The Marvel Studios thread (2008-)

[scraylo187]

Elizabeth Olsen (kid sister of Mary Kate & Ashley) has confirmed that she'll be Wanda Maximoff in A2: Age of Ultron.

 

She's actually really solid, excited to see her join the group.

 

Though casting two ethnically Eastern Europeans from "Wundagore" would have been a nice white people mix up. 

[Basara]

It's guff, man. It's like a charmless Chuck. I'm only watching in case they shit themselves and get someone good in to try and drive numbers.

 

Ruffalo's career is dead, Hiddleston only has one role. They're my tips.

They probably have Ruffalo money kicking about in the budget but i doubt they have Hulk money. Unless they plan on spray painting Ferrigno green again. In fact, fuck it, i'd watch that.

 

When they said next weeks episode was a tie in to Thor: The Dark World i was kind of hoping it would deal with

the giant frost dog they left running around terrorizing my country's capital, not more space herpes someone caught after fishing discarded alien stuff out of a skip again

[Big Fresh]

Boy, the only thing that plot looked to have to do with Thor: The Dark World was that they showed some clips from Thor: The Dark World first.

[TheVileOne]

Did I interpert this wrong, or did Victoria Hand just justify sending Coulson's Scoobies in with no Exfil strategy with "Barton and Romanov never had Exfil strategies."?  Because generic Agent dude and tech geek are on par with two of the AVENGERS.

 

I'm falling into "I really don't give a shit about Skye's mother getting offed by a SHIELD Agent" territory and they need to start dropping Supers into this pronto.

 

In the first episode they did say that Ward was graded as on par with Black Widow.  Also, isn't Victoria Hand supposed to be like a contentious heel type?

[Raziel]

 

Did I interpert this wrong, or did Victoria Hand just justify sending Coulson's Scoobies in with no Exfil strategy with "Barton and Romanov never had Exfil strategies."?  Because generic Agent dude and tech geek are on par with two of the AVENGERS.

 

I'm falling into "I really don't give a shit about Skye's mother getting offed by a SHIELD Agent" territory and they need to start dropping Supers into this pronto.

 

In the first episode they did say that Ward was graded as on par with Black Widow.  Also, isn't Victoria Hand supposed to be like a contentious heel type?

 

If Ward's on-par with Widow, why was he *just* put on Level-7 and wasn't put on New York duty?  

 

Problem 23423534 with the show, they can't keep their own mythos straight.

[Territorial]

 

When they said next weeks episode was a tie in to Thor: The Dark World i was kind of hoping it would deal with

the giant frost dog they left running around terrorizing my country's capital, not more space herpes someone caught after fishing discarded alien stuff out of a skip again

 

 

I kinda doubt they have the budget for that.  Space herpes is a lot easier to film without going over budget.

 

Really, this show reminds me a lot of Alphas, the kinda X-Men ripoff that aired on Syfy a couple years ago.  It doesn't look as obviously cheap, but, like Alphas, SHIELD is kinda skimpy on the powers because that would have required money and they didn't have the budget for guys to run around shooting laser beams out of their hands or bursting into flame a couple times every episode.  Also like Alphas, Shield is surprisingly light on fun derring-do and high adventure.  They really need to watch a fun action show and crib from that.  

[TheVileOne]

 

 

Did I interpert this wrong, or did Victoria Hand just justify sending Coulson's Scoobies in with no Exfil strategy with "Barton and Romanov never had Exfil strategies."?  Because generic Agent dude and tech geek are on par with two of the AVENGERS.

 

I'm falling into "I really don't give a shit about Skye's mother getting offed by a SHIELD Agent" territory and they need to start dropping Supers into this pronto.

 

In the first episode they did say that Ward was graded as on par with Black Widow.  Also, isn't Victoria Hand supposed to be like a contentious heel type?

 

If Ward's on-par with Widow, why was he *just* put on Level-7 and wasn't put on New York duty?  

 

Problem 23423534 with the show, they can't keep their own mythos straight.

 

 

Does that really matter?  Black Widow obviously isn't doing New York Duty all the time.  Like why isn't Coulson on New York Duty even though he's level 8?  I assume they put him with Coulson's group because he is that good.  

 

Maybe it's just me, but I thought this episode was pretty good.  It's not the best TV show I've ever seen, but I see this as a fun action-adventure TV show.  It gets nitpicked to death way too much here.  

