MCU Megathread

[CaptHayfever]

Runaways has been renewed for a 3rd season; hopefully one in which the pace of the narrative makes sense. Since the Fox merger completed before this decision was made, we might finally be able to call Molly a mutant & Xavin a skrull.

Also, AMC Theaters is listing a runtime of 3 hrs 2 min for Endgame, so pee before the movie starts.

Cloak & Dagger S2 premieres in exactly 9 days.
Endgame opens in exactly 1 month from today.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[steeze]

There's no DC thread that I'm aware of. Not advocating for one either.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/zack- ... n=homepage
I think Zack Snyder is the one living in the dream world. A dream world where his movies don't suck and everyone thinks DC movies are Gr8.

[CaptHayfever]

^"You're living in a dream world." ~writer/director of Sucker Punch

Endgame tickets should be going up for preorder on April 2nd.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[ScottyMcGee]

(I honestly don't care if Batman or Superman kill people in his movies. They're just bad movies.)

[CaptHayfever]

^I was just saying because Sucker Punch is about a girl who literally lives in a dream world to cope with the tragedy that is her life.

So, Marvel has made this cool set of character posters for Endgame, seemingly confirming that

Spoiler.

Valkyrie survived the Snapture, but Shuri did not.

So, then of course the good folks of r/MarvelStudios got their hands on it & gave us this version.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Apiary Tazy]

Spoiler.

What?! Didn't Valkyrie die on the ship? I saw her there unconscious and didn't the ship blow up?

I mean, okay, good. She'll actually have importance beyond Thor: Ragnarok if that's true. But I hope they reveal how she got off the ship or didn't get killed like everyone else.

[CaptHayfever]

^You didn't see her there; she wasn't even in that scene. What you did see was the ship cut in half. Per his usual MO, Thanos had spared half of the Asgardian refugees & let them escape in half of their ship, led by Valkyrie. Unfortunately, those survivors were still subject to the end of the movie, which leads us back to my spoiler.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Apiary Tazy]

I could've sworn I saw her in the pile of bodies, but maybe that was before he cut the ship in half?

It's been like a space of time, I can't remember everything.

[CaptHayfever]

Very clear timeline news from Cloak & Dagger showrunner Joe Pokaski; S2 will pick up about 8 months after S1, which certainly makes my life easier when I'm working on the overall MCU timeline.

Also, the rumor mill is saying that Marvel Studios might be planning to put Deathlok in a film, possibly even as the villain of Black Widow. This won't cause any conflict with Agents of SHIELD, luckily, since that show established that there have been several Deathloks.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Valigarmander]

^ I read that as Dethklok.

[CaptHayfever]

SHIELD S6 premieres Friday, May 10th.
Presuming they run through all 13 episodes with no breaks, that will end the season on August 2nd, with a potential Far From Home tie-in around midseason.
Here's a thoroughly contextless teaser clip that was shown at Wondercon:

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

Endgame tickets are on sale NOW. Here's more teaser footage:

Cloak & Dagger S2 premieres this Thursday on Freeform, with episodes hitting Hulu the next day.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

Disney just announced their official film release schedule for the rest of 2019. Since the Fox buyout is now complete, there are a couple additions to it, one of which, of course, is Dark Phoenix, but more surprisingly, New Mutants is still on the schedule with its previously-announced August premiere date. These, of course, are not MCU entries, but if they're going ahead & releasing New Mutants to theaters so late in the year instead of cancelling it or moving it to a streaming service or something, it seems indicative that Disney/Marvel does in fact plan to wait quite a bit before making their own X-Men films.
(You might notice Far From Home is not on that list. This is not a mistake; like Homecoming, this movie is legally a Sony/Columbia release, even though Marvel Studios is producing it.)

