We have finally come to the end of The Witches’ Road, but there was one more loss for the coven at the end. Wednesday night’s two-episode finale of Agatha All Along was packed with revelations about the Road, the witches on it, and even what might be next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but all of those revelations came with a price: one more witch met her end and this time, it could have major implications going forward. Warning: spoilers for the finale of Agatha All Along beyond this point. Read on only if you really want to know.

In the end, Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) did not survive the adventure undertaken in the series, with the seemingly invincible and scheming witch finally taken out. However, it wasn’t the Road that killed Agatha nor was it a failed trial, or anything like that, really. Instead, Agatha went to Death willingly — and it turns out, the end for the legendary witch is only the beginning of the story. Picking up after last week’s trial which saw Lilia (Patti LuPone) sacrifice herself to end the Salem Seven, Agatha is back on the road and comes face to face with Rio (Aubrey Plaza), aka Death. It turns out that all along, Agatha has been distracting Rio from Death’s real target: Billy (Joe Locke). It turns out that, per Rio, Billy is an abomination who has messed with the “sacred balance” by taking a second life and she has to stop him from doing the same for Tommy. You see, it turns out that Tommy hasn’t been reborn yet and Billy’s mission to find his brother is a problem. Agatha ends up making Rio a deal: since Rio can’t kill Billy because he’d just reincarnate, he has to turn himself over to Death willingly. Agatha says she’ll get him to do so, but only if Rio stops pursuing her. Rio agrees.

[RELATED: Agatha All Along Finale Reveals Shocking Truth About The Witches’ Road]

Agatha, Billy, and Jen (Sasheer Zamata) continue on the Road to the final trial which sees Jen realize that Agatha was the witch who bound her and thus, Jen unbinds herself. But Agatha tells Billy about Tommy and the fact that he needs a body to enter and, during the final trial Agatha guides Billy through finding a vessel for Tommy, causing Billy to “complete” his trial and disappear. Agatha ends up also completing her trial but she ends up facing Death who isn’t thrilled that Billy wasn’t delivered to her. A fight ensues, Billy shows up — fully in his power — and aids Agatha by giving her some of his power. Agatha then appears to turn on Billy again, revealing her deal with Rio but when Billy reaches out to Agatha mentally to ask if this is how her own son died, Agatha does something unexpected: she kisses Rio and it is a literal Kiss of Death. Agatha dies, sacrificing herself for Billy.

But the story doesn’t end there. The final episode reveals Billy coming to the realization that he created The Witches’ Road and that realization comes with a surprise visitor: Agatha, as a ghost. Agatha reveals that before Billy, the Road really was just a myth, a lie, a con Agatha created centuries ago to kill witches and take their power. When Billy fully grasps that his manifesting the Road means he killed Mrs. Hart, Alice, and Lilia, he finds himself enraged and sets out to banish Agatha. He stops, however, when the ghost of Agatha reveals why she doesn’t want to simply move on to the afterlife: she doesn’t want to face her son. It leads to a tender moment between Billy and Agatha, with Billy saying he thinks Nicholas will forgive her, but ultimately, Agatha suggests that she and Billy would make a good team, with Agatha serving as a mentor of sorts for Billy. The episode — and series — ends with Billy sealing off the Road and Agatha announcing “let’s go find Tommy” as the two head out into the world together.

It’s a major development to be sure, not just because Agatha dies, but because Agatha (as a ghost) teaming up with Billy sets into motion the possibility for Marvel to, in the aim of looking for Tommy, set up the Young Avengers or even take on an adaptation of The Children’s Crusade. It also sets Agatha up to be more in keeping with her comic book counterpart in that she’s now in a position to train Billy with his magic — in comics, Agatha trained Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in the art of magic. With Agatha, to an extent, redeemed, the possibilities are somewhat endless as to where the MCU can go with the character and it will be interesting to see play out.

Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+.

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In the age of streaming it’s never clear when a new TV show will come back for more episodes or not, and Marvel’s shows on Disney+ are no different. As shows like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye came to a close, fans waited to see if there would be a quick confirmation or any news about future seasons, to date Marvel’s Loki is the only live-action show to confirm that it had been renewed for additional episodes at the end of its first season. So here we are once again, wondering and asking ourselves if Agatha All Along will come back for a season 2 on Disney+, and the answer seems concrete, but is it?

