The Real Mandarin Will Finally Appear in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Marvel‘s upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, will introduce the MCU’s first Asian-American superhero. Shang-Chi will be played by Simu Liu, and while Liu will be introducing a brand new superhero to the MCU (although, of course, one well-known to comics fans), he’ll be facing off against a villain that’s been lurking in the shadows of the MCU since 2008’s Iron Man—the Mandarin—to be played by Tony Leung...
The Buzziest Non-Marvel Projects From San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con, now in its 50th year, draws an estimated 135,000 fans of comic books, movies, and pop culture. This year, the major studios dropped a slew of highly-anticipated movie trailers (like Top Gun: Maverick), TV productions teased scenes from new shows (like Netflix’s The Witcher), and fans geeked out over behind-the-scenes tidbits about popular and upcoming projects. Yes, there was a lot more happening at this year’s con than just Marvel’s return to Hall H...
The Batman Adds Vice & Rogue One Cinematographer Greig Fraser
Director Matt Reeves is reteaming with cinematographer Greig Fraser for The Batman. The last time these two rising stars teamed up, it was to collaborate on Reeves’ critically acclaimed Let Me In, which was a remake of the critically acclaimed Swedish vampire movie Let The Right One In. Since then, Reeves and Fraser have gone on to do big things—on their own. Fraser has worked on a string of excellent films—Zero Dark Thirty (2012),...
The Russo Brothers Finally Reveal How Captain America was Able to [Spoiler Alert]
With Avengers: Endgame headed for its digital HD release next week, lots of interesting, spoiler-riffic tidbits are finding their way online. Here’s one that just caught our attention.
Quick—what was the single most shocking moment in Avengers: Endgame? [Spoiler alert, obviously.] Very good arguments could be made for the film’s two major deaths—Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, and Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. These moments were, without a doubt,...
See how They Digitally Created a Young Will Smith in Ang Lee’s Gemini Man
The last time we checked in with Ang Lee’s sci-fi thriller Gemini Man, we were unpacking the first trailer. Now Paramount Pictures has released a behind-the-scenes featurette, giving us a better sense of what Lee has up his sleeve for his latest film. The basic premise of Gemini Man is fairly straight forward: hitman Henry Brogen (Will Smith) faces off against a younger version of himself. The 50-year-old Henry versus the 23-year-old “Junior”...
Natalie Portman Will be Called “Mighty Thor” in Thor: Love and Thunder
One of the biggest reveals coming out of San Diego Comic-Con was that Natalie Portman will be playing the Goddess of Thunder in Taika Waititi‘s hotly-anticipated Ragnarok sequel Thor: Love and Thunder. One immediate point of contention was that folks started calling her “Female Thor,” which is, at best, inelegant. The fact that Portman’s Jane Foster would be raising Mjolnir isn’t shocking to comic book fans, where Foster becomes worthy of the sacred hammer when Thor no longer is...
James Gunn Confirms Guardians 3 Set After Thor: Love and Thunder
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is expanding right before our eyes. Thanks to San Diego Comic-Con, the news out of Marvel HQ is coming at us fast. Marvel took over Hall H and shared one reveal after another, including the news that Takai Waititi’s Thor 4 was not only titled Thor: Love and Thunder, but would also see Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster raise the hammer as a female Thor. Now Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn is getting in on the action...
Meet the Sound Team That Helped The Lion King Roar
After a massive worldwide opening weekend, it’s safe to say the iconic songs from 1994 Disney animated classic The Lion King are still infectious.
In the retelling of the story, not only did director Jon Favreau bring back the original Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer and songs from Elton John and Tim Rice, but he added icons Pharrell Williams as a producer and Beyoncé singing “Spirit” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” as Nala...
How the Spider-Man: Far From Home Writers Crafted a Swinging Summer Hit
They first worked together on TV satire American Dad, then mastered the dysfunctional dark comedy of Community before breaking into features by subverting superhero conventions with their neurotic title character in The Lego Batman Movie. Now, screenwriters Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna are riding high as the team who scripted Spider-Man: Far From Home. The rare summer hit that’s won over critics as well as audiences,...
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Crew Promises Mind-Melting Final Shot
We got a glimpse at Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘s new Sith Trooper at Comic-Con, but that was hardly the only news from a galaxy far, far away coming out of San Diego. One tidbit that deserves extra scrutiny comes from writer/director Kevin Smith, who was at the Con to show off his upcoming film Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
Smith is not only a filmmaker, but he’s a beloved lover of all things sci-fi and comic book...
