There’s a lot of excitement about Deadpool 3 for many reasons. First, it marks the return of this raunchy yet loveable character to the big screen over five years after the last film. Then there’s the excitement of Deadpool officially joining the MCU. Finally, this film is the only Marvel movie coming in 2024. We obviously live in a world where leaks and spoilers pop up all the time, so it’s not shocking that there are unofficial snapshots of Deadpool 3 during filming. There are images on the internet to the chagrin of many who don’t wish to see unofficial photos that reveal possible plot points and new characters. One very important person who wants the Deadpool 3 photo leaks to stop is Ryan Reynolds, who released a statement about it on his Instagram page. 

Here is a reader-friendly version of the statement for all:

“Surprises are part of the magic of theatrical movies. It is important for us to shoot the new Deadpool film in real, natural environments, using practical effects as opposed to making the movie indoors and digitally. Telephoto lenses continue to spoil surprises and create a difficult situation for everyone. Here’s hoping some of the websites and social channels hold back showing images before they’re ready. The film is built for audience joy—and our highest hope is to preserve as much of that magic as possible for the finished film and the big screen. Part of the reason people post spoilers is because they’re excited. I realize these aren’t real world issues and it’s firmly in the ‘good problems’ bucket. I love making this movie.”

Joy is something we all need and it is nice to go into something with fresh eyes. Knowing nothing only amps up the energy. Basically, spoilers suck for a lot of fellow fans. Ryan Reynolds makes lots of good and heartfelt points in his statement about Deadpool 3 leaks, indeed. 

The actor did recently share a photo of him as Wade Wilson without that infamous mask. Yes, he still looks like an avocado or perhaps a n*tsack, depending on who you ask. The latter is even wilder with the dog licking the side of his face.

Deadpool 3 is coming our way on July 26, 2024. We know there will be plenty of wonderful clips, photos, and trailers coming in the near future. For now, this post will tell you everything you need to know about Deadpool 3.

The post Ryan Reynolds Asks Everyone to Stop Sharing Leaked DEADPOOL 3 Photos appeared first on Nerdist.

We’ve known that a Blade movie is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2019. Who can forget with the film’s star—Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali—put on a hat that said “BLADE!” and caused an excited uproar in San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H?! Though there have been some ups and downs with this movie, hopefully, we’ll only see smooth sailing for our favorite vampire from here on out.

Thankfully, Ali says things are still moving forward to some degree in a direction that he approves. “We’re working on it. That’s the best I could tell you,” he said in an Entertainment Weekly interview. “I’m really encouraged with the direction of the project. I think we’ll be back at it relatively soon.”

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming Blade movie.

Title

The title of this movie is simple: Blade.

Blade‘s Plot

Right now, we don’t have any plot details for Blade. But, we can imagine the film will borrow from the character’s comic origins. Blade debuted in the tenth issue of Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula comic back in 1973, from writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan. He quickly became a supremely popular character, a half-vampire killer of vampires and other occult baddies. Blade first made it to the big screen in 1998 starring Wesley Snipes. Two sequels followed—one of them good—but eventually, that franchise sort of fell by the wayside.

We do know that Blade will be rated R; the rating was recently confirmed by the movie’s director Yann Demange. Blade marks the second MCU movie to receive an R-rating, although we bet that it will be a very different R-rated experience than Deadpool 3. The rating opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the MCU movie and we can’t wait to see what how they will manifest.

Behind the Scenes

Playwright Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen) wrote an early draft of the script. In 2021, Bassam Tariq confirmed he will direct the film via The Playlist podcast. However, Tariq has since left the project.

The director offered a brief statement about his experience with Blade.

Now Lovecraft Country‘s Yann Demange has come aboard as Blade‘s new director. In addition, Michael Starrbury wrote a new script for the vampiric movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has recently joined the project to work off of Starrbury’s script.

Blade‘s Cast

As mentioned above, two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali will play the daywalking half-vampire badass in the upcoming Blade movie. Meanwhile, Delroy Lindo is joining Ali in film. While we don’t formally know who Lindo is playing, we think he could be Jamal Afari, who in the comics raised Blade and taught him all about vampire slaying. As we saw (or rather, heard) at the end of Eternals, Kit Harington will cross paths with Blade, reprising his role as Dane Whitman.

Krypton actor Aaron Pierre has joined the cast of Blade in another undisclosed character. Unlike Lindo, however, this role will seemingly have bigger implications on the Marvel Cinematic Universe than just this one film. And Deadline has also reported that X and Pearl star Mia Goth will join the cast in an unspecified role.

Blade‘s Release Date

The Blade Marvel movie will arrive in theaters on November 7, 2025.

Originally published on July 20, 2019.

The post Everything We Know About Marvel’s BLADE Movie appeared first on Nerdist.

Over the last 15 years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has flourished on both the big and small screens. Not to mention the X-Men movie universe at Fox, and the Spider-Man universe at Sony. From all indications, it seems as if almost no Marvel Comics hero is too small or obscure for the live-action treatment. Between the MCU, the former Fox X-Men films, and the Sony Spider-verse, just about everyone of importance has had their big screen debut.

In just the last couple of years alone, they have introduced Marvel Comics fans in quick succession to the likes of She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Namor, Ironheart, and in cameo form, Hercules and Starfox, to name but a few. Wonder Man is even getting a series soon. And yet, there still are a handful of important Marvel Comics characters long overdue for the live-action treatment. So without further ado, here are our picks for the top 10 Marvel superheroes that still need to make it to MCU live-action film and television.

10. Beta Ray Bill

In the MCU, we’ve only seen two other heroes worthy of lifting Thor’s hammer Mjölnir, — the Vision, and Steve Rogers. However, in the comics there was another who was worthy, a horse-faced alien from the planet Korbin. Beta Ray Bill was the champion of the Korbinites, given powers by his near-extinct alien race. Thanks to some classic comic book misunderstanding, Beta Ray Bill met Thor in battle when approaching Earth, and he actually defeated the God of Thunder. Not only defeat him, but he was able to wield Mjölnir, one of the few who could.

Impressed with Beta Ray Bill’s fortitude, Thor’s dad, Odin All-Father gifted the Krobinite with his very own enchanted hammer, Stormbreaker, which he now used as a hero and ally to Thor. Beta Ray Bill has almost made it to the MCU before. We’ve seen his statue on the planet Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok, and his hammer Stormbreaker has also appeared in Infinity War and Endgame. We think Bill is long overdue for an MCU appearance. It just might be time for Thor to hand over Stormbreaker to its rightful owner.

9. Tigra (Greer Nelson)

Greer Nelson, originally known as “The Cat,” was one of the first female heroes to receive her own Marvel comic. A runway model, Greer fought crime with cat-themed gadgets and a skin-tight cat costume. The Claws of the Cat only lasted four issues, and truthfully, seemed like a knockoff of DC Comics’ Catwoman—only with a neon yellow costume instead. Years later, the heroine Hellcat would use that costume with far more success.

But Marvel tried again with Greer a couple of years later. They gave her the powers of a magical lost race of Cat People, and suddenly Greer was a ferocious cat/human hybrid named Tigra. This version was far more popular, and served with the Avengers for years. A cat-person in a bikini might be hard to pull off in live-action, but we trust Marvel Studios to make the right changes. They mentioned someone named Greer in Hawkeye. Could it be? We hope to see her, tail and all, in the MCU one day.

8. Ka-Zar of the Savage Land (Kevin Plunder)

On the surface, Ka-Zar just seems like a Tarzan rip-off. He’s the son of a British Lord who finds himself stranded in an exotic jungle location as a child. After his father dies, locals take him in. He no longer goes by the name Lord Kevin Plunder, but becomes Ka-Zar. Sound familiar? So how is this more than a dime-store Tarzan? Well, instead of a real-world location like Africa, Ka-Zar lives in the Savage Land, a secret primordial world in the Antarctic.

The Savage Land is filled with dinosaurs, humanoid mutates, and Ka-Zar’s trusty sabretooth tiger Zabu. In the comics, it became the prime location for many Uncanny X-Men stories. It even became the home base of Magneto for a time. Anyone who grew up with X-Men: The Animated Series will remember several episodes set in this location. To be fair, the location of the Savage Land world is much cooler than Ka-Zar himself, but he could be used to anchor a very cool Savage Land series or movie.

7. Captain Britain (Brian Braddock)

Captain Britain has been a part of the Marvel Universe since the mid-’70s. But he first appeared only in the Marvel UK line of comics. Captain Britain Weekly #1 featured his canonical first appearance. In the comics, Brian Braddock was the nerdy heir of an old aristocratic British family. He received a bad injury in a lab accident and nearly died. Soon after, the wizard Merlyn appeared to him, and offered Brian the chance to become the United Kingdom’s mystically strong champion. And thus, Captain Britain is born.

In the UK, Captain Britain had his own comic for years, and teamed up with Spidey and Captain America in North American Comics. He eventually led the British X-Men spinoff team, Excalibur. His sister is Betsy Braddock, who fans know best as the prominent ’90s X-Man named Psylocke. All of these aspects of his character could prove interesting story material, as Marvel Studios seeds mutants into the MCU. Fans have been clamoring for Superman Henry Cavill to play Captain Britain. And we can’t say that we don’t approve of that choice.

6. Darkhawk (Christopher Powell/Connor Young)

Darkhawk is one of the lesser-known Marvel heroes on this list, but in the ’90s, he was fairly popular. He even carried his own series for some 50 issues. Christopher Powell was a teenager from Queens, New York, just like Peter Parker. He came upon an amulet that allowed him to switch places with a powerful alien android body possessing huge metal wings, one that his mind could control. (And he had a Wolverine-like claw. As we said, quite popular in the ’90s.

Darkhawk joined the New Warriors, and briefly, the Avengers. Recently, Marvel Comics launched a new Darkhawk series, with a new teenage hero at its center. Connor Young was a star athlete, recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. As he struggles with his new medical reality, he also has to become a superhero when he discovers the amulet. The original comic series wasn’t all that memorable, but the ingredients for this new Darkhawk — the origin, the costume, the powers — are perfect for a live-action adaptation.

5. Moondragon (Heather Douglas)

Moondragon is one of those oddball Marvel heroes. But this martial artist with psychic powers has ties to several prominent MCU characters. Namely, Drax the Destroyer and Thanos. In the comics, young Heather Douglas was driving through the desert with her family when they caught Thanos landing on Earth, totally by chance. The Mad Titan promptly killed her entire family, but Heather escaped.

Her father’s soul bonded to Drax, essentially making Drax her dad. And Mentor, Thanos’ own father, instructed her in the use of her powers. She joined the Avengers, and later, teams like the Defenders and the Guardians of the Galaxy. For the MCU, Moondragon’s origins could be simplified. She could be the literal daughter of Drax now. Perhaps the daughter he thought he lost to Thanos? And if Thanos’ father trained her, that would create a lot of conflict for this family. She’s also a bisexual character, and we know the MCU could use some more canonically LGBTQ heroes.

4. Quasar (Wendell Vaughn)

They have introduced many of the most prominent Avengers into the MCU at this point. But one fairly major Avenger from the ‘90s has yet to show up, and that’s Wendell Vaughn, also known as Quasar. An Avenger during the early ‘90s, at which time he carried his own solo title for sixty issues, Vaughn was a SHIELD scientist who came across the cosmic weapons called the Quantum Bands. They bestowed on him incredible power, as the owner of the bands was the chosen Protector of the Universe, a title given by the cosmic entity Eon.

With the Quantum Bands now introduced into the MCU thanks to The Marvels, it would be interesting to see them wind up in the hands of a new hero like Quasar. After all, neither Kamala Khan nor Carol Danvers need the bands to activate their powers. They should go to someone else who can use them to do good. In Thor: Love and Thunder, we saw a representation of the cosmic entity Eon, so maybe he’ll appear to give the Quasar the Protector of the Universe title. Everything lately feels like it’s setting it up. With the MCU needing more spacefaring heroes, Quasar seems like a perfect choice.

3. Nova (Richard Rider/Sam Alexander)

Although the Nova Corps, Marvel’s interstellar police force (and answer to DC’s Green Lantern Corps) has already been introduced in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, the Nova I’m talking about is Richard Rider. He had his own series in the late ’70s, The Man Called Nova, and then regularly appeared as a cast member of New Warriors. Rider was a working-class teen in the Peter Parker mold; he inherited the title and cosmic powers from a dying member of the Nova Corps. (We told you he was Marvel’s answer to Green Lantern).

The character has had a comeback in the last few years. Mainly because of Marvel Comics doubling down on their cosmic heroes with events like Annihilation. A new teenager named Sam Alexander recently took on the mantle of Nova, but either he or Richard Rider would make for ideal candidates for a TV series or a movie. Perhaps tying his origin to the offscreen destruction of the Nova homeworld of Xandar (referenced in Avengers: Infinity War) might be a good way to make this tie into the MCU.

2. Doctor Voodoo (Jericho Drumm)

Jericho Drumm was created way back in 1973, and for five issues was the lead character in Strange Tales, the anthology that introduced Doctor Strange. Created by a group of Marvel legends, which included Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, John Romita, and Len Wein, the character originally went by the name Brother Voodoo. A psychologist originally from Haiti, Drumm returned home to discover his voodoo practitioner brother was dying. He sought out his brother’s mentor, Papa Jambo, who taught him mastery over voodoo practices and powerful sorcery, and Drumm assumed the title of Brother Voodoo.

Although his lead series was short-lived, Brother Voodoo continued to appear in various Marvel comics over the succeeding decades as a guest star, and hero and ally to many. He eventually became the Sorcerer Supreme, replacing Stephen Strange in the role. It was during this time he officially took the name Doctor Voodoo. He’s since served on over three different iterations of the Avengers. Although he was heavily rumored for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, he never appeared. But the MCU needs some more magically powered heroes besides Strange, and we can’t think of a better one than Jericho Drumm.

1. Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)

Despite what her name might suggest, Jessica Drew is anything but a female carbon copy of Spider-Man. Created in the ‘70s, Spider-Woman headlined her own ongoing series for over 50 issues, and even had a short-lived cartoon series on Saturday morning TV. In the comics, Jessica Drew’s parents were scientists who accidentally gave her arachnid-based powers as a child. The powers were a side effect of their trying to cure a lethal childhood disease. They have tweaked her origin story a few times over the past few decades, but the character always has ties to both SHIELD and HYDRA in any version.

Marvel put her on the shelf for nearly two decades years for inexplicable reasons. It was Brian Michael Bendis who brought Jessica as Spider-Woman back in 2004 in the pages of New Avengers. She’s remained a Marvel mainstay ever since. With her ties to both SHIELD and the Avengers, she’s an obvious choice for the MCU either on film or TV. She has appeared recently in animation, in Across the Spider-Verse. But we still await her live-action debut. Sony announced a Spider-Woman movie years ago with Olivia Wilde at the helm. But nothing ever came of it. The Madame Web movie will feature various Spider-Women, but not Jessica. We hope that Sony and Marvel Studios can find a way to work together and bring Jessica into the MCU where she belongs.

Originally published on April 23, 2017.

The post 10 Marvel Heroes Who Still Need a Live-Action Debut appeared first on Nerdist.

No one can be Tony Stark or Iron Man. But with LEGO’s new Avengers Tower set, you can pretend. The massive set replicates the Avengers Tower we know from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s not really the Tower, formerly known as Stark Tower, at any fixed point in time, but more a showpiece of a key MCU location and the Avengers who have made it their base. That’s the best way to look at it—it’s a highlights reel of the Avengers throughout the Infinity Saga in towering LEGO form. Seriously, you don’t realize how tall Avengers Tower is until you assemble it. LEGO sent Nerdist a copy to unbox and snap together, piece by piece. It’s a mostly satisfying build that dwarfs anything else in my LEGO collection.

LEGO Avengers Tower Specs

The LEGO Avengers Tower comes with a whopping 5,201 pieces. (The pieces come in 39 bags!) It’s 10 inches deep, 14 inches wide, and 36 inches tall. That makes it LEGO’s tallest brick-built skyscraper. And so yes, it’s taller than the Daily Bugle set. (For what it’s worth, it’s also a far more interesting design than the Daily Bugle.) The set comes with 31 minifigures, the most ever included in a single LEGO set.

You can get the LEGO Avengers Tower for $499.99.

Building the LEGO Avengers Tower

Build Time

This is a set that will keep you occupied. I put around 13 hours into the build, most of it on my own. A little repetition comes with constructing a tall building with LEGO bricks. I felt that with the windows, of which the set has many. So many. In fact, it has the most windows in a single LEGO set. But watching it all come together to form the elegant outline of the skyscraper made it worth it.

Overall Design

If you have any LEGO City buildings, the Avengers Tower will bring a drastic change to your cityscape. It adds plenty of height and it brings another style of building to put alongside your shops. Adding it to a LEGO City street also means you can scatter some of the minifigs through town. The Kevin Feige minifig should, for example, be guzzling coffee at a café. Instead of attaching a Chitauri Leviathan to the tower, it could be casually invading your LEGO City. You have a lot of posing possibilities.

The options are dang near endless if you construct the tower as a standalone piece, too. You can dangle Hulk and Chitauri warriors off the side or remove the front of the building to showcase scenes from the history of the MCU Avengers. Though one quick note: if you’re used to LEGO City buildings with multiple floors, you are accustomed to the modular way of LEGO life. The Avengers Tower is not modular. Once you get a floor into place, it remains there.

Overall, it’s an architecturally sharp design. I wouldn’t have pegged LEGO as the best medium to bring the Avengers Tower and its curvy building to life, but it’s beautiful. The building’s construction and the storytelling present throughout come together as a tribute to the Marvel superhero team. Once you complete assembly, you’ll see every part of the building has things happening. It’s literally covered in content.

As mentioned earlier, the set comes with 31 minifigs, which is a lot. I would not have chosen the same 31 minifigs. Multiple Tony Stark figures come with the set, but no Bruce Banner. Meanwhile some other minifigs have no direct connection to Avengers Tower, nor are they part of the Avengers.

Surprises

This actually isn’t a surprise, because LEGO always delivers when it comes to detail, but the design goes above and beyond with discovery. It comes with a Captain Marvel beeper to put behind the building. A LEGO shawarma is by the dumpster. Maybe you’ve seen lots of photos or videos of the Avengers Tower set online. Even if you have, discovering and building the Easter eggs and all the MCU scenes is a delight. The set has two Captain America minifigs just to recreate the America’s a*s scene from Endgame. One of the upper floors has a Quinjet launchpad that has room for the ship to roll in and out of place. Those are only a few of the little touches in the set, and they really make it.

Click To View Gallery

In summary, the LEGO Avengers Tower is a beast of a build that shows off the best of the Avengers. The designers are clearly giant MCU nerds, and we appreciate them for it. If you love the MCU and have a passion for LEGO, this is a set to save for.

The post You Are Not Prepared for How Big the LEGO Avengers Tower Is appeared first on Nerdist.

There have been many rumors that the original roster of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will all return in Avengers: Secret Wars. And yes, that would presumably include Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man/Tony Stark. But via Variety, we’ve learned that in a recent story on Downey for Vanity Fair, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said there are no plans to bring Tony Stark back from the grave. Iron Man’s heroic death in Avengers: Endgame, in which he saved the universe from Thanos, was just too important to undo. Here’s what Feige had to say:

“We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again. We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.”

So it seems like the MCU creatives powers that be will never use magic or nanotech to revive Tony’s corpse for a future film. This is a choice which we all of course applaud. However, we must point out that Feige very carefully worded that response. It’s safe to say we can take Feige at his word, and the MCU won’t resurrect the Tony Stark we knew and loved in 11 films. Iron Man’s death will not change. But that does not mean we are never seeing Robert Downey, Jr. play him again.

Right now, we are in the middle of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. And we would be genuinely shocked if we did not encounter a multiversal variant of Tony in Secret Wars. And for that matter, a variant of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlet Johansson) too. With Secret Wars likely capping off twenty years of the MCU, it’s hard to imagine no Tony Stark involvement in that. Regardless of what Kevin Feige said, don’t count out seeing Iron Man again. He just won’t exactly be the one you remember. Because that guy is staying dead for sure.

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After years of speculating, in 2022, Marvel Studios confirmed that Deadpool would officially join the MCU for a third installment of the R-rated comic book franchise at the start of Phase Six. This would mark the first official character of the Fox X-Men universe joining the MCU (although Patrick Stewart as a variant Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness kinda counts too, we suppose).

Most recently, “Dogpool” shared a look at Ryan Reynold’s Wade Wilson without his mask in Deadpool 3. Of course, the true star of the show, Dogpool, is also present.

Here is everything we know so far about Deadpool 3.

Title

Right now, everyone is calling the film Deadpool 3. However, for superpowered mercenary Wade Wilson’s first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least the first official entry, we think they may choose to give it a more creative title.

Deadpool 3‘s Plot

The plot of Deadpool 3 remains a mystery. All we know is that Hugh Jackman is returning as Wolverine, and that it takes place before the feral X-Man’s death in Logan. In fact, Jackman has confirmed that time travel will be involved in the threequel in a big way.

As most folks know by now, Deadpool’s third solo film will reunite him with his X-Men Origins: Wolverine co-star. Deadpool and Wolverine will work together, although they have made it very clear that these two characters “hate each other.” It will not be a love-fest in this story. But the fact that Deadpool 3 is smack in the middle of the Multiverse Saga should give us all a clue as to what’s going to go down, and probable multiversal shenanigans will ensue.

Dogpool, of course, will also star.

Make sure to follow him on Instagram.

Deadpool 3‘s Cast

We know Hugh Jackman will return, along with the very obvious Ryan Reynolds. Here’s who else we know about: Karan Soni, cab driver Dopinder, Leslie Uggams, Emma Corrin, and Matthew Macfadyen. In exciting news, Morena Baccarin and Stefan Kapicic are reprising their roles as Vanessa and Colossus in Deadpool 3. So are Rob Delaney’s Peter, Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead), and Shioli Kutsuna (Yukio). Jennifer Garner’s Elektra from the 2003 Daredevil Marvel Fox movie is also reported to reprise her role in this MCU film.

Behind the Scenes

Deadpool 3‘s director for this third outing will be Shawn Levy, most recently known for his work on Stranger Things. This would be a reunion for Levy and Reynolds, as the pair previously worked together on the movie Free Guy. Levy is also known for the time travel movie The Adam Project.

On the writing side of things are Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, writers for the popular animated series Bob’s Burgers. The writers for the first two Deadpool films, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, are also contributing to the third film’s screenplay, as is Ryan Reynolds himself.

Deadpool 3 Release Date

Deadpool 3 will arrive on July 26, 2024.

Originally published on January 4, 2023.

The post Here’s Our First DEADPOOL 3 Look at Wade Wilson Without the Mask appeared first on Nerdist.

Actor Bruce Campbell and director Sam Raimi go together like peanut butter and jelly. The pair have worked together ever since the first Evil Dead way back in 1981. You could say Campbell is like Raimi’s lucky charm. (Along with that 1973 Oldsmobile that appears in all of his movies). And Campbell’s “lucky charm” status has extended to Marvel films. He appeared in Raimi’s three Spider-Man films in cameo roles, and in 2022 he appeared as street vendor “Pizza Poppa” in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But according to an interview with Comic Book, Campbell says those are all the same guy. Here’s what he had to say:

“The cameos are like, in the Spider-Man movies — if you know anything about the multiverse, you know now, retroactively, I’m in the multiverse now because of Doctor Strange. I’m not a pizza vendor, OK? That would be a massive mistake to think I’m just a pizza vendor, or an usher, or a ring announcer, or a maître d’. It’s called the multiverse, my friend. So, yes, he is the same character, but we don’t know who he really is. It has not been revealed yet. I just got off the phone with the guys at Marvel, and we’re getting close to finding out.”

