Marvel Studios Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

The movies of Marvel may have a sliding scale of entertainment value and quality, but it’s hard to argue that “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” isn’t one of their strongest efforts to date. Chris Evans, recently speaking at The Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle (via Variety), agrees.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen major hiccups and pivots across the world of superhero moviemaking. Warner Bros.

Actor Ray Winstone has two Netflix projects on the way: Guy Ritchie’s crime comedy series, “The Gentlemen” (read our review), and “Damsel” opposite Millie Bobbie Brown. But of course, as is custom these days, the actor was asked about his appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Thanks to the growing popularity of his Amazon Prime Video action thriller series “Reacher,” based on the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child, Alan Ritchson’s is starting to really take off. It’s only been on for two seasons but seemingly taken off in the last year and is quickly turning the 6 ft 2 actor into a star.

“Dune: Part Two” is about to open in theaters worldwide on March 1, so most of the cast is out there pounding the pavement of press and getting the word out. One of them is Dave Bautista, who plays Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, nephew of Baron Harkonnen, and one of the baddies in the film who is seemingly usurped by his even more vicious family member Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler).

When Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” took the Ensemble in a Motion Picture honor at the 2024 SAG Awards Saturday night, one member of the cast was conspicuously missing. It turned out Florence Pugh, who played the pivotal role of Jean Tatlock, wasn’t in attendance.

This past weekend saw red carpets for the SAG Awards and Spirit Awards and, frankly, some stars are running out of things to say. Thankfully, Kathryn Hahn was a presenter at the former and willing to talk about her upcoming Marvel Studios series, “Agatha: Darkhold Diaries.” A spin-off of the Emmy Award-winning “WandaVision” which will arrive on Disney+ on September 19.

FX’s. “The Bear” basically swept awards season this year, and this past weekend, they added more feathers to their caps with major wins at the SAG Awards and the PGA Awards.

Mark Ruffalo is seemingly expanding on recent comments about why a solo “Hulk” film will never happen. In a recent GQ interview about his Oscar-nominated supporting role in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” his fourth Oscar nod, the actor was once asked about Marvel and his thoughts about the superhero studio.

The undeniable narrative of superhero movies in 2023 was arguably the most disastrous on record since Marvel took off in 2008 with “Iron Man.” The “Marvel wobble” year, as it’s been called, saw Marvel’s first flop ever, “The Marvels” (their lowest-grossing film ever), a major box office disappointment, “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania,” and a series so poorly reviewed (“Secret Invasion”), the studio would love to pretend it didn’t exist.

Late last year, trouble seemed to be afoot in the Marvel Universe. “Shang-Chi and the Legend Of The Ten Rings” filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton, scheduled to helm “Avengers: Kang Dynasty,” suddenly dropped out of the picture.

In the wake of the dreadful “Madame Web” flop, the central question everyone seems to be asking themselves when it comes to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSMU) is, what the hell is going on over there at that studio? (several post-mortems from Puck and THR are withering in their assessment of the SSMU, and Sony is definitely taking it in the teeth today) While Sony’s superhero movies have flourished when they are Marvel co-productions, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” grossing almost $2 billion during the 2021 pandemic, and the “Spider-Verse” are big critical and commercial hits under Christopher Lord and Phil Miller, everything else appears to be a wash of late.

Following yesterday’s “The Fantastic Four” casting news and breaking the internet, Marvel’s got even more today. Nostalgia is running really high at Marvel Studios at the moment, and arguably, it’s THE thing of the moment.

It’s Valentine’s Day, and how is Marvel Studios celebrating? Well, after a Super Bowl Sunday that included releasing the most popular trailer in the history of social media (“Deadpool & Wolverine“), the superhero factory has now formally announced the cast for “The Fantastic Four.” But buried under the fresh MCU faces is the news that the studio is switching up a couple of its films, allowing for “The Fantastic Four” to trade dates with “Thunderbolts.” READ MORE: ‘Fantastic Four’: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach & Joseph Quinn Confirmed For Marvel Movie According to Disney, “Thunderbolts” is moving up its release date from July 25, 2025 to May 2, 2025.

It’s been one of the worst-kept secrets in Hollywood for months, but it’s finally confirmed. After months of rumors and speculation, the cast of Marvel’s “Fantastic Four” movie has been confirmed by Marvel on Valentine’s Day (see the image below).

When you think of filmmakers working today in terms of teams, one of the easiest ways to separate them is by their public statements about Marvel films. (Yes, this is reductive, but it’s sadly quite true.) There are folks like Martin Scorsese who famously called out Marvel and franchise filmmaking in general as detrimental to the art of cinema.

There’s no doubt that Ben Mendelsohn is one of the best actors working today. In fact, if you want to get more specific, he can play the hell out of a bad guy when given the chance.