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

A new addition has been announced to the Disney+ family of MCU miniseries: Hawkeye, featuring Clint Barton & Kate Bishop.
For those keeping score, that's now 5 confirmed Disney+ MCU shows (Loki, Vision & Scarlet Witch, Bucky & Falcon, Hawkeye, What If) & 2 rumored shows (Rocket & Groot, Lady Sif). Granted, all of these (except What If) will just be 6-8 episode miniseries, but still, that's a lot of irons in the fire.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

The mouse made their big announcement about Disney+ today.
Here's the MCU-related details:
--The Scarlet Witch/Vision miniseries is officially titled "WandaVision" (no space) because what the crap.
--The Bucky/Falcon miniseries is officially titled "Falcon & Winter Soldier".
--The Loki miniseries & the What If cartoon are now on the public record as well.
Here's the generics:
--Launch date in the US is November 12th, with rollout to the rest of the world over the next 2 years.
--Launch price is $6.99/month or $69.99/year.
--A combo deal with Hulu and ESPN+ will be available.
--Shows will be downloadable so they can be watched offline, which will be very nice for the archivists among us.

More C&D tonight. I'll be watching the Hulu upload tomorrow.
TWO WEEKS to Endgame.
FOUR WEEKS to SHIELD S6.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

This is a car commercial, but until that twist is made clear, you'd be forgiven for thinking they'd made another one-shot:

The next episode of Cloak & Dagger hit Hulu about an hour ago.
The midnight showings of Avengers: Endgame will end in exactly one week from THIS MOMENT.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

Reviews for Endgame are starting to go up; tread lightly to avoid spoilers. Can confirm that iO9's review is safe. Also....

...DON'T SPOIL THE MOVIE.

Meanwhile, we actually are starting to get some future film news via leaks posted to TV Tropes. No new *films* beyond what we knew already, but some production notes:
--Principal photography for Black Widow, while originally scheduled to begin in February/March, has been moved back to June so ScarJo would be free for all the Endgame press. The movie will almost certainly come out next year, likely in May.
--The Eternals will begin shooting this September, likely to release in November 2020.
--Pre-production is well underway on Black Panther 2, with filming likely to begin around the end of the year, & the finished movie likely out in early 2021.
--Pre-production has also begun for Doctor Strange 2, which should start filming next spring for a 2021 release as well.
--Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 is currently penciled in for a 2022 release date. The script is long-completed; the production wheels will begin turning again as soon as James Gunn finishes his work on The Suicide Squad.
--That leaves Shang-Chi & Spidey 3 as the only confirmed films with no production timeline yet; however, it's likely that the last 2021 release slot will go to Spider-Man [this will (a) mean a consistent 2 years between each film of the Holland trilogy, & (b) make it easier to believe Peter is still in high school].

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

If you're gonna talk about Endgame, put it in spoiler tags. Because there is a LOT to talk about. Holy carp.
(These are all REAL spoilers, by the way; do not open if you want to be surprised when seeing the film.)

For example, let's start with

Spoiler.

the 1st appearance by a TV character in the films; props to James D'Arcy.

Then follow that up with a little

Spoiler.

Thor Cap. Old Cap. Fake-Hydra Cap. Cap vs Cap. "Assemble" Cap. Basically every single fan theory about Cap got shoved in here, & it was kinda awesome.

But of course we can't forget

Spoiler.

the really out-there stuff like dual Nebulas, time-shifted Gamora, age-shifted Ant-Man, the Thanos paradox, Widow & Hawkeye fighting over who gets to kill themselves, Steve & Tony's Excellent Adventure, et cet

One thing that disappointed me was

Spoiler.

that we're staying with Teen Cassie from now on, because the little girl from the first 2 Ant-Man films was awesome.

And I'm gonna admit I cried throughout

Spoiler.

Iron Man's death & funeral.

Meanwhile, SHIELD is back in 2 weeks. Supposedly season 6 takes place a year after season 5, which means it has to be

Spoiler.

during the time skip in the middle of this movie, so the dusted are still gone.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Calamity Panfan]

Just got out of my 4 p.m. showtime, which I managed to stay awake for after being awake for 12 hours already and just getting off work. Thanks caffeine! Didn't have to use the bathroom at all during the 3 hour movie because I managed to get it all out of my system during the like half hour of trailers! Thanks AMC! You really didn't need to show us *TWO* Dark Phoenix trailers but my bladder appreciated it! That new Godzilla looks really cool every time I see an IMAX trailer, and the new MIB movie looks... not terrible (though the one I saw in IMAX was worse than the trailer I saw for it on Youtube the other day).

