Month: February 2020

Phase 4 is right around the corner.

New decade, new MCU. Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is kicking off with a bang on screens both big and small and naturally, the Super Bowl was prime time to showcase some of the upcoming projects Marvel Studios has waiting in the wings. A brand new Black Widow teaser showcased the villain Taskmaster as well as Natasha, Yelena, Melina, and Red Guardian–but that’s not all. We also got our first ever official clips of three upcoming MCU Disney+ shows: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and Loki.

Naturally, with only 30-seconds worth of footage, we were left with some pretty major questions for all three, but that’s where the fun can really begin. GameSpot rounded up their biggest and most obsessive MCU and Marvel comics fans to start doing what they do best: Theorizing wildly over every tiny scrap of information passed their way. What’s going on with Sam Wilson? Is Baron Zemo really a bad guy now? Is WandaVision actually in the Wakandan Matrix? Is Loki in time jail?

We can’t be sure–but we’re absolutely going to start guessing. Let’s break down some of the biggest and most interesting details from the Super Bowl Disney+ spot and see if we can figure out what they might mean.

1. Sam doesn’t become Captain America

At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Captain America handed off his shield to Sam–a passing of the torch–but maybe Sam doesn’t want the mantle. Obviously, as we’ve seen in the trailers, someone is in a Cap-like suit–but it isn’t Sam, it’s John Walker aka US Agent. We see Sam throwing the shield, but later, we see him decked out in his classic Falcon costume, all wings, no shield to be found. We can’t tell what order these events happen in the show based on these clips alone, of course, but the question remains. What if The Falcon and Winter Soldier just pulled the trigger and didn’t make him Captain America? -Mat Elfring

2. WandaVision takes place inside a computer

Wanda is still an Avenger, living in a world where Thanos was defeated, and everyone was unsnapped. However, Vision–for all intents in purposes-is dead. The last time we saw him, Thanos ripped the Mind Stone from his head, and he was no more. However, Shuri was trying to save him during Infinity War. What if Shuri accomplished her mission and uploaded his consciousness onto a computer in Wakanda? Everything happening on this show could actually be a weird computer simulation, as Vision has no way to cope with the traumatic experiences that happened to him during the transfer into the computer. -Mat Elfring

3. Vision is actually trapped elsewhere

Infinity Stones are weird, right? They’re unpredictable and magical, and we’re not even sure entirely how they work. When the Mind Stone was ripped from Vision’s head, maybe his essence or consciousness went with it, so he never truly died. The series WandaVision could just be Vision coping with being trapped in the Mind Stone, and that’s why it’s so bizarre. -Mat Elfring

4. Young Avengers in the making

There is a brief moment, which is my favorite thing in the trailer, where Scarlet Witch and Vision are standing over two cribs, and two pacifiers shoot up into the air–one blue, the other pink. In the comics, the couple had two kids, Thomas and William, who would later become Wiccan and Speed of the Young Avengers. The kids are canon within the MCU, so this could be the beginning of a Young Avengers more or TV show, like 14 years before Thomas and William become heroes. -Mat Elfring

5. Loki’s in continuity prison.

Loki–or, Avengers-era Loki who fled the scene back in Avengers: Endgame–seems to have been caught by someone or something. We see him here in what looks like a prison uniform with an orange logo emblazoned on the chest. It looks like it spells out “TVA,” which would be pretty appropriate under the circumstances. In Marvel Comics, the TVA is the Time Variance Authority, a sort of meta-gag that functioned as a bureaucratic continuity-policing agency modeled after real-life Marvel writer/editor Mark Gruenwald. By blipping out of the (admittedly already extremely screwed up) Avengers: Endgame timeline with the Tesseract, there’s absolutely no doubt that Loki would have wound up on the TVA’s radar–and he doesn’t seem to be too happy about it. Just listen to him: He’s gonna burn this place to the ground. -Meg Downey