We don’t know if Mr. Campbell is just yanking our chains, or if he really knows more about these cameo characters being the same person. We’ll throw out this suggestion, though. What if Bruce Campbell is playing a rouge Watcher? Just a cosmic entity who happens to be there at key moments in the lives of superheroes across the multiverse? Yes, we know that in the comics and in What If…? the Watchers are these giant aliens with big old heads. But they can also assume other forms to disguise themselves. We’re not sure if Bruce Campbell is going to appear in any future non-Raimi Marvel films. However, we’d like to nominate him for Beyond the Spider-Verse and Deadpool 3. Who wouldn’t want to see Bruce and Ryan Reynolds on screen together? Make it happen, Kevin Feige!

The post Bruce Campbell Says His Marvel Cameos Are All the Same Guy appeared first on Nerdist.

Recently, it was announced Destin Daniel Cretton would no longer direct Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. But now, we have more interesting news about the MCU film. According to Deadline, Loki creator Michael Waldron has come aboard to write the screenplay for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Waldron was already tapped to write the movie set to follow Kang Dynasty, Avengers: Secret Wars. And now he will reportedly take hold of the story behind both films. Waldron also wrote Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Ultimately, if the two Avengers movies end up closely connected, it makes sense for Waldron to pen them both. After all, it seems to have worked for the MCU in previous. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame to great acclaim. We still don’t know very much about either of the upcoming Avengers movies, though. Not even, specifically, which heroes will feature as the new Avengers team that will protect the universe. But, of course, it seems to follow that The Kang Dynasty would greatly feature Kang. Loki season two seemed like it might set up the next MCU villain in a big way, but in the end, the series focused largely on its protagonist. There’s no word yet on whether the changes and evolutions made to the team behind The Kang Dynasty will impact its story in any way.

As of now, no new director is in place for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. However, the movie presently retains its release date of May 1, 2026. Ostensibly, they will still be a part of the MCU’s Phase 6 and help conclude the Multiverse Saga. Hopefully, with Waldron penning Kang Dynasty‘s script, the much-anticipated next Avengers movie will deliver a strong story. We’ve certainly seen him deliver great MCU work before. For our part, we just hope both Loki and Doctor Strange get to play a sizable role. It would only be fair.

The post LOKI Creator Michael Waldron to Write AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY appeared first on Nerdist.

In WandaVision, it was Agatha all along. And now it really will be all about Agatha Harkness. Kathryn Hahn’s MCU witch will soon star in her own Disney+ Marvel series, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. While we don’t have too many details yet about what this series will entail, we can already tell it will serve up some delightfully magical fun.

Although it’ll likely still be a while before we see too much from the show, we officially have our first looks and footage from the Agatha-centric series. Set to be released on the WandaVision Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD editions, a special “Agatha Bonus Clip” takes us behind-the-scenes of Darkhold Diaries.

In the featurette, we can see Agatha and her coven of witches come together for the first time. Among other teases, the footage reveals Agatha Harkness donning several new outfits and our first glimpses of Joe Locke, Patti LuPone, Ali Ahn, Sasheer Zamata, and Debra Jo Rupp in Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. Agatha, the first-look clips promise, is still as dangerous and delightful as ever.

Here’s everything we know about Agatha: Darkhold Diaries.

Title

Although the first title we heard for Agatha’s MCU series was Agatha: House of Harkness, and the second was Agatha: Coven of Chaos, the series will actually be called Agatha: Darkhold Diaries.

Agatha: Darkhold Diaries‘ Plot

Marvel Studios has kept plot details for Agatha: Darkhold Diaries under wraps. But the last time we got to see Agatha, the witch lost in a fight to Wanda Maximoff. And then Agatha ended up trapped in her Agnes persona.

We imagine the show will reveal to us how Agatha breaks out of the spell she’s under and then follow her along on some exciting shenanigans. And it seems like we’ll get to meet a number of witches from the pages of Marvel Comics. And we do love a witch.

Whatever helps happens, we hope that Agatha gets yet another catchy jingle to her name. “Agatha All Along” needs a successor.

Behind the Scenes

WandaVison‘s Jac Schaeffer returns as executive producer and head writer on Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. Additionally, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Schaeffer, alongside Wednesday‘s Gandja Monteiro and Resident Evil‘s Rachel Goldberg, will direct different episodes of the show.

Agatha: Darkhold Diaries‘ Cast

We’ve learned about quite a number of potential coven members cast so far. Of course, Kathryn Hahn returns to play the titular MCU witch Agatha Harkness. Joining her is Emma Caulfield Ford, who will reprise her role as Dottie for the Disney+ show. Dottie was one of the women Wanda trapped in her Westview fantasies. Could Dottie be another secret witch? Only time will tell. Variety also reports Heartstopper‘s Joe Locke has joined the cast in an undisclosed role. However, many fans speculate Locke will play the role of  Billy Kaplan, a.k.a. Wiccan, the son of Scarlet Witch and Vision. Mashable further notes that Miles Gutierrez-Riley will play “Billy’s boyfriend, Hulkling.”

Aubrey Plaza will also star in the series, potentially as a more villainous character on the Agatha show. Ali Ahn and Maria Dizzia have reportedly joined the cast as well, as has Patti LuPone. LuPone revealed she will play the role of Marvel Comics’ Lilia Calderu. Debra Jo Rupp is reportedly in the cast, too, presumably reprising her role of Mrs. Hart from WandaVision. Sasheer Zamata, meanwhile, is confirmed to play the role of sorceress Jennifer Kale.

Agatha: Darkhold Diaries‘ Release Date

For now, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries will be a part of the MCU’s Phase Five. According to Mashable, it will be nine episodes long, a bit longer than the typical Disney+ Marvel show. Agatha: Darkhold Diaries will release on Disney+ in 2024.

Originally published on November 4, 2022.

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In The Marvels, Iman Vellani makes a delightful return as Kamala Khan after we last saw her in the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel. The Pakistani-Canadian actress has been widely noted as a scene-stealer in the film, bringing all of Kamala Khan’s joy over meeting her idol Captain Marvel to the big screen. Vellani is fully living the dream of a comic book nerd in many ways. She recently co-wrote Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant alongside Sabir Pirzada, which introduces Kamala Khan as a mutant and member of the X-Men in the Marvel Comics universe.

We caught up with Iman Vellani to talk about her ideas for Kamala Khan’s future, her relationship with her The Marvels co-stars, and her hopes for Ms. Marvel to meet a certain character in the MCU.

Nerdist: What is it like living every comic book nerd’s dream? Your joy in being in this film was so palpable and so wonderful to see. What was the experience like?

Iman Vellani: I really have been trying to figure out how to sum it up and it’s near impossible. I feel like such an imposter at times. I am very, very lucky and I can acknowledge that, but what if I’m not enough? What if there’s a bigger fan? It’s a lot of pressure when you actually think about it and knowing the fan base very well from God knows how many years I’ve been a part of this community… It’s a little intimidating, but I think if I’m happy doing the work, then people will be able to see that. So hopefully that’s enough.

The relationship between Kamala, Carol, and Monica was the highlight of the film. What was it like building that relationship and bonding over the filming throughout?

Vellani: Yeah, I was going into this thinking we’re going to be like sisters, super close, and they kind of just took me in. It was very sweet because both of them have not only been in Marvel things before, but they’ve just been in Hollywood before and I had just come off of Ms. Marvel. I hadn’t done any press yet. I haven’t been exposed to the world. I basically had these two years where I could just prepare for my life to change. Brie and Teyonah were both very good at giving me space to ask questions and be vulnerable and open.

There’s so many weird questions that you can’t really ask until you’re put in that situation, in terms of press and your makeup or body image. There’s so much of just being a woman in the public eye and I think they understand that on such a deep level. It was very great for me to have them as support, and then they just let me take off once the universe got ahold of me and they’ve always been available if I ever needed anything. It was a very sweet relationship.

In The Marvels, Kamala goes through this journey of learning not to put Captain Marvel on such a high pedestal. Did that journey parallel your own at all as someone who’s just entering this world of Marvel and this massive limelight?

Vellani: Absolutely. I say this all the time, but me and Kamala are going on a very similar trajectory here. With Ms. Marvel, it was like a homey environment, small, everyone was kind of my age and we were all new and this was everyone’s first big thing. Then suddenly, two weeks later, I’m doing a scene with Samuel L. Jackson and my brain cannot wrap my head around it. I’ve gotten a lot better at realizing famous people are also people.

I think at the same time, Kamala realizes Carol has so many stressors already on her, and she very clearly does not know how to express her feelings. She doesn’t know how to be vulnerable in front of other people. She doesn’t have any relationships in her life, whereas Kamala has her friends, her family, her religious community. She’s got her mentors, her idols, and so many people around her in her life and her entire Jersey City squad and Carol doesn’t have that. [Carol] has Goose. She has a freaking cat. That’s it.

It’s not even a cat. So it makes total sense that she is the way that she is, and I think Carol actually ends up learning a lot from Kamala about being open and having emotions and honoring those feelings and just like Kamala does. It was very sweet to watch our characters progress and go through this entire arc throughout the course of the film.

Kamala/Ms. Marvel is one of my favorite characters, not only as a South Asian Muslim woman, but also because so much of her culture and religion is woven into who she is in every comic page of portrayal. The same is true for her in live-action, too. Do you have a favorite example of a certain cultural or religious reference that happened in The Marvels?

Vellani: There’s this one part where Muneeba, Kamala’s mom, is saying how she’s going to kill Carol Danvers in Urdu. That was really funny. I don’t know why. That just makes me crack up every single time. That, and obviously [the moment where] Aamir is praying as they’re about to crash-land back on to Earth and Nick Fury was like, “Well, don’t stop. We need all the help we can get.” There are these little moments like that that make these characters so specific and [to me], this is representation. Not being “this is what Islam is and this is what being Pakistani means.” It’s just having these little moments. My parents talk to me half in English, half in Urdu. They’re sprinkling in little words just like the Khan family does. It makes me feel seen, and I love that we have that in the film.

Yeah, absolutely. I think something special about Kamala is that kind of specificity, but that is universally appealing, because, ultimately, she is just a girl trying to fit in.

Vellani: Exactly. Aren’t we all?

Kamala gets her little Nick Fury in Iron Man moment at the end of the film, which had me so excited. It seems that this new team seems quite intriguing. Do you have a dream team, aside from Kate and now potentially Cassie, even someone who isn’t in the MCU yet?

Vellani: People really love these Young Avengers, but I don’t even know if they actually read those comics—not that they’re bad. The chemistry between Kamala, Miles [Morales], and Sam [Alexander], it’s too good. I would love to see that trio in the MCU. Neither of those characters exist yet in live action, but I’m praying for it. Yeah. I love Sam Alexander. One of their first interactions that they had. Also when Sam tried to reveal his identity and Kamala was like, “Get away from me.” I love it.

If there were a Ms. Marvel season two, which we are all hoping for, what is your favorite comic storyline that you would like to see done in live action next?

Vellani: Doc.X, I think. Gen Z and their phones, people love talking about that and just the impact that technology really does have on us. I think Doc.X is such a good villain to incorporate and act as the metaphor for how much content we’re consuming and the ways we use technology to ruin other people’s lives.

I think that could work so well in a college setting or even her senior year. I really want to see that storyline play out. And also, I think it’s one of the storylines where Kamala is just at her peak nerdiness. The comic also starts with her hosting a LAN party with all these other nerds, gaming. It’s so amazing, honestly. So I want to see more of that. I want to see gamer Kamala. I want to see her just fueling on bags of chips and pop. 

Speaking of comics, co-writing the first comic book run where Kamala is now a mutant is a big responsibility! I’m sure you were over the moon at the opportunity. Did you learn anything new about Kamala’s character?

Vellani: I honestly wanted to honor a lot of G. Willow Wilson’s original Ms. Marvel run. She does such a good job of painting the picture of who Kamala is right down from the very first frame of her smelling bacon at Circle Q, and I love it. I love how much personality she has. For me, I wanted the comic that I co-wrote to showcase why I love this character so much in this specific medium.

I love Kamala in the MCU, but I wanted people to see why she’s even cooler in the comics. I wanted to put her powers on full display, so me and my co-writer Sabir Pirzada, who is my favorite human to work with, were just like, “Okay, how crazy can we go with these powers? What kind of shapes can we come up with?”

These powers work so well and only in comics. You could do so much with it. And as long as the artist can draw it, the sky’s the limit. That was my main takeaway, and I think I found so many new things Kamala can do with her powers. It’s crazy. She uses her own body as a slingshot at one point. Her fingers elongate into spaghettis and they separate drones. It’s so weird and crazy. You couldn’t do that in live action. So yes, this was my love letter to her powers, I guess.

Now that you’ve written for Ms. Marvel, if you had the chance to write for any other superhero, who would it be?

Vellani: That’s tough. Maybe Deadpool, honestly. I think he’s a pretty fun character and I love reading his comics. He just comes to the top of my mind because I recently have been reading some Deadpool. But I love his humor, and honestly, when you read enough Deadpool comics, you can just mimic it and I feel like that would be really fun and put him in really strange situations.

Let’s hop back to The Marvels. As you talked about before, Kamala has a lot of people to rely on and it shows this emotional maturity that, say Carol or even Monica, can’t really get to. Could you tell me a little bit about how you portray that and what was most important to you in portraying her relationships to her family and friends especially?

Vellani: Kamala is very much the glue of the group in a lot of ways. She has so much more knowledge than them about superheroing. Even though she’s younger than all the rest of the characters, she’s still the most mature, still the most emotionally intelligent because she is such an observer. And I’m very glad for the way the movie is edited because it cuts back to Kamala just reacting and not speaking. There’s little moments where Monica slips up and calls Carol “Aunt Carol,” and you just have that one look from Kamala.

There’s a lot of moments like that and she realizes very quickly early on that she’s in between some really tense moments between Carol and Monica. They have years of history under their belt and yet she still doesn’t shy away from giving her opinion. She doesn’t shy away from making choices under pressure. A lot of the reason is because of her relationships, Kamala just feels like a character who understands what it is like to be human. She’s the epitome of humanity in my eyes. I think she’s the most human character in the MCU. I think she has so many relationships that ground her. I think her religion grounds her. The fact that she has both parents who are alive grounds her, and Carol just doesn’t have that. 

I think that quality just makes her a natural born leader in a lot of ways, which is why I would be so excited to see something like the Young Avengers come to fruition. There’s so much that so many characters can learn from her, and Carol definitely takes a lot of that from Kamala. Kamala teaches them about teamwork and about partnership because she’s researched all this. She reads comics, she writes fan fiction, she’s listening to Scott Lang’s podcast. So she’s so involved in the superhero of it all that sometimes she forgets that her heroes are also adults and they have lives and they’re human too. Carol and Monica teach her more about adulthood, and she teaches them about leadership and about teamwork. So it’s a good balance.

The scene in Aladna, with all the bright colors and set pieces, kind of reminded me of a Bollywood musical. We’ve seen Kamala go through some Bollywood-like scenes in the comics, but would that be something you would like Kamala to do in the MCU too? 

Vellani: I would like for Kamala to do it. I would not like to do it. They already had me dance twice in Ms. Marvel. I can’t move like that. No, I wish I could say I was the Madhuri Dixit of the MCU, but I’m really not. I don’t think I want to be. That seems like a lot, a lot of dance moves. But there are scenes from the comic where she is in Bollywood-esque numbers and stuff and I was like, “That would be fun for Kamala, if I’m thinking not selfishly.” I would love to see it. I’m a little scared of Bollywood. It feels very intimidating and a lot of pressure.

We have to talk about the end credit scene, it is groundbreaking for the MCU. Now that Kamala is already part of the X-Men in the comics, which member of the X-Men would you like to see her meet first?

Vellani: Wolverine. Wolverine any day. Personally, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is one of my favorite characters ever, but also her first mentor in the comics was Wolverine. I wanted to bring Wolverine back into this one. Hopefully, we can do that in the future. I think their interactions are so sweet and she brings out a different side of Logan and I love it when she just has all these superhero parents. It’s wonderful. He’s very protective over her and I think he’s also very real with her. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything and I think Kamala needs just a reality check sometimes. 

The post Iman Vellani on THE MARVELS, Writing MS. MARVEL Comics, and Her Hopes for Kamala Khan’s Future appeared first on Nerdist.

When Venom 3 was briefly teased at Cinema Con 2022, fans of Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff movie were excited and relieved. But since then, we’ve only gotten a few brief teases of what Venom 3 will hold. Of course, the last time we saw Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and his trusty companion Venom, the pair went on adventures through the multiverse. Sony’s Venom leads ended up in the MCU, but not for long. At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eddie Brock returns to his own universe. And we assume that’s where we’ll find him (and most of Venom) in Venom 3.

On the heels of the SAG-AFTRA strike’s positive resolution, Venom 3 is back in production. Tom Hardy shared an on-set image celebrating the movie’s return to filming on his Instagram. It looks like he’s embodying the spirit of Venom, without a doubt. Poor director Kelly Marcel is also pictured, but she doesn’t look like she’s enjoying the antics as much. It feels like the perfect movie will come out of these shenanigans.

Here’s everything we know about Venom 3.

Title

Right now, the only title we have for the third Venom movie is Venom 3. But since Venom 2 eventually got a fuller title, we suspect there might be a longer title in the future.

Venom 3‘s Plot

At this time, we don’t know anything specific about Venom 3‘s plot. We only know that Eddie Brock is back in his own universe after his MCU visit. We assume Venom has also traveled back with him, despite the little gob of Venom goo left behind in the MCU. While we do not doubt that the new MCU Venom bud will seek to cause Tom Holland’s Peter Parker a lot of trouble in a potential Spider-Man 4, that likely won’t factor too much into Venom 3.

Tom Hardy did tease a behind-the-scenes image of Venom 3, which involves Eddie yelling at a wolf. Whether this will prove meaningful, we’ll have to wait and see. Whatever awaits us in Venom 3, we can bet it will involve more of Eddie Brock and Venom snarking at one another and a great mix of comedy and tragedy.

Venom 3‘s Cast

Thankfully, Tom Hardy will return as Eddie Brock for Venom 3. Alongside him, Ted Lasso’s Juno Temple has joined the movie, as will Chiwetel Ejiofor. We don’t know details on either of their roles yet.

Regarding returning actors, there has been no news yet of any actors other than Tom Hardy reprising their Venom or Venom: Let There Be Carnage roles.

Behind the Scenes 

Kelly Marcel, a writer and producer on Venom‘s first two movies, will direct Venom 3. Marcel also serves as the writer of Venom 3, penning the script based on a story she and Tom Hardy created. Marcel and Hardy will act as producers on the movie alongside Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal, and Hutch Parker.

Venom 3‘s Release Date

Venom 3 will release on November 8, 2024.

Originally published on August 1, 2023.

The post VENOM 3 Has Resumed Filming appeared first on Nerdist.

The Thunderbolts have been a long-awaited MCU team. The quasi-villainous anti-hero/misfit gang is a staple of the Marvel Comics world, and many heroes have been a part of it at some time or another. As the MCU slowly gathered the right members, fans speculated harder and harder that the Thunderbolts were coming. And finally, in 2022, Marvel Studios made the big announcement—the MCU’s Thunderbolts movie was finally on the way.

We’ve known for a little while that Steven Yeun would be featured in the Thunderbolts movie. But now an unlikely source seems to have revealed his role. So look away if you don’t want to know. In a conversation with David Finch, The Walking Dead and Invincible creator Robert Kirkman seemingly reveals who Yeun is playing. According to Kirkman, Steven Yeun will be playing the MCU Sentry. Kirkman noted, “My good friend Steven Yeun is playing the Sentry in a movie.” He goes onto say, “Yeah, he called me, and he said, ‘I just came back from a costume fitting for the Sentry. I guess I only do superheroes that are yellow and blue.’ He said he was at the costume fitting and was like, ‘Aww, crap. I forgot Invincible was yellow and blue.'”

Kirkman notes that he hopes what he revealed isn’t a spoiler, but it turns out, it kind of is, oops! Of course, it’s entirely possible that Kirkman’s wires are crossed and Yeun is playing someone else. But it feels fairly unlikely at this point. We guess we’ll have to wait for an official announcement.

As for Sentry, the Marvel superhero does indeed wear yellow and blue. Marvel’s official description of the character notes, “A shining sentinel, the Sentry is one of the most powerful heroes in the world, but his darker half proves to be an unstoppable destructive force at every turn.” Named Robert Reynolds, Sentry unknowingly steals an experimental rendition of the Super-Soldier Serum and drinks it. The serum grants him solar-powered superhero abilities as well as the usual superpowered strength, intelligence, speed, and the rest. Unfortunately, the serum also creates a villainous entity inside of him known as The Void. We can see how he might fit right in with the rest of the MCU’s Thunderbolts.

Here’s everything we know so far about Thunderbolts.

Title

For now, the movie about the Thunderbolts is simply called Thunderbolts.

Thunderbolts‘ Plot

We don’t know anything about the plot of Thunderbolts. However, we know who will be part of the MCU Thunderbolts. The Thunderbolts will comprise of Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, Ghost, Red Guardian, Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes (a.k.a Winter Soldier), US Agent, and Taskmaster.

Thunderbolts‘ Cast

Accordingly to the MCU Thunderbolts line-up, here is the projected main cast of the movie so far, pending any surprise recastings:

Julia Louis-Dreyfus returns as Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine. Hannah John-Kamen will play Ghost. David Harbour remains as Red Guardian. Florence Pugh will reprise her role Yelena Belova. Sebastian Stan will again take on the role of Bucky Barnes (a.k.a Winter Soldier). Wyatt Russell will appear as US Agent. And Olga Kurylenko will appear as Taskmaster.

Reportedly joining them is The Bear star Ayo Edebiri in an unknown role. And most recently, reports from Deadline indicated that we’ll see The Walking Dead, Nope, and Minari star Steven Yeun join the cast in a big way.

Behind the Scenes

Eric Pearson will write Thunderbolt‘s script, and Jake Schreier will direct the movie. Beef‘s creator and showrunner Lee Sung Jin has also come aboard as a writer of the movie. Kevin Feige is, of course, producing this Marvel Studios’ production.

Thunderbolt‘s Release Date

Thunderbolts is scheduled to release on July 25, 2025.

Originally published on January 27, 2023.

The post Steven Yeun’s THUNDERBOLTS Role Confirmed by THE WALKING DEAD’s Creator appeared first on Nerdist.

Marvel Studios is certainly at a crossroads at the moment. The once indestructible brand where every film was an out-of-the-ballpark hit had its share of disappointments in 2023. There are a myriad of reasons for this, chiefly too much content in too short a time, and not enough of them were “events.” (Spider-Man: No Way Home notwithstanding). Aside from cutting back on films and shows drastically, there is a solution for this MCU malaise. And that solution involves putting the Avengers and the X-Men on screen together at last, and probably in Secret Wars.

A big part of the solution is to truly make the next Avengers film an event that even the most jaded and burnt-out MCU fans would have to check out in theaters—a proper Avengers/X-Men crossover. Certain hints that have popped up recently suggest Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Marvel’s Mutants are headed for a collision course with multiversal ramifications. Whether or not Avengers: The Kang Dynasty actually happens as planned, we do believe that the next Avengers film will feature the two iconic Marvel teams at odds.

The X-Men Hints So Far in the MCU

Since Disney acquired Fox back in 2019, fans have been asking “So when are the X-Men coming to the MCU?” Even She-Hulk asked it in her own show. And so far, Marvel Studios has been playing the long game, not jumping into anything. We got the mutant hint in Ms. Marvel, and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier in Multiverse of Madness. Plus, the news of Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine in Deadpool 3. Heck, we’re not convinced that Evan Peters’ Quicksilver in WandaVision isn’t more than he seems and not just a gag.

Now, The Marvels has revealed yet another connection to the X-Men universe with the return of Kelsey Grammar as Beast, working in the X-mansion from the original films. An incursion event with the X-Men universe and the 616 seems imminent, and that can only mean we’re getting an Avengers vs. X-Men project. And in fact, Avengers: Secret Wars could very likely be rebranded as Avengers/X-Men: Secret Wars. An announcement of that magnitude would blow the doors off of San Diego’s Hall H, and stop all talk of “Marvel Fatigue” dead in its tracks. Just from a mercenary business perspective, it makes sense. But frankly, it’s also a story fans have waited decades to see.