Tom Hanks is Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood‘s First Trailer
Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor gave us insight into the late, great Fred Rogers only a year ago. The documentary felt like a sorely needed corrective on our current climate of anxiety, anger, and otherism. The life and work of Fred Rogers was essentially one long campaign for a better world, with Mr. Rogers focusing his heroic goodness, his belief that everyone is equal and worthy of respect, on children. If you were going to make a narrative film about Mr...
Kevin Feige Confirms More LGBTQ Characters in Marvel’s Phase 4
We’ve known for quite a while that Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie was a member of the LGBTQ community. The talented actress said it herself. But Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has confirmed that Thompson’s butt-kicking heroine (and, as revealed in Avengers: Endgame, the Queen of New Asgard) isn’t the only LGBTQ character that will have a big role in Marvel’s Phase 4.
Thompson joined Feige and a huge slew of talent at San Diego Comic-Con on the stage of Hall H to discuss Phase 4...
Marvel Reveals Two-Time Oscar Winner Mahershala Ali is Blade
When Wesley Snipes starred in Stephen Norrington’s Blade in 1998 as the half-vampire, half-mortal protector of humanity, superhero movies were in something of a middle period. The late 70s through the 80s had brought us some legendary comic-book films, most notably Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman and Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman. Those films were a touch campy, but also technically brilliant and gorgeously constructed. By the time Blade hit in 1998, superhero films were moving towards realism...
Marvel Reveals Phase 4 at San Diego Comic-Con
Marvel Studios executive producer Victoria Alonso was so excited about revealing “Phase 4” of the Marvel cinematic universe that she sang rather than share spoilers ahead of the highly-anticipated panel in San Diego Comic Con’s largest forum, Hall H.
“So much that I can’t say,” she told a smaller audience earlier in the day during a “Women of Marvel” panel. She broke into the choruses of “Hooked on a Feeling” followed by “I’m So Excited.”
Alonso did not overhype the revelations of Marvel’s primetime panel...
Shahadi Wright Joseph on Becoming the Young Nala in The Lion King
Young Nala in Disney’s new remake of The Lion King (which opens today) might be a lioness cub, but she’s nothing less than a princess. After all, Nala grows up to be Queen, at which she’s played by none other than Beyoncé. But the young Nala, voiced by 14-year-old Shahadi Wright Joseph, is very much in the tradition of feisty young Disney heroines from Mulan to Frozen’s Elsa to Brave’s Merida...
The First Trailer for Cats Reveals Wildly Ambitious VFX Musical
While Tom Hooper’s Cats is based on the legendary, long-running Broadway musical, you will not be watching stars made up to look like cats. Hooper has instead deployed the latest performance-capture technology to turn his star-studded cast into cats. This means the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, Judi Dench, and James Corden will be felines. Their faces will be recognizable, but instead of having pasted whiskers and painted cat noses, they’ll have those things via startling VFX...
Tom Cruise Returns to the Cockpit in Top Gun: Maverick Trailer
We published a story way back last September about how Top Gun: Maverick would be utilizing some of the Navy’s most technologically advanced fighter jets. We spoke to Naval Air Forces spokesman Commander Ronald Flanders, who told us, “Much like the first film, these are going to be real jets and real U.S. Naval aviators flying in these scenes. We’re excited about it.” Flanders added that the film “captured the most advanced carrier aircraft.” This included aircraft that the Navy is just beginning to put into action...
The Second Trailer for It: Chapter Two is Even Better Than the First
Last night Warner Bros. kicked off San Diego Comic-Con with their ScareDiego event, highlighting Andy Muschietti‘s It: Chapter Two. The event included three fresh clips, a panel discussion with Muschietti and cast members James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Jay Ryan, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, and James Ransone, hosted by Conan O’Brien, and a brand new trailer. Well, now we’ve got that trailer for your viewing pleasure.
The new trailer includes a lot of fresh footage,...
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘s Sith Trooper Introduced at SDCC
As we wrote last week, there’s going to be a new kind of Stormtrooper in J.J Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Enter the Sith Trooper, which boasts blood-red armor and a black blaster. Also, a name that conjures the galaxy’s greatest villains, from Darth Vader to Count Dooku to Darth Maul. The Sith Trooper looks a bit like a mash-up of the new designs for Stormtroopers introduced in Abrams’ The Force Awakens (of which John Boyega’s Finn was a member),...
Ad Astra‘s Second Trailer Reveals Brad Pitt’s Epic Sci-Fi Drama
Writer/director James Gray is a man who makes very good films, and he takes his time on each one. Two Lovers (2008), The Immigrant (2013) and The Lost City of Z (2016) couldn’t have been more different from one another, yet each bore the mark of Gray’s meticulous craft. With Ad Astra, which he co-wrote with Ethan Gross, Gray has turned his attention to the great beyond,...