 

For starters, I really enjoyed the world building with SHIELD.  Seeing the SHIELD Hub, Agent Hand, bringing back Agent Sitwell, etc.  These are all things I wanted to see since the start of the show.  I also liked that the jet showed a couple interesting features, like being able to do a vertical landing and the engines working like a harrier.  

[tigertooth]

I found this week's SHIELD to be really dull.  Even the scene where Coulson talked to himself while May did tai chi... decent enough idea on paper, but the execution came off wrong.  And is Simmons going to get off scot free for breaking in past her security clearance and KOing an agent?  I guess like Skye, she can just apologize and it's all fine.  SHIELD isn't big on consequences for betraying your fellow agents.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Thor was OK. It really did feel like GUYS LOKI IS REALLY COOL LETS GIVE HIM EVERYTHING TO DO

[Matt D]

SHIELD finally dipped below 7 million viewers, all the way to 6.6 million. Time to blow up the jet and bring in the Level 10 team to clean up.

 

I know you're kidding, but the fact they actually introduced Hand makes me wonder. We kept asking why, when they were so eager to use whatever characters were out there in the movie, were they so keen on introducing an entirely new team wholesale without even one character from the comics, especially when the characters weren't necessarily valuable to the movies but would add something. Clay Quartermain means nothing to the movies but he could add something here.

 

I'm honestly starting to wonder if the team is going to get killed off entirely at some point and get replaced by name characters. If that's the case, this is a costly experiment in setting expectations and the reason why the show is so whitebread is because it's all set up. I could see them use the Winter Soldier to just wipe everyone out as we get closer to next year to set up Captain America 2. I couldn't have seen that a month ago, but now? Now I can.

[Brian Kenny]

I thought last night's episode of Agents of SHIELD was the first episode I would actually be willing to call good.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Further thoughts on Thor

 

The only badass in the film was Rene Russo. Thor did nothing cool, Odin didn't even get a big moment like in the first.

 

Thor just single handedly beat a bigger threat than the entire Avengers team did. What use would Cap or Iron Man be? Clearing people out of harms way?

 

Loki is unbearably overused. He talks the entire way through, worse than RDJ in The Avengers, and the ending was just visible masturbation by the director.

 

The mid-credits scene was shite. They build this weapon as a life-extinguishing, possibly sentient superweapon... and they just give it to some random goof? Fuck that, what a cop out stupid idea.

 

The more I ponder it, the more I hate it.

[Basara]

Further thoughts on Thor

 

Thor just single handedly beat a bigger threat than the entire Avengers team did. What use would Cap or Iron Man be? Clearing people out of harms way?

I liked the film more than you did but that was something that bugged me too. Granted it was more of a containable threat than in The Avengers, a handful of troops and one big bad as apposed to an entire army, but the threat, the end of the world, was the same. And anyone other than Thor didn't exactly know that either. Did Tony not see shit kicking off on the news and think maybe he should lend a hand? Shield not think to send anyone in, let alone Cap, to check it out? That will be the problem with post Avengers movies though. Either the stakes cant be as high in individual films or people will be asking why no one showed up to help when there are more and more super heroes running around now.

[tigertooth]

But how much time elapsed between Malekith's ship appearing in London and the end of the battle?  Didn't seem like a whole lot -- like 30 minutes?  I could buy that SHIELD couldn't get there in time.  And Stark destroyed all his suits of armor, so he'd be no help in any case.  Cap, Widow, and Hawkeye all need to travel on planes, so it'd take time. 

 

That said, I wonder how they'll get away with a lack of Thor in Winter Soldier.  After the first Thor, he was trapped in Asgard.  But now he's not only not trapped, but it seems like he's going to be spending time on earth to be with Jane.  I guess he doesn't have a cell phone, though...

[Basara]

But how much time elapsed between Malekith's ship appearing in London and the end of the battle?  Didn't seem like a whole lot -- like 30 minutes?  I could buy that SHIELD couldn't get there in time.  And Stark destroyed all his suits of armor, so he'd be no help in any case.  Cap, Widow, and Hawkeye all need to travel on planes, so it'd take time. 

 

That said, I wonder how they'll get away with a lack of Thor in Winter Soldier.  After the first Thor, he was trapped in Asgard.  But now he's not only not trapped, but it seems like he's going to be spending time on earth to be with Jane.  I guess he doesn't have a cell phone, though...