Will These MCU Mutants Be the X-Men We Know?

The big question is, which X-Men are we dealing with here? Beast was working in a lab that looked identical to the underground medical bay in the Fox X-Men films. The Charles Xavier we saw in Doctor Strange on Earth-838 seemed very reminiscent of the one from X-Men: The Animated Series. But the Scarlet Witch killed that Charles. Obviously, the Charles that the Beast refers to seems to be very much alive. So, this is another hint that Beast is in the classic X-Men movie universe, not Earth-838. Or, at least, a version of the classic Fox X-Men world. And yes, we know his appearance looks different. We remind you that the look of comic book Beast is continually evolving. No reason to think the live-action Henry McCoy would be any different.

X-Men: Days of Future Past May Hold the Answer

Fans of the Fox X-Men films know that the timeline and continuity of those films are a bit of a mess. And that’s putting it mildly. But at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Logan’s adventures in the past caused him to wake up in a new present. Essentially, a “happy ending” future, where Xavier is still alive. The school was open, and former tragically dead X-Men like Cyclops and Jean Grey were alive and well. In fact, Kelsey Grammer’s Beast was there too, in a cameo moment.

Given one of music cues in The Marvels’ post-credits scene is from Days of Future Past, we think that they’re trying to tell us that we’re in that “happy ending” reality from that film. A reality that takes the best elements of the original movies and loses the things viewers hated. Mainly, the random and arbitrary deaths of the main X-Men. So, in short, it’s a new X-Men universe, made up of bits and pieces of the old one. And part of what it’s keeping is the classic actors. The rest is up to the filmmakers.

Deadpool 3 May Set the Stage for Avengers/X-Men: Secret Wars

With three confirmed X-Men characters back, there’s no telling who else might show up coming up soon. There are rumors already that Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, and James Marsden are back for Deadpool 3 as Storm, Jean Grey, and Cyclops, respectively. Patrick Stewart has all but confirmed he’s back too. What’s to stop Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Alan Cumming, and Rebecca Romijn from returning as well? If you’re going to bring back the OG X-Men, it seems only using them in small roles in Deadpool 3 is a waste. No, we think there are much bigger plans afoot.

The 2015 event comic Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman began when incursions across the Multiverse resulted in its total destruction until there were only two realities left—the classic 616, and Earth 1610, home of the Ultimate universe. Eventually, both of those realities had to do battle with each other to determine which one would get to live. Spoiler alert—neither reality gets to live, and Doctor Doom fuses what remains of them together into a new “Battleworld.”

Although it could still be Kang in the MCU, In Avengers/X-Men Secret Wars, we could get a version of that story. But it would be the MCU Earth vs the Fox X-Men Earth. And the protectors of each reality would have to fight for the existence of their world. Much like Captain America: Civil War, neither side would be wrong. Who wouldn’t fight to protect everyone they know from annihilation? In an Infinity Wars-type cliffhanger, we could see both realities fade to white, presumably destroyed. A sixth Avengers film could open on Battleworld, a hodgepodge reality made of elements of both universes. It would be an excuse to bring back anybody.

X-Men vs. Avengers: A Battle Fans Have Waited Decades to See

From a pure fan point of view, the battles would be cant-miss events. Thor vs. Storm, Wolverine vs. Hulk, Scarlet Witch vs. Phoenix, etc. And yes, an all-star lineup of Avengers vs. an all-star lineup of X-Men is a lot of characters. But let us remind you that Civil War juggled 18 principal characters. Infinity War and Endgame showcased 30, and somehow gave everyone something to do. So an Avengers/X-Men crossover could absolutely work. Although Kevin Feige might want to give Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely a call. They seem extremely adept at juggling so many superheroes cohesively, and giving emotional character stakes to these comic book battles.

The original X-Men films truly started the Marvel superhero craze in cinemas after Blade proved it could be done. It led to Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and ultimately, the MCU. If, in fact, Avengers: Secret Wars and the Multiverse Saga are intended to bring an end to not just one era of storytelling, but going back even before the MCU, what better way to go out than with a bang?

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Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced a Fantastic Four movie at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. Then at the same convention in 2022, Feige announced a release date and that the movie about the quartet would kick off Phase Six. We recently learned the film is being pushed to May 2, 2025—that was after hearing director Matt Shakman say the film will shoot in London in 2024. Shakman said he would be announcing casting soon once the SAG-AFTRA strike ended. Now that strike is over, and rumors point to Pedro Pascal playing Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mister Fantastic.

Daniel Richtman shared the report, and /Film confirmed with sources that Pascal is taking the role. Deadline, however, reports it’s still in negotiations. With Pascal’s very full schedule, it’s hard to imagine adding the superhero flick. Marvel movies aren’t exactly chill, and Reed would be a leading role. Pascal has the Gladiator sequel, The Last of Us, and The Mandalorian (though he’s largely been doing voice-over only for that role). Marvel hasn’t said anything yet, but here’s hoping they’ll tell us about Pascal as Reed and fill us in on casting for Sue, Johnny, and Ben. The Fantastic Four is Marvel’s first family and expectations for their arrival in the MCU are high.

We love the idea of Pascal as Reed. He could bring exactly the right kindness and sharpness for Reed. We know Pascal has the reluctant dad bit down, and Reed is that type of figure for the Fantastic Four.

Regardless of whether this report ends up being true: Pedro, bud, we hope you’re taking care of yourself and staying hydrated. Drink an extra glass of water for us, okay?

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Destin Daniel Cretton, the director of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, has stepped away from directing duties on Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Deadline reported this news on Wednesday afternoon. The fifth Avengers film is still set to debut on May 1, 2026, but currently has no director attached. Cretton is not leaving the MCU, however—far from it. The original report suggests he is still continuing work on the Wonder Man series starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen, of which he directed the first two episodes. The show will resume production now that the WGA and SAG strikes have ended. Cretton’s also still returning for the sequel to Shang-Chi.

Cretton is both the showrunner and EP of Wonder Man, a series he co-created with Andrew Guest. It’s resuming production after Thanksgiving under the Marvel Spotlight banner introduced for Echo. This means it will be a standalone project, not connected to the overall Multiverse Saga. This also likely means that Simon Williams in this series won’t become one of the main Avengers (which is kind of a bummer). But who knows, things could change. Rumors ran rampant that Marvel Studios was going to cancel Wonder Man, but this seems to not be the case.

Hopefully, this means that a sequel to Shang-Chi is on the fast-track now for Marvel Studios. It’s been two years since the first film hit theaters, and not a word since. It would not surprise us at all if Shang-Chi’s continuing adventures take the place of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty on the MCU calendar, and debuts on May 1, 2026 instead. It seems the Marvel Studios is rethinking a lot of what the next Avengers are going to be—especially after the financial and critical disappointments of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels. For all we know, The Kang Dynasty will transform into something else entirely.

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Remember when Marvel Studios explored the multiverse in animated form before Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Season one of What If…? imagined characters and stories from the MCU going slightly differently. T’Challa was Star-Lord and Peggy Carter became the first Super Soldier. The series introduced those promising ideas and more, though season one didn’t deliver in the way fans hoped. Now, Marvel Studios is back with What If…? season two. The trailer shows that the twists in the Multiverse have become more tangled. Plus, some Christmas hijinks ensue!

The poster for season two is leaning into the holidays aspect, which we’re guessing will be a single episode. So is the show’s marketing. What If…? season two will premiere on Disney+ on December 22. Fans can “unwrap” one episode every day for nine consecutive days. That means the season will end before the new year and that you can watch a new episode on Christmas. If nothing else, we can’t wait to see the Christmas episode and find out who has the nerve to invade Avengers Tower on the holiday.

Besides the holiday cheer, the trailer shows the return of Captain Carter and Strange Supreme. Thanos even appears. One of the episodes is set in medieval times, another brings back characters from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It seems like wild and weird times are ahead.

Featured Image: Marvel Studios

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“I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.”

Loki‘s season two finale proved the Asgardian prince was right all along. Only the glorious purpose with which Loki believed himself burdened turned out to be very different from anything he’d imagined. The God of Mischief, who wanted nothing more than to be loved, who thought personal fulfillment could only be found in the admiration of adoring crowds, realized the only true purpose in life is loving others. Loki became the God of Stories, the being at the end of time who makes it possible for everyone, everywhere, to live their lives freely. It was the final chapter in a story that saw one of the MCU’s best, most interesting, most important characters, one who began his own tale as a selfish villain, become a selfless hero. But it wasn’t exactly a happy ending.

Loki only got everything he ever wanted and redeemed his soul with great personal sacrifice. To protect those he cares for most he must spend eternity apart from them. He sits on a throne no one will ever come before. He shoulders a burden the very multiverse he saved will never know about. It was a conclusion as heartbreaking as it was beautiful, tragic as it was hopeful, ironic as it was poetic. It was an honest, earned, emotional farewell in the way only bittersweet endings can be.

Loki spent his life projecting strength to hide the weakness that truly drove hm. He played the villain to exude toughness because he was always scared and insecure. He thought he needed to intimidate and awe others into submission if he was ever going to earn what he thought he wanted most of all: love and respect. His personal failings didn’t just lead to his own suffering, though. They led him to hurt so many. Loki turned his pain into more pain.

That Loki, with whom we spent 13 years, was long gone by the time he destroyed He Who Remains’ Temporal Loom. By then he’d finally learned to be honest with himself. That self-reflection allowed him to recognize what he actually wanted in life. He would never find meaning in the love of others, but rather in loving them. To show love to those he cared about most, though, he had to do the one thing he feared most. To fulfill his glorious purpose he had to accept being alone. And he has to do it without thanks. The infinite number of people who owe him their very existence don’t even know he’s out there, let alone what they owe him. And the handful of friends who do will never again see him. To give everything to everyone Loki had to give up everything.

Whether you always loved Loki or came to begrudgingly respect him for what he did, it was hard to see him sitting on his throne at the end of time and not feel conflicting emotions. He wasn’t weak or afraid. He’d grown as a person and became strong enough to do something amazing with his life. He did something that mattered, something that earned him true redemption, something that benefitted all of existence. What greater purpose could anyone have then Loki, protector of the Tree of Life? What would his father, mother, and brother think of him if they could see him now? He’d been so desperate to make them all proud and now he had. And yet, to accomplish everything he ever wanted he had to accept being alone, the one fate he feared.

It was an incredible ending for an incredible character and story, one that felt both earned and right. It’s why Loki’s final chapter stands alongside other great goodbyes in the MCU, the ones that didn’t ask us to only feel good or bad, but to feel everything. Tony Stark was once a war monger who wanted to build a suit of armor around the world. In the end he was that suit of armor, but he paid for it with his life. Just as Natasha Romanoff did. The Black Widow who wanted to erase the “red” in her ledger sacrificed herself to save her best friend and the whole universe. Like Loki their endings were not only fitting conclusions to their stories, they stand out because they forced us to accept that emotions that seem inherently at odds with one another are anything but.

There is no good without bad, no hope with fear, no life without death. And we feel both good and bad more acutely when they come together because together they best resemble the conflict of being alive. None of us will ever get happy endings. One day we will all say goodbye to those we love. We might bid farewell first or be the ones left behind, but a parting is coming. Every hug, every “see you later,” every piece of key lime pie we share together could be our last. Remembering that is painful, but that pain it also reminds us to enjoy those moments and those people more. Stories that remind us of that force us embrace the most inescapable truth about existence, that to be alive and to feel is bittersweet.

Not every great ending is bittersweet. Neither is every bittersweet ending great. But when one is honest to the character and their arc, when it feels like the only ending they ever could have had, it lands an emotional blow no other conclusion can. Because a bittersweet ending is the only kind of ending that asks us to feel everything at once the way life itself does. How fitting the new God of Stories, the hero who saved everyone’s story, ended up telling one that did just that.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and  Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Welcome back to the TVA, Marvel fans! In the final episode of the season, the God of Mischief finally found his glorious purpose in a supremely satisfying climax, but was this epic ending also secretly a series finale? Dan Casey hops through a time door to find out whether this could be the last we see of Loki on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

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“It should have been you.” – Carol Danvers in The Marvels.

Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan wore Skrull memory probes together in The Marvels to find Dar-Benn’s coordinates, but the three saw more than just a star map. They also unintentionally shared private memories with one another. That included a moment Monica didn’t know about. While she remained blipped out of existence by Thanos, “Auntie Carol” visited Monica’s dying mother, Maria Rambeau. During their encounter Carol tried to explain why she had stayed away from Earth for so long. Carol also told her best friend she should have been the one who gained cosmic powers.

In the moment it felt like Carol’s way of owning up to and apologizing for her failures, both as a friend and a superhero. She wasn’t good enough at being either, not the way her friend would have been. But after the film’s shocking post-credits scene, that previous moment took on a whole new meaning. Carol Danvers might have been right, at least about the hero part. Maybe it should have been Maria Rambeau who became Earth-616’s Captain Marvel. Her Variants in parallel worlds became Captain Marvel instead. The MCU’s Carol Danvers might be an anomaly.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness introduced the Illuminati of Earth-838. One of the powerful group’s members was that dimensions’ Captain Marvel. She wasn’t a Variant of Carol Danvers but a version of Maria Rambeau.

That reveal was a fun, clever “what if,” the kind of alternate reality inevitable in an infinite multiverse. It wasn’t even hard to imagine why that universe’s Captain Marvel was different. On Earth-616 Carol and Maria were both pilots for P.E.G.A.S.U.S., a government project run by secret Kree scientist Dr. Wendy Lawson (a.k.a Mar-Vell). Carol was in the cockpit for Mar-Vell’s escape attempt. It resulted in Carol gaining immense powers from the Tesseract. But Carol was only flying because she’d taken a shortcut while racing Maria to the program’s hangar. Had Maria beat her there instead Maria would have been the one to become Captain Marvel in Earth-616.

Now the Illuminati Maria, who presumably died during her encounter with the Scarlet Witch, seems far more important than ever. The Marvels‘ only post-credits scene introduced another super Maria Variant. She lives in a world with the X-Men, a dimension that didn’t know about the multiverse before. There she is Binary, an even more powerful superhero persona Carol Danvers took on in Marvel Comics after losing her original powers.

Both Maria Rambeau Variants in the MCU are versions of Captain Marvel. On its own, that is more interesting than telling. But combined with the complete absence of any Variants for her MCU best friend, it stands out like a giant tear in space. We have yet to meet another version of Carol Danvers in any other reality—let alone another super one—even though “Captain Marvel” is proving to be a significant figure across the multiverse. As of now, Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers is a major anomaly.

What exactly does that mean? We don’t yet know. Marvel Comics once introduced a cosmic entity known as Anomaly, but despite its connections to Quasar (and therefore Quantum Bands) it’s not relevant to the MCU’s Carol Danvers. The franchise’s America Chavez is also not a great one-for-one comparison, because there is literally no one else like her in the Quantum Realm. Meanwhile we’ve now met three versions of a Captain Marvel character in three different worlds. And while Miles’ status as an anomaly in Across the Spider-Verse seems most pertinent, that’s a Sony story and it’s never clear what (if anything) it tells us about the MCU.

We do know one important thing: the universe doesn’t make mistakes with its greatest heroes. It gives great power to those it will one day ask to carry a great responsibility. Twice someone spared Tony Stark’s life, and he eventually saved every living being everywhere. The Hulk was seemingly created in an accident that should have killed Bruce Banner so he could use the gamma-ray powered Infinity Stones to bring back everyone Thanos snapped. And a Loki Variant just found the glorious purpose he believed himself born with to be saving every branch of reality to ever exist.

If Carol Danvers of Earth-616 is the Captain Marvel anomaly it’s not because the universe made a mistake. Her friend was not the one who should have been the one to gain those powers. It should have been Carol—along with all her flaws—for a reason we don’t yet know but one we can anticipate. Someday the universe will need that Carol Danvers to do something great, something her whole life will build to. And in that moment she and she alone will be the one, in any universe, who can do it.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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One of the most jaw-dropping reveals in any MCU post-credits scene happened at the end of The Marvels. We learned that Monica Rambeau, after fixing a tear in the fabric of spacetime, gets trapped in a parallel universe. She awakens to find what she thinks is her deceased mother, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), at her bedside in a medical facility. But it’s not just any medical facility. It’s what appears to be the lower levels of the Xavier’s School mansion from the Fox X-Men films. Her attending doctor is none other than Hank McCoy, a.k.a. Beast, once again played by Kelsey Grammer.

But then, Maria Rambeau reveals that in this universe, she gained the power of Captain Marvel, but goes by the codename Binary. She also revealed that she had no child named Monica in this universe. And she wears a totally different costume than Carol Danvers does. Or even that the other Maria Rambeau from Earth-838 (seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) wore. That one also looked like a modified Kree uniform. But the Binary codename and costume have direct ties to Carol Danvers in the comics, and also, to X-Men lore. In explaining that, we first have to explain a dark chapter in the history of Carol Danvers.

TW: Discussion of kidnapping, gaslighting, and sexual assault.

Marvel Comics’ Mishandling of Carol Danvers, the First Ms. Marvel

In Marvel Comics, Carol Danvers was one of the first female heroes to receive her own ongoing series. A spin-off of the male Captain Marvel character, back then she went by Ms. Marvel. Her ongoing Ms. Marvel series ran for 23 issues, from 1977 to 1979. Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont wrote most of those stories. When Marvel canceled her series, Carol found a new home in the pages of Avengers. But that wasn’t meant to last, as Avengers writer Jim Shooter, also Marvel EIC at the time, wasn’t a big fan of the character. What he did to her next was pretty darn awful.

In Avengers #197, Carol discovers she’s pregnant, with no father. This immaculate conception is at hyperspeed, and she gives birth mere days after she finds out. Once the baby is born, it grows at an accelerated rate to adulthood, and reveals that he is Marcus, son of Immortus (a.k.a. Kang). Trapped in his own Limbo dimension, he could only emerge in our world if he was physically born into it. So he kidnapped Carol, impregnated her, mind-wiped her and sent her back to Earth so she could give birth to his new body. If this sounds like kidnapping and sexual assault, that’s because it is.

If all that wasn’t bad enough, his mind-control powers forced her to fall in love with him, or at least make her think that she loved him. After realizing he couldn’t stay on Earth-616, he whisked her away, back to his home dimension…with the full blessing of the Avengers, who didn’t even try to stop him. They just seemed happy Carol had a new man in her life, as if that’s all that mattered. With that, they wrote Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel out of the Marvel Universe for two full years.

Carol Danvers Finds a Home with the X-Men

This did not sit well with her former series writer, Chris Claremont, who happened to be writing the biggest superteam in comics, the X-Men. So in 1981, in Avengers Annual #10, he addressed the situation. He revealed that Carol had returned home. This was after Marcus, who ages rapidly, died in his own dimension. But as soon as she returned to Earth, she was attacked by the power-absorbing mutant Rogue, under orders from her mother, Mystique. She held on to Carol too long, siphoning her super strength and flight powers permanently, leaving Carol in a coma.

When Carol regains consciousness, most of her memories are gone. She goes to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, where she hopes the telepathic Charles Xavier will help her restore her memories. While he restores the basic facts about her life, the emotional connection to those memories goes away. When the Avengers come to visit the returned Carol at the X-Mansion, she is rightfully enraged with her teammates, who allowed Marcus to manipulate and kidnap her. She vows to remain with the X-Men over the Avengers, despite now being powerless.

Carol Danvers Goes from Ms. Marvel to Binary

For a brief time, a now powerless Carol Danvers was an unofficial member of the X-Men, using her military training and top-secret clearance to help them on missions. She forms a bond with Wolverine, who also had his memories tampered with. On an outer space adventure with the X-Men, the alien race called the Brood kidnapped and experimented on her, discovering that although she was technically human, she had latent mutant genes. Those genes probably allowed her to survive the accident that made her Ms. Marvel in the first place. These latent mutant genes would unlock her true potential, when exposed to the power of a “white hole” in space.

Carol Danvers Becomes Binary, an Unofficial X-Man

As a result of those experiments, Carol got her powers back, and then some. She transformed into a cosmic being, calling herself Binary. More powerful than ever before thanks to Brood experiments, and wearing a new red and white costume. She remained an associate of the X-Men, in a way filling in for the now-deceased Phoenix. But when Professor X took in Rogue as a new X-Man, Carol couldn’t abide to live in the same house with the woman who stole her life and memories, and departed for the stars. Years later, her godlike powers decreased, and she became Ms. Marvel again, and eventually, Captain Marvel.

MCU Binary is Maria Rambeau, a Member of the X-Men

So what does this mean for the MCU Binary? Well, it likely means that in the X-Men universe, Carol Danvers didn’t pilot the experimental jet that fateful day. So her best friend and fellow pilot Maria Rambeau received superpowers from the Tesseract instead. Did she become Captain Marvel in this X-Men universe, only to later lose her powers and become Binary? Something very similar to what happened to Carol in the comics could have happened to Maria in the X-Men universe. We just don’t know yet.

Maria might have become Captain Marvel, lost her powers (possibly even to Rogue), and then regained them tenfold and become Binary. And much like the Carol Danvers Binary in the comics, she might have become something of an unofficial X-Man. This explains why she was at the X-Mansion in the post-credits for The Marvels. In the post-credits scene, we notice she is wearing both Quantum Bands. Is that what unleashed her Binary potential in the X-Men universe? It’s quite possible. Hopefully, Marvel Studios will reveal what happens next very soon.

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Steve Rogers is either dead or a very old man, but the world still needs Captain America. Fortunately for Earth, someone just as worthy of that title as Steve took on the job. No, not John Walker. (Definitely not John Walker.) On The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson finally accepted the mantle his friend tried to give him at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Now Anthony Mackie is ready to lead the superhero franchise into the future with the MCU’s fourth standalone Captain America film. Here’s everything we know about Captain America: Brave New World.

Title

Marvel first announced Captain America 4‘s official title as part of its Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. It was originally called Captain America: New World Order. But in June 2023, Marvel changed the movie’s name. It is now called Captain America: Brave New World.

Captain America: Brave New World‘s Plot

Marvel has yet to reveal many details about the film. Thus far, the title is our best clue about the film’s plot. It echoes both the main conflict of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Aldous Huxley’s dystopian classic. Marvel executives have shared some tasty breadcrumbs, though.

That began with Nate Moore, VP of Production & Development at Marvel Studios, talking about how Harrison Ford will replace the late William Hurt as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in Brave New World. In an interview, Moore said:

Well, look, Sam Wilson’s Captain America, he is going to bring his own team to play. It’s no secret that Samuel Sterns is making his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is fantastic because Tim Blake Nelson’s the best. Harrison Ford is taking on the role of General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, and to see Sam Wilson and Thunderbolt Ross, which if you remember actually threw him in prison at the end of Civil War because he violated the Sokovia Accords. There’s going to be some natural sparks there, which I think are going to be really fun.

Behind the Scenes

Malcolm Spellman (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and Dalan Musson are co-writing the film. Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox) is set to direct.

Captain America: Brave New World‘s Cast

In addition to Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier‘s Carl Lumbly will return as Isaiah Bradley. As will Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres.

Additionally, Brave New World will bring back Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) from The Incredible Hulk. Sterns, of course, is also known as The Leader. He will likely act as the film’s villain. Shira Haas will join the film as Sabra. Xosha Roquemore has joined the movie in an unknown role, and WWE wrestler Seth Rollins was spotted in costume on set.

Another original MCU star will also return after a long absence, too. Liv Tyler will reprise her role as Betty Ross. She originated the role in The Incredible Hulk.

Captain America: Brave New World‘s Release Date

Captain America: Brave New World will fly into theaters on February 14, 2025.

Originally published on February 14, 2023.

