2021 isn't shaping up to be much better than 2020, but on the plus side, it's been another busy week for news here on CBM. Time will tell whether we're facing another year of release date delays, but regardless of what the future holds, Hollywood is showing no signs of slowing down.
There's a lot to delve into this week, including a new look at Justice League's villain and a response from Patty Jenkins about some of the "body swap" backlash aimed at Wonder Woman 1984.
As if that's not enough, we also have a big update on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ray Fisher's never-ending battle with Warner Bros., and...WandaVision gets a theme song!
To take a look through these stories, all you guys need to do is hit the "Next" button down below.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was first rumoured to be working on a Star Wars movie in late 2019, but it's now been confirmed that he's turned to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer and Loki head scribe/creator Michael Waldron to pen the screenplay for this project.
It's been said that Waldron has signed an "unprecedented overall deal" with Disney that includes a second season of Disney+ series Loki, so there's a another major piece of news for you!
Find more details on Waldron's new deal with Disney by clicking here.
Darkseid was completely M.I.A. from Joss Whedon's version of Justice League, while Steppenwolf...well, the less said about him, the better. The latter has been redesigned for the "Snyder Cut," while the former will finally make his big screen debut on HBO Max this March.
Thanks to what's believed to be toy packaging for some upcoming McFarlane Toys action figures, we got a fresh look at both villains this week. Darkseid is still in his Uxas form, but looks like a total badass, and it's going to be great seeing these baddies from Apokolips in action.
Take a look at both images from Justice League here.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Michael Jai White, and we had to ask the martial artist and actor about what Christopher Nolan originally had planned for his character, Gambol, beyond The Dark Knight. The gangster's death was handled in an ambiguous manner, and White told us that he "wasn't written to die" before shedding some light on what was planned for him.
"I was told about the plan for Gambol to come back and try and take over Gotham City. I think a lot of those plans got scrapped after what happened to Heath," White reveals. "I don't know. I was never told directly why the change was made. For anybody who sees the movie, you know there was kind of an obtuse cut where you don't know what happened to my character."
Find the full Batman: Soul of the Dragon interview with White over at our "Interviews" tab.
Wonder Woman 1984 didn't resonate with everyone, and it's now just one percentage point away from losing its "Fresh" status on Rotten Tomatoes. That's quite the fall from grace, but what you might have missed is the fact that some online have dubbed Diana Prince a "rapist."
We're not kidding!
It's because Steve Trevor takes over another man's body in the sequel, and many have argued that when Diana slept with "Steve," she was committing a crime as she didn't have the consent of the man he was inhabiting. It's a weird one, but had he been a she, the backlash might be more vocal. Regardless, director Patty Jenkins has now shared her thoughts on that.
Check out Jenkins' response right here.
A new trailer for WandaVision was released earlier this week, and that sneak peek offered our first proper look at the magic show the two Avengers will be putting on for a (captive?) audience.
However, by far the biggest reveal is a new theme song for WandaVision which will clearly play before the 1950 sitcom starts. The big news is that both this, along with other theme songs heard in the show, were composed Frozen's Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
Watch that promo for WandaVision in the original post!
As you no doubt already know, Fox once had ambitious plans for a crossover event movie that would have seen the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Deadpool, and Daredevil all sharing the screen.
We find it hard to imagine the studio being able to pull that off, but they did at least have plans to enlist a top tier filmmaker in the form of Paul Greengrass. "They did talk to me about it," the Bourne helmer recently revealed. "I wouldn’t say I was attached. [We] talked, and I thought about it, and in the end..." He trailed off there, so who knows why this didn't pan out.
Head here for more from Greengrass on the crossover that never happened.
WarnerMedia has concluded its investigation into what happened on the set of Justice League's reshoots, but Ray Fisher isn't leaving it alone. He took aim at DC Films boss Walter Hamada this week, and it was later reported that Cyborg has been completely written out of The Flash.
The actor later responded to that, insisting Geoff Johns will be next to go at WarnerMedia. It doesn't sound like that's happening, though, while WarnerMedia is keen to just move on from this situation.
Find Fisher's original response to those reports about The Flash here.
At this point, it's pretty much a given that the Young Avengers are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The signs are all pointing to Speed and Wiccan being part of WandaVision, while Hawkeye will introduce Kate Bishop. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, meanwhile, has big plans for Stature, and characters like Ms. Marvel and Ironheart could very easily end up joining the team, too.
Now, it's sounding a lot like The Falcon and The Winter Soldier will introduce Patriot. When They See Us actor Elijah Richardson is reportedly set to play Eli Bradley in two episodes of the Disney+ series, and while we don't know whether he'll suit up as Patriot, it's likely to be teased here.
You can find more on this casting news by clicking here.
During a recent interview, Zack Snyder shared an unused image from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice showing Gal Gadot's Diana Prince fighting in the Crimean War. That seemed to be the original plan for the character before Patty Jenkins boarded the Wonder Woman movie and decided that Wonder Woman wouldn't leave Themyscira until World War I (when she first met Steve Trevor).
"This amazing image shot by Stephen Berkman of an else-world, war weary Diana, who had chased [Ares] across the battlefields of the world and had yet to meet Steve, who would help her restore her faith in mankind and love itself," Snyder said, teasing what he originally had planned for the character.
Check out the full, hi-res image here.
"Since the hospitals are overwhelmed here, we can't go back to work until that calms down," Olsen confirmed when asked about her role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness during a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote WandaVision. "[I'm] just safely hanging out here, and just really grateful I get to be working. Disney has kept me busy during quarantine!"
Work on the Sam Raimi-helmed sequel actually started sooner than expected, so it's unlikely this pause will result in another release date delay. It seems we'll have to wait and see for now, though.
Check out the full interview with the WandaVision star by clicking here.