I forgot Stark destroyed his suits in Iron Man 3 (i try to forget Iron Man 3 to be fair). Surly SHIELD should have been all over that portal at the start of the film and not just the police? Isn't that what teams like the one in the TV show do for a living? They had a few days (i think?) between that first showing up and the battle at the end. Even if they didn't think it was worth sending a name in to check it out they have plenty of generic dudes in suits to take a look. Just seems out of place. They show up for every tiny super related thing going on for the first series of movies and anything even remotely suspicious in the TV show but ignore fire breathing walking bombs in Iron Man and take a back seat to giant portals to god knows where in Thor

 

As for Winter soldier, i'd guess if its not world threatening or Asgard related its below Thors pay grade. I think that's the way to go, more personal, local threats in the solo movies and world beaters in the team ups. Although I can buy Thor fighting world ending enemies solo like he did in The Dark World, hes Thor, but if hes not getting back up have him do it on Asgard

[MonteCarl]

Who's to say SHIELD didn't show up to investigate, though? Maybe they did, we just didn't see it in this movie. The story in this movie wasn't about SHIELD. It was about Thor, Jane, and Loki.

[J.T.]

Further thoughts on Thor

 

The only badass in the film was Rene Russo. Thor did nothing cool, Odin didn't even get a big moment like in the first.

 

Thor just single handedly beat a bigger threat than the entire Avengers team did. What use would Cap or Iron Man be? Clearing people out of harms way?

 

Loki is unbearably overused. He talks the entire way through, worse than RDJ in The Avengers, and the ending was just visible masturbation by the director.

 

The mid-credits scene was shite. They build this weapon as a life-extinguishing, possibly sentient superweapon... and they just give it to some random goof? Fuck that, what a cop out stupid idea.

 

The more I ponder it, the more I hate it.

 

 

Well, The Collector isn't just some random goof.  He's an Elder and the Elders will probably play heavily into the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

 

The Collector's bio at the Marvel Comics Database.

 

The problem is that only old, hardcore comic geeks will recognize who he is and what his significance will be to the future story.  Dropping a character in your lap like that without any sort of reference or indication of his importance to the metaplot is poor storytelling.

[Eivion]

You people talking about SHIELD not showing up in Thor 2 do realize SHIELD is still an American organization in Marvel's movieverse right?

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

But not in the TV showverse because they've been all over the map. How do those two universes overlap?

[Brian Fowler]

They are international in both. World Peace Keeping.

[ultimoDANK]

I wonder how much better SHIELD would be with Cobie Smulders...

[tigertooth]

Don't tease me, Marvel.  Now I'm going to be bummed if this doesn't actually happen:

 

 