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Most characters in the MCU draw inspiration from those in the pages of Marvel’s comics. Sometimes, two characters are combined. But usually, it’s a character or characters with a long history, often going back decades. And then, there’s Prince Yan D’Aladna (Park Seo-joon), in The Marvels. Prince Yan has joined the MCU and is making it to the big screen after only one Marvel Comics appearance in an issue of Captain Marvel. Here is everything you should know from Marvel’s comics about alien royalty Prince Yan D’Aladna and everything we know about the version Park Seo-joon plays in The Marvels.

Prince Yan D’Aladna’s First Marvel Comics Appearance

In Marvel Comics, Prince Yan of Aladna’s first and so far only appearance happened in 2014’s Captain Marvel (Vol.8) issue #9. The issue has Carol Danvers, who had only recently become Captain Marvel, and her alien sidekick Tic journeying to the distant world Aladna to help a mutant rock star, Lila Cheney, who also happened to be a cosmic adventurer. Lila Cheney had the mutant power to teleport across the cosmos, which led her to many entanglements with the X-Men and Carol over the years. Now, Lila found herself trapped in an unwanted engagement with alien royalty, and needed her old friend Carol to bail her out. In Prince Yan’s world, everyone has to rhyme when they speak. Good times.

Prince Yan’s Connection to an X-Men Character

When she was a child, and her mutant powers first manifested, young Lila Cheney transported herself to Aladna and fell for the planet’s handsome prince. Lila was an Earth mutant of considerable power who once dated Xavier’s student Cannonball. In Prince Yan d’Aladna’s world, only women could choose their lifemates. Being from Earth, Lila didn’t realize that when she chose Prince Yan, it was a real commitment that would have to be honored. When she returned to Aladna as an adult, they forced Lila to marry Prince Yan, even though neither of them wanted that.

Prince Yan asked Captain Marvel to help him stop the ceremony by formally objecting. During the ceremony, Marlo of Sleen, who wished to rule Aladna, appeared, intending to defeat Lila in combat and marry Yan. Carol represented Lila in battle and won. Now officially betrothed to Yan, Captain Marvel offered him the right to choose whoever he wanted to marry. Hoping to avoid the possibility of Yan being denied the crown if he attempted not to marry, Tic volunteered to become Yan’s wife. Once he became king, Yan abolished this rule for Aladna.

What Are Prince Yan’s Powers?

As far as we know, Prince Yan D’Aladna doesn’t have any superpower, at least not in Marvel’s comics. However, like everyone on his home planet, Yan can always speak and carry on a full conversation totally in rhyme. Essentially, all of Aladna’s people speak musically. So, that’s kind of a power? We’ll have to see if Park Seo-joon’s MCU Prince Yan develops any other powers in The Marvels.

Is Prince Yan Captain Marvel’s Husband?

Although Carol Danvers won the right to marry Prince Yan, she decided not to. She allowed the Prince to choose his own consort. Or rather, the consort chose him. So no, Carol is not married to the Prince in the Marvel Comics and is, therefore, not secret alien royalty. However, that did not stop him from being flirty with her.

That’s the comics’ world though; in the MCU, however, Captain Marvel and Prince Yan D’Aladna end up entangled in a “marriage of convenience,” and indeed, Prince Yan is Captain Marvel’s husband.

Park Seo-joon as Prince Yan D’ Aladna in the MCU

As mentioned, the MCU’s Prince Yan is played by Park Seo-joon. In The Marvels, Prince Yan is still part of the royal family on the planet Aladna. Carol, Kamala, and Monica go to his home planet once they realize that Kree villain Dar-Benn has made the water-rich world her next target. Her plan is to steal water from Aladna, since 90% of that world is covered by oceans. When Carol and the Marvels arrive, she awkwardly reveals to Kamala and Monica that she’s actually the Princess of Aladna, since she married Prince Yan in a diplomatic ceremony.

This is when we discover that the people of Aladna only communicate through song, which leads to much hilarity with the arriving heroes. Park Seo-joon gets to show off his vocal chops in The Marvels when he sings to his lovely princess in her gown, and then shows off his warrior chops when defends Captain Marvel from attacking Kree soldiers. Unlike most of his people in The Marvels, Park Seo-joon’s Prince Yan also can communicate non-musically, as it’s revealed that he is bilingual. The MCU version of Prince Yan got to do what his comic book counterpart did not– marry the superhero. And get to be a hero himself.

The Marvels is now in theaters everywhere.

Originally published on October 23, 2023.

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Loki‘s second season ended with the Asgardian prince getting everything he ever wanted. He really was born with a glorious purpose. It led him to sit upon a throne as he’d always coveted. And yet, the fulfillment of his lifelong dreams was not what he imagined. The God of Mischief, who had long played the role of a villain, proved to be anything but. His burden was not to earn others’ love but to show love. Loki saved everyone in every timeline by sacrificing himself to create a new kind of existence. It honors his Norse heritage and frees the universe from the Sacred Timeline’s oppression. The only thing it didn’t do was eliminate the danger posed by Kang the Conqueror and his dangerous Variants.

Loki spent the first half of his show’s season two finale desperately trying to fix the Temporal Loom that had seemingly exploded at the end of episode four. That blast had sent everyone at the TVA back to their original branch and life. It was everything Sylvie wanted, but in episode five those realities and everyone in them all began to turn to spaghetti. Without the Temporal Loom around to organize branches into the Sacred Timeline the entire multiverse appeared doomed. Loki was the multiverse’s only hope thanks to his time slipping.

Once Loki learned to control his movement through time he was able to go back to before the Loom’s failure. In the finale he spent centuries studying and repeatedly attempting to expand the Temporal Loom. He finally achieved his goal when he made it possible for Victor Timely to successfully fire the Throughput Multiplier onto the Loom before it was too late.

It didn’t work. It was never going to work. Scaling up the Temporal Loom’s size to fit more timelines was always doomed to fail. Without the TVA’s pruning of branches, new realities grow at an infinite rate. You can’t scale up for infinite. “It’s like trying to divide by zero. It can’t be done.”

Loki then decided he had to go back even further in time to fix everything. He needed to stop Sylvie from killing He Who Remains in the first place. The death of the TVA’s creator had put this existential disaster in motion.

Inside the Citadel of Time, during a sequence from the show’s season one finale, Loki tried again and again to prevent Sylvie from killing He Who Remains. He never succeeded. No matter how many times he time slipped to that encounter, Sylvie always murdered her sworn enemy. Each time she also told Loki if he wanted to stop her he had to kill her. Loki wouldn’t.

Eventually He Who Remains paused time when he realized Loki had relived this moment many times. The TVA creator also knew all about the time slipping. He had “paved” the road that led to Loki’s time traveling ability, because Loki was He Who Remains’ backup plan for reincarnation, not Victor Timely.

Loki then shared his own secret. He could also control time; he was much further along in his understanding of time manipulation. He Who Remains then explained exactly what was going on. There was no Temporal Loom scaling problem because the Temporal Loom is simply a failsafe. “When the Loom is overloaded with branches, it deletes the ones that aren’t supposed to be there. Everything except the Sacred Timeline.” Saving the TVA was never a concern. It was simply collateral damage that is “easy to rebuild.” The Loom’s protection of the Sacred Timeline and its finite number of chosen branches was all that ever mattered.

He Who Remains then told Loki something the Asgardian already knew: no matter what Loki did he would always lose. There was no way to save every branch. Not unless Loki changed the equation entirely and destroyed the Temporal Loom.

While He Who Remains said countless versions of his dangerous Variants already existed by now, destroying the Temporal Loom would mean multiversal war. That would result in the destruction of every branch of reality, including the Sacred Timeline. He Who Remains said that’s what this was all about. He offered mercy to some by making the hard choice to sacrifice timelines to prevent the end of them all. Loki was unconvinced. He still refused to kill Syivle and said he would “find another way.”

That other way led him to time slip to his first sit down with Mobius. There/then Loki asked his friend for help. Loki asked about how you decide who lives and dies. Mobius talked about keeping the big picture in mind and how “most purpose is more burden than glory.” Ultimately there is no comfort in real, meaningful purpose. The only choice we have is to pick which burden we are willing to live with.

Loki thanked him and then went to speak with Sylvie before she turned to spaghetti. When he told her the truth about the Loom being a failsafe Sylvie realized he might have to kill her. It was the only way to guarantee He Who Remains would live. Loki said it was either the Sacred Timeline or nothing, but she didn’t accept that. What gave him the right to take away everyone’s free will? What was the point of protecting an existence without it? Who was Loki to say they couldn’t die fighting instead? Why replace one nightmare with another anyway, especially when “sometimes it’s okay to destroy something.”

It’s what Loki needed to hear. Sylvie had never lost sight of the real big picture and what matters – a chance to live your life. Loki knew what he needed to do. He finally realized what kind of god he needed to be for his friends and everyone. Loki realized he could replace the branch-killing Loom, and therefore the Sacred Timeline, with something better: himself.

Loki went back to the moment before the Temporal Loom exploded to save the people he loved. He walked out on the platform without a suit and adorned his royal Asgardian clothes and horned crown. He then used his powers to destroy the Temporal Loom for good. Without it the infinite branches began to die, but Loki grabbed them and brought them back to life with his energy. He then gathered every timeline and carried them through a rift that led to the End of Time.

There he weaved the branches both into his robe and into himself as he claimed the throne as the King of All Time, Always. Only, unlike He Who Remains, he did not oppress timelines into a branch-killing Loom. Instead Loki let them all blossom and co-exist in peace as part of something new. Loki created Yggdrasil, the sacred ash Norse Tree of Life that contains all life.

Loki sacrificed himself to save everyone on every timeline. He also saved the TVA, a place people can now choose to serve freely. Some like Mobius opted to leave the TVA behind and go home. Others decided to stay because the TVA still serves an important purpose. It now monitors Variants of He Who Remains, one of whom caused (an already dealt with) problem in an Earth-616 adjacent world. That was a reference to Kang’s activities in the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Loki’s glorious purpose, which was never about earning the love of others but rather showing it to them, saved every branch in the infinite multiverse. He also stopped multiversal war and the potential destruction of everything. The Variants of He Who Remains will not destroy the entire universe. But when Loki broke the loop of time he did not destroy Kang and his Variants for good. Instead, in this new reality, they’re united as the Council of Kangs seen in Quantumania. He Who Remains Variants are no longer fighting each other to control the multiverse, they’re fighting together. That’s still a dangerous proposition for every branch of reality.

Loki’s sacrifice wasn’t a perfect solution because life isn’t perfect. We can never be truly safe. But it was beautiful and full of hope. He created a far better universe than the one He Who Remains maintained. Loki didn’t offer the multiverse false mercy defined by death. Loki has to give the multiverse life. Every life.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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We knew from the start The Marvels would feature an epic team-up between Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau. But in the lead-up to the movie’s release, we learned another exciting character would make an appearance in the movie, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie. First, we saw the Asgardian Bifrost appear in a teaser, and then we glimpsed Valkyrie herself. Some fans were sad that Marvel didn’t let the cameo Thor character cameo be a surprise. But although we knew Valkyrie would appear in The Marvels, we didn’t know how the character would figure into the story or what exactly she would do in the MCU movie. Happily, we now have all the answers we sought. So why is Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie in The Marvels, and what is she up to? Here’s a breakdown of Valkyrie’s cameo scene.

Valkyrie Appears in The Marvels to Help Captain Marvel Find a Home for Displaced Skrulls

The Marvels kicks off with a rough start for Carol Danvers and the crew. The villainous Kree warrior Dar-Benn is creating unstable jump points through time, space, and reality using the powers of a quantum band she acquired. But she’s not just using them as a means of transportation. No, she’s actually after resources from other planets that her homeworld of Hala is lacking, thanks to a civil war kickstarted by Captain Marvel herself. That’s a big downside for the whole universe in The Marvels, but the upside for us is that it leads to Valkyrie arriving on the scene.

Dar-Benn Steals Tarnax’s Atmosphere, Destroying the Skrulls‘ Home

Before Valkyrie’s arrival on The Marvels, we see Dar-benn target the planet of Tarnax. Currently, Tarnax houses a Skrull colony, one that we actually learned about in Secret Invasion. And here we bet you thought Secret Invasion didn’t matter in The Marvels. This colony, run by Emperor Dro’ge, is the one place the Skrulls settled if they didn’t go to Earth with Talos and the rest. Dar-Benn wants to steal Tarnax’s atmosphere for Hala, but she’s willing to help evacuate the Skrulls before she does. Or so she says, we’re not sure what would have happened because Captain Marvel, certain that the Kree are up to no good, interrupts the discussions between the Kree and Skrulls and a battle breaks out.

During this battle, it becomes clear that in addition to forming jump points and threatening the universe, Dar-Benn’s bangle has entangled Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau’s light-based powers. In the end, all three end up on Tarnax fighting to protect it, but they’re too late. Dar-Benn opens a portal with her bangle and sucks the atmosphere right out of the Skrull colony. Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau evacuate as many Skrulls as they can, but they are unable to save everyone. Still, even those who are saved have now lost the home they worked so hard to build. Enter Valkyrie into The Marvels.

Valkyrie Takes the Skrulls to New Asgard

Captain Marvel tells Dro’ge that she’s called a friend to help find the Skrulls somewhere safe to go. And, at that point in The Marvels, anyone who had seen the teaser trailer knew Valkyrie was coming. First there was Bifrost, and then there was the suit-clad King of New Asgard. Although Valkyrie doesn’t outright say that she’s taking the Skrulls to Asgard’s new Earth-side colony, we assume that’s where they’re heading. We guess we’ll need Thor 5 or a Valkyrie movie to know for sure.

Valkyrie also takes the time to give her stubborn friend a little nudge in the right direction. Valkyrie tells Captain Marvel that she’s glad she’s found a team and that she can “stand tall without standing alone.” It’s solid advice. Valkyrie also leaves on a teasing note, saying, “May our next meeting be joyful.” We certainly hope there will both be a next meeting for this duo and that it will be joyful.

So, Do Valkyrie and Captain Marvel Kiss in The Marvels?

Wouldn’t that have been nice? In the lead-up to Thor: Love and Thunder, Kevin Feige promised that the movie would explore Valkyrie’s sexuality and find her a queen, but that did not come to pass. Which, of course, came as a big disappointment. But it did keep the door open for someone to fill that role. In the past, Tessa Thompson and Brie Larson both supported the idea of a “ValCarol” relationship in interviews and at cons, much to the delight of fans. So naturally, when it was announced that Valkyrie would cameo in The Marvels, viewers wondered if there might be a romantic element to it.

And, ultimately, there wasn’t not a romantic element to it. Valkyrie and Captain Marvel didn’t share a specifically romantic kiss in The Marvels, but Valkyrie did kiss Carol on the cheek. Hey, that’s not bad for five minutes of screen time. We would say it was definitely textually flirtatious. Maybe in their next joyful meeting, ValCarol can finally become a reality. Captain Marvel is already a princess in a “marriage of convenience” (to a man too fabulous to not also be queer), and that has a fairly queer feeling to it all on its own. Also, we’re looking at you, Carol Danvers’ basketball shorts. So why not add wayward queen of New Asgard to the title pile? We’ll continue to fly the flag of this ship.

In the meanwhile, we were glad to see Tessa Thompson back as Valkyrie in The Marvels, and we hope to see her again soon.

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When The Marvels‘ Dar-Benn used both Quantum Bands, she did more than just destroy herself. Those powerful ancient artifacts caused a massive energy surge that also turned her unstable jump point into a giant rift between parallel worlds. Monica Rambeau’s efforts to close the tear trapped her in a different universe entirely, one where the X-Men exist. But she might not have been the only Marvel superhero the movie’s big ending will have huge ramifications for. The cosmic explosion that created the multiverse pathway in space at the end of The Marvels might have created a fantastic new foursome in the MCU. And before Monica averted a potential Incursion, mutants might have “bled” into her home dimension.

Will The Marvels‘ Massive Space Explosion Bring the Fantastic Four to the MCU?

The Fantastic Four will soon arrive in the MCU. The iconic clan will kick off Phase 6 with their own movie. However, we don’t know if they’ll appear before their film the way some MCU figures debut in other characters’ projects. We also don’t know exactly how the franchise will explain the Fantastic Four’s sudden presence in the Avengers universe. Will they come from a parallel world in the multiverse? Or will they be natives of the MCU’s prime universe of Earth-616 who suddenly gain incredible powers? That’s their origin story from the comics. If the latter is what the MCU has planned for the Fanastic Four, then The Marvels might have just shown how those four regular humans became super beings.

Reed Richards, Susan Storm, her brother Johnny, and Ben Grimm famously gained their powers in Marvel Comics from exposure to cosmic rays during an experimental space flight. Meanwhile, The Marvels just featured a giant space explosion. While it might not be exactly the same type of exposure—The Marvels‘ was more like a cataclysmic burst of quantum energy rather than cosmic rays—it still would have exposed any nearby scientists on a secret cosmic mission to a massive energy surge. (That’s exactly the type of change the MCU makes all the time.) It was powerful enough to tear the barrier between worlds. It was certainly powerful enough to imbue someone with superpowers.

That would be true for Variants on both sides of the rip. Thanks to The Marvels, the Fantastic Four might have just gained their powers on the MCU’s Earth-616, or in the parallel X-Men world Monica Rambeau finds herself in, or both.

Of course, it’s also possible that, like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four already existed in that other reality. We’ve already met a super-powered Reed Richards Variant in the MCU’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. More of him and his cohorts definitely exist in the infinite multiverse already. If the Fantastic Four already a part of the X-Men dimension in the MCU, it’s possible they just switched realities, the same as Monica.

That’s why the Fantastic Four aren’t the only famous Marvel superheroes that The Marvels‘ cosmic bleeding might have pulled into the MCU.

Were Any X-Men Pulled into the MCU’s Earth-616 During The Marvels?

Dr. Hank McCoy now knows the impossible is anything but. for Monica’s presence in his universe showed Beast an incredible fact MCU fans already knew: parallel dimensions exist, and people can travel between different realities. But can they also unwillingly “bleed” into them? That’s the term Monica used to describe what was happening thanks to the rip in space. In The Marvels, she said a totally different reality was “bleeding” into her own.

What does that actually mean? Did that cosmic bleeding pull people into Monica’s world? Specifically, the mutants from the new dimension where the X-Men exist? Spider-Man: No Way Home established people can move through the multiverse against their will. Did that just happen to some of the X-Men of Beast’s world? Are they now on Earth-616? That would solve a big problem fans have long waited to get an answer to. The MCU is a place where the X-Men haven’t existed before, and it wouldn’t make much sense to suddenly learn they always have been there. Now The Marvels could be how the MCU explains the sudden appearance of Fox-era X-Men characters in the franchise.

If that “bleeding” was nothing more than a turn of phrase, and no mutants or Fantastic Four members got pulled into Earth-616 in The Marvels, there’s still one more obvious way Dar-Benn’s space tear will result in major Marvel characters joining the MCU. They have a new friend who wants to go back there.

Will Monica Rambeau Bring the X-Men or Fantastic Four to Her Home MCU Universe?

Monica is now a direct link between the world of the MCU and the X-Men. It’s a connection that didn’t exist before that tear in space. Multiverse of Madness‘s Charles Xavier is the only known mutant of that world. He was a Variant, not the Fox-era version of the character. But Monica might very well have met the Beast of the X-Men films. Beast’s looks are always evolving in Marvel Comics, and Disney used musical cues from both X2: X-Men United and Days of Future Past during the post-credits scene of the MCU movie.

Even if they’re not, though, Monica will want to go home. When she does, she might not go alone. She could bring some fantastic, exciting new friends with her.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The Temporal Loom is central to Loki’s second season, and we learn it’s critical in making the Time Variance Authority function. But what is Loki‘s Temporal Loom exactly? Here’s what we know about the Temporal Loom from Loki season two and what we can glean from Loki‘s various inspirations.

The MCU’s Loom: Loki Season Two’s Temporal Loom

Created by He Who Remains at some unknown point in time, Loki‘s Temporal Loom takes raw temporal energy and refines it into a physical timeline. Part of the reason the TVA prunes the extra timelines is so that the Temporal Loom doesn’t overload trying to “weave” too many timelines at once. Without the Temporal Loom, the TVA can’t function. And if it overloads, the TVA goes boom, and all of reality would soon follow. In episode two, we learn that a meltdown can’t be prevented without the temporal aura, or time signature, of He Who Remains. Who is currently quite dead.

By the third episode of Loki season two, the Temporal Loom is indeed overloading, thanks to the countless branched timelines that are returning with the death of He Who Remains. It simply wasn’t made to handle so many divergent timelines branching off at once. And without it, not only does the TVA cease to function, but chaos will reign in the multiverse. But we also learned of the origins of the Temporal Loom and how they tie into a specific Kang variant.

Victor Timely and the Origins of the MCU’s Temporal Loom

In episode three of Loki’s second season, Loki and Morbius travel back in time to the year 1893. There, they encounter a variant of He Who Remains. This variant, Victor Timely, is presenting his latest invention at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. It’s a very rudimentary version of the Temporal Loom, sold to the 19th-century audience as a way of harnessing energy. Victor Timely was able to create this Temporal Loom prototype based on his understanding of the descriptions of the TVA manual. A book that was left for him by Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes when he was a child. Of course, the Temporal Loom malfunctions on stage after a mere few minutes. Yet it shows that as early as the 1890s, a Kang variant was working on the very thing that would make the TVA run.

Loki‘s Temporal Loom Isn’t Designed to Support the MCU’s Multiverse

In episode four, Loki and Mobius bring Victor Timely to the TVA to fix the overloaded Temporal Loom. They need the temporal aura of He Who Remains to open the blast doors to the Loom, which Timely matches. But Timely provided another service, what he called his “greatest invention” in the previous episode. Timley’s greatest invention is something that looks like a primitive version of Kang’s Multiversal Power Core from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He can attach this invention to the Throughput Multiplier and expand the rings of the Temporal Loom. This would allow the new branched timelines to filter through, and save the TVA, and all reality. However, it doesn’t quite work out that way.

When Victor Timely tries to head out and fix the loom, he turns into spaghetti. And the Temporal Loom, well, it overloads and explodes. This explosion destroys the TVA, which appears to doom every branch, too. Every universe and thread of reality appears to literally shred, and there is nowhere to go for anyone except Loki, who finally manages to control his time slipping. But in the finale of season two, we learn that the Temporal Loom is a failsafe; it’s not designed to support the multiverse. No matter how many times Loki tries to get expanding it right, it simply always fails because it’s impossible to scale up for an infinite number of timelines. He Who Remains explains that the Loom’s purpose isn’t to support a multiverse of endless branches, but to destroy everything but the sacred timeline. To keep existence stable for other branches, something else has to be done.

Loki Replaces the Temporal Loom with Himself

In Loki season 2’s final episode, Loki destroys the Temporal Loom and replaces it with himself, forming the great tree of Yggdrasil out of the timelines and supporting them with his magic. With Loki at the center, the universe and all its branches can exist and thrive in a way they could not when the Temporal Loom wove the universe.

That’s the MCU. But does Loki‘s Temporal Loom have a precedent in the pages of Marvel Comics? Well, yes and no. But mostly, no. However, Loki season two’s Temporal Loom found inspiration in various parts of Marvel’s comics and actual myth.

Loki‘s Temporal Loom and Its Mythological Inspirations

In Greek mythology, there is a Loom of the Fates, which also exists in the Marvel Universe. In Norse mythology, that loom is the Loom of the Norns. (Marvel Comics combines these two mythologies together into one.) Essentially, in mythology, the three Fates weave this loom to shape the life and destiny of every being in creation. Thor destroyed the Loom of the Fates in Thor Vol. 2 #85 and broke the thread that holds the destiny of Asgardians, from which Those Who Sit Above in Shadow were absorbing energy. Those Who Sit Above were the silent beings who created the Asgardian Gods. So it’s fitting that a powerful loom that determines how the universe flows originated in Thor comics since the MCU’s Temporal Loom now appears in Loki, thus tying it to Thor’s mythos.

