The OtherArena

[Bob Morris]

The Dark Phoenix film is the last in the X-Men series with the current cast. They have a New Mutants film planned and a Gambit film planned after this, but these were all underway before Disney bought 21st Century Fox.

At some point, Marvel Studios will relaunch, though it will likely be a while before they do, because they have other properties that are due for sequels (Black Panther, Doctor Stranger, Guardians, likely Captain Marvel if the first film has a strong box office showing... and that appears likely).

ETA: Also, they likely keep going with Deadpool, given that franchise has done well for itself. I know the studio intends to keep it R rated.

[Bob Morris]

Another Avengers: Endgame trailer.

https://youtu.be/TcMBFSGVi1c

Now, it does show a scene with Tony back with everyone else, but that could have been shot specifically for the trailer, just as they shot trailer-specific scenes for Infinity War.

Regardless, this gets more amped up for April 26. :)

[jdw]

Freaking awesome!

[corrado]

James Gunn directs Guardians 3 after all:

https://deadline.com/2019/03/james-gunn-reinstated-guardians-of-the-galaxy-3-disney-suicide-squad-2-indefensible-social-media-messages-1202576444/

[jdw]

Rather big. Likely that Feige and others at Marvel Studios who are savvy in the intercompany relationship up the chain with Disney worked overtime to make this happen. GotG 3 is going to be an important box office movie in the next phase. At the moment it doesn't look like it's going into production any time soon, but it does look like Gunn has the script largely in place - they were leaking that they would use his script over the past month or so, likely to open up the possibility of his return.

[Steve Yohe]

Now many of those guys died at the end of the last Avenger film & I don't see their names in the cast of the next one.---Yohe

[jdw]

The people show and named in the poster are just the ones who "survived" and have been added since (Cap Marvel and Ant-Man via the movies after). It's trying just to focus on them as the ones who will have to turn the tied.

As soon as people were Dusted, the questions wasn't whether they would be brought back, but *how* they would be brought back. That's kind of the point of the two movies:

Avengers 3 = Thanos' Quest to Snap Out half the galaxy
Avengers 4 = the (largely Original) Avengers Quest to Fix the shit

They are supplementing the Six Original Avengers with:

Rhodes - Tony's long time friend
Ant-Man - symbol of the Non-Original Avenger MCU heroes
Rocket - symbol of the non-Earth galaxy
Nebula - symbol that Thanos is so evil even Heels are against him
Okoye - symbol of non-Super Heroes who have a stake
Cap Marvel - the real original Avenger who returns

Nice balance.

We know the focus is going to largely be on the Six Original Avengers. It's likely the end of the road for several of them, and to a degree full circle from the first Avengers. Only Widow is a lock to come back in a main role. Ruffalo might as well in a similar fashion as how he was used in Thor 3 (and mostly likely in Widow's movie). The other 4 are less likely... though maybe Hawkeye has a cameo in Widow's movie.

It's a long movie at the moment, right around 3 hours that they're having a tough time cutting shorter.

[Steve Yohe]

The LA Times wrote last week that Disney gets 60% of the take when a theater shows it's films. All the other studios get 50%. It claimed that now, with the merger between Disney & Fox, they are going to want 65% of the take....and some think maybe 70%, Theaters have to show the Marvel stuff & the cartoons so they can't buck the system. ( this seems like the price of the first two weeks. The calculation used to be that the % going to studios got smaller as the weeks of the showing increased.) Disney is telling the theater chains to sell more food and get bars to sell alcohol.

The Times also thinks that two studios together will produce less films that two separate studios....so there will be less films being made. ---Steve Yohe

[Bob Morris]

Guardians 3 to begin production February 2021.

http://www.mtv.com/news/3117781/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-production-2021/

That removes that film from Marvel's plans to release its next film in May 2020.

I suppose they could do the Black Widow film as the next release. It's supposed to be an origin story and they probably wouldn't have to do a lot of special effects and CGI to make it work.

Otherwise, if Marvel intends to stick to a May 2020 release for a film, I have no idea what they'll be able to roll out in time.