The entire time that Marvel Studios and Disney have been marketing Agatha All Along it’s been using very specific language and key phrasing, “mini-series.” Even before it premiered, Marvel’s plans for Agatha All Along were for it to arrive as a one-and-done batch of nine episodes that told a complete story. With the final two chapters now streaming, we can safely say they managed that.

RELATED: Agatha All Along: Does Wanda Return in the Finale?

Of note however is the fact that Agatha All Along was a series born exclusively from the fact that Marvel fans and the general public responded so favorably to Kathryn Hahn’s portrayal of Agatha Harkness in WandaVision. That in mind, though a season 2 of Agatha All Along does not appear to be in the cards at all, plans could very quickly change at Marvel Studios and another story featuring Agatha, or another character from Agatha All Along starring in their own show.

Another nail in the coffin of the potential for Agatha All Along season 2 comes from series creator Jac Schaeffer. Having previously spearheaded WandaVision and now Agatha, Schaeffer is no stranger to crafting a singular story that is told across one season and concluded, and she’s been speaking the same way about Agatha All Along ahead of its premiere as she did with WandaVision.

RELATED: Agatha All Along: Does Mephisto Show Up (Or Did We Get Played Again)?

“I think a lot of people talk about, in a TV show, [they] can spend so much more time with these characters, but that’s not the thrill for me,” Schaeffer told Script Mag. “The thrill for me is I can really take the audience’s hand and lead them on a journey that makes them want to come back week to week. It’s also why I haven’t yet made a multi-season show, because I throw everything into that season. I’m like this. These are all my tricks. You get them all in this limited series. Which has been really fun so far.”

Agatha All Along is now streaming in full on Disney+ alongside WandaVision.

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The Scarlet Witch hasn’t been around in the MCU for a couple of years, since her death at the conclusion of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But that hasn’t stopped Wanda Maximoff from looming large over the events of Agatha All Along. Not only was Wanda the creator of the Westview anomaly, kick-starting Agatha’s journey, but so much of this show’s story is actually about Billy, one of Wanda’s sons.

The children that Wanda created managed to escape the hex as it fell, and Billy’s soul took up residence in the body of a teenager who had just died in a car accident. This is what ultimately sent Billy on the Witches’ Road, as he wants to find out what became of his brother, Tommy.

At the center of all this is Wanda’s legacy, which has caused plenty of fans to wonder if the Scarlet Witch would be making some sort of MCU return in Agatha All Along. Well, the final two episodes of Marvel’s newest TV venture hit Disney+ Wednesday night, answering that question once and for all. WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Agatha All Along! Continue reading at your own risk…

Unfortunately for longtime fans of the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff doesn’t appear in the final episode of Agatha All Along. There is a moment where Billy thinks back to his final moments in Westview and you can hear Wanda’s voice in his head. Outside of that one line of dialogue (which was brought over from WandaVision), there was no Wanda to be found.

[RELATED: Agatha All Along Reveals the Shocking Truth About the Witches’ Road]

All that to say, Wanda’s fingerprints were all over the show. The biggest twist of Agatha All Along was directly connected to the story of Wanda Maximoff. We learned in the final minutes of the series that it was Billy who actually created the Witches’ Road, though he didn’t mean to. He and the coven were taken on this journey, which was created in his own mind (based on things around his bedroom). The Witches’ Road is basically Billy’s Westview, but now he gets the chance to make up for that massive display of power going forward.

Most importantly, the door for Wanda’s return is absolutely not closed. If anything, it’s more open than ever before, now that we know how Billy and Death’s powers work. If another popular fan theory is to be believed, Wanda might already be back.

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Marvel fans fully expect a post-credits scene whenever a new movie or TV show in the MCU arrives, and the Disney+ series Agatha All Along is no different. Though previous Marvel Studios TV shows on the streamer have had scenes in the credits in various episodes, Agatha All Along has not had any up to this point. With a two-episode series finale now streaming the question has to be asked and considered, does Agatha All Along‘s series finale have a post-credits scene? Spoilers follow!

In short, the answer is no. There is no post-credits scenes in either of the final two episodes of Agatha All Along. This arrives in contrast to a few other Marvel shows on Disney+ including WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Echo, all of which had credits scenes. Agatha All Along joins Secret Invasion as being one of the only Marvel shows with no credits scenes in any episodes.