Spider-Man’s Loomworld

In the Spider-Man lore, there’s another powerful loom of sorts, reminiscent of Loki‘s temporal loom. The loom in this instance is a whole world itself, one that accesses all existence. There’s an entire Loomworld, where beings called the Inheritors could access the Web of Life and Destiny to travel across the multiverse and hunt down Spider-Totems. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse especially drew inspiration from this. They created the Loomworld of conquered realms from countless wars fought across realities. Eventually, several spider-people formed the Web-Warriors. They operated from Loomworld and used it as a focal point to protect the multiverse, which is similar to how the MCU’s TVA works.

Temporal Limbo, Chronopolis, and the Heart of Forever

In the comics, Kang did not create the TVA. There was a “He Who Remains,” but as far as we know, he’s not a Kang variant. However, the TVA has a lot in common with the realm of Limbo, a place outside of time historically ruled by Immortus, who was, of course, a Kang variant. Temporal Limbo was a timeless realm facilitating time travel to various points in history. Much like the MCU’s TVA, it existed outside the time stream. And time did not flow there the way it does everywhere else.

Limbo is also part of Chronicles, which has something very similar to the MCU’s TVA. At its heart is the most important component of the city, the Heart of Forever. It’s a trans-chronal engine that enabled Kang’s home to exist in every branch of the timestream simultaneously. While not exactly like the Temporal Loom in Loki, it has key similarities.

In the end, Loki‘s Temporal Loom is a hodgepodge of different elements from the pages of Marvel Comics—not to mention actual mythology itself. Ultimately, though, the Temporal Loom is a unique creation designed for the MCU. However, we’d hardly be surprised to see it retconned into the comics at some point.

Originally published on October 5, 2023.

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Here’s something we didn’t have on our bingo card. Only one MCU movie will release in 2024. That’s right, one. The only MCU movie coming to theaters in 2024 is Deadpool 3. This will be followed by four movies in 2025. It’s an interesting choice, but one many seem to be applauding, especially given recent sentiment that the MCU has stuffed its multiverse too full. How did this come about? Well, Marvel Studios recently shuffled around the release dates for several of their movies. Let’s take a look at which MCU movies moved and what the overall 2024/2025 release date slate looks like for Marvel.

The New 2024/2025 MCU Release Date Schedule

In short, here are the MCU movies that will release in 2024 and 2025 and their current release dates.

• Deadpool 3 will release on July 26, 2024
• Captain America: Brave New World will release on February 14, 2025
• Fantastic Four will release on May 2, 2025
• Thunderbolts will release on July 25, 2025
• Blade will release on November 7, 2025

How Marvel’s Movies Shuffled Around

For the curious, here’s how these MCU movies and their release dates moved around. Deadpool 3 was originally meant to release on May 3, 2024 and will now arrive on July 26, 2024, a short move of a few months. That makes sense because the movie is approximately 50% done.

Meanwhile, the MCU’s Captain America: Brave New World had an original release date of July 26, 2024 and moves to February 14, 2025. Fantastic Four retains its May 2, 2025 release date and doesn’t shift at all. The MCU’s Thunderbolts movie had an initial release date of December 20, 2024, and Marvel has now delayed it to July 25, 2025. And finally, Blade, initially planned for February 14, 2025, moves to November 7, 2025.

According to IGN, Marvel Studios has removed two untitled MCU movies from its schedule. These movies originally held the release dates that Thunderbolts and Blade now occupy.

We’ll have to wait and see if this release date calendar remains in place as we head into 2024 and beyond.

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Fans have speculated for years now when the Young Avengers might be coming to the MCU. Well, before the credits rolled on The Marvels, we got our first official confirmation that the Young Avengers are on their way. Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan appears in the loft of Hawkeye/Kate Bishop, in a scene that comically echoes Nick Fury’s post-credits scene in the first Iron Man. Ms. Marvel informs Kate she’s gathering a group of younger heroes together, based on intel she procured from Nick Fury. She even mentions that she heard that “Ant-Man has a daughter.” We of course know she’s talking about Cassie Lang.

All of this is leading to what Marvel fans have been wanting for some time now—confirmation of some kind of plan to see the Young Avengers on screen. So, just who are these Young Avengers in the comics? And are the other members of the team already in the MCU? Surprisingly, most of them already are. Let’s go down the list of candidates for the MCU’s Young Avengers, starting with those already introduced, to the ones we’re still patiently waiting for.

Stature (Cassie Lang)

In the comics, Cassie Lang is the daughter of Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man. When her father supposedly died in the Avengers Disassembled storyline, she took up the mantle of hero herself, revealing she had the same size-changing powers as her dad after years of exposure to Pym Particles. She was one of the first new recruits into the Young Avengers when they formed, and has been an on-and-off member ever since. Sometimes she goes by the superhero name Stature, and other times, the codenames Stinger and Ant-Girl.

We’ve known all about the MCU’s Cassie Lang since the very first Ant-Man, when she was played by Abby Ryder Fortson. In Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania, Kathryn Newton played the part of Cassie as a now 18-year-old, one who was able to harness the Stature tech from her “Uncle” Hank Pym into becoming superpowered herself. She went on an adventure into the Quantum Realm with her family, establishing herself as a hero and aiding the freedom fighters against Kang. Besides Kate Bishop, she’s the most fully developed of the Young Avengers heroes in the MCU. So, it makes sense for Kamala and Kate to try to recruit her first.

Wiccan and Speed (Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd)

One of the founding members of the Young Avengers, Billy and his twin brother Tommy were the children of the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff. Or at least, they were the manifestations of children Wanda created through her own incredible power. They eventually vanished when Wanda discovered they were not real. The comics eventually reincarnated Billy and Tommy into new teenage bodies, with superpowers to boot. Billy was reborn as Billy Kaplan, and discovered he had magical powers like his “mother” as a teen. Tommy was reincarnated into another family, growing up as Thomas Shephard. He had super speed powers like his uncle Quicksilver, and took on the heroic name of Speed.

In WandaVision we met child versions of Billy and Tommy inside Wanda’s hex in Westview. They went from babies to children almost overnight. When Wanda’s hex came down, they vanished, seemingly into non-existence. However, we doubt that highly. Rumor has it Joe Locke, who stars in Netflix’s Heartstopper, will play the teenage Billy, a.k.a. Wiccan, in Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. He’s definitely in the series, and all circumstantial evidence points to his being teenage Billy. Now, if Billy Maximoff was indeed reborn, that means his twin brother Tommy is likely also out there somewhere as well. Hopefully he’s ready to answer the call to join the Young Avengers.

Patriot (Eli Bradley)

In the comics, Patriot was a founding member of the Young Avengers, sporting a star-spangled shield and costume similar to Captain America. We eventually learn he is Eli Bradley, the grandson of the original Captain America, Isaiah Bradley. The government used the elder Bradley as a guinea pig during WWII in developing the super soldier serum, and kept his status as the world’s first true Captain America a secret for years. Years later, a blood transfusion would give Eli some of his grandfather’s powers, and he’d become a superhero himself.

In The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes introduced Sam Wilson to the original African-American Captain America, Isaiah Bradley. Instead of pre-dating Steve Rogers, in the MCU he was the only living survivor of several soldiers the government tested on to recreate the super-soldier serum. Isaiah’s grandson Eli appears briefly on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, played by Elijah Richardson, living with his grandpa. So we know he exists in the MCU already. Someone just needs to go ring his doorbell.

America Chavez

Although not a founding member of the Young Avengers, America Chavez became a mainstay of the team during writer Kieron Gillen’s run on the title. America Chavez was actually born in another dimension called the Utopian Parallel. She had the power to open portals from one universe into the next. America is Marvel Comics’ first Latina LGBTQ hero, and served not only as a Young Avenger, but also the Ultimates, and the West Coast Avengers.

She was introduced into the MCU in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, played by Xochitl Gomez. And she played quite a big role. In fact, due to her multiverse skipping powers, she became the target of the Scarlet Witch, and became a sidekick (of sorts) to Doctor Strange. She was last seen training in the use of her powers at Kamar-Taj. It seems like Kamala and Kate will have to pay her a visit very soon.

Ironheart (Riri Williams)

Marvel introduced Riri Williams in 2016, as a 15-year-old genius MIT student who was able to build her own Iron Man armor. Tony Stark heard about her and was impressed, becoming her official sponsor at the university. After Tony landed in a coma some time later, a version of his consciousness communicated with her via an A.I., guiding her as a nascent superhero. Eventually, Riri made a name for herself as Ironheart, and found her way onto the team known as the Champions. Although technically not the Young Avengers, this group of teenage heroes was very similar to the Young Avengers, and even Ms . Marvel was a member, along with the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man.

The MCU introduced Riri Williams as key part of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, played by Dominique Thorne. Slightly older than her comic book counterpart, Riri was still studying at MIT. Her inventions drew the negative attention of the underwater nation of Namor. She became a ward of the Wakandans, who were impressed at her DIY version of the Iron Man armor. With access to superior Wakandan technology, she created her first real Ironheart armor, and helped the Wakandans in the final battle with Namor’s people. She returned home, soon to star in her own Ironheart series on Disney+. As a key player already in the MCU, we think she’ll be at the top of the list for Kamala and Kate’s recruitment list.

Kid Loki

In the comics, a younger version of Loki brought together a later iteration of the Young Avengers team. The junior version of the Asgardian God of Mischief was a true pain. But he also found genuine friendship with his teammates. The MCU introduced a version of this character in the first season of Loki, as a Multiversal variant who killed his brother Thor. Eventually, the TVA arrested him to save the sacred timeline. When last we saw him, the younger Loki remained in the Void at the End of Time. This means he still exists out there, and might join an MCU version of the Young Avengers at some point. Although we’re not sure how Kamala and Kate are making that particular house call.

Iron Lad (Nathaniel Richards/Kang)

Iron Lad was a founding member of the Young Avengers, and the true identity of this teenage Iron Man remained a mystery for some time. It was eventually revealed that Iron Lad, a.k.a. Nathaniel Richards, was a time-traveling, adolescent version of Kang the Conqueror—version who was trying to avoid his destiny as a villain and made an attempt to become a hero. A young actor who could play Iron Lad has yet to be cast, but we definitely know there’s a Kang. And thus, a teenage variant of him out there could fit the bill. Since any Young Avengers project would fall squarely in the Multiverse Saga, using Iron Lad sounds like the perfect way to tie it in.

Hulkling (Teddy Altman)

Probably the most significant Young Avenger not yet introduced or even hinted at yet is Hulkling. A founding member in the comics, Hulkling, a.k.a. Teddy Altman, first appeared to be what his name suggested—a teen version of the Hulk. But he was no gamma-irradiated human, he was a half-Kree/half-Skrull prince raised on Earth. Teddy could shapeshift into Hulk size, but also into anything else he wanted. His father was Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel, and a Skrull princess, thus making him royalty. His boyfriend (and future husband) is his fellow teammate, Wiccan.

The MCU gender-swapped Mar-Vell, and introduced her in the first Captain Marvel. It would be easy enough to say she married and had a child with a Skrull prince rather than a princess, perhaps one of the Skrull refugees, and Teddy is the product of that union. Of course, that would mean Teddy is pushing 40 now, but hey, we’ll let the writers figure all that out. As half of Marvel’s most beloved gay power couple, Hulkling needs to turn up soon in the MCU. It’s just not the Young Avengers without him.

Prodigy (David Alleyne)

One of the few Young Avengers characters related directly to the X-Men, David Alleyne, a.k.a Prodigy, came aboard the team after appearing in comics like New X-Men, and The Champions. Prodigy is a mutant with the power to telepathically absorb and copy any knowledge and skills from the minds of people around him. However, the knowledge eventually dissolves away. After his time as a member of the Young Avengers, Prodigy began a romantic relationship with Speed. His power set isn’t very showy or fun on screen, so he might not make it in. But he’s another candidate who has not shown up in live-action yet, and aside from Kamala Khan and (arguably) the Maximoff twins, he might be one of few known mutants who could make the cut.

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The Marvels ended with one of the group’s three members lost in a parallel universe. The jump point Dar-Benn created over Earth grew even more unstable after she tried to use both Quantum Bands at the same time. The resulting explosion caused a cosmic power overload that not only killed Dar-Benn, it caused a rip in space itself. It opened a door to a different reality which then began bleeding into the MCU’s Earth-616. Monica Rambeau alone stopped a potential universe-destroying Incursion by absorbing the combined energy of Kamala Khan and Carol Danvers. That gave her the power she needed to close the tear using her electromagnetic spectrum manipulation abilities. But Monica knew her heroism would come with a cost. She was only able to close the hole from the other side. When it safely shut she was stuck in a completely unknown branch of the multiverse.

At least it was completely unknown until the film’s only post-movie sequence. A mid-credits scene revealed Monica ended up in a reality with major implications for the MCU’s future. Monica woke up in a hospital bed after someone rescued her from space. Sitting by her side was a Variant of her mother, Maria Rambeau. That Maria doesn’t have a daughter, though. She’s not a mom; she’s a superhero known as Binary, a persona that belonged to Carol Danvers in Marvel Comics.

More importantly, Binary’s associate and Monica’s doctor, turned out to be someone who reports to “Charles.” The scene featured Kelsey Grammer’s Dr. Hank McCoy, a.k.a. Beast, from Fox’s X-Men franchise. His surprise appearance is the most consequential moment yet for mutants in the MCU. It means the X-Men have finally joined the series for good.

Ms. Marvel‘s season one finale revealed Kamala Khan to be the MCU’s first confirmed mutant. Since then others like her have officially joined the franchise. A Variant of Patrick Stewart’s Professor Charles Xavier appeared in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. (That film also featured the first Maria Rambeau Variant. She was that dimension’s Captain Marvel.) Namor was the main antagonist of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. And Mr. Immortal made a brief cameo on She-Hulk. There might also be more hiding in plain sight unaware of their genetic mutations.

However, none of those characters have direct ties to Fox’s X-Men films, which are poised to play a major role in the MCU soon. The version of Charles Xavier from Multiverse of Madness wasn’t just a Variant, it’s not clear any other X-Men or mutants exist in his reality. It’s also not yet known what connections, if any, the version of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine who appears in Deadpool 3 will have with his original Fox universe character. Despite mutants’ presence, the X-Men didn’t exist in the MCU until The Marvels post-credits scene. Now they do, because in that universe Beast reports to “Charles.”

We don’t yet know if the reality Monica ended up in is the exact same universe as the Fox X-Men movies, but The Marvels strongly hinted at it. In addition to Grammer’s Beast, the scene featured music (listed in the credits) from both X2 and Days of Future Past. That’s a big difference from the musical cue we got for Kamala Khan on Ms. Marvel. A motif from the X-Men animated series accompanied her genetic mutation reveal. If Marvel wanted us to treat Beast, Binary, and the unseen Charles Xavier as just other mutant Variants, why use Fox-era music?

The presence of Maria Rambeau’s Binary and the difference in Beast’s physical appearance means we can’t definitively say Monica ended up in the Fox X-Men universe. But no matter which exact reality she’s now trapped in isn’t as important as what that parallel world means for the MCU. The X-Men are now, finally, an official part of the franchise. They’ve also met a hero of Earth-616 and now know, impossible as it seemed to Hank McCoy before, they are not alone in the universe.

It’s only a matter of time before they meet more of a different Earth’s Avengers.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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One of the big questions left over from the Ms. Marvel series was all about the origins of the bangle left to her by her grandmother—the one that unlocked all the incredible powers within Kamala Khan. Well, thanks to The Marvels, we now know the truth. That cosmic bangle is but one of a pair, and they are older than history itself. They have deep ties to Marvel Comics lore. The Marvels reveals Kamala’s bangle is one of two Quantum Bands, one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe. They connect to a character who was an Avenger for many years, as well as one of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Marvel Comics’ Quantum Bands Were Weapons of the Protector of the Universe

In the comics, the Quantum Bands were ancient and powerful energy-manipulating devices that most humanoids could wear. The ancient cosmic entity named Eon, whose statue was shown in Thor: Love and Thunder, possibly created them. Although it’s also possible they are even older than he is. Eon then appointed a mortal champion to wear them, giving them the title of Protector of the Universe. The Quantum Bands were weapons, but also revered symbols of the Protector of the Universe.

The power of the Quantum Bands comes from a place called the Quantum Zone, where all the energy and power in the Marvel Universe actually comes from. The Quantum Bands store energy from the Quantum Zone, but if they ever cut access to that power coming from the Zone, then these instruments would have to use whatever energy they had stored within them. And once that energy ran out, without access to the Quantum Zone, they would be totally useless.

The Powers of the Quantum Bands in Marvel Comics

These bands allow whoever wears them control over the electromagnetic spectrum, and can sap the energy away from both lifeforms and machines. They can project energy beams of varying degrees of power, and can even make hard light constructs (similar to DC Comics’ Green Lantern). They grant the wearer a degree of strength, invulnerability, and flight. The bands even allow the wearer to make cosmic jumps across lightyears under their own power. They do have their limits though. The Quantum Bands can’t be used to control psychic energies or magic of any kinds, as those powers originate outside known reality.  

Quasar Wore the Quantum Bands in the Marvel Comics Universe

In the Marvel Universe, there have been countless Protectors of the Universe who have worn the Quantum Bands. However, two are the most famous. The first was Wendell Vaughn from Earth, a.k.a. Quasar. Wendell Vaughn was a scientist working for S.H.I.E.L.D., who was studying the Quantum Bands which they had acquired. When the terrorist organization A.I.M. attacked, Wendell put them on, and became the superhero known as Quasar. Even though he was not granted the Quantum Bands by Eon, the entity eventually deemed him worthy of the status of Protector of the Universe. He eventually joined the Avengers, and served on many missions with the team over several years. In more recent times, he’s shared the Quantum Bands with another Earth scientist, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Avril Kincaid.

The other most famous wearer of the Quantum Bands was Phyla-Vell, daughter of Mar-Vell. In the cosmic crossover event Annihilation, a deadly energy wave reached across the universe, initiated by the Lord of the Negative Zone, Annihilus. Wendell Vaughn lost the Quantum Bands to Annihilus during this event. Later, Phyla-Vell managed to steal the bands from Annihilus, and became the new Quasar herself. As the new Quasar, she joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. During her time as owner of the Quantum Bands, she was able to create the Quantum Sword, a weapon unique to her. When she died, the Quantum Bands returned to Vaughn, although Phyla eventually returned to life.

The Quantum Bands in the MCU

Fans believed the bangles Kamala used in Ms. Marvel were the Nega Bands, the traditional Kree weapon of Captain Marvel. But In the MCU, we learned they were actually the Quantum Bands. These creations were millions of years old, and split up at some point in time. Legend says they actually were used to map the galaxy, where the various jump points were created, allowing for interstellar travel.

Although they never explicitly stated where their power comes from in the MCU, there is the Quantum Realm, which might as well be the same thing as the Quantum Zone from the comics. So it may be their source of power. The villain of The Marvels, the Kree warrior Dar-Benn, found one in a remote world. When she briefly had both that one and Ms. Marvel’s in her possession, she could tear a hole in spacetime itself.

Unable to control the incredible power of both bands at once, Dar-Benn died while fighting the Marvels. However, the Quantum Bands themselves survived. We see Kamala at the end with only one on. Will Kamala wear both in the future? Or will someone else wear them? The bands unlocked Kamala’s powers, but those powers are innate to her. Perhaps Wendell Vaughn will appear in the MCU soon. And if not him, Phyla-Vell already exists in the MCU too, as they showed her in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as a new member.

One thing’s for sure: someone is going to wear both Quantum Bands in the MCU. The question is who will have the honor?

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While we certainly don’t condone what Loki did in The Avengers, it’s hard to fault the God of Mischief for using Stark Tower as his base of operations on Earth. Tony’s giant, technologically-advanced New York City skyscraper was a building worthy of an Asgardian prince. Now LEGO’s recreation of that famous skyscraper is worthy of Earth’s mightiest heroes and their fans. The toy company’s massive new Avengers Tower set is a gigantic plastic brick homage to an iconic MCU locale. And it needs to be large, because it needs room for a record-setting 31 minifigures.

Forget flowers. Forget parades. You can even forget about a monument built to the skies with your name plastered on the side. (You know what that would cost to heat? Stark Industries money.) This year fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are going to want LEGO’s 5201-piece Avengers Tower set.

This enormous set stands more than 35.5-inches tall, making it LEGO’s tallest brick-built skyscraper ever. And while it makes for an incredible display piece, it’s more than just a collectible. LEGO says it’s “filled with ways to replay Infinity Saga battles” on every floor. That will be easy to do thanks to its many, many minifigs. At 31 it’s the most ever-included in any LEGO set. One of them is an exclusive figure of Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. As if all that wasn’t enough, the collection also includes a Leviathan, Quinjet, and two Chitauri flyers.

LEGO Insiders will also have a chance to get even more bonuses. From November 24 through 27, members who buy Avengers Tower will also receive a free LEGO Marvel Taxi set. That comes with a New York yellow taxi and four minifigures of Black Panther, a taxi driver, and two outriders.

No surprise a big set comes with a big price tag. You can get yours on November 24 for $499.99. Sure, that’s a lot of money. But it’s probably still cheaper than selling yourself out to Thanos to get an alien army. That only got Loki this tower for a day. You can keep yours forever.

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The Marvels is a planet-hopping, zany MCU outing that is held together by its leads: Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), and Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). While on the shorter side for MCU films, The Marvels develops the relationship between Carol, Kamala, and Monica in an engaging and natural manner. The film’s weak points come during its slightly rocky beginning and from the inevitable struggle it faces between its aims and the needs of the MCU’s broader world. 

Kamala Khan, Monica Rambeau, and Carol Danvers have not appeared together on screen before. The MCU, after all, introduced Kamala in Ms. Marvel in 2022, while it (re)introduced Monica in WandaVision in 2021. But director Nia DaCosta, and fellow writers Elissa Karasik and Megan McDonell, flesh out their dynamic very well. The relationships between the three leads are easily the most interesting parts of The Marvels‘ story. Kamala, Monica, and Carol are (literally) thrown together when a mistake from Carol’s past comes back to haunt her.

The trio then have to navigate not only their powers, which cause them to switch places with one other if used simultaneously, but also an entirely new relationship and team dynamic. Vellani, who has proven to be a joyous addition to the MCU, spends much of her screen time being the quintessential fangirl. But her character goes through an important journey as her confidence in her powers and herself grows. She realizes that even her idol, Captain Marvel, can make grave mistakes. 

While the science of it all is questionable (as is true for most MCU films), the three heroes being linked through their powers makes for a thoroughly entertaining experience. The conceit allows for some fast-paced, electric action scenes. And the extent to which The Marvels stretches and experiments with the idea feels quite entertaining. We also get to see the heroes actually learning and training to work with each other. As cool as it was to see the Avengers assemble in Avengers: Endgame, we never learned how they knew exactly how to fight together. But we do get to see that team-building phase here. DaCosta’s direction keeps the story moving quickly, but never so much as to lose the audience.

While Zawe Ashton’s villain Dar-Benn certainly has intriguing motivations, she ends up following in the path of most forgettable MCU villains. Ultimately, she has very little to work with in the script. Her naked hatred for Captain Marvel is clear, but there was more potential to explore her motivations as a leader of the Kree. 

Kamala Khan and her family have time to shine in The Marvels, which grounds the universe-threatening stakes to a teenager simply trying to make sure her family stays safe. We see Kamala promise over and over again to her mother, who is fiercely protective, that she is in good hands with Carol and Monica. The moments shared between Kamala and her mother are incredibly touching, just as they were in Ms. Marvel.

Meanwhile, Kamala’s father and brother bring some comedic relief in the form of their disbelief as they make some of this galactic journey along with Kamala. There are specifically some downright hilarious moments with Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury that, for me as a South Asian and Muslim, indicated that care was taken with the specificity of Kamala’s family’s culture and traditions in The Marvels. DaCosta also leans into the weirdness a comic book-inspired film can afford, and it brings an entertaining detour to the planet of Park Seo-Joon’s Prince Yan. The film is a wild ride, but it balances the humor and the emotional beats mostly well.