Pretty good crowd for the most part, not too many obnoxious fans (which is why I tend to wait until I can see movies at like 1 p.m. on weekedays when normal people are at work, for the most part. but I can't manage that this week). Of course, the one exception was the one literally sitting next to me. My guy was literally flipping off Thanos when he was on screen and told me (and I think people around him in general) to f*** off when we left during the credits.

Anyway, the movie itself:

Spoiler.

I liked it a lot! Taking them separately, I think Infinity War was more entertaining overall. I think it's largely a pacing thing. With IW, it felt like it was paced perfectly throughout. They seemed to know exactly when to go from one subplot to the next. As soon as you started thinking "oh, we haven't seen Thor in a bit," Thor shows up. It's a difficult balance with movies of this scope, and they nailed it. I don't think they nailed it as much here. I dunno if it felt its full three hour toll, but it definitely felt its length a bit.

That final action sequence though and the aftermath? Perfectly done. I think once the "heist" is over, it really hits its stride. The fanservice was in full effect, but it was neat to see. A lot of great little character moments. Like, I'm down for Spidey swinging on a Capt-thrown Mjolnir any day. And other little stuff, like the Groot/Rocket reunion, great.

And all the aftermath. Teared up at Tony's death. Peter reuniting with Ned kinda hit me too. But man, Capt dancing with Peggy killed me.

Lots of very fun cameos!
- Assuming shooting for this was done before Redford decided to retire? Or maybe he was willing to make one last exception for a nice check
- John Slattery as Howard looked like the worst de-aging attempts (which is weird because Slattery isn't THAT old nor looks THAT old; like, he's no Michael Douglas here)
- Did not expect Tilda Swinton back as the Ancient One and to get more dialogue than anyone that was resurrected
- I don't know how much I like about how they initially portray "fat/drunk Thor" but my goodness, Korg lines never miss.
- Speaking of Thor storylines and cameos, I may not have fully dug the storyline at first but the scene with Thor and Frigga was very nice.
- And yet again on Thor notes, glad they found a solid 5 seconds of archival Natalie Portman footage they could use.

So yeah. From storylines I didn't really like, the early Thor stuff hit a weird note for me at first. And while his plot is stronger than Age of Ultron, I thought Hawkeye's was weak here. I dunno, while I felt for him in that first scene, I dunno if I fully bought into "he became an international killer leaving literal piles of dead gangsters in his wake." I thought the Natasha/Hawkeye fight over who should sacrifice themselves was a little much.

I wasn't expecting as little Captain Marvel as we got. Like she still obviously played a very important role and the day would not have been saved without her, but it wasn't a whole lot of Brie Larson screentime. Though I guess the timing was weird with this being filmed before Captain Marvel AND having her around for the whole movie gives the heroes somebody who's a bit too OP.

On the flipside, I was surprised by how much Pepper we got. I guess I should've known with the tease of Tony making her a suit, but I really didn't expect her to be, like, out there on the front lines of the final battle. Neat.

I'm excited by the prospect of GotG3, especially with Gunn back and Thor joining the crew, but I dunno how I feel about the potential "Quill (and the rest of the gang) go chasing after Gamora, who is barely aware of who any of them are" storyline. There's a lot of room for messiness.

quick edit: Forgot to mention this in the cameo section somehow! Ken Jeong and Yvette Nicole Brown join Danny Pudi and Jim Rash in the "Community cast member cameos in Russo/Marvel movies" game, with Donald Glover of course playing a minor role in Spider-Man: Homecoming to add to that. Just need Gillian Jacobs, Joel McHale, Alison Brie and the extremely unlikely Chevy Chase to make the full cast!

[CaptHayfever]

^I mean, for what had to be just 1 day of work,

Spoiler.

I'd come out of retirement too. Heck, Portman came in to do some ADR to go with her archive footage; that was probably just about 1 hour of work.

So, this just got announced: Hulu will host a solo Ghost Rider series (starring Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes, reprising his SHIELD role) & a Helstrom series.

Furthermore, it was revealed today that Scarlett Johansson is co-producing Black Widow.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"