6. John Walker is trying to win hearts and minds

A brief clip of US Agent attending what looks like a high school pep rally (complete with an “A” branded marching band) tells us everything we need to know about the MCU’s take on the new character–which is to say, it’s likely going to follow very, very closely to his comic book counterpart. In the books, Walker used big-budget propaganda techniques to make himself look like a favorable alternative to the current Captain America, who he smeared as old, outdated, and ineffective. Unfortunately, Walker himself was actually a zealous nationalist who used his own “patriotism” to terrorize anyone who didn’t fall in line with his own misguided “values.” -Meg Downey

7. Bucky and Zemo still have beef

It seems like Bucky and Zemo have still got some major issues to work out with one another–which is probably pretty unsurprising to anyone who watched Captain America; Civil War. A shot in this trailer seems to indicate that Bucky may even have a chance to shoot Zemo dead-to-rights, but rather than actually making the kill, opts to empty the clip from his gun with his metal hand. Maybe this is an act of mercy–or maybe it’s just another bit of fuel in the fire of their rivalry. One thing is certain, whatever happens between the two of them is going to have some messy results. -Meg Downey

8. Sparing Zemo will eventually birth the Thunderbolts

One of Marvel’s greatest anti-hero (or, well, fake-hero, it gets a little complicated and depends on which era you’re looking at) teams, The Thunderbolts, was actually started by none other than Baron Zemo–in disguise as a new hero named Citizen V, with a bunch of other villains in new “heroic” alter egos. They may have started as a conniving, underhanded ploy to topple some of the Marvel Universe’s most powerful heroic organizations from the inside out, but after a while, the Thunderbolts actually did become kind-of-sort-of heroic. And we’d really, really love to see them crop up in the MCU. There might actually be a chance if Bucky and Sam really do decide to spare Zemo’s life. -Meg Downey

Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to be something entirely new, combining the big-screen spectacles we’ve come to know and love with smaller scale streaming TV shows on Disney+, and the Super Bowl just gave us our first look at the not one, not two, but three of the upcoming MCU shows.

The Disney+ Marvel Super Bowl spot showed us a look at The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and Loki, which will begin rolling out on the streaming service this fall and will continue into 2022. First up is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which will chronicle Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes in a post-Captain America world as they deal with not only the return of Baron Zemo (of Captain America: Civil War fame) but the emergence of US Agent, a new character who will likely pose a threat to Sam Wilson’s stake in the Captain America mantle. The clips shown in the promo gave us our first look at Sam Wilson throwing the shield, Zemo coming face-to-face with Bucky Barnes, and Bucky sporting his newly cut hair.

Next up is WandaVision, a self-described surrealist, “f***king bonkers” journey through the, uh, 1960s flavored sitcom life of Wanda Maximoff and Vision. If the clip is anything to be believed, it looks like we’ll have a lot of wackiness to look forward to–including what may or may not be a pregnant Wanda. Fans of the comics will remember that Wanda and Vision are (strange as it may seem) the parents of two other Marvel characters, Billy Kaplan and Thomas Shepherd (don’t worry too much about the last names for now), who become superheroes in their own rights.

Finally, we got a look at Loki, which features an alternate version of Loki from the Avengers timeline–that is, pre-change of heart, genocidal Loki who was still very much working for Thanos. We saw him flee the scene back in Avengers: Endgame during a kerfuffle with the Tesseract. In case you somehow forgot that this will not be cute, funny Thor: Ragnarok-era Loki, he proudly announces that he’s going to burn this place to the ground in the clip. Yikes.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, the first of the MCU Disney+ shows, is slated to hit the streaming service this fall. WandaVision follows later in the year, and Loki arrives in 2021.

It’s been a fascinating weekend for movies, with two new records being broken. Bad Boys For Life finished on top with $17.7 million, while the two new wide releases opened below expectations, and The Rhythm Section did particularly poorly.

Bad Boys For Life has now earned $148,051,531 in its first 16 days of release, according to Box Office Mojo. As Forbes points out, that makes it the highest grossing film to ever release in January. The spot was previously occupied by a movie you might not have guessed–Paul Blart: Mall Cop, which earned $146,336,178 following its January 16, 2009 release.