Monica and Carol also finally come to terms with how much time they lost in The Marvels, and how they plan to move on as a family that accepts each other, flaws and all. Parris and Larson are compelling to watch together. Additionally, Larson finally gets more to do in this film, as opposed to in her previous MCU appearances. This comes not just in terms of engaging with the actual plot, but also in the range of emotions the movie asks her to convey. We see cracks in Captain Marvel’s oh-so-confident demeanor, and they make her all the more interesting.

Parris also gets the opportunity to be more than just the scientist of the bunch. She has some strong emotional beats opposite Larson. However, where Monica Rambeau ends up at the conclusion of The Marvels feels like a calculated move to set up future MCU expansions, as opposed to something truly in favor of her character.

The movie’s climax spells out major consequences for the MCU as a whole. And The Marvels‘ end credits scene will absolutely send fans off to the races with their theories for where the MCU’s projects will go next. Crucially, though, this is where the film’s best parts—the relationships between Kamala, Carol, and Monica and the broader theme of the responsibility of a power like Captain Marvel’s—threaten to become overshadowed. 

The Marvels shines the most when it focuses on the central dynamic between Kamala, Carol, and Monica, as they figure out how to be a team together. While the villain may have been forgettable, she was a formidable test for the leads, and her actions will have sweeping consequences for the MCU as a whole. Overall, the film is an enjoyable journey through new parts of the MCU, along with some much-needed development for Captain Marvel, who finally has to face the consequences of her incredible power.

⭐ (4 of 5)

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The Avengers is the biggest name when it comes to superhero media, thanks to the MCU. But those Marvel Studios stories are all based, in some way or another, on stories from over 60 years of Marvel Comics. Some of those Avengers comics were unmemorable, but some creative teams produced runs for the ages. Stories that deserve to be recognized today. Here are our choices for the ten best Avengers comic book runs of all time.

10. All-New, All-Different Avengers and Avengers by Mark Waid

Mark Waid was already a comics legend by the time he came on board the Avengers franchise, thanks to series like Kingdom Come and The Flash. but the Avengers he got to write were not the all usual suspects. In 2016’s All-New, All-Different Avengers, Waid kept stalwart members like Tony Stark, but added Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan, Miles Morales Spider-Man, Jane Foster’s Thor, and the teenage Nova, Sam Alexander, as a new generation of Avengers. And Sam Wilson was finally on the team as Captain America and not as the Falcon.

Waid excelled at writing this mix of heroic generations, giving the Avengers a multi-generational perspective it never had before. To make Waid’s run even better, he was joined by artists like Adam Kubert and Mahmud Asrar. Eventually, the younger generation would form their own team, the Champions, but Waid would continue with the older members in a new volume of Avengers. He’d close out his run in 2018 with the epic No Surrender arc, one of the best and most epic Avengers sagas of the 21st century. It was a brief run overall, but one that made a mark. No pun intended.

Issues in Mark Waid’s Avengers Run

All-New, All-Different Avengers #1-16, Avengers (vol.6) #1-11, Avengers (vol.1) #675-690 (2016-2018)

9. Uncanny Avengers by Rick Remender, w/John Cassaday, Adam Kubert, Daniel Acuña, and Steve McNiven (2012-2014)

The Avengers and the X-Men, two teams who debuted on the same day in 1963, were enemies as often as they were friends. But they’d never really united to become one team before, until 2012’s Uncanny Avengers series. Written by Rick Remender, with incredible art by John Cassaday, Adam Kubert, and others, arrived in the fallout of the Avengers vs. X-Men. Captain America decided that he and other human heroes had not done enough for the mutant race. So he proposed a joint team of Avengers and X-Men, called the Avengers Unity Squad.

Several iconic Avengers like Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch were members, but so were important X-Men like Rogue and Havok. The stories were consistently great and explored the tension between human heroes and the mutant community, all while the Avengers faced epic villains like the Red Skull and his S-Men. Rick Remender’s run was relatively brief, only lasting two years in total. Later, other writers did their own run of the Avengers Unity Squad, to varying results. If it were longer, Remender’s Uncanny Avengers might have gone up a notch in the ranking, because this is some darn great superhero storytelling.

Issues in Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers Run:

Uncanny Avengers (vol.1) #1-24, 2012-2014

8. Avengers and West Coast Avengers by John Byrne with Paul Ryan (1988-1990)

Writer/artist John Byrne was the comic book industry’s biggest superstar by the time he took on the Avengers franchise in 1988. He had drawn issues here and there previously. However, this run was the first time he was the creator in charge of both writing and drawing. Actually, he took on both the monthly West Coast Avengers and Avengers at the same time, with help on the art of Avengers from Paul Ryan. His opening storyline involves the Scarlet Witch and Vision discovering the truth about their children. Not to mention, the Vision being dismantled and rebuilt as “White Vision.” Both stories had a huge influence on WandaVision.

Byrne’s run also saw Spider-Man join the team for an extended space adventure. Another significant addition was the Eternal named Sersi. The original ’40s Human Torch also made a comeback after 50 years during his tenure. Byrne’s run was big, pulpy, and just plain fun. He even took dated concepts like the Lava Men and made them a credible threat. And we can’t forget to mention that he introduced the comedic Great Lakes Avengers during his run. That alone makes this a run for the history books.

Issues in John Byrne’s Avengers Run:

West Coast Avengers (vol.1) #42-57 Annual #4, Avengers (vol.1) #305-317, Annual #19, 1988-1990

7. The Avengers by Stan Lee, with Jack Kirby, Don Heck (1963-1966)

When Marvel publisher Martin Goodman asked Stan Lee to copy DC’s success with the Justice League of America, he did his own thing instead, creating the Fantastic Four. But by 1963, Marvel had enough solo characters to create their own “all-star” team, and The Avengers was born. The first two issues, by Lee and Jack Kirby, featured a lineup that included Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and the Hulk. Issue one also introduced the idea of Loki as a primary villain for the team.

But by issue #4, the Avengers really came into their own when Lee thought of having Captain America join the team. As leader, Cap proved to be the missing ingredient the Avengers needed. From that point on, Stan Lee was off to the races. Kirby left fairly early on, and capable artist Don Heck replaced him. Stan Lee’s run only lasted 35 issues and three years. Yet he introduced so many key concepts to what the Avengers are to this very day. Rotating memberships, major villains like Kang, and so much more were birthed in Lee’s run.

Issues in Stan Lee’s Avengers Run:

Avengers (vol.1) #1-35, 1963-1966

6. The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch (2002-2005)

Forget what the title of this comic says; the Ultimates are the Avengers in all but name. When Marvel launched the streamlined and modern Ultimate Universe in 2000, it focused on Spider-Man and the X-Men. But when it came time to do the Avengers, Marvel editorial believed the name was too associated with a property that was no longer popular. So Marvel dubbed this series The Ultimates. Even though the lineup featured Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, the Wasp, and the Hulk. So, basically, the Avengers.

Mark Millar, who became a name at DC writing the fascistic hero team series The Authority, brought some of his trademark grit and satirical take on heroes to Marvel. He and artist Bryan Hitch made Ultimates feel like you were watching a blockbuster movie. So it’s no surprise that Marvel Studios’ Avengers borrowed heavily from this run. If there’s one thing that makes this book cringe today, it’s that Millar’s take on the heroes is that they’re all slightly sociopathic at worst, self-centered jerks at best. And the modern twists to Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver are icky. But the big screen scale and imagination on display in The Ultimates make up for those shortcomings.

Issues in Mark Millar’s The Ultimates Run:

The Ultimates #1-13, Annual #1, The Ultimates 2 #1-13, 2002-2007

5. The Avengers by Roy Thomas, with John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Neal Adams, (1966-1971)

Roy Thomas took over writing duties on Avengers from Stan Lee in 1966, with issue #36. But more than any other writer, Thomas solidified who we think of as the most important and iconic Avengers. Taking over from Stan Lee must have been daunting, but Thomas somehow surpassed his mentor. During his run, Thor and Iron Man returned after a long absence, and he introduced the first hero created specifically for the team, the Vision. He increased the importance of the non-powered Hawkeye, and solidified ex-villains Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as crucial members of the team.

Roy Thomas also added in Black Panther as a mainstay of the team, and created one of the Avengers’ primary antagonists, the sentient A.I. Ultron. During his tenure, Thomas dialed up the soap opera aspects of the Avengers, setting the standard for future writers. He also scripted the first true Avengers epic, the intergalactic Kree/Skrull war. He also worked with a genius young artist named Neal Adams, who took the book to a whole new level in a visual sense. Although his collaborators like John and Sal Buscema were no slouches either. So much of what everyone loves about the Avengers, and who we even think of as the Avengers, is rooted in Roy Thomas’ five-year run.

Issues in Roy Thomas’ Avengers Run:

Avengers (vol.1) #35–104, 132; Annual #1–2

4. The Avengers by Roger Stern, with John Buscema and Tom Palmer, (1982-1988)

The Avengers had featured a steady lineup of characters ever since the late ‘60s, until writer Roger Stern took over in 1982. He changed up the team roster in a way that hadn’t been seen since early in Stan Lee’s run. During the Stern era, a new character he created, Monica Rambeau, joined as Captain Marvel. Also joining was the Prince of Atlantis, Namor. Often neglected members like Hercules and Black Knight got a chance to shine in Stern’s run. And the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) went from writers relegating her to merely “Ant-Man’s wife” to team leader.

The Wasp was quickly succeeded by Captain Marvel as chairwoman. She-Hulk also became a cornerstone of the team during Stern’s run. These elements made Roger Stern’s time on Avengers a strong showcase for female heroes. Sure, some new recruits like Starfox and Dr. Druid were among the least popular Avengers ever. But hey, points for trying something new. Stern’s run saw one of the greatest Avengers stories ever in “Under Siege,” when Baron Zemo attacks Avengers Mansion, using their HQ’s own defenses against the team. Stern lasted five years on Avengers, primarily with the duo of John Buscema and Tom Palmer on artistic duties. Their run remains one of the best Earth’s Mightiest Heroes has ever had.

Issues in Roger Stern’s Avengers Run:

Avengers (vol.1) 227–279, 281–287, Annual #13–14 (1982-1988)

3. New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Avengers (Vol. 3), and Dark Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis (2004-2013)

In the mid-2000s, Marvel realized the “main universe” Avengers needed a massive overhaul, and so Marvel’s editors pulled out the big guns. Not just on the creative team, with superstar writer Brian Michael Bendis, but also on the team roster. Bendis added two of Marvel’s most famous heroes, Spider-Man and Wolverine, who had never been Avengers before. After Bendis closed out the old Avengers era with Disassembled, which saw Scarlet Witch go mad and Hawkeye die, he launched New Avengers with artist David Finch, and later Leinil Francis Yu, Alex Maleev, Mike Deodato, John Romita Jr., and several others.

This run was an instant sales success, and New Avengers overtook X-Men in sales for the first time in over two decades. From the get-go, the conflict between Iron Man and Captain America was at the heart of this series. A conflict that would boil over into Mark Millar’s Civil War event. Bendis would continue his run for almost a decade, extending it to books like Mighty Avengers, Dark Avengers, and just plain Avengers. Although this run ties into way too many big events, like Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, and others, the characterization was always top-notch under Bendis’ watch.  

Issues in Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers Run:

Avengers (vol.1) #500-503, Avengers Finale, New Avengers (vol.1) #1-62, (vol.2) #1-34, New Avengers: Illuminati #1-5, The Mighty Avengers #1-36, Dark Avengers (vol.1) #1-16, Avengers Assemble #1-8, Avengers (vol.4) #1-34, 2004-2013

2. Avengers by Jonathan Hickman (2012-2015)

Writer Jonathan Hickman has already made a name for himself thanks to his run on Fantastic Four and creator-owned titles like East of West. But on the heels of the Avengers film, he took over the franchise with a take on the team that used the MCU roster from the film, but also heroes from the previous New Avengers run like Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Spider-Woman. Not to mention, there were several new characters, and even former X-Men Sunspot and Cannonball. Hickman worked with several artists at the top of their game during this run, including Jerome Opena, Stefano Caselli, Steve Epting, and many more.

Hickman’s run was a game changer due to the sheer breadth of its imagination, introducing concepts like Avengers World, and the threat of Multiversal incursions. All of which would culminate in Hickman’s Secret Wars event in 2015. Hickman found a role for each member of this superhero army to play, somehow balancing so many characters together in a way that just worked. No Avengers run has ever gone as big and outside the box in its scope as Hickman’s. Somehow, he found a way to push the very concept of what the Avengers were meant to be within the Marvel Universe. And readers everywhere had their minds blown.

Issues in Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers Run:

Avengers (vol.5) #1-44, New Avengers (vol.3) #1-33, Avengers World #1-5

1. Avengers by Kurt Busiek, with George Perez, Alan Davis, Carlos Pacheco (1997-2002)

When veteran writer Kurt Busiek took over Avengers with a new #1 issue in 1997, the team had just come back from a year away with the Image Comics creators doing their own spin on the concept. He went “back to basics” doing classic storytelling with a modern sensibility, as part of Marvel’s “Heroes Return” publishing initiative. Together with superstar artists George Perez, and later Alan Davis and Carlos Pacheco, this creative team remembered how to balance the melodrama with world-ending threats. In this regard, no one did it better than Busiek and his creative partners.

This run featured just about every iconic Avenger in a significant role. All while graduating teen heroes like Firestar and Justice into Avengers themselves. Busiek rescued Carol Danvers from obscurity and gave her a rightful place at the forefront of the Marvel pantheon again, as well as expanding on often-neglected heroes like Wonder Man. And the versions of longtime arch-foes like Ultron and Kang were never better than under Busiek’s direction. For five years and 56 issues, Kurt Busiek gave fans the quintessential Avengers run, and it still hasn’t been topped.

Issues in Kurt Busiek’s Avengers Run:

Avengers (vol.3) #1-56, Avengers Forever #1-12, Avengers: The Ultron Imperative #1, 1997-2002

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At San Diego Comic-Con 2022, Marvel’ head honcho’s Kevin Feige announced the MCU’s wild Phase Five lineup and even a little bit of Phase Six. The slate will introduce all new characters and stories, but it will also revisits some of the characters we know and love too—characters like Carol Danvers. Brie Larson will reprise the role of the hero in the Captain Marvel sequel, officially known as The Marvels, and she’ll be joined by Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau.

But there will also be other surprise guests in the movie. In previous The Marvels trailers, we got hints that a Thor character may cameo in the film. The iconic Asgardian bifrost appeared in one tease, and Captain Marvel noted, “I called a friend.” Now, thanks to the latest The Marvels trailer, we know that friend is none other than Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie. Valkyrie appears at the 1:37 mark to give Carol Danvers some advice. “You can stand tall, without standing alone.” She offers. And we truly do love to see it.

Fans have longed hoped there might be a spark beyond friendship between Valkyrie and Captain Marvel. And although we most likely won’t get a romance between the two in The Marvels, it will be nice to see Valkyrie cameo in the film.

This latest trailer for The Marvels also harkens back to the MCU’s past and Avengers Endgame, showing clips of Iron Man and Captain America—even giving Thanos a new line. In a voiceover, he warns, “My work is inevitable; there will always be more to finish it.” And then we cut to our latest MCU villain, The Marvels‘ Dar-Benn. The MCU heroes and foes of yore will probably live only in flashback, at least for now, but they do serve to set the scene and scope of the movie. The trills of the Avengers theme play very effectively.

Here’s everything we know about The Marvels.

Title

The Captain Marvel sequel is titled The Marvels.

The Marvels’ Plot

We don’t quite know what Brie Larson’s intergalactic warrior will be dealing with in her next venture. She became a full-fledged Avenger after the Snap, but she’s served more as a cosmic independent contractor than as one of Earth’s regular protectors. She was busy keeping the entire universe safe, only returning to Earth to help defeat Thanos. But a synopsis for The Marvels, along with its latest trailer, reveals more about what we can expect from the movie. It shares:

In Marvel Studios’ “The Marvels,” Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as “The Marvels.” 

Additionally, we know that, unlike the first Captain Marvel film, the sequel takes place in the present.

Behind the Scenes

Candyman‘s Nia DaCosta will direct The Marvels. This is a change from the first film; Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck directed that one. In January 2023, Marvel revealed the film’s slate of writers including DaCosta, Megan McDonnell (WandaVision), Zeb Wells (Amazing Spider-Man comic series), and Elissa Karasik (Loki). All of these people are obviously well-versed in the Marvel universe, so we can expect this film to fall in line with our MCU norms.

The Marvels‘ Cast

Brie Larson will return. But who’s joining her? Iman Vellani, who played Ms. Marvel in a Disney+ TV series, will appear in The Marvels. Teyonah Parris, who plays a grown-up Monica Rambeau in WandaVision, will reprise her role for the sequel. Nick Fury will return too.

According to Deadline, Velvet Buzzsaw actress Zawe Ashton will play the villain in the film. We don’t yet know which character she’ll play. Park Seo-joon has also joined The Marvels‘ cast.

The Marvels‘ Release Date

The Marvels is scheduled for release on November 10, 2023.

Originally published on January 23, 2021.

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Welcome back to the TVA, Marvel fans! Time keeps on slippin’ in this week’s episode of Loki, as the group must deal with the aftermath of Victor Timely’s untimely pastafication. While the episode delivered some major answers, it also brought up an even bigger questions of the series’ timey-wimey secrets. Dan Casey hops on his jet ski in search of answers on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

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One of the greatest unrequited loves in the whole of the MCU has been the one between Loki‘s Mobius and a jet ski. Loki‘s first season gave us glimpses of Mobius’ jet ski adoration. Despite living his whole remembered life in the confines of the TVA, where there are certainly no rivers, lakes, ponds, or jet skis, Mobius had a very specific dream. In episode two of Loki season one, Mobius has a magazine with jet skis on his desk and tells Loki that he keeps it because “they’re awesome.” Then Mobius proceeds to give a touching monologue about jet skis and how they’re the only perfect thing in history. He calls them “a beautiful union of form and function.” Sadly, Mobius confesses he’s never actually ridden a jet ski. A cruel twist of fate! But did Mobius finally get to ride a jet ski in season two of Loki?

Here’s everything that went down (up to and including a commemorative Funko POP! figure).

Mobius Gets to Ride a Jet Ski in Season Two of Loki… Sort Of!

In episode five of Loki season two, we finally get to see Mobius ride a jet ski. And just like he told Loki in season one, it looks like fun. Mobius has the time of his life during his jet ski montage. He’s feeling the wind in his hair, he’s experiencing the sting of mist slapping him in the face, he’s surfing the waves. And it’s all set to some incredible funky instrumentals. But then, record scratch. It turns out Mobius hasn’t actually taken a jet ski out onto the ocean; he’s sitting on a stationary version of the watercraft in Piranha Powersports, the store where he works.

So did Mobius actually get to ride a jet ski in Loki? Well, technically, he was riding on a jet ski, but the adventure was still only in his mind. In our book, this is not that dissimilar to when he imagined riding jet skis in the TVA, though, of course, it’s closer. We feel happy that Mobius gets to actually touch and feel a real jet ski, but we still need to see him fulfilling his dreams.

Loki Season Two Enhances Mobius’ Love of Jet Skis

The anticipation is only heightening, though. Although Loki season one teased Mobius’ jet ski love, in season two, we see how deep it runs. In episode six, after the Temporal Loom’s dramatic explosion, Loki time slips to a a 2022-branched timeline where he meets a version of Mobius called Don. And this Mobius is obsessed with jet skis. He sells them and hypes them up every chance he gets. Among other things, Mobius shares that “a personal watercraft is kind of a thinking man’s dirtbike” and even very earnestly tries to sell the branched timeline version of Hunter B-15 on the idea of buying one though she lives in New York City. (New Yorkers will truly appreciate the futility of this mission. But Mobius is right; a jet ski would be a thrilling way to commute… Although maybe not on the Hudson.) What a truly pure love. It warms our hearts.

Mobius even owns two jet skis which he refers to as “beauties,” and offers to sell one to Loki. He, wholeheartedly agrees, of course, when Loki repeats his own words back to him and calls them “a beautiful union of form and function.” It would break his heart to let one go. But, well, Mobius can’t ride two of them, after all. Sounds like an excellent setup to us for a full-force “Mobius rides a jet ski” scene in Loki or elsewhere in the MCU.

The MCU Needs to Show Us Mobius Living His Dream in Full

Even though the branched timeline’s Mobius may have ridden his jet skis on open water, we don’t see our version of Mobius do that very thing. But we hope that in time, he gets to see his whole wish come true.

Producer Kevin Wright notes of the scene, “We wanted to find a way to do it in an unexpected way… I mean, there’s been so much anticipation, and I think we could have just plopped him on a jet ski riding around a lake, and people would have been just as happy. Owen said something really funny, which was he compared it a little bit to an old TV romance — will they, won’t they? He’s like, well, the second you do it, the thing kind of is done. So he’s like, if we’re going to do it now, it’s got to be really fun and really unexpected.”

He further shares, “That was kind of the genesis of, well, what if we tease this out?… We know we can get some of that out there. He’s working at a dealership. Also, the fun of, it is in Cleveland, which is not known for its water sports. It’s the dream but not exactly the ideal version of it.”

We completely agree that in the scope of this episode, this version of the moment was the right way to go. Mobius took one step toward his dream of riding a jet ski. But there’s still a dream out there ready to be realized… And two empty jet skis waiting patiently in a garage.

But, For Now, We’ll Celebrate with a Mobius/Don Jet Ski Riding Funko Figure

In the meantime, you, yourself, can help Mobius live his jet ski dream. A special Loki Funko POP! figure titled “Don Personal Watercraft Salesman Figure” captures the Mobius moment for prosperity.

A description of the figure shares, “Enjoy the wonder of recreational wave time with Pop! Don (Personal Watercraft Salesman)! Help prevent world devastation when you welcome him into your Loki collection. The clock is ticking to add this exclusive Deluxe Pop! Ride of Pop! Don on personal watercraft to your Marvel Studios lineup!”

Just add water, and you, Mobius, and his jet ski will be happy forever. This Funko POP! figure is a Target exclusive and is now available for pre-order for $29.99.

Originally published on November 03, 2023.

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The recent trailer for Marvel Studios’ Echo blew everyone away with its return to the gritty realism of the former Netflix shows like Daredevil. But beyond that, we recently learned another piece of fascinating information about the series. Echo will be the first in a new series of MCU projects using the label Marvel Spotlight. Marvel even unveiled a logo for this new initiative, which you can see below. If a project is released under the Marvel Spotlight banner, it will signal to fans that they don’t need to watch all, or in fact, any other MCU projects to be able to understand what’s going on in that series or movie. According to Marvel’s Brad Winderbaum, here’s what the Marvel Spotlight banner really means:

Marvel Spotlight gives us a platform to bring more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen, and in the case of Echo, focusing on street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity. Just like comics fans didn’t need to read Avengers or Fantastic Four to enjoy a Ghost Rider Spotlight comic, our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story.

The massive MCU continuity, once its greatest strength, is viewed by many now as a hindrance. Casual fans feel there are too many MCU projects to catch up and watch the latest offering and understand it. Hopefully, the Marvel Spotlight arm will make it easier for fans, allowing the MCU to make projects that don’t require any previous knowledge. Even in the comics, tight continuity eventually goes from a strength to a weakness. This is why both Marvel and DC have done “fresh slate” takes on characters when it all gets too overwhelming.

We don’t know which Marvel Studios project will be next to get the Marvel Spotlight treatment. But since they mentioned Ghost Rider, we might interpret that as a hint. Certainly, Ghost Rider is a character that can exist without mentioning other MCU heroes or having any prior knowledge. Also, when Blade finally hits theaters, it seems like the perfect choice to arrive under the Marvel Spotlight banner. The first Marvel Spotlight series Echo, starring Alaqua Cox in the title role, hits Disney+ and Hulu on January 10, 2024.

