The post-Avengers: Endgame Marvel Studios is still going through some growing pains, leading to big changes behind the scenes. Some projects have been scrapped, with others overhauled with new creative teams or courtesy of extensive reshoots (Daredevil: Born Again and Captain America: Brave New World).
Rumours continue to swirl about where the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes next and scooper Daniel Richtman has today shared some big ones.
He claims that, despite Jonathan Majors being fired from the role, Kang will still be the villain in Avengers 5 and Avengers: Secret Wars. However, Marvel Studios is supposedly looking to add another villain, though there's currently no word on who.
Of course, we'd be remiss not to mention previous reports that Doctor Doom could appear in the upcoming movies.
Looking even further into the future. it appears Marvel Studios might have zeroed in on its choice of big bad for the rebooted X-Men franchise. Kevin Feige is still thought to be searching for a writer, but Richtman has heard that the current idea is for Mister Sinister to take centre stage.
He's expected to be a big part of X-Men '97, likely meaning Marvel Studios is using the animated revival as a means of familiarising fans with Nathaniel Essex. This feels like a wise move on the studio's part, particularly as Magneto has been done to death on screen.
Finally, with recent chatter suggesting Ryan Gosling is joining the MCU, we have word on Marvel Studios' Ghost Rider plans. There's no mention of the actor, but Richtman confirms the MCU's Spirit of Vengeance will not be Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' s Robbie Reyes.
Mister Sinister was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Marc Silvestri and first appeared in the pages of Uncanny X-Men #221 in 1987. Sinister is a geneticist obsessed with achieving evolutionary perfection through manipulating DNA.
He possesses enhanced strength and a genius-level intellect, but it's his mastery of genetics which makes him most impressive. The villain also has an obsession with the Summers bloodline, and Scott Summers, in particular.
In 2020, X-Men franchise producer Simon Kinberg confirmed there had once been plans for Mister Sinister to be featured in those movies.
"We had a tease of it at the end of Apocalypse. The Essex Corp is something that you see in a tag at the end of Apocalypse," he explained. "We had talked about doing something with him, and I won't get into the specifics of it since it's no longer a 20th Century Fox property and now it's part of the MCU."
"I have no idea what the plan is. But Mister Sinister was going to be part of the Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum."
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