Show Notes
Welcome to Multiverse News, your source for information about all your favorite fictional universes. While it may come as no surprise, the biggest Marvel news this week is still just as exciting as it is obvious with the revelation that Chris Evans will indeed appear in Secret Wars. While not officially confirmed by Marvel, the news broke via a social media post from March 26, that is just now gaining notice, with the actor himself telling Instagram user @comicconmomsi, "I can tell you that...I start work on the next one in a couple of months, I can tell you that," in a video message. That tracks with the projected August production starting date for Secret Wars we’ve discussed previously. While rumors and speculation are typically not our forte here, the rumor mill surrounding The Batman II cast warrants some attention. In May, we discussed headlines from sources like Variety and The Wrap that seemingly confirmed Sebastian Stan had been cast as Harvey Dent, as he had long been rumored to be, with Scarlett Johansson and Charles Dance announced as Dent’s wife and father, respectively. In hindsight, those headlines resulted from Matt Reeve’s social media post where he confirmed and welcomed a number of actors as part of the film but did not actually reveal any roles. In the last week, industry insider Jeff Sneider has suggested that his sources claim that Stan will instead play Victor Zsasz and Brian Tyree Henry is set to portray Harvey. Steven Spielberg has returned to the blockbuster arena for the first time in eight years with Disclosure Day, his UFO sci-fi thriller starring Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor, which opened to approximately $44 million domestically and $93.9 million globally, making it his biggest opening weekend ever for an original film. Meanwhile, Obsession continues its extraordinary run, adding another $19 million in week five for a domestic total of $188.3 million. Spielberg’s $115 million production earned strong reviews and a B CinemaScore. Sony has released the trailer for The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to The Social Network. Jeremy Strong stars as Mark Zuckerberg alongside Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, and Bill Burr. The film opens October 9. Peter Sarsgaard has joined the Season 3 cast of HBO’s The Last of Us in a recurring role. He will play an original character named Amon, one of the leaders of the Seraphites. Production is currently on a planned hiatus to accommodate World Cup matches filming in Vancouver. It: Welcome to Derry writer Jason Fuchs has been tapped to write a new untitled Transformers script for Paramount and Hasbro. Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, and Ice Cube are in talks to return for 24 Jump Street at Sony Pictures, reuniting most of the original production team. Apple TV+ has renewed horror comedy Widow’s Bay for a second season ahead of its season finale this week, and has signed creator Katie Dippold to a multiyear overall deal. Jason Momoa has made clear he has no interest in a PG-13 Lobo solo movie. In an interview with Collider, he said if he makes a standalone Lobo film, it will be rated R, full stop, though he’s open to appearing in ensemble DCU projects in the meantime. Peter Serafinowicz has been cast as Peeves the Poltergeist in HBO’s Harry Potter series. Anya Taylor-Joy has joined the cast of the upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel The Hunt for Gollum, playing an elf character named Seren. Marvel Comics will publish a one-shot crossover this September titled The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe, celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Muppet Show by teaming Muppets characters with iconic Marvel heroes. Mark Hamill is joining Peacock’s Twisted Metal for Season 3 in a recurring role, playing the father of Sweet Tooth. Chris Sanders, co-creator and co-director of the original Lilo & Stitch animated film, will direct Disney’s live-action sequel Lilo & Stitch 2. Shooting is expected to begin later this year.
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Welcome to Multiverse News, your source for information about all your favorite fictional universes. Due to Matt Reeves departure from the set of The Batman II for personal reasons, Steven Soderbergh is being brought in to help complete principal photography, working with Reeves from a distance for the final months of production as the film heads toward its February 18, 2028 release date. Soderbergh, the director behind Ocean’s 11, Magic Mike, and Traffic, approached Reeves with the offer to help. In a post on social media, Reeves made it clear that he is still involved with the project and not stepping away from his Batman sequel. In an interview with IGN, DC Studios heads Peter Safran and James Gunn broke the news that the upcoming animated Mister Miracle series, based on Tom King’s award-winning comic of the same name, will star Josh Hutcherson and Mackenzie Davis. Hutcherson will play Mister Miracle, aka Scott Free, while Mackenzie Davis will star as his fellow New God, Big Barda. In other news, The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc is currently in talks to develop a Poison Ivy series. In the world of literary fiction, two beloved franchises got major updates last week. Pierce Brown’s popular Red Rising series will be developed by Paramount Pictures. Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence is set to helm this dystopian sci-fi creation for the screen. Romantasy favorite Fourth Wing, being developed by Amazon, cast its two main characters - with Esther McGregor set to play Violet Sorrengail, and Emilio Sakraya landing the role of wingleader Xaden Riorson. Zendaya has joined the cast of a new untitled sci-fi film to be written and directed byAlex Garland for A24. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the feature is set to shoot in 2027. The fifth season of True Detective has cast its leads. Nicolas Cage and Antonio Banderas will star in the HBO anthology’s next season, which is set to begin filming in 2027. Both stars have been rumored to be attached to the show for some time: Cage was first reported to be in talks for a lead role in the summer of 2025, and speculation about Banderas joining True Detective first surfaced late last year. This weekend at the box office, Paramount's live action Street Fighter opened to a less than forecasted 51.1 million dollars worldwide. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's You Can See Everything opened to $15M on a limited screen release, easily the second best opening ever for a documentary at the box office after 2004’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Prime Video has released the first trailer for season 3 of The Rings of Power which will premiere on November 11th. Disney+ and Hulu have greenlit a reboot of Ryan Murphy’s 2009 musical dramedy series Glee. Variety also reports that original series star Lea Michelle will return to reprise her role from the original series which ran for six seasons and originally concluded in 2015.