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One of the most fun aspects of Loki, that they frankly have not done enough of, is when the writers use time travel aspects to explain away historical mysteries. In season one, we learned Tom Hiddleston’s Loki was actually the infamous D.B. Cooper, who robbed an airplane in the ’70s, popped out with a parachute, and vanished for all time. Now, in the second season’s penultimate episode, “Science/Fiction,” the show solved yet another historical mystery, MCU style. One involving the most infamous (and mythologized) prison in American history—Alcatraz.

At the end of episode four of this season, the Temporal Loom exploded, and we learned the different TVA employees who were in the control room, as well as Sylvie, were sent back to their lives before the TVA took them and wiped their memories. Mobius was a single dad named Don who sold jet skis (of course). O.B. was a scientist and an aspiring sci-fi author. Hunter B-15 was a doctor. Sylvie just went back to work at McDonald’s in 1982. But the most interesting true identity of a TVA employee had to be Casey. Turns out, the mild-mannered “guy at the desk” was once a notorious criminal, Alcatraz escaped convict Frank Morris.

When Loki starts time slipping again, Casey appears in 1962, escaping from Alcatraz. We even see the crude dummies the inmates made to appear as if they were sleeping during bedcheck. It’s something that really happened. Casey even says “If they catch us, they’re going to gut us like a fish!” That was a fun callback to season one, when Loki threatened to do the same to him but he had no idea what a fish even was. As they’re trying to escape, a time-slipping Loki appears on the shores of Alcatraz island in San Francisco. He finds Casey, now called Frank, who doesn’t recognize him, along with two other men getting ready to escape in a makeshift raft.

In reality, the two other men were Clarence and John Anglin. They were portrayed by the episode’s directors, Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson. The real Frank Morris was a lifelong criminal who spent much of his life in correctional facilities. Authorities arrested Morris for armed robbery, car theft, and finally, the crime that put him in Alcatraz, bank robbery. However, he had a genius I.Q., and was likely the real mastermind behind the whole escape. Being so smart, it’s no wonder the TVA wanted him as an employee.

Later in the episode, Loki appears to Frank Morris on a beach along with the other two escaped convicts, who made it to dry land. In reality, no one really knows what happened to the three men. Official reports suggest they drowned in the waters of San Francisco Bay, or hypothermia got them. But they never discovered any bodies. Over the past 60 years, some anecdotal evidence points to at least one of the men surviving. We have since mythologized the only successful escape from Alcatraz in pop culture. It was even the subject of the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood playing Frank Morris.

Frank accepts Loki’s offer to help restore the TVA, even though he doesn’t understand what’s going on. Once he realizes that O.B.’s temp pad can take anyone to anywhen, he even asks if it could take him into a bank vault. Even after doing time in the world’s most infamous prison, Frank still can’t get rid of the urge to rob banks. When one of the TemPads vanishes due to reality coming undone everyone thinks Frank stole it. Hey, when you’re famous for robbery, it’s hard to shake that reputation.

While we saw Frank/Casey unravel at the end of the episode, we have a strong feeling it’s not the last we’ve seen of him. If Loki has taught us anything, it’s that there’s always another branched timeline somewhere.

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Victor Timely’s stay at the TVA was both short and long. Soon after arriving he tried to stop the Temporal Loom’s complete failure but before he could, temporal radiation turned him into human spaghetti. What exactly happened to Victor? And what does his demise mean for Loki, the TVA, the Sacred Timeline, and the entire MCU? His un-Timely death just unleashed total chaos—and infinite Kang Variants— on the multiverse.

What Happened to Victor Timely on Loki?

Victor Timely provided the final component O.B. and Casey needed for the device they’d built to expand the Temporal Loom’s capacity. The Throughput Multiplier that Victor designed would ensure the Loom could handle more strands of universes safely, stabilizing the Sacred Timeline.

Just like in the season two premiere with Mobius and the Temporal Extractor, someone needed to physically place that piece of equipment on the Loom. That meant going outside the TVA and risking exposure to extreme temporal energy and “fatal corporeal de-husking.” (A term we know from an official show poster featuring O.B.)

Despite the risk, there was no time to waste. The Loom was ready to burst under the strain of too many branches. Victor, whose temporal aura had unlocked the blast doors, offered to go. Sadly his bravery led to his death. Even with a suit on, the instant Victor stepped outside he burst into ribbons. The amount of temporal radiation had become too much.

Why did Victor turn into spaghetti instead of simply exploding or having his skinned peel off, though? In the show’s season two premiere, Loki asked O.B. what would happen if the Temporal Extractor failed to the pull the Asgaradian out of the time stream. Ouroboros answered with a question. “Well, have you heard about how if you fall into a black hole you turn into spaghetti?” Loki had not, but we have.

What Is “Spaghettification?”

“Spaghettification” is a theoretical concept introduced by Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time. It hypothesizes what the immense density and gravitational pull of a black hole would do to someone or something who crossed the black hole’s event horizon. As NASA explains, “This effect essentially stretches out the object more and more as the object gets closer to the black hole, creating a long, thin shape.”

That is what O.B. warned Loki about, but it’s not exactly what happened to Victor Timely. For one Victor wasn’t caught in the time stream like Loki had been. Victor also wasn’t stretched into one long Variant noodle. Temporal radiation caused Victor to burst into multiple spaghetti-like ribbons, something we’ve seen before in the MCU.

Who Else Was Turned Into Spaghetti in the MCU Before Victor Timely?

Thanos used the Reality Stone in Avengers: Infinity War to briefly transform Mantis into loose ribbons.

The Scarlet Witch also used her dark magic to brutally murder Reed Richards of Earth-838 in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Magic. Wanda stretched Reed out into long spaghetti-like pieces before making his head explode.

Reed Richards’ slower, painful splintering more resembled Victor Timely’s instant death in many ways. However, the Kang Variant’s fate will have far greater ramifications for the entire multiverse. That starts with what Victor failed to stop.

What Happened to the TVA at the End of Loki Season 2 Episode 4?

Without the Throughput Multiplier in place the ever-increasing number of branches overwhelmed the Temporal Loom. The “heart of the TVA” could no longer weave all those strands of existence into one neat timeline. The result was an explosion of all branches and unrefined time that seemingly destroyed the TVA.

Without the Time Variance Authority there is no one to help manage the chaos of a multiverse that also lacks the guardrails offered by the Sacred Timeline. And we know that means because we know what happened before the TVA existed.

What Does the Implosion of the Temporal Loom Mean for Loki and the MCU?

The Temporal Loom’s explosion literally threatens all threads of reality in the MCU. In Loki season two, episode six, we learn that no branch of existence is safe after the Temporal Loom’s meltdown, they are all dying. We see both Sylvie’s and OB’s separate branches disintegrate into nothing before our eyes. Sphagettification is now happening across branching timelines, essentially destroying every MCU universe and every variant in existence.

But that’s not the only threat that exists for the MCU. He Who Remains created the TVA after defeating his Variants in the Multiversal War. Their battle nearly resulted in the end “of everything and everyone.” The TVA was He Who Remains’ solution to avoiding total annihilation, because without the organization, his Variants would always be a threat to existence. Without the TVA, Kang Variants always live since time is a circle. The TVA alone eliminated them as threats forever. (Except possibly Victor, who might have been He Who Remains’ backup plan specifically because Victor was not a threat, though we need more information to know for sure.)

The breaking of the Temporal Loom, and therefore the Sacred Timeline, means the system created to prevent Kang Variants from existing is gone. That means they might all have come back the second the Loom exploded. That would explain the existence of the Council of Kangs at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. All those infinite strands of existence that just broke free of TVA control represent infinite Kangs.

That might ultimately explain why Victor himself turned into strands.

Is Victor Timely’s Spaghetti Fate Related to the Branching Timeline?

Temporal radiation is not a black hole, so Stephen Hawking’s theory doesn’t fully explain why Victor Timely became spaghetti in Loki. There’s also too much we don’t know about how time works in the MCU, specifically at the TVA, to explain exactly what happened to him and why. And since we know the season did not end with the Loom’s explosion, there’s still more to learn. But we can’t ignore that Victor literally branched out right before every branch of reality broke free.

Did Victor splinter into strands because the branches of reality did that to him? Or did the Loom finally burst because He Who Remains’ Variant did? If so, does that mean Victor’s temporal aura spaghetti-ed and brought all the Kangs back? Did He Who Remains actually want that so he’d come back, too? The last thing he told Sylvie after she stabbed him was that he’d see her “soon.” Was Victor his backup plan to restore himself rather than save the TVA? Does He Who Remains just assume he’ll win the next Multiversal War same as before?

Whatever answers await us during the final episode of Loki season two, one thing is clear: the untimely death of Victor Timely unleashed infinite strands of chaos on the multiverse. Fortunately, if anyone knows how to deal with time chaos it’s the God of Mischief, who already knows what it’s like to slip through time.

Originally published on October 26, 2023.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Heads will roll in Echo. And get bashed in. And explode. The first trailer for the upcoming MCU series Echo is full of violence, blood, and a whole lot of goodness. The trailer for this five-episode special event honestly looks amazing. Both Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk are delivering. This truly looks like an MCU series like none other, and we kind of love it. Take a look at Echo‘s first trailer below, if you dare.

We first met Echo in the Hawkeye series, which carried a very different tone. And we feel thrilled to see her coming into her own in this outing. It is incredible to see a Marvel show center on a deaf and Indigenous character and for it to have taken care to support this representation in front of and behind the camera.

A logline for the series revealed with the trailer shares more about the show, noting:

No bad deed goes unpunished on Jan. 10, 2024, when Marvel Studios’ “Echo” launches on Disney+ and Hulu. The five-episode streaming event spotlights Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) as she is pursued by Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) criminal empire. When the journey brings her home, she must confront her own family and legacy. All five episodes will stream on Jan. 10 on both platforms. They’ll be available on Hulu until April 9. This marks the first Marvel Studios series to drop all entirely bingeable episodes at once. 

The relationship between the MCU’s Kingpin and Echo is fraught, as we’ve seen before and see again in this trailer. But when the chips fall, will Echo end up as much a monster as her mentor? Only time will tell. At one point, rumor had it that Charlie Cox’s Daredevil would also appear on the Echo show. And though he is not mentioned in any official materials so far, we caught a brief glimpse of Daredevil in a montage of shots featured in Echo‘s trailer. Very exciting.

As the description of the series mentions, there are a few interesting aspects of Echo‘s release. Firstly, the series will run on both Hulu and Disney+, likely an homage to its grittier nature. Echo also has the distinction of being the MCU’s first series rated TV-MA. And, of course, all episodes of Echo will land at once. Disney+ has never shared a series in this format before, so it will be interesting to see how it impacts viewership. We can only hope that it helps.

All five episodes of Echo will be available to stream on January 10.

The post Excellent ECHO Trailer Teases a Dark MCU Series Full of Heads Getting Bashed appeared first on Nerdist.

Most of the time, when original comic book artwork goes up for auction, it’s because it has great historical value. But occasionally, sometimes a piece of comic book art has historical value not necessarily for contributing anything great to the medium. Such is the case with this original uncolored piece of Captain America art from artist Rob Liefeld. Boing Boing reports this piece is going up for sale via Heritage Auctions. It’s currently going for north of $8,000. But what’s so special about this one promo image of Marvel’s Sentinel of Liberty? In a way, this one illustration of Cap, which you can see below, encapsulated an entire era of “extreme” ’90s comics.

So, a little background on this particular image, and why it sums up a whole decade of comics. In the early ’90s, artists like Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, and Todd McFarlane became superstars for their work at Marvel Comics. Books like Spider-Man and X-Men, which showcased their art, sold better than ever before. But in 1992, they and several other artists left Marvel to form their own imprint, Image Comics. Although a success, the glut of comics led to a speculator boom. And eventually, that led to a cratering of the entire comic book industry in 1994. Marvel Comics was in such dire straits that it canceled almost every ongoing title that wasn’t Spidey or mutant related. The outlook for Marvel at the time was bleak.

So in 1996, Marvel came to their former superstar artists with an idea. They’d allow Image Comics, specifically Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, to take over four of their once most famous series for one year. These series were Fantastic Four and Iron Man by Jim Lee’s Wildstorm Studios, and Avengers and Captain America by Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios. They named this publishing initiative Heroes Reborn, and fans were legit excited.

Marvel released an early example of what Captain America’s redesign from Liefeld would look like. Let’s just say that actual human proportions for Steve Rogers were not a concern. His manly chest was so ridiculously inflated that this one image seemed to sum up everything wrong with ’90s superhero media. And it became almost instantly infamous. Even Liefeld himself has poked fun at it in recent years. And this is exactly why this one piece of art is a true piece of comics history. Marvel would find a way to reboot their line in a better way in the 2000s, with the Ultimate line. But this one image really is the symbol of an era.

The post Original Version of Infamous ’90s Captain America Art Up for Auction appeared first on Nerdist.

Are the original Avengers returning? Is Doctor Doom set to replace Kang as the “Big Bad” of the Multiverse Saga? And just what the heck is going on with the Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali? Variety ran a story about the troubles Marvel Studios is having post-Avengers: Endgame, and in particular, post-pandemic. While Marvel has still had tremendous box office success, the glut of series and movies has made the MCU daunting for the casual fan. We’ll break down each of the big reveals from the Variety article, and what these reveals might mean for the future of the MCU as a whole. We should note, we’re focusing on what this means for future films and series here and not any behind-the-scenes drama.

Are the Original Avengers Making an MCU Comeback?

According to the report, there have been talks to bring back the original Avengers back for a film. This would include Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, both of whom were killed off in Avengers: Endgame. While the Variety pieces used the word “revive,” we would be shocked if they literally resurrected the versions who died. It’s far more likely we’ll meet their Multiversal variants in Avengers: Secret Wars, which would mean that they’d still be played by Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson.

Putting on our Nerdstradamus cap on, we think Avengers: Secret Wars, while loosely based on the 2015 comic, will at least feature a Battleworld made of various mashed-up realities and timelines. That puts every character, dead or alive, back on the table. So yes, that means the original Avengers are reunited—in a way. And also probably teamed up with the likes of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and maybe Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. If they ever wanted a real “victory lap” film, likely before Secret Wars reboots everything, something like this might be the only way to come close to the success of Endgame. It’s not something even the most cynical person who grew up with Marvel films would ever miss. And we’d bet it was always the plan too.

Is the MCU Replacing Kang with Doctor Doom as the Multiverse Saga’s Main Villain?

And now, there’s the Kang problem. Between Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki, everything was gearing up to have Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror be the main villain of Phases 5 and 6. But then, all of Major’s personal and legal troubles began (which the Variety article details). It all leaves the MCU in a pickle. How do you make Avengers: The Kang Dynasty with possibly no Kang? The article suggests that at a recent Marvel Studios Palm Springs retreat, executives discussed backup plans, including pivoting to another comic book adversary, probably Doctor Doom.

Victor von Doom is one of Marvel’s greatest villains. Heck, he’s one of the entire comic book medium’s greatest villains. So a pivot toward the megalomaniacal ruler of Latveria makes sense. Also, as will all things MCU, the answers lie in the comics. In the 2015 Secret Wars series, Doom essentially steals the god-like power of the omnipotent Beyonder. It could be that Doom usurps Kang’s role and power in the story in a similar way. The Kang Dynasty could become The Doom Dynasty, and there’s ample Marvel Comics precedent for that. While the original report suggests the upcoming end of Loki forces Marvel to have Kang as the primary antagonist, we bet they have an out planned.

What Is Happening with the MCU Version of Blade?

So what about poor Blade? Things have certainly been contentious in the world of the Daywalker ever since SDCC 2019, when Feige announced Mahershala Ali as the iconic vampire hunter. The project has apparently gone through at least five writers, two directors, and one shutdown six weeks before production. Feige most recently hired Michael Green, screenwriter for Logan, to start from scratch. The hope is that Blade will now make it for a 2025 release date. The supposed budget may have come down to $100 million or so, way less than the standard MCU fare.

We think if that’s the case, it’s a wise move. Blade is a bloody, horror action franchise. Cleaning it up to be a PG-13 tentpole defeats the purpose. If Marvel Studios is releasing an R-rated Deadpool 3, why not do the same for Blade? Nobody wants to see a sanitized version of the character. We would not be shocked if going back to the drawing board for Blade means looking at what worked in the original Wesley Snipes films (well, at least the first two) and giving the Marvel vampire saga a modern spin. The report says Mahershala Ali almost walked away from the project, but we think Kevin Feige is too smart to let that happen.

The X-Men May Be the Focus Post Multiverse Saga in the MCU

The report also mentions Kevin Feige’s trump card is the acquisition of the X-Men library of characters from Fox. Although it is rumored that many of the original Fox-era mutant heroes are returning for Deadpool 3 and possibly Secret Wars alongside Hugh Jackman, we’re guessing this is a big swan song for those iterations of the characters. A reboot of X-Men is inevitable, and we agree Marvel Studios is likely to pivot to all things mutant post-Secret Wars. Feige knows the X-Men world has much unrealized potential. They can make government operative strike teams like X-Factor or mutants in a Doctor Who-style world like Excalibur. A mutant black ops team? There’s X-Force. While we doubt the Avengers brand is going away, we foresee a big pivot towards Marvel’s mutants.

Why We Shouldn’t Count Out the MCU Just Yet

Although the original report has a real “the sky is falling” approach, the truth is more complex. A “failure” for Marvel is a big success for anyone else. If The Flash made as much as Quantumania, they’d be popping champagne bottles over there. But for Marvel, compared to the peak of the Infinity Saga, it paled. Marvel’s biggest enemy is its own success. The first decade of the MCU, from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame was unprecedented in terms of success. We’re talking about a franchise of 23 films, all opening at #1 at the box office. All with Fresh Rotten Tomatoes scores. And all of which collectively made a staggering $25 billion. To expect that kind of wild success indefinitely is totally unrealistic. We’d suggest not writing off the MCU just yet. And even if it dies, what stays dead in comics forever? The answer: Nothing.

The post Are the Original Avengers Returning to the MCU? appeared first on Nerdist.

For over 60 years, the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man and its various other Marvel spinoffs have been home to some of the best superhero storytelling of all time. From the days of Stan Lee in the ’60s to today’s creators like Dan Slott, here are our picks for the 10 greatest creative team runs of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man of all time.

10. J.M. DeMatteis with Sal Buscema, Spectacular Spider-Man #178-203 (1991-1993)

Writer J.M. DeMatteis is perhaps most famous for his comedic take on DC’s Justice League, but he also wrote a relatively brief but fantastic run on The Spectacular Spider-Man, from issues #178-200. This was after he wrote the epic Kraven’s Last Hunt storyline in 1987. During his 26-issue run, which lasted from 1991 to 1993, he and artist Sal Buscema told one of the best stories ever involving Harry Osborn and his descent into becoming the Green Goblin, which culminated in issue #200 of Spectacular Spider-Man. It was one of the very few gimmick covers of the ‘90s that actually had a good story behind it. Add in the introduction of the villain Vermin, some X-Men, and this run deserves its status as one of the best.

9. Peter David with Rick Leonardi, Spider-Man 2099 #1-44 (1992-1997)

Peter David has defining runs on several iconic comic book characters, including the Hulk, X-Factor, and for DC, Aquaman. But he also had a pretty defining run for Spider-Man. It’s just the Spider-Man that wasn’t Peter Parker. In 1992, Marvel tasked David with creating a new, futuristic Spider-Man with Spider-Man 2099. This wall-crawler was Miguel O’Hara, the half-Mexican/half-Irish hero who was the first not Peter Parker ongoing character to be called Spider-Man in 30 years.

Together with artist Rick Leonardi, David inverted almost everything about Peter Parker’s Spidey. Miguel was wisecracking out of costume, totally mute as Spider-Man, and so on. His web shooters were organic and not mechanical (something Sam Raimi would later use). The run only lasted 46 issues and four years, but judging from the character’s renewed popularity thanks to Across the Spider-Verse, it’s fair to say David’s run had a long-lasting impact.

8. Todd McFarlane, Spider-Man #1-16, (1990-1991)

Todd McFarlane became an instant superstar in the comics world when he illustrated David Michelinie’s Amazing Spider-Man run in the late ‘80s. His versions of Spidey and Venom became iconic, so much so that Marvel gave him his own Spider-Man title to both draw and write—despite his inexperience as a writer at the time. So in 1990, McFarlane launched Spider-Man #1, which sold an incredible 2.5 million copies. Marvel would break that record a year later with a certain team of mutants.

McFarlane’s writing was a bit over the top, especially by modern standards, but his overall storytelling was undeniably entertaining. It was exactly what the audience craved at the time. His darker take on villains like the Lizard, Kraven, and Hobgoblin redefined the look of those characters. The crossovers with Wolverine and Ghost Rider were very ‘90s, but also very fun. This is one of the shorter runs on this list, but also one of the most iconic. McFarlane’s run only lasted 16 issues as he left Marvel in 1992 to form Image Comics, yet its impact was huge.

7. Dan Slott, with Humberto Ramos and Ryan Stegman, The Superior Spider-Man #1–33 (2013-2014)

Dan Slott has been one of the most prolific Spider-Man writers of the 21st century. But although he’s written plenty of iconic Peter Parker stories, his best Spider-Man run was actually about Otto Octavious, a.k.a Doctor Octopus. In Slott’s Superior Spider-Man series, Peter Parker’s body is taken over by the consciousness of Doc Ock, who takes over Peter’s life and decides he can be a better Spider-Man than his old enemy ever was. Although he does try to do the right thing as Spider-Man, more or less, he’s still arrogant and insufferable. Nevertheless, it was all fun as heck to read. The art by folks like Humberto Ramos, and Ryan Stegman was also always top-notch. Otto was Spidey for less than two years, but it was a memorable two years.

6. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, Spider-Man: Blue #1-6, (2002-2003)

In the late ‘90s, the creative team of Jeph Loeb and the late Tim Sale produced one of the greatest Batman stories of all time, The Long Halloween. A few years later, from 2002 to 2003, they re-teamed to tell a story about Peter Parker and his great lost love, Gwen Stacy. In the mini-series Spider-Man: Blue, Peter Parker recounts the events of Amazing Spider-Man #40-48. This modern retelling includes Sale’s incredible renditions of characters like Kraven, the Lizard, the Rhino, and the Green Goblin. And, of course, Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson. Blue is only six issues long, but it still stands as one of the most heartfelt and beautifully written and illustrated Spider-Man stories of all time.

5. Gerry Conway with Gil Kane and John Romita, The Amazing Spider-Man #111-149 (1972-1975)

Following up the legendary run of Stan Lee, which lasted a decade, would have been an unenviable task for any writer. But Gerry Conway took big swings in his Amazing Spider-Man run, which lasted from 1972 to 1975. Conway’s stories were enhanced by some gorgeous art by Gil Kane and Spidey veteran John Romita. It was during Conway’s run that fans met the villainous Jackal and his cloning operation (this would matter a lot 20 years later).

Conway’s MJ became a more fully fleshed-out character. She wasn’t just the “out of his league” supermodel anymore. Oh, and Conway’s run also introduced the world to the Punisher. You may have heard of him. Most importantly though, Gerry Conway bucked all known comic book conventions at the time with one shocking act. He did this by killing off Peter Parker’s longtime girlfriend Gwen Stacy. The repercussions of this are still being felt in the Spider-Man titles today.

4. David Michelinie with Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, and Mark Bagley, Amazing Spider-Man 296-352, #359-388 (1987-1994)

In the late ‘80s, Spider-Man was still Marvel’s best-selling solo character, but some excitement had fallen away from Peter Parker. Then, writer David Michelinie took over writing duties in 1987. This was shortly after Peter Parker married MJ, and he focused on the high-stakes soap opera of their lives. During his seven-year run on Amazing Spider-Man (second longest-run after Stan Lee) he worked with some of Spidey’s best-ever artists. Names that became iconic, like Erik Larsen, Mark Bagley, and Todd MacFarlane. And together, they made comics magic. Highlights of his run include the introduction of villains Venom and Carnage. Luckily, he bailed from writing duties right before the infamous Clone Saga, so his run remains untainted.