[Bob Morris]

Here's a little more about Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 possible plans.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/marvel-phase-4-x-men-fantastic-four-black-widow-panther-eternals-doctor-strange-guards-of-the-galaxy-a8833406.html

It sure looks like that Black Widow will get the May 2020 release date. From there, it appears Marvel wants to roll out a film based on The Eternals -- meaning they'd be rolling out a lesser-known group of characters.

Black Widow should do good business, but if Eternals is the next one up, it will be interesting to see if they can take another group of unknowns to the mainstream audience and make that one work, too.

[Steve Yohe]

As I remember The New Gods or later The Eternals were a failure as a comic. The Jack Kirby stuff he did in the 1970's was goofy bad stuff. He did The New Gods at DC & The Eternals evolved out it back at Marvel. I didn't think Kirby could write. I bought the #1, but had no interest in them & didn't read them. The only way they can do it is making a CG mess.

They should turn Black Widow into a James Bond type of a movie. That would work.

I think re-booting everything & going to new superheros will be there down fall. All they need is one 250 mil movie to bomb & that will kill everything. They could risk that kind of money on The Avengers, and be safe....these lesser titles could fail.

Comics in the 70's and 80's as the companies were forced to pay artists real movie, and forced the prices up, sold less comics. They only sold like 10% of what they were selling in the 50's & 60's. By the late 80's & 90's, they were making their money by selling the characters to movie studios, at first for bad TV and now for real films. I don't think they knew what sold or what didn't. Comics, like Wonder Woman were just kept around because of film rights. I think the classic heroes from the 60's are what is popular & the long term success. They were created when comics were sold in every supermarket, and every kid bought them. They were simple & easy to follow. Now, even the comic books stores are gone. It's the old characters that people remember, because of numbers.

The guys who make movies know nothing lasts & they cost a ton of movie. Once they think the public is done with them....they'll dump them very fast...and go to new things. They should be sticking to the sure things. Change actors, not characters.

Once Hulk & Thor get beat up in the first few minute of a movie, it's the beginning of the end. Cut Thor hair, pull out his eye, destroy Ascar...it's over. Have Iron Man get married & settle down. Make Capt America a rebel without a mask. If not then...soon after.---Yohe

[corrado]

The new Joker movie which comes out October looks pretty decent so far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t433PEQGErc

[Bob Morris]

Bumping this up again for what's coming post MCU Phase 3 (for which the next Spider-Man film is considered part).

In the works: Black Widow prequel film, The Eternals.
Planning stages: Shang-Chi, Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
Likely to happen: Black Panther 2, Doctor Strange 2.
Likely being discussed: Captain Marvel 2.

It wouldn't surprise me if they roll out another Spider-Man film along the way.

And I imagine they'd want to get Fantastic Four worked in at some point. From there, who knows what they might build to as far as the big gathering of different heroes (which you would think they'd want to have again).

[jdw]

New Spidey trailer is awesome.

[Bob Morris]

Thoughts on the latest seasons of CW DC shows:

Arrow Season 7: Thought it was an improvement over Season 6 but lacked a compelling villain. It will end its run with Season 8. Probably for the best at the series is starting to show its age.

Flash Season 5: Also lacked a compelling villain, at least until they revealed Eobard Thawne's role. I thought the stuff with Barry and Iris' daughter improved during the course of the season.

Supergirl Season 4: Better effort than Season 3 and had a couple of compelling villains (Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor was great, Sam Witwer delivered as Ben Lockwell). I don't consider it the best as some say (I think Season 2 was better) because, at times, the creative team was throwing everything at you left and right and some things got lost in the shuffle.

Legends of Tomorrow Season 4: Good but not as good as the previous two seasons. They really need to get away from the magic themes that have taken over. Get back to the time travel and how the Legends succeed despite themselves and the show will be better for it.

Black Lightning Season 2: Some good material but the pacing was a problem. I think a lot of that had to do with its episode limit this season. Seemed like it forced them to move too quickly to the finish.

Batwoman gets her series in the fall.

Oh, and they're doing Crisis on Infinite Earths for the crossover. Basically, it will be the DC CW's Infinity War/Endgame.