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Avengers: Endgame has once again reclaimed the global box office crown from Avatar, narrowly passing it with $2.9255 billion worldwide after its return to theaters. Avatar sits second with $2.9237 billion. Meanwhile, Nicolas Cage is taking aim at the franchise’s current direction. During a recent Q&A at Fan Expo Dallas, Cage said he misses when Marvel movies focused more on story, character development, and weaving together different backstories. Cage said watching talented actors put on “ridiculous outfits” only to prepare for the inevitable big fight makes it difficult not to see the MCU as “a well-funded and glorified WWE.” Despite the shake-up at Skydance amid the Warner Bros. and Paramount merger, insiders say that James Gunn and Peter Safran are reportedly expected to remain in charge of DC Studios. Meanwhile, production on The Batman Part II has been temporarily paused as director Matt Reeves stepped away to focus on a family matter. Warner Bros. and DC Studios said Reeves has their “full support” and that they look forward to continuing the film’s journey soon. On Tuesday it was announced that David Ellison’s Paramount completed its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, officially combining two legendary film studios, an enormous conglomeration of TV networks, two large streaming services, and multiple news organizations into one player that the mogul hopes will let him compete with the likes of Disney and Netflix, to say nothing of Amazon, Apple and Google. The new mega company will be called Skydance, dropping both of the historical names that are well-known. Focus Features and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster have given Curry Barker‘s upcoming horror-comedy Anything But Ghosts a release date of May 7, 2027. Warner Bros. announced last week that Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest is set for theatrical release on June 1, 2029. Owen Harris directs the film that has a script from Beau Willimon, marking the first feature film for the franchise that adapts author George R.R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy book series. Bradley Cooper has signed on to star as field commander Duke in Paramount‘s G.I. Joe movie from Danny McBride. Paramount also confirmed that G.I. Joe has been “uncoupled” from the Transformers franchise. That crossover was teased at the end of 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Sources tell Deadline that Walton Goggins is set to join Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in Universal’s Miami Vice ’85 in a villain role. Warner Brother's Tom Cruise led Digger opened to a disastrous $20 million dollars worldwide box office this weekend, the lowest opening for Tom Cruise in nearly 20 years. Amazon MGM's Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity took the number one spot with a $62.5 million dollar worldwide opening. Both films received C+ Cinema Scores, indicating steep drop offs coming next weekend. Sources tell Deadline that Paramount and Hasbro Entertainment have appointed Steven Spielberg to focus on all creative aspects of the next live-action Transformers film alongside Michael Bay, who is in early talks to return as director. Michael Bay directed 5 live action Transformers films from 2007 to 2017.