There’s a reason for this. January is often a dumping ground for studios, when movies that are obviously not going to be part of the awards conversation or play well over summer are released. Bad Boys For Life has been such a huge success that a fourth movie in the series has already been greenlit.

On the other end of the scale, The Rhythm Section broke a different record–it had the worst opening ever for a movie releasing on over 3000 screens. Going into the weekend, estimates put the film at earning around $5 million, which would have been the fifth worst weekend for a movie opening this wide; instead, it earned just $2.8 million and took the number one spot. The movie earned an average of $918 per screen, which makes it the first movie ever to release this wide and bring in a per-screen average below $1000.

The film earned so-so reviews, and the star power of Blake Lively, Jude Law, and Sterling K. Brown does not seem to have been enough to get this action film off the ground. The weekend’s other new release, Gretel & Hansel, brought in $6,050,830, which still isn’t great–it’s the 18th lowest opening for a movie on over 3000 screens.

Here’s the full domestic top ten for the weekend of January 31 through February 2.

1. Bad Boys for Life: $17,675,000
2. 1917: $9,660,000
3. Dolittle: $7,700,000
4. Gretel & Hansel: $6,050,830
5. The Gentlemen: $6,010,000
6. Jumanji: The Next Level: $6,000,000
7. Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker: $3,193,000
8. The Turning: $3,050,000
9. Little Women: $3,015,000
10. The Rhythm Section: $2,800,000

Christophe Gans, the director of 2006’s Silent Hill film adaptation, is planning on returning to the town for a follow-up. The French director spoke to the film site Allociné in his native language, and Rely on Horror has provided a translation of his statements. He told the site that he’s also working on adapting another horror videogame series–Fatal Frame, a Japan-set series about seeking out ghosts with a camera. It’s known as Project Zero in Japan.

“I have two horror film projects with (producer) Victor Hadida,” Gans told the site. “I am working on the adaptation of the video game Project Zero. The film will take place in Japan. I especially don’t want to uproot the game from its Japanese haunted house setting.” This will be the first adaptation of the series. The most recent game in the series was Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water on Wii U, which used the GamePad as a camera.

“And we’re also working on a new Silent Hill, Gans continued. “The project will always be anchored in this atmosphere of a small American town, ravaged by Puritanism. I think it’s time to make a new one.”

While the original Silent Hill reviewed poorly at release, it has enjoyed something of a cult following, and is generally regarded as one of the better film adaptations of a game. The second Silent Hill film, Silent Hill – Revelation, is generally regarded as being much worse, but Gans was not involved with that one.

These films are still in pre-production, and it’s not clear whether a new Silent Hill film would be a direct sequel to the film or a direct adaptation of any of the games.

It’s been a long time since the last Silent Hill game, 2012’s Silent Hill: Downpour. Hideo Kojima was working on a new title for PS4, Silent Hills, which was infamously cancelled in 2015. Although there are occasional rumors of the series’ return, the only formal plan publisher Konami has announced is for a slot machine.

Super Bowl LIV brought with it a slew of new movie trailers, including one for No Time To Die, the next entry in the James Bond franchise. The movie is expected to be the last with Daniel Craig starring as 007, and it is setting up some big changes for his future.

Exactly what those changes are remain a mystery, but what we do know is that it has something to do with Madeleine Swann, the returning character played by Léa Seydoux. Of course, Rami Malek’s villainous Safin will also play a role. Christoph Waltz appears in the trailer too, so expect to see Blofeld have some part to play in the future of Bond.

No Time To Die is expected to hit theatres on April 10. Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, and Léa Seydoux (who also appears in Death Stranding) play M, Q, Miss Moneypenny, and Madeleine Swann respectively. In an unprecedented move, No Time To Die’s composer has been changed late into production. Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer (The Lion King, Gladiator, Blade Runner 2049) has taken over from Dan Romer.

There have been numerous other movie trailers shown during the game, including Mulan, Black Widow, and The Quiet Place 2, among others. You can watch them all in our Super Bowl movie trailer round-up.