Just because Agatha All Along doesn’t have a post-credits scenes doesn’t mean that the series doesn’t tease a new chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As the series wraps up, Agatha has died but has become a ghost, however she has a new role, guiding Billy in their new coven with a very specific mission at hand, finding his brother Tommy.

RELATED: Agatha All Along: What Happened to Tommy?

Agatha All Along may not have a post-credits scene but the series clearly sets up what’s next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Billy searching for his brother Tommy, Marvel Studios could not more obviously be hinting at the fact that the Young Avengers are coming. As Marvel fans may recall, the team was previously alluded to at the end of The Marvels when Kamala Khan decides to start a group of her own, moving to recruit Kate Bishop to the team.

In the pages of Marvel Comics the Young Avengers team has naturally included Billy/Wiccan, Tommy/Speed, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, and America Chavez, with other members including Iron Lad, Kid Loki, Hulkling, Prodigy, Patriot, Noh-Varr, and others. Though Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel hasn’t been a member of the Young Avengers, she has appeared on the Champions, which is a similar team and one that may inspire the MCU team in the end as well. It’s unclear who might make it on the team when the Young Avengers finally do appear in the MCU, but Kamala Khan, Billy, Tommy, and Kate Bishop are all very safe bets.

To date Agatha All Along has been publicized as a mini-series for Disney+, with no indication from Marvel Studios that this plan has changed, so it seems unlikely that a second season of the show will ever get made, perhaps another reason why a post-credit scene wasn’t used.

All nine episodes of Agatha All Along are now streaming on Disney+.

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We’ve finally come to the end of The Witches’ Road with the Agatha All Along finale and while the last two episodes of the Marvel series held quite a few revelations about Billy, Agatha, and even the very Road itself, the episodes also gave fans an answer to what might have been the biggest question of all. That’s right, the final episodes of Agatha All Along finally answered the question of whether Mephisto would finally be introduced to the MCU and it might not be the answer you’re expecting. Warning: Spoilers for the final episodes of Agatha All Along beyond this point.

Despite getting a name drop earlier in the season, Mephisto once again does not show up. We are once again left wanting when it comes to Marvel’s devil. Instead, the only spooky or even lightly sinister thing we get in the finale — and indeed in all of Agatha All Along — is Death herself. Looks like we are once again going to be sitting here waiting at the proverbial station, waiting for the Mephisto train to come.

Now that we are finally at this moment, it feels like we’ve been on this journey — or the Mephisto train, if you will — for years. Speculation that the devilish character was involved in the overall story of Westview has persisted since WandaVision where there were countless theories that Mephisto was actually behind Wanda Maximoff’s actions in Westview as the series antagonist. That, however, ended up not being the case when it was revealed that Wanda was creating the hex on her own but her real antagonist was none other than Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) who does not appear to have been influenced by anything other than her own lust for power.

[RELATED: Agatha Harkness’ History With Mephisto, Explained]

Speculation that Mephisto might show up for the WandaVision spinoff started pretty early on as well, but really ramped up when a teaser for Agatha All Along showed Teen/Billy Kaplan (Joe Locke) with a sigil over his mouth preventing Agatha (and others) from hearing his real name. Many fans speculated that the sigil, which looked like an M, signified Mephisto complete with the suggestion that perhaps Mephisto was keeping Billy’s identity under wraps. And by the time we actually got a Mephisto name drop in episode 3 of the series, fans were more convinced than ever we’d be seeing the character by series’ end — and even showrunner Jac Schaeffer encouraged fans to keep their eyes open by reminding just how tied to Agatha’s story Mephisto really is in comics.

“With these shows, so often there is something that is at once a joke and a wink and a nod, and actually has something legitimate underneath it,” Schaeffer said previously. “As we all know, Mephisto is a character who’s very wrapped into Agatha’s storyline. I mean, people have to watch, but we’re always playing with the audience in that way.”

Now that we are finally here with the real answer about Mephisto, we can also start looking ahead to what’s next. A third Doctor Strange film seems like the next logical place for a character like Mephisto to appear, though at this point everything about Doctor Strange 3 is currently a rumor — including reports that Sam Raimi, who previously directed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which itself had direct ties to WandaVision, would be returning to direct. We could also potentially see Mephisto in the other WandaVision spinout, the Vision series, thought that might be a little less likely. Wherever things do end up going, the revelation in the final episodes of Agatha All Along do offer up some potential for the character as the MCU continues.

Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+.

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All season on Agatha All Along, Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and her coven have been walking The Witches’ Road, a mythical path in magic that, per the lore, grants any witch who survives its trials and makes it to the end the thing they desire most. In fact, The Witches’ Road is so legendary that there have been songs written about it — Lorna Wu’s “Ballad of The Witches’ Road” — and Agatha, as the Road’s only known survivor, has a bit of legendary status of her own. But now, with the two-episode finale of the Disney+ series, a shocking truth about the Road has been revealed and it’s something that changes how we see everything about the series. Warning: Spoilers for the finale of Agatha All Along beyond this point. Read on only if you want to know.

As it turns out, The Witches’ Road has legend status because it is exactly that: a legend. It is revealed that The Witches’ Road doesn’t actually exist, or more accurately, did not exist until Billy (Joe Locke) willed it into existence with his powers, creating his own sort of “hex” to manifest it. The revelation that The Witches’ Road was never real also has a revelation of its own tucked into it. Agatha has, indeed, been lying for centuries about her experience with the road. The reality is much grimmer: the Road was a story created by Agatha to use in order to steal the powers of other witches for herself. We saw a peek of this earlier in the season, when Agatha gathered this current, makeshift coven and then tried to prompt them into blasting her with their powers. Agatha knew that she couldn’t open a gate to the Road because it didn’t exist. It was a fiction from the start.

This also explains a comment Rio (Aubrey Plaza) made in Episode 4, where she tells Agatha that she can get the powers of the other witches and she will get the bodies. We already knew that there was an existing relationship between Agatha and Rio, but now knowing that Rio is Death and Agatha was scamming witches to take their power (and their lives) for centuries, it’s a whole new dimension towards that relationship.

[RELATED: Agatha All Along: Is The Witches’ Road Billy’s Westview Hex?]

Of course, the reveal that The Witches’ Road wasn’t real also adds some new dimension to other aspects of the series we’ve seen. Since the Road itself was a myth created by Agatha, she knew from the start that whatever they were walking was likely of Billy’s creation, she just simply went along with it. This also means that the little details that many fans picked up on as the Road spread out in front of them each episode were genuinely clues — and by this we specifically mean the details that showed the Road to be very Billy-coded, such as the fictional witches, the horror movie-themed trial and more. And of course, there’s the largest implication of them all: Agatha knew pretty early on that Billy was Wanda’s son and to an extent suggests that she went along with things with the hope of taking Billy’s powers for her own, much like she planned to do with Wanda in WandaVision.

What is particularly interesting What is particularly interesting about the revelation that Billy created the Road is that we also get the history of how the concept of the Road came to be. The finale takes viewers back into Agatha’s history where it’s revealed that when she gives birth to Nicholas, she’s told by Death that all she can give her is time — meaning that the boy is going to die. While it is not expressly stated that Agatha has an existing arrangement with Death to kill witches, we soon see Agatha going about the business of doing just that with her young son in tow, indeed even utilizing him in the scheme. As they walk along together, young Nicky starts singing a song that eventually becomes the Ballad, and in turn, becomes the legend of the Road that Agatha uses to lure in witches that she kills for their power.

Billy’s realization — and Agatha’s confirmation — that the Road wasn’t real until he made it so not only hints at Billy starting to come into his true power, but also ultimately sets him on a different sort of journey. When Agatha dies to spare him Death (though Agatha later insists she didn’t sacrifice herself, you know, just Agatha being Agatha here), she returns to Billy as a ghost unwilling to transition so she doesn’t have to face her son. It puts her in a position to be his guide — and the two are now a coven of their own off on a new impossible mission: find Tommy.

Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+.

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Halfway through Marvel’s Agatha All Along, MCU fans learned the surprising fate of Wanda Maximoff’s children. While she created them as part of the Westview anomaly, their souls became real and escaped the hex as it fell. Billy was able to inhabit the body of a teenage boy who’d just died in a car accident, but he had no idea what had happened to his twin brother, Tommy.

Unlike Billy, Tommy hasn’t been a main character on Agatha All Along, leaving fans to wonder if his twin brother would ever actually find him or not. Billy’s entire purpose on the Witches’ Road has been to figure out where Tommy’s soul ended up, so the two could reunite and once again be a family. On Wednesday night, the Agatha All Along finale arrived on Disney+, finally revealing what became of Wanda’s other son.