Welcome to Multiverse News, your source for information about all your favorite fictional universes. Avengers: Endgame took back the number one spot at the box office this weekend, with the Endgame: Encore re-release opening to $86 million worldwide. It lands as Joe and Anthony Russo keep a tight lid on Avengers: Doomsday, telling Empire Online that Bruce Banner is certainly involved in the story revolving around Doom while declining to confirm or deny whether the Hulk appears, and adding that there are characters and actors in the film who have not been announced. That is on top of the 31 Marvel characters already confirmed for the December release. Deadline also reports that Sony has a theatrical re-release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day in the works featuring new and unseen footage, including a cut scene with Rosario Dawson, though no date has been set. Lucasfilm has enlisted Jon Watts to direct the first installment of a new Skywalker saga trilogy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Watts directed the first three Tom Holland Spider-Man films and has been in this galaxy before, co-creating the Disney+ series Skeleton Crew with Christopher Ford in 2024. Simon Kinberg was previously attached as a writer on the trilogy, which would feature Daisy Ridley’s Rey in a supporting role. Nothing has been dated yet, and Star Wars: Starfighter, the Shawn Levy film starring Ryan Gosling, is still the next theatrical entry on the calendar for May 28, 2027. DC Studios has released what it is calling the final trailer for Clayface, the last big marketing push for a film that arrives October 23. James Watkins directs the horror thriller from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, with Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, a Gotham actor left disfigured by a crime boss who takes an experimental treatment that restores his looks but costs him his grip on reality. It lands at a pivotal stretch for the DCU, coming after Supergirl finished its summer run at roughly $126 million worldwide against a reported production budget north of $170 million, and with Lanterns closing out its first season on HBO Max next Sunday. Warner Bros has made release date changes to a pair of upcoming films. DC Studios animated film Dynamic Duo is moving from June 30, 2028 to September 22, 2028, and the Chris Columbus directed untitled Gremlins film is shifting from November 19, 2027 to October 6, 2028. Elsewhere at the box office, Resident Evil stayed strong in its second weekend and is about to cross $200 million. Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson, opened to $20.3 million worldwide, though its release was limited outside the United States. A24 has dropped a full trailer for You Can See Everything, the Elizabeth Holmes documentary from Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder, and confirmed an October 16 release date. Blumhouse, Atomic Monster and James Wan have enlisted Mike P. Nelson to direct a new Saw movie. Nelson previously directed 2021’s Wrong Turn and the 2025 remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night. John Goodman, Ian Alexander and Laura Bailey have joined the season three cast of HBO’s The Last of Us. Alexander and Bailey have both voiced characters in the video games, though they are not reprising those roles in live action. Prey director Dan Trachtenberg is in talks to direct an original film inspired by Sleeping Beauty at Disney, according to Deadline. The untitled project is in early development and is said to take the story in an entirely new direction. Prime Video has renewed Reacher for a sixth season just 12 days after the season four finale, marking the first time the show has received two renewals in the same year. Season four drew 66 million viewers globally in its first 28 days, topping season three. Jennifer Lawrence will star in Zach Cregger’s next film titled The Flood. Nothing is known about the plot of the film, but Warner Bros. executives call it “bold and wholly original.” The Flood is set to release August 11, 2028.
According to sources for The Hollywood Reporter, the forthcoming third season of Daredevil: Born Again will be the show’s final season. The decision comes about two months after the show’s third season wrapped filming. The move also comes as Marvel has quietly parted ways with showrunner Dario Scardapane, whose contract was up and was not renewed. The parting of ways is eyebrow-raising as it means that Scardapane is exiting the show in the middle of post-production. It has not been reported as to who will oversee the final stages of the show. The same article confirmed that Marvel has three to five live-action shows in development, and sources say it just greenlit a spy thriller referred to as the codename Zodiac. The most notable Marvel comics reference of Zodiac is tied to a criminal organization headed by a villain named Scorpio that featured villains themed to the constellations. In the comics, it was known for going head-to-head against SHIELD. According to industry insider Jeff Sneider, Mason Thames has been cast as Dick Grayson and Logan Kim has been cast as Jason Todd in the upcoming DC Studios animated film Dynamic Duo. Chris Pine has been offered the role of Batman. The animated film is yet another Batman Elseworlds project even though it will live under the DCU banner. Thames’ name will be familiar as Hiccup in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, and Kim played the character of Podcast in both Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Empire magazine has published several first look images at Greta Gerwig's upcoming adaptation of The Magician's Nephew from The Chronicles of Narnia. In the article, it is confirmed that Meryl Streep will voice Aslan, as well as that the film is inspired by rock operas of the 70s and 80s. The film comes to cinemas February 12, 2027, and will be streaming on Netflix beginning April 2, 2027. Paramount has reached a settlement with California and 11 other states, clearing a major legal hurdle for its roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. As part of the deal, Paramount has agreed to produce at least 30 movies a year, invest another $1.5 billion in U.S. film production, and create a $47.5 million fund for workers affected by the merger. The deal still needs final court approval, but it essentially clears the path for Paramount and Warner Bros. to become one massive Hollywood company. After more than a decade of false starts, Paramount is finally closing in on making a sequel to its 2013 hit World War Z. Brad Pitt is set to return to star in the feature that also has Edward Berger, the filmmaker behind All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave, on board to direct. Zach Cregger's Resident Evil opened strong at the box office this weekend with a $108 million worldwide opening, $60 million of which was made domestically. This opening is not only a best for Cregger, but it is also a best for the Resident Evil franchise. Netflix has released a trailer for David Fincher's The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, in which Brad Pitt reprises his Oscar-winning role as the stuntman first introduced in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The film is set to premiere in Imax theaters on November 25, before hitting the streamer December 23. Alan Ritchson is in talks to star in Sony’s adaptation of its PlayStation video game property, Helldivers. The move comes after Jason Momoa exited the project in early June and would be the first time the Reacher star headlines a theatrical studio feature. Actor John Leguizamo has been cast as a villain in Joseph Kosinski's upcoming Miami Vice '85, a film reboot of the 1980s TV show. The cast already includes Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in starring roles.