3. J. Michael Straczynski with John Romita Jr., Mike Deodato, and Ron Garney, Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #500-545, Vol. 2 #30-58 (2001-2006)

At the same time Marvel was injecting new life into teenage Peter Parker in the Ultimate Spider-Man titles, the comics publisher had to figure out what to do with the adult Peter in the 616 universe. They brought in Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, who made Peter a school teacher. He teaches at the very same place others bullied him as a kid, Midtown High School. Straczynski wrote adult Peter and MJ better than anyone in years and did so by adding a level of sophistication largely absent in the late ‘90s stories.

He also introduced lasting elements to the mythology like Morlun, a villain who hunts spider-totems across dimensions. That’s a huge influence on the Spider-Verse mythology in the animated films. Sadly, his run also revealed a sordid retcon of Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn, but nobody’s perfect. The main artists for this run were Mike Deodato and John Romita Jr. The latter’s work on this run made him stand with his father as one of the definitive Spidey artists of all time. Straczynski’s run ended with the much-hated undoing of the Peter Parker and MJ marriage. However, that was an event Marvel editorial forced on him. We don’t hold it against him.

2. Brian Michael Bendis, with Mark Bagley, Stuart Immonen, Sara Pichelli, Chris Samnee, David Marquez, and Pepe Larraz, Ultimate Spider-Man #1-160, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1-27 (2000-2011)

During the late ‘90s, Marvel was in trouble creatively and financially. The company emerged out of bankruptcy in the early 2000s, knowing it had to take drastic measures to gain new readers. Marvel conceived the Ultimate line, which involved fresh modern takes on classic characters. Writer Brian Michael Bendis reintroduced Peter Parker and his supporting cast as 21st century teens in Ultimate Spider-Man. And from issue one, the dialogue and characterization were absolutely top-notch. The kids felt real in a way mainstream comics characters hadn’t in a long time.

The reinvented versions of Spidey’s villains often surpassed the originals as well, particularly Norman Osborn. Bendis and artist Mark Bagley did over 100 issues together. Actually surpassing Stan Lee’s run, Bendis continued the title with artists Stuart Immonen, David Lafuente, and Sara Pichelli, with whom he co-created Miles Morales, one of the biggest contributions to come from the Ultimate Spider-Man line. Between Peter Parker and then Miles, this run heavily influenced Spider-Man’s portrayal in other media. This run was an absolute game-changer, surpassed by only one other.

#1. Stan Lee with Steve Ditko, John Romita, John Buscema, and Gil Kane, Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #1-100 (1962-1971)

“With great power, comes great responsibility.” This was the only run that could have ever taken the top spot. While Stan Lee co-created almost all the most iconic Marvel Comics heroes, without a doubt his 100-issue run of The Amazing Spider-Man was his best work. With artists like Steve Ditko (Spidey’s co-creator) and later, John Romita, Lee introduced everything that forms the core of what Peter Parker is to this very day. Name a classic Peter Parker personality trait or trope, and chances are it came from Lee.

Lee’s stories introduced 90% of the most iconic Spider-Man villains, like Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman, Mysterio, Kraven, and so many more, not to mention most of the most well-known members of Spidey’s supporting cast. Stan Lee’s run on Amazing Spider-Man lasted a full decade, and it remains the bible from which all following Spider-Man runs on this list pulled from. Simply put, no other Spider-Man run could likely ever take the top spot. Stan Lee and his collaborators broke the mold.

The post The 10 Greatest Spider-Man Comic Book Runs of All Time appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back to the TVA, Loki fans! Things continue to go from bad to worse for Loki as he and the rest of the group attempt to fix the time loom, but did their actions end up dooming the multiverse instead? Dan Casey dives in to break down what this spaghetti ruining episode and what it means for the rest of the season on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

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When the Netflix Marvel shows moved to Disney+, fans hoped they might see some familiar faces incorporated into the MCU’s world. Although there were many good iterations of Marvel characters in the Netflix shows, one hero that fans particularly hoped would return for a solo show or movie was Charlie Cox’s Daredevil. Happily, Marvel Studios didn’t make us wait very long. At San Diego Comic-Con 2022, the studio announced that Daredevil would receive a new MCU series on Disney+, Daredevil: Born Again. Since that announcement, the series had some ups and downs, including an overhaul of its creative team. Here’s everything we know about Daredevil: Born Again.

Title

The title of the MCU Daredevil series will be Daredevil: Born Again. This is also the title of one of Daredevil‘s famous comic arcs.

Daredevil: Born Again‘s Plot

We don’t yet know much about the exact plot of Daredevil: Born Again. But in the comics, Born Again is a very dark tale for Daredevil. In it, the man without fear faces down Kingpin, who manipulates Matt Murdock’s feelings for a struggling Karen Page in his attempts to destroy the hero. Whether this storyline will find its way into the MCU, we can’t say for sure. What we do know is that Daredevil: Born Again will have eighteen episodes, leaving a lot of room to explore the MCU version of the hero.

According to a report by Variety, Marvel is planning to overhaul the direction of Daredevil: Born Again. The publication shares that “Marvel Studios has recently parted ways with head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and is currently seeking new writers to revamp the show. Ord and Corman will still be credited as executive producers.” Additionally, Marvel has released the directors for the series episodes that have not yet already been filmed. Variety reveals that less than half of Daredevil‘s 18 episodes were filmed before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. And that “Some elements of the already shot material will be used going forward, but Marvel is looking to take the show in a new creative direction.”

Behind the Scenes

Originally Daredevil: Born Again was written and executive produced by Matt Corman and Chris Ord. According to Deadline, Clark Johnson was meant to direct two episodes. However, Variety recently reported that Corman and Ord were released from the show and Marvel is seeking new writers and directors for the series.

The Hollywood Reporter shared the superhero crime series has added Dario Scardapane as its showrunner. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead will direct the rest of the episodes for the first season. Scardapane has experience with The Punisher, while Benson and Moorhead directed episodes of Loki season two.

While Marvel will apparently retain some episodes and other material that was already filmed, Scardapane will add new episodes and new scenes. It’s unknown how many episodes season one will have.

Daredevil: Born Again‘s Cast

So far, Charlie Cox, who, of course, returns as Daredevil, and Vincent D’Onofrio, who will play Kingpin, have signed onto the new series. In addition, reports indicate that Jon Bernthal will reprise his role as Punisher in the MCU series. No other actors from the original Daredevil show have been confirmed to return.

Also joining Cox and D’Onofrio are Nikki M. James, Michael Gandolfini, Margarita Levieva, and Sandrine Holt. Their roles remain unknown. In addition, the publication recently cited Carnival Row‘s Arty Froushan as part of the cast. Clark Johnson, in addition to directing, reportedly has a recurring role in the series.

Daredevil: Born Again‘s Release Date

Daredevil: Born Again does not yet have a release date.

Originally published January 5, 2023.

The post Everything We Know About DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN appeared first on Nerdist.

Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan appears in a major role in season two of Loki. The Everything Everywhere All At Once and Indiana Jones actor just can’t get enough of stories about the multiverse, it seems. His name is Ouroboros, or O.B. for short. But how does Ke Huy Quan’s Loki character tie into the existing Marvel Comics lore? And how does Ouroboros relate to existing mythological roots in our own world? Here’s what we know so far about Ke Huy Quan’s Ouroboros and his role in Marvel’s Loki season two.

The Ouroboros in Folklore and Norse Mythology’s Jörmungandr

You’ve no doubt heard the turn of phrase “the snake eating its own tail.” Well, that particular iconography comes straight from ancient mythology. That snake consuming its own tail is actually called the Ouroboros, and is found in the mythologies of ancient Egypt and Greece. According to Britannica, “[The Ouroboros] represents a being that is continually devouring itself, and thus reborn from itself. A gnostic and alchemical symbol, Ouroboros expresses the unity of all things, material and spiritual, which never disappear but perpetually change form in an eternal cycle of destruction and re-creation.” The Ouroboros is a fitting mythological reference to invoke in the MCU’s Loki which is all about questions of the destruction, creation, and flow of timelines.

Although the character Ke Huy Quan plays on Loki season two has the name Ouroboros, he might also have ties to a more specific character from mythology, one that even more directly related to our titular God of Mischief. In Norse mythology, the snake that consumes its own tail, a.k.a an Ouroboros, goes by the name Jörmungandr. This Ouroboros is also known as the Midgard Serpent or the World Serpent. In the old Norse myths, Jörmungandr encircles the realm of Midgard, which is another name for Earth. He is the son of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. He’s also the brother of the great wolf Fenrir and Hel. During Ragnarök, a.k.a, the Twilight of the Gods, Thor kills him.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, the Midgard Serpent has played a big role in several Thor comics. He first appeared back in 1966 and reappeared again and again over the years to fight the God of Thunder. Although the Odinson slays the gigantic beast, Marvel resurrects him more than a few times, and the two battle all over again.

When it comes to a connection with Loki, the god of mischief does ride the Midgard Serpent at one point. But there is never any real indication that Marvel Comics’ version of this Ouroboros is in any way the literal child of Loki. Marvel writers often play fast and loose with Norse myths, changing many things outright. This is another example of that. It will be interesting to see, however, what Loki season two does with the mythological origins of Ouroboros as the show continues to remix and reference mythology.

Ke Huy Quan’s Loki Character O.B./Ouroboros and His Marvel Comics Connections

Ke Huy Quan’s Ouroboros might be an original creation for the MCU series, not based on a preexisting Marvel Comics character. However, his name does pop up in several comics from the past. And in different forms.

The only Marvel Ouroboros with ties to the TVA is a certain Mr. Orobourous, who made one appearance in a She-Hulk comic in 2005. Created by Dan Slott, Orobourous was a judge for the Time Variance Authority. In Marvel’s She-Hulk comic, Orobourous is spelled a bit differently than the traditional Ouroboros of mythology, but the reference seems to be the same. This character was also a clone of Mr. Paradox, who himself was a clone of several TVA bureaucrats. We already know the O.B. is not a judge in Loki, but it seems the creators took a shine to the name at least.

But She-Hulk‘s judge is not the only Ouroboros in Marvel lore. First, there was the Oculus Ouroboros, which was not a person in Marvel Comics, per se, but a conduit of elemental magic, that depicts a variation on the classic Ouroboros shape of a snake eating its tail by featuring a second snake. It first appears in Doctor Strange #92, back in 1993. The Sorcerer Supreme stops an attempt by Doctor Doom to gain access to its power.

An actual character using the name is Admiral Ouroboros. He made his first Marvel Comics appearance relatively recently in 2015’s Silver Surfer #11. He battled the former Herald of Galactus during an adventure where the Surfer became stuck in a time loop.

The most recent Marvel usage of the name Ouroboros appeared in 2022, in Marvel’s Contest of Champions. In this instance, Ouroboros is an organization in universe 517. This organization came together to oppose the rule of the Elders of the Universe across the reality called Battlerealm.

However, despite all these possible references, we think it’s unlikely that Loki’s O.B. is directly related to the previous Marvel concepts of Ouroboros. It’s far more likely the MCU’s Ouroboros is riffing on one or more of the mythological histories of the creature.

Ke Huy Quan’s O.B./Ouroboros in the MCU and Loki Season Two

The version of Ouroboros played by Ke Huy Quan in Loki is an integral part of the TVA. He’s just someone who rarely gets a visit from other TVA employees. He’s been toiling away, quite literally without sleeping, in the Repairs and Advancement department. O.B.’s office is stuffed in the TVA’s basement. It’s a sprawling mishmash of all kinds of mechanical parts and different inventions. Mobius takes Loki to help with his time-slipping problem. O.B., a nickname for Ouroboros we learn Loki gave to him when he time-slipped into the past, becomes invaluable in helping them. In episode two of Loki, O.B. gives Mobius and Loki the TVA Guidebook to help them.

Here’s How O.B. Connects to Victor Timely and Kang on Loki

In the fourth episode of Loki’s second season, “Heart of the TVA,” O.B. and Victor Timely meet at last. In fact, their meeting reveals an actual ouroboros of sorts for the pair. Timely was taken aback at meeting the man who wrote the TVA Handbook, the book that he received as a child, which inspired all his inventions and career. O.B., meanwhile, was having his own fanboy moment meeting Victor Timely. The man who inspired him to write the Handbook in the first place. As O.B. said, their meeting was “the snake eating its tail.”

Loki’s co-executive producer Kevin Wright said that O.B. is integral to the functioning of the Time Variance Authority. Even if we never saw or heard of Ouroboros in season one of the MCU show. Wright said, “His job is basically every piece of tech, every computer, everything that is running at the TVA… He either designed it, or he fixes it and keeps it running.” None of that sounds remotely like the Marvel Comics versions of Ouroboros. So far, it seems as if the MCU’s O.B. is tied far more to the mythological concept of the character than anything in the comics.

Hopefully, we’ll soon learn more secrets about Ke Huy Quan as O.B. when Loki season two continues on Disney+.

Originally published on October 2, 2023.

The post Who Is LOKI’s Ouroboros? Ke Huy Quan’s Character O.B. Ties Into Mythology and Marvel Comics appeared first on Nerdist.

In the latest chapter of Loki season two, we learned some pretty huge revelations about the relationship between former TVA judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and He Who Remains, a.k.a. Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), thanks to Miss Minutes. But what does it all mean, and how does it tie into some of the earliest Marvel comics? Buckle up, because the Ravonna and Kang romance is a very twisted affair.

Ravonna Renslayer and Kang Were Partners Before the Multiversal War

In episode four of Loki’s second season, Miss Minutes explains a crucial piece of Ravonna Renslayer’s history to her. Information she would not be happy to hear. She explains that Ravonna and He Who Remains were working together as partners during the Multiversal War and were likely romantic partners as well. At some point, he indicated she would lead with him in the aftermath. Together, they’d rule from the Citadel at the End of Time. But He Who Remains betrayed Ravonna. Remember when Victor Timely said he doesn’t work with partners? That seems to apply to He Who Remains as well. So he sends her back to the TVA and erases her memories along with the rest of its employees. As Miss Minutes explains to an angry Ravonna, she says “Maybe we don’t need him. Maybe we never did.” This leads Ravonna to attempt to take over the TVA herself, along with Miss Minutes.

The Complex Marvel Comics Love Story of Ravonna Renslayer and Kang the Conqueror

In the comics, Princess Ravonna Lexus Renslayer made her first appearance in Avengers #23, back in 1965. She and Kang have a rather complicated relationship, to say the least. She was the daughter of King Carelius, who ruled 40th century Earth. Kang tried to destroy any monarch who did not submit to him, like Ravonna’s father. But Kang fell in love with the stubborn and determined Princess Ravonna, and she also fell in love with him, admitting to it only before her death. In fact, she threw herself in front of a deadly blaster bolt meant for him, dying to save his life. But this was not the end of the Kang/Ravonna romance.

Another variant of Kang eventually plucked a version of Ravonna from the timeline moments before her death, while another Kang preserved her body in stasis, hoping to gain the power of Life (or Death) from the cosmic Grandmaster in a game. A Grandmaster who is far more powerful than his MCU played-by-Jeff Goldblum counterpart. He’d then use the Power of Life to revive her. Although he won the game, he chose the Power of Death to get revenge on the Avengers, instead of the Power of Life to revive Ravonna. Grandmaster revived Ravonna anyway, who was now furious and betrayed that Kang had chosen vengeance on his enemies over his love for her. The lovers were now mortal enemies.

In the Marvel Comics, Ravonna Renslayer Becomes the Terminatrix

Now hellbent on revenge, Ravonna eventually infiltrated the Council of Cross-Time Kangs. Not long after, she took on the very ’90s identity of the Terminatrix. She put Kang in stasis, much as he had done to her when she was presumed dead. She then fought a future variant of herself known as Revelation. After many time travel machinations and attempts at altering her own future, Ravonna and Kang were reunited. And she seemingly forgave him. Then, she literally stabbed him in the back. She went back in time to Timely, Wisconsin in 1903 to start things over with an earlier version of Victor Timely, hoping to rewrite their narrative.

He Who Remains Wiped Ravonna Renslayer’s Memories in the MCU

So how does all that comic lore inform Loki? Earlier in the season, we heard recordings of He Who Remains saying “Ravonna Renslayer, you are quite a marvel. I would be proud to lead with you. Thank you, for being on my team.” Now, we know these very words to her were spoken by He Who Remains after the Multiversal War. But He Who Remains betrayed her and sent her back to the TVA and enacted Protocol 42, which saw her and all the other TVA employees have their memories wiped. It’s also why Agent Mobius doesn’t remember He Who Remains. He wiped Mobius’ mind of all knowledge of him and replaced it with false memories of the Time Keepers. We’ll see how this anger and betrayal leads to a changed, and more dangerous, Ravonna Renslayer in the remainder of Loki’s second season. Maybe we’ll see the Terminatrix after all.

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The Infinity Stones were the greatest movie MacGuffins of all time, in the forefront of the first 22 MCU films. Thanks to Thanos’ quest, even your grandma knows about these all-powerful gems, created at the dawn of time. Well, Thanos may have destroyed the stones in Endgame, but now you can own the next best thing. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2022, Marvel and East Continental Gems announced the launch of the official Infinity Collection of Gemstones. And now, the time has arrived to begin buying… If you have a Tony Stark-sized fortune at your disposal anyway. The set is valued at $25 million.

The real-life Infinity Gems will be on display in New York for a limited time at the ECG Concept showroom. Fans can purchase the Infinity Gems, but ECG will also have more affordable options available. They’ll reveal the Jarvis Series of gems which are 2-carats and start at $225 each. Other MCU-inspired collectibles at the store will include mini Infinity Gauntlet statues and an Eye of Agamotto.

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The Most Powerful Rocks in the Known Universe

Each of the Infinity Stones are remnants of singularities that predated the Universe. Of course, their values in the Marvel Universe cannot be imagined because of the powers each stone carries. But this collection is primed to become one of the most valuable Marvel collectible items. The six stones combined are over 150 carats and come with a total estimated value surpassing $25 million. In a statement, Paul Gitter, SVP, Marvel Consumer Products said the following.

Fans and collectors are a very important consumer for Marvel, since they truly live the Marvel lifestyle every day and are always seeking to connect with the brand in new and unique ways. We feel this authentic gemstone collection is cool and unexpected and extends the reach of the Marvel brand

Each of the Stones will be displayed in an exclusive Infinity Gauntlet customized to house these gems. Gentle Giant Ltd created the Gauntlet. They are the industry leader in the high-end collectible toys and consumer products sold throughout the world. Below is a description of each of the real-life stones and what they represent in the Marvel Universe:

The Time Stone

The Time Stone is a Colombian emerald that is rare and brilliant in color. Experts suggest they minded this stone at the turn of the century. Somewhere in a location that produces the most desirable emerald green. Documented by four prestigious gemology laboratories, this gem has no treatment, nearing 23 carats.

About the Time Stone in the Marvel Universe. This unique Marvel artifact is at the center of the Marvel Universe itself. The Time Stone has the ability to manipulate time, even in places beyond time.

The Space Stone

The Space Stone is a 30-carat sapphire from the island of Madagascar. Here is what we know about the Space Stone in the Marvel Universe. It allows its user to exist in any location, and move through different realities. Also, it allows one to warp or rearrange space, and teleport across planes regardless of the laws of physics or magical barriers. It even allows for omnipresence.

The Reality Stone

The Reality Stone is a 15-carat oval-shaped, natural ruby from Mozambique, Africa. In the Marvel Universe, things that would normally be impossible to realize are made possible with the Reality Stone. And on a universal scale. In other words, aside from the power to will anything in or out of existence, it can retroactively create alternate realities around those changes.

The Power Stone

The Power Stone is a 35-carat oval-shaped, natural amethyst. About the Power Stone in the Marvel Universe – The biggest mystery of all the Stones may be the Power Stone. The Power Stone allows its users to access and manipulate all forms of energy as well as enhance their own physical strength and durability. At full potential, the Power Stone can even grant omnipotence!

Notably, this jewel also boosts the effects of the five other Stones; it’s like a kind of key to start the engine of the Infinity Stones as a single collective force. The ultimate power behind the Power Stone—and why it sits at a place of honor on the Infinity Gauntlet—does not necessarily come from the Stone itself, but from how the Stone interacts with the others.

The Soul Stone

The Soul Stone is this cushion-shaped, spessartite, exceeding 35 carats. About the Soul Stone in the Marvel Universe – The first to appear of all the Stones, the Soul Stone served as inspiration for all the rest. It can manipulate the soul and essence of a person, control life and death, and contains a pocket dimension called the Soul World.

The Mind Stone

The Mind Stone is a high clarity, intense color rectangular brilliant cut yellow diamond, close to 35 carats. About the Mind Stone in the Marvel Universe – The Mind Stone allows its user to enhance their mind, awaken or heighten psionic abilities like telepathy and telekinesis, and—when combined with the Power Stone—even access all minds in existence concurrently. In the spirit of the Mind Stone, we’re taking a look at the minds responsible for some of the most significant Infinity Stone stories ever!

No word yet on if purchasing all the stones and getting a gauntlet to go with them will unlock the powers of the universe for its wearer. Maybe you can find out if you visit East Continental Gems’ showroom. Get all the details here.

Originally published on October 26, 2022.

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What is canon and what is not to the MCU has been a topic of fervent fan debate for years. Is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which referenced the events of Avengers, actual MCU canon? What about the former Netflix shows like Daredevil, which also made mention of Avengers like Captain America and Thor? Well, we now have an answer to that question from the guy in charge, Kevin Feige. In his introduction to the book Marvel Studios: The Marvel Cinematic Universe—An Official Timeline, he wrote the following:

On the Multiverse note, we recognize that there are stories—movies and series—that are canonical to Marvel but that were created by different storytellers during different periods of Marvel’s history. The timeline presented in this book is specific to the MCU’s Sacred Timeline through Phase 4. But, as we move forward and dive deeper into the Multiverse Saga, you never know when timelines may crash or converge (hint, hint/spoiler alert).

FYI, our own Editor-in-Chief Amy Ratcliffe cowrote that book.

So, in short, everything utilizing Marvel characters, whether produced by Marvel Studios or not, is part of a branched timeline in the overall Marvel Multiverse. Some we already knew about. The original Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, and the Marc Webb Amazing Spider-Man films? No Way Home confirmed them as Multiverse canon. Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness confirmed Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, and Deadpool 3 is set to canonize Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Even if these are variants of the Fox X-Men films, it indicates all those movies are also Multiverse canon.

Also, with clips of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s respective Peter Parkers in Across the Spider-Verse, not to mention the appearance of Donald Glover in his MCU role as the Prowler in that film, those animated films also exist in the overall MCU Multiverse tapestry. Will movies like Ang Lee’s Hulk, Sony’s Ghost Rider films, and others get included in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty or Secret Wars? Well, Jennifer Garner as Elektra in Deadpool 3 suggests it’s all on the table now. Heck, why not Howard the Duck? Stranger things have happened.

Right now, the MCU is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time. By a lot too, with $29 billion dollars total. By contrast, the #2 slot goes to the Star Wars franchise, which is a distant second at $10 billion. But if the MCU now includes pre-Marvel Studios films? Oh man, then does that number ever go up. The mutant franchise at Fox adds $10 billion to that sum. The non-MCU Spider-Man films? About $8 billion total. Even the Fantastic Four films have collectively made $800 million. Throw in a couple of Blade films, we’re talking about a franchise that has made some $50 billion dollars. Easily the biggest success story in Hollywood history. And a record we’re likely never going to see surpassed in our lifetimes. In the meantime, we’re just excited to see Hugh Jackman take on Tobey Maguire while Deadpool just laughs at them both.

The post Kevin Feige Confirms All Marvel Films and TV Shows Are Part of the MCU Multiverse appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back to the TVA, Loki fans! This week’s episode sees the return of a familiar face, but who exactly is Victor Timely? Dan Casey heads to the World’s Fair to find out whether this variant is friend or foe on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

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