn Turman, Lance Reddick, Adam “Edge” Copeland, Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Olivea Morton, Suzanne Cryer, Timm Sharp, and Timothy Omundson. James Bobin directed the first two episodes, while Riordan is aboard as a writer.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians hits Disney+ on December 20th.
“I love it when a plan comes together.” Somewhere, there’s a Hollywood producer who is taking Hannibal’s quote from The A-Team to heart, because the plan to pair up gorgeous stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell on rom-com Anyone But Youis clearly working. How can that be when the movie is still a month away? Easy, because the Tinseltown rumor mill is buzzing that Sweeney and Powell have found real-life romance together on set. Whether it’s true or not, this is the sort of thing that makes people want to look and see for themselves if the chemistry is real.
What those interested parties will get from Anyone But You is a modern take on Much Ado About Nothing, in which Sweeney and Powell play two people who dislike one another greatly after a bad date. When they run into each other at a wedding, they decide to fake being a couple so as to avoid looking single. Low and behold, feelings start to change a little bit! It’s almost like faking being in love can make you actually fall in love! Only in the movies, folks.
Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Hadley Robinson, and Michelle Hurd. Dermot Mulroney, Darren Barnet, and Rachel Griffiths are also in the cast. Will Gluck (Easy A) directs from a script he co-wrote with Ilana Wolpert.
Here’s the synopsis: In the edgy comedy Anyone But You, Bea and Ben look like the perfect couple, but after an amazing first date something happens that turns their fiery hot attraction ice cold – until they find themselves unexpectedly thrust together at a destination wedding in Australia. So they do what any two mature adults would do: pretend to be a couple.
James Gunn is filling out the already large cast of Superman: Legacy, with attention now turning to the villain squad the Man of Steel will battle against. Deadline confirms that Gunn has cast Venezuelan actress Maria Gabriela de Faria in the role of Angela Spica aka The Engineer, a villain who first appeared in the pages of The Authority. The character will be part of a larger team of baddies, but the other members are unclear at this point.
De Faria joins a cast led by David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, and Anthony Carrigan as Rex Mason/Metamorpho.
This will be the biggest role of De Faria’s career. Her first major exposure was in the short-lived comic book series Deadly Class, and since she has landed roles on Fox sitcoms Animal Control and The Moodys.
The Engineer was created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Bryan Hitch and introduced in 1999’s The Authority #1. Her powers stem from nanotechnology built into her body.
Gunn recently confirmed that Superman: Legacywill continue with its original July 11th 2025 release date, even after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes caused a delay in production. The film is the launch title in Gunn’s rebooted DCU, which takes the place of the defunct Snyderverse created by Zack Snyder. In this version of Superman, the Kryptonian hero will seek to reconcile his heritage with his human upbringing.
Wedged unfortunately between Halloween and Christmas, Thanksgiving always gets the short end of the holiday movie stick. Eli Roth has long sought to change that, beginning in 2007 with his gory faux trailer for Thanksgiving, a retro splatterfest that was part of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double feature. That film saw other faux promos expanded with relative success, Machete and Hobo with a Shotgun, but neither of them can do what Roth has done, which is give Turkey Day the cult classic it deserves, a blood-basted annual tradition served up fresh and hot.
The original premise remains the same, but as an expansion of the 2-minute-long short, Thanksgiving adds a number of details and reworks some others. Gone is the B-movie aesthetic for a more contemporary one that resembles a Scream knockoff. But added in as a brilliantly demented opening salvo that only a diseased mind like Roth’s could conjure up. Roth beautifull ramps up the dread surrounding a Black Friday sale at a Walmart-esque big box store; literally hundreds of Plymouth, MA residents riled up to get inside and score their free waffle irons. A Final Destination-like sense of doom lingers before some jerkoff jumps the gun, leading to a literal stampede of consumers that ends in a bloodbath; bodies get trampled, arms broken in crazy angles, skin broken in shattered glass. What hits home about this hilariously demented scene, which got a round of applause at the screening I attended, is how much it resembles real-life thronds of Black Friday shoppers eager to score the latest toy, Iphone, or big screen TV at a Doorbuster prices.
A year after the Black Friday massacre, a new threat to the town emerges on Thanksgiving. A murderous pilgrim sporting the mask of Plymouth colony founder John Carver begins carving up those caught in a viral video of the retail slaughter. On his hit list are a handful of fairly harmless teens, quite unlike the promiscuous bunch from the original teaser that featured the likes of Jay Hernandez and Jordan Ladd. Leading the largely-unknown cast is someone who is actually very well-known, social media personality Addison Rae in her feature debut as Gabby. Of course, Gabby finds herself in a love triangle with two potential suspects, one a hunky ex-baseball player (Jalen Thomas Brooks)whose arm was crushed in the ruckus, another a rich stick-in-the-mud (Milo Manheim) who gives off serious creeper vibes. Attempting to save the day is Sheriff Newlon, played by Patrick Dempsey whose Boston accent comes and goes like the breeze from an errant hatchet swing.