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Agatha All Along! Continue reading at your own risk…

Early on in the eighth episode of Agatha All Along, Death reveals to Agatha that Tommy didn’t find his second life quite as easily as Billy did. She attempts to make a deal with Agatha to get Billy to surrender his soul, because she doesn’t believe he was supposed to get that second opportunity at all.

Both Agatha and Death know that Billy has the power to give Tommy a second life, should he be able to locate the lost soul of his brother. Agatha, after making a deal with Death, helps Billy search through the ether to find a body for Tommy to inhabit. He locates a boy who is drowning and seemingly sends Tommy’s soul into the body. This action completes Billy’s journey on the Witches’ Road, sending him back to reality and leaving Agatha all alone.

[RELATED: Marvel Reveals Every Disney+ Release Date for 2025]

There’s a lot that happens between that scene and the full, official Tommy reveal, but Agatha All Along does bring it all full-circle. Well, sort of.

In the very last scene of Agatha All Along, Billy is joined by Agatha’s ghost, who tells him, “Let’s go find Tommy.” So whatever Billy did back on the Witches’ Road to get Tommy’s soul into a new body must have actually worked. His brother is out there and alive. The only trouble is, Billy isn’t sure where he is.

So whenever we next see Billy in the MCU (and he feels like a potential major character for the franchise going forward), he’ll either be searching for Tommy, or finally reunited with his long lost brother.

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Marvel Studios is looking ahead to 2025. The studio on Wednesday released a sizzle reel for the film and TV projects coming to Disney+ during the remainder of the year and into next year, including Deadpool & Wolverine (streaming in November), the third and final season of What If…? (Dec. 22), and new series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Jan. 29), Daredevil: Born Again (March 4), Ironheart (June 24), Eyes of Wakanda (Aug. 6), Marvel Zombies (October 2025), and Wonder Man (December 2025).

The Marvel Studios slate for 2025 now includes Captain America: Brave New World (Feb. 14), Thunderbolts* (May 2), and The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25), plus the six series teased in the trailer below. (Marvel’s Blade was recently removed from Disney’s release calendar, leaving the Mahershala Ali-fronted reboot without a release date.)

The nine projects follow a relatively light year for Marvel Studios, which released Echo in January, Marvel Animation’s X-Men ’97 in March, and Marvel Television’s Agatha All Along in September. Deadpool & Wolverine was the only Marvel Cinematic Universe movie of the year — something that hasn’t happened since The Avengers was Marvel’s lone release in 2012.

[RELATED: How to Watch Deadpool & Wolverine Online]

The nearly two-minute trailer contains footage that, until now, was kept under wraps or shown only to the convention crowd during Disney’s D23 in August. Included are first looks at Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as actor Simon Williams, a.k.a. Wonder Man, Anthony Ramos as the supernatural supervillain The Hood, Charlie Cox’s new Daredevil suit, and much more. We’ve rounded up every major reveal from the Disney+ teaser below.

Simon Williams, Wonder Man

Abdul-Mateen II is shown wearing a red blazer and glasses with red lenses — a nod to his comic counterpart, who frequently wore a redcoat and red sunglasses over his glowing red eyes.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is set during Peter Parker’s (voiced by Hudson Thames) freshman year as a newbie crime-fighting vigilante. The Marvel Animation series was created by Jeff Trammel (Amphibia, The Owl House, Craig of the Creek), who serves as executive producer with Kevin Feige (X-Men ’97) and Brad Winderbaum (What If…?).

White Tiger, Hidden Gad

Look closely at the TVA monitors and you’ll spot actor Josh Gad (Frozen) in a snippet of footage from Wonder Man, and the street-level vigilante White Tiger (Kamar de los Reyes) in a glimpse at Daredevil: Born Again.

Yusuf Khan’s Marvel Return

Recognize the man who asks Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), “Exactly what kind of a lawyer are you?” It’s Yusuf Khan (Mohan Kapur), father of Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan, reprising his role from Ms. Marvel and The Marvels.

Daredevil Villain Muse

The mutated Muse is a sadistic superhuman serial killer whose victims are his “art” — and New York City is his canvas.

Mayor Wilson Fisk

The Daredevil revival is inspired by the Mayor Fisk storyline in the pages of Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s run on Daredevil, and Devil’s Reign, where the Kingpin of Crime used his powers as