It’s hard to imagine a world where Mark Ruffalo didn’t take over for Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, for 2012’s “Avengers.” Ruffalo has played the character for over a decade and has been an integral part of the most successful franchise in history. And it would appear like it’s not ending anytime soon.

More than six years after “Deadpool 2,” the third and belated “Deadpool” movie, now officially titled “Deadpool & Wolverine,” is nearly here. Marvel Studios’ sole 2024 movie, coming in the summer, is also Marvel’s first R-rated movie, and it’ll be the first movie released after the studio’s first flop, “The Marvels,” so a lot is riding on it.

Last night, The Walt Disney Company reported its first quarter earnings of 2024 on Wednesday, and Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger dropped many bombs and surprise announcements. “Moana 2” is coming later this year, “Toy Story 5” and “Frozen 3” are coming in 2026, Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” concert doc is coming to Disney+ in March, and so much more.

When you look at the wave of negative press that has followed Marvel Studios recently, it can largely be traced back to the release of “Eternals.” At the time, no one ever imagined a film from Marvel Studios would be the victim of terrible reviews and relatively low box office (though $402 million worldwide is still better than “The Marvels”). And apparently, the backlash “Eternals” received from critics really affected members of the cast, including Kumail Nanjiani.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been just over a year since we learned of Jeremy Renner’s near-fatal accident in January 2023. If you don’t remember, Renner was run over by a snow plow after pushing his family member out of the way.

It’s not a hot take to say that there has been a noticeable decline in quality of MCU projects post-“Avengers: Endgame” in 2019. Coming out of that movie, everyone was asking the same question—how can Marvel Studios top that? Well, so far, nothing has topped it.

Wait, why is Matthew Vaughn on the MCU train? He’s got a Universal “Argylle” spy movie coming out soon and isn’t involved with Marvel or any of the old Marvel/Fox properties. Well, apparently, he knows a little bit about what’s in store, and on a recent episode of BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast, he evidently sang the movie’s praises, going as far as to claim it will “save” the MCU.

Welp, there’s been yet another casting casualty in Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts” project that was supposed to shoot last year but was delayed because of the actors’ and writers’ strikes. Following the departure of Steven Yeung, now we’re learning that “The Bear” star Ayo Edebiri, is also leaving the project due to scheduling issues.

The first big Marvel story of 2024 was Steven Yeun exiting “Thunderbolts” due to scheduling conflicts. Yeun joined the cast of the MCU installment last February, and if the rumors are true, he would’ve played the movie’s villain, Sentry.

So, reports are that “Daredevil: Born Again” has gone back into production. This happens after what is being reported as a tumultuous time for the folks at Marvel, particularly involving this highly anticipated series.

Maybe it’s the fact that he’s worked in Hollywood for decades now, but Vincent D’Onofrio isn’t shy of talking about his Marvel work. Unlike some of the younger actors who avoid Marvel questions like the plague, the Kingpin actor is happy to shed some light on the behind-the-scenes stuff going on at Marvel Studios.

There are a lot of questions surrounding the TV shows being produced by Marvel Studios as we head into 2024. It’s fairly obvious “Echo” was dumped by the studio this month, and there have been rumblings for months now that Marvel Studios has to completely change how it produces TV moving ahead.

Following his turns as the evil character in Marvel’s Netflix series, Vincent D’Onofrio is obviously back as Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin, in the proper Marvel Cinematic Universe (the Netflix era was previously disconnected from canon). D’Onofrio already re-appeared as the character in the “Hawkeye” Disney+ limited series (2021), and he’s back once again in the “Echo” series, which is streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu (read our review).

Robert Downey Jr. is on his way to an Oscar nomination for “Oppenheimer,” and if you’re a betting person, well, I would already bank on the win, personally.

It’s all but assured that the X-Men will enter the MCU soon. But how, and when exactly? That’s yet to be determined outside of Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine co-starring in “Deadpool 3” later this year.

Marvel’s new limited series, “Echo,” is deeply frustrating, a show with good intentions and poor aim. Ostensibly full of depth but never hitting the bullseye— seemingly about the complicated emotional agonies of families, adopted, found, and betrayed and the burdens of trauma—most of it is told without meaningful resonance.

Earlier this week, rumors about Steven Yeun leaving the upcoming MCU film “Thunderbolts“ were proved true. And it was a shock of sorts to start 2024 for Marvel Studios.

Over the holidays, you probably saw Marvel Studios hype the hell out of the second season of animated hit, “What If…?” The series doesn’t necessarily qualify as “required viewing” for the MCU, but for those who just can’t get enough of the characters, it serves as an outlet to take these beloved icons and put a new spin on them. (More about that in our review.) But apparently, the real world shitshow that was going on in 2020 led to the showrunner of “What If…?” to change course a little and focus on having more fun, which meant ditching what would have been a very dark episode featuring none other than Spider-Man.

Welp, there it is. A rumor that made the rounds on social media earlier today has turned out to be true.