Marvel Studios' massive television plans were partially revealed last week when it was announced that four new shows, "Daredevil," "Jessica Jones," "Iron Fist" and "Luke Cage" are all headed to Netflix. Starting in 2015, at least 13 episodes from each show will be released that will, in turn, build to a massive small screen crossover miniseries, "The Defenders." How is all of this going to tie into the existing Marvel Cinematic Universe? Consider it pure speculation at this stage, but we've got a theory: What if the new Netflix shows take place in the MCU of the 1970s?"It's important to us that audiences begin to realize that it's called the Marvel Universe for a reason," Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told us in a recent interview. "It encompasses everything."The size of the MCU is about to be tested on the big screen with James Gunn's upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, a cosmic adventure that Feige says takes place 99% in outer space. We've already seen a more temporal expansion of the universe, too, with the 1940's world of Captain America: The First Avenger and the Marvel One-Shot, "Agent Carter," which is already said to be targeting a presumably period series. Clearly Marvel is eager to embrace growth in more than just three dimensions.Feige mentions in the same video interview that Marvel Television, headed by Jeph Loeb, is an entity all its own. While we've already seen crossovers between the films and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", the studio would have less of a continuity headache by earmarking an unexplored decade of the MCU."Daredevil" (which is now targeting The Cabin in the Woods helmer Drew Goddard to write) is said to be the first of the new Netflix series in development. Although Matt Murdock first appeared in his 1964 solo title, a '70s era take on the Man Without Fear was previously being considered by Twentieth Century Fox when they held the big screen rights. The Grey helmer Joe Carnahan even shot two different pitch reels (which you can check out right here) that offered a glimpse at the savior of Hell's Kitchen through a Serpico-tinged lens."The Defenders," "Luke Cage" and "Iron First" also fit a potential '70s aesthetic having debuted in 1971, 1972 and 1974, respectively. One of the major advantages of a period setting would be to allow each of the series to embrace the era's more colorful fashion sense without shattering the overall versimilitude.Although Jessica Jones wasn't created until the 21st century (making her debut in 2001's "Alias" #1), the character was designed to have retroactively always been a part of the Marvel Universe. In the 616, Jones is very closely connected to Cage and there should be no doubt that that bond is going to be explored when these new shows debut, regardless of when they take place.Although a 1970's setting would distance the new shows from other MCU projects temporally, certain crossovers would make perfect sense. If his arc matches that of his comic book counterpart, Sebastian Stan's titular Captain America: The Winter Soldier character would theoretically be around and, as we know from Iron Man 2, Howard Stark is quite active and even brings his Stark Expo to New York in 1974. That could mean a potential reprisal of the Howard Stark character by John Slattery or even appearances by a young Tony Stark. Speaking of Slattery, having a small screen 1970's MCU debut in 2015 means that it could pick up in exactly the era that the pending series finale of "Mad Men" leaves off, potentially attracting a whole new audience of viewers looking to fill the void left behind by the Matthew Weiner series' departure." to have a film that basically is about Henry Pym and Scott Lang," writer-director Edgar Wright said in an interview about his take on the upcoming Ant-Man, "so you actually do a prologue where you see Pym as Ant-Man in action in the 60's, in sort of 'Tales to Astonish' mode basically, and then the contemporary, sort of flash-forward, is Scott Lang's story, and how he comes to acquire the suit, how he crosses paths with Henry Pym, and then, in an interesting sort of Machiavellian way, teams up with him."Assuming that a flashback prologue is still a part of the final film (the interview is, admittedly, seven years old), it would seem that Ant-Man's July 31, 2015 release is perfectly timed to reintroduce a potential MCU of the past on the big screen around the same time that the Netflix series would be set to premiere.A final potential clue lies in Feige's recent confirmation that the MCU will continue to establish and build on the Infinity Gems, two of which have now made definite appearances. Although we don't know for sure which stone Thor: The Dark World's Aether represents, it's almost certainly not Time. If the plan is to establish the Time Gem in the MCU, there's even more reason to develop seperate eras of fictional history and the bonus of being able to eventually have them cross over using that stone.This is, of course, all early conjecture, so don't be too disappointed if a 1970's take on these characters is not what ultimately emerges from the House of Ideas. Still, a seperate 1970's small screen MCU could pave the way for all kinds of characters who originally made their debuts during the era. What's more, many of Marvel's heroes and villians aren't necessarily limited to average human lifespans and could appear throughout the fictional history of the MCU.

 

(and yes, this is all speculation by the author, so it's not really Marvel who is doing the teasing)

 

Besides the extra fun of the 70s setting, it would also make the "Why aren't the Avengers helping?" question moot. 

[supremebve]

Don't tease me, Marvel.  Now I'm going to be bummed if this doesn't actually happen:

 

 

Marvel Studios' massive television plans were partially revealed last week when it was announced that four new shows, "Daredevil," "Jessica Jones," "Iron Fist" and "Luke Cage" are all headed to Netflix. Starting in 2015, at least 13 episodes from each show will be released that will, in turn, build to a massive small screen crossover miniseries, "The Defenders." How is all of this going to tie into the existing Marvel Cinematic Universe? Consider it pure speculation at this stage, but we've got a theory: What if the new Netflix shows take place in the MCU of the 1970s?"It's important to us that audiences begin to realize that it's called the Marvel Universe for a reason," Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told us in a recent interview. "It encompasses everything."The size of the MCU is about to be tested on the big screen with James Gunn's upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, a cosmic adventure that Feige says takes place 99% in outer space. We've already seen a more temporal expansion of the universe, too, with the 1940's world of Captain America: The First Avenger and the Marvel One-Shot, "Agent Carter," which is already said to be targeting a presumably period series. Clearly Marvel is eager to embrace growth in more than just three dimensions.Feige mentions in the same video interview that Marvel Television, headed by Jeph Loeb, is an entity all its own. While we've already seen crossovers between the films and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", the studio would have less of a continuity headache by earmarking an unexplored decade of the MCU."Daredevil" (which is now targeting The Cabin in the Woods helmer Drew Goddard to write) is said to be the first of the new Netflix series in development. Although Matt Murdock first appeared in his 1964 solo title, a '70s era take on the Man Without Fear was previously being considered by Twentieth Century Fox when they held the big screen rights. The Grey helmer Joe Carnahan even shot two different pitch reels (which you can check out right here) that offered a glimpse at the savior of Hell's Kitchen through a Serpico-tinged lens."The Defenders," "Luke Cage" and "Iron First" also fit a potential '70s aesthetic having debuted in 1971, 1972 and 1974, respectively. One of the major advantages of a period setting would be to allow each of the series to embrace the era's more colorful fashion sense without shattering the overall versimilitude.Although Jessica Jones wasn't created until the 21st century (making her debut in 2001's "Alias" #1), the character was designed to have retroactively always been a part of the Marvel Universe. In the 616, Jones is very closely connected to Cage and there should be no doubt that that bond is going to be explored when these new shows debut, regardless of when they take place.Although a 1970's setting would distance the new shows from other MCU projects temporally, certain crossovers would make perfect sense. If his arc matches that of his comic book counterpart, Sebastian Stan's titular Captain America: The Winter Soldier character would theoretically be around and, as we know from Iron Man 2, Howard Stark is quite active and even brings his Stark Expo to New York in 1974. That could mean a potential reprisal of the Howard Stark character by John Slattery or even appearances by a young Tony Stark. Speaking of Slattery, having a small screen 1970's MCU debut in 2015 means that it could pick up in exactly the era that the pending series finale of "Mad Men" leaves off, potentially attracting a whole new audience of viewers looking to fill the void left behind by the Matthew Weiner series' departure." to have a film that basically is about Henry Pym and Scott Lang," writer-director Edgar Wright said in an interview about his take on the upcoming Ant-Man, "so you actually do a prologue where you see Pym as Ant-Man in action in the 60's, in sort of 'Tales to Astonish' mode basically, and then the contemporary, sort of flash-forward, is Scott Lang's story, and how he comes to acquire the suit, how he crosses paths with Henry Pym, and then, in an interesting sort of Machiavellian way, teams up with him."Assuming that a flashback prologue is still a part of the final film (the interview is, admittedly, seven years old), it would seem that Ant-Man's July 31, 2015 release is perfectly timed to reintroduce a potential MCU of the past on the big screen around the same time that the Netflix series would be set to premiere.A final potential clue lies in Feige's recent confirmation that the MCU will continue to establish and build on the Infinity Gems, two of which have now made definite appearances. Although we don't know for sure which stone Thor: The Dark World's Aether represents, it's almost certainly not Time. If the plan is to establish the Time Gem in the MCU, there's even more reason to develop seperate eras of fictional history and the bonus of being able to eventually have them cross over using that stone.This is, of course, all early conjecture, so don't be too disappointed if a 1970's take on these characters is not what ultimately emerges from the House of Ideas. Still, a seperate 1970's small screen MCU could pave the way for all kinds of characters who originally made their debuts during the era. What's more, many of Marvel's heroes and villians aren't necessarily limited to average human lifespans and could appear throughout the fictional history of the MCU.

 

(and yes, this is all speculation by the author, so it's not really Marvel who is doing the teasing)

 

Besides the extra fun of the 70s setting, it would also make the "Why aren't the Avengers helping?" question moot. 

I hate this idea, probably because as a young black kid who liked comic books my grandmother thought it was a good idea to give me some horribly crappy vaguely racist Power Man and Iron Fist comics from the 70s.  I really hated those books and wished I was reading X-Men or Spider-Man or just about anything else.

[J.T.]

When I saw the trailers for the SHIELD television series, I thought the black dude was going to be Luke Cage.

 

The Iron Fist stuff has been going around for years and there was also wild speculation that Yuen Woo Ping wanted to do a Shang Chi movie but there were issues with the Fu Manchu intellectual property.  Hopefully all of these concepts will gel in the Marvel Showniverse.

[Brian Fowler]

I'd still rather see Shang Chi and The Daughters of the Dragon and it go all out Heroes for Hire.  But DD doesn't fit HfH at all.