A few days we covered the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe news on the TV side. Now it’s time to look at all the latest production updates and rumors on the film side. Let’s dive in.
Potential Future MCU Directors
Marvel Studios has a habit of giving up-and-coming directors that have proven themselves in their craft a large ass blockbuster as their next film.
Word on the street is that Marvel has met with director Lulu Wang (The Farewell) and directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life).
Lulu Wang revealed during The Hollywood Reporter’s roundtable discussion that she had been approached to direct a Marvel film. She then added, “I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that.”
Unfortunately, she didn’t reveal which film she talked with Marvel about. However, two good contenders would be Black Widow or Shang-Chi (as they were looking for female and Chinese-American filmmakers). It doesn’t sound like she’s talking to Marvel right now, but she’s clearly on their radar.
Meanwhile, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah spoke to ComicBook.com and mentioned that they also had a general meeting with Marvel after the success of Bad Boys for Life:
“There’s nothing concrete. They just met us. They said they liked the movie and they just told us, ‘Yo, what do you wanna do? Let’s find something to work together on.’ So there’s nothing really planned yet, it was just like a meeting. But yeah, we’ll see if we find something cool. Now with Disney+ it has all evolved so much that there’s so much you can do. You can do a movie or you can do a TV show. And we’ve been so busy with Bad Boys that we’ve not explored everything yet. So what we’re going to do now, me and Bilall, is we’re going to check out all they got and we’d love to find something to work with them on, but it’s not yet clear what that would be.”
Marvel would be smart to bring Wang and El Arbi & Fallah into the MCU fold.
The Eternals
There’s a rumor going round, about Namor and The Eternals. Stirring up our little site for a week or two.
Twitter user hirotheheroo claims to have spoken to a teen actor from Syria named Zain Al Rafeea (Capernaum). He told them that he has a small role in The Eternals as “a kid whose father gets killed by sea monsters.” Additionally, he says this scene is set to set up a future storyline for an older actor to play.
Zain Al Rafeea posted pictures of himself on set last year with stars Salma Hayek and Lia McHugh, so we know he’s in the film. The Eternals is set to span thousands of years, so it’s possible one of the time periods will introduce a young Namor.
In more Eternals news, Haaz Sleiman let it slip in an interview with NewNowNext that he is playing the husband of Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos. Sleiman said:
“I just shot a Marvel film with the first openly gay superhero, The Eternals. I’m married to the gay superhero Phastos, played by Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry, and we represent a gay family and have a child.”
Sleiman also confirmed The Eternals will feature Marvel’s first gay kiss:
“Oh, yeah, absolutely, and it’s a beautiful, very moving kiss. Everyone cried on set. For me it’s very important to show how loving and beautiful a queer family can be. Brian Tyree Henry is such a tremendous actor and brought so much beauty into this part, and at one point I saw a child in his eyes, and I think it’s important for the world to be reminded that we in the queer community were all children at one point. We forget that because we’re always depicted as sexual or rebellious. We forget to connect on that human part.”
If I was a betting man, I’d say we should be getting our first official look at The Eternals closer to Black Widow‘s release date.
Doctor Strange Picks Up a New Screenwriter
It looks like a new director wasn’t the only thing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was getting. THR reports that Michael Waldron, the head writer of Loki, has been hired to rewrite the script.
Jade Bartlett wrote the most recent draft of Doctor Strange 2. The film was originally billed as the MCU’s first horror film, so hopefully with the hiring of Sam Raimi to direct that remains true.
We’ve known for a while now that Loki, WandaVision, and Doctor Strange 2 will all connect, so bringing Waldron on board is probably a smart move. It’s likely he knows more than anyone what Marvel is planning for the future.
Thor: Love & Thunder
Last month we reported that Christian Bale was in talks for an undisclosed role in Thor: Love & Thunder. Now, The Illuminerdi is reporting that Bale will be playing the main villain in Thor: Love & Thunder. His character is from an alien species and described as “otherworldly.”
Screen Rant theorizes that Bale could be playing Gorr the God Butcher. Gorr is “a being from an alien world who swore to ride the universe of ‘gods’ like Thor after they failed to help him in his time of struggle.”
The site also points out that Gorr was also a major part of the comic book storyline where Thor became unworthy of Mjolnir and Jane Foster took his spot. Since Love & Thunder is set to heavily draw on that storyline they may be on to something.
Lastly, Variety reports Jennifer Kaytin Robinson has been hired to co-write the script alongside Taika Waititi.
Who do you think Bale is playing? Do you think Raimi will knock it out of the park with Doctor Strange 2? Will Namor appear in The Eternals? Give us your hot takes in the comments below!