If Roth wasn’t such a twisted sicko fuck, he’d still be a great comedy filmmaker because he dishes out sight gags and one-liners like green bean casserole. But Roth is clearly deranged, finding disgusting uses of family dinner staples like corn cob holders and turkey basters. On the menu are a series of gruesome decapitations, disembowelments, and one heinous vehicular impalement that comes out of nowhere. Roth leaves you no time to stiffen your spine for the killing blows because what’s the fun of a slasher flick you can hide from? Roth’s nasty sense of humor keeps you on edge between the slayings, and makes each murder a smorgasboard of blood, guts, and irony.
While many of the signature moments from the fake promo remain, Roth did make some changes because the original ideas, which saw women slaughtered in wildly disgusting ways, would be too much for just about any audience. As such, the cheerleader trampoline death gets a tasteful rework. Another, that saw a woman basted into a turkey with stuffing coming out of her orifices, was toned down and yet still manages to be just as stomach-churning because there’s time to show her suffering. Thankfully, the Thanksgiving parade turkey mascot meets his demise just as he should, so all is still right in the world. While the final showdown and ultimate reveal are a bit disappointing and obvious to figure out, you get the sense that Roth is setting the table for sequels, which is perfectly fine with me.
After a strange family-friendly diversion with The House with a Clock in its Walls, Roth has come roaring back in all of his grisly glory with Thanksgiving. It’s easy to see how this movie will become a new holiday tradition for genre fans, to be watched after grandma and grandmpa have fallen into a post-turkey coma.
Marvel NEEDS an injection of excitement. I can’t believe I’m saying that, I honestly didn’t think that “Superhero Fatigue” people have been shouting about since 2009 would ever come to pass, alas it seems to be here. Amid the basement boy trolling of Marvel’s latest film, the absolutely enjoyable The Marvels, and the news we just posted regarding Marvel deciding to move away from the Kang storyline due to Jonathan Majors off-screen trouble, we get a shining bright light in the form of Mando himself. Word around the playground is that Pedro Pascal is nearing finalization on a deal to play the founder of Marvel’s first family, Reed Richards, in the upcoming Fantastic Four film.
I’m inclined to say I love the idea, mostly because I love Pascal (outside of Wonder Woman 1984) but part of me feels that the casting is off. Reed is a hyper-intellectual, socially awkward-ish narcissist. While Pascal can absolutely nail the intelligent need for the role, he’s just too damn likable for Richards. I think that was part of the reason for why John Krasinski was a perfect choice, he looks like he could be an arrogant prick in the right circumstance. This all being said, Marvel’s casting folks are not a group I like to second guess, their track record is pretty impeccable and obviously they know more about the direction of the character then me. It’s important to note that this isn’t a done deal yet. Pascal is one of the busiest guys in show business at the moment so scheduling is a factor, time will tell but it feels like this is going to be official soon.
Obviously, the big question, who rounds out the family? Personally I’m all for Zac Efron as Johnny “The Human Torch” Storm. Sue Storm, there are only two choices, Vanessa Kirby or Allison Williams (wonder how she would look as a blonde). Lastly Ben Grimm aka the Thing, this one is trickier as it depends highly on when we meet up with the first family. If they’re already transformed and all they need is a voice actor I think Ron Perlman would be perfect, but he’s obviously problematic should they need to do pre-Thinged Ben so if they go that route I’m going with Jesse “Matt Damon” Plemons.
It feels like today has been all about building up to this decision. Amid reports that Marvel was looking to dump the Kang storyline that would be featured in Avengers: Kang Dynasty, Deadline reports that director Destin Daniel Cretton had left the project. There’s no beef here between Cretton and Marvel Studios, as this is said to be an amicable split.
Cretton is still very much in good graces with Marvel, and still plans to direct the Wonder Man series on Disney+, as well as a sequel to Shang-Chi. Other future Marvel projects are part of Cretton’s discussions with Marvel, too.
No reason was given for Cretton’s exit, but as I said, the writing has been on the wall. If Marvel is truly writing off Kang as the next big Thanos-level villain, then the project Cretton signed up for is going to need a complete overhaul. Fortunately, Kang Dynasty is deep on the Marvel board, hitting theaters on May 1st 2026. It will precede Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7th 2027, the conclusion to Phase 6.
This is all part of an overall theme of creative changes affecting Marvel Studios on the film and TV sides equally. It has seen Marvel seriously reduce the number of projects on the way, completely revamping some such as Daredevil Born Again, while delaying others into 2025. In 2024, Marvel only has one film confirmed to release and that is Deadpool 3, while only one TV show arrives next year when Echo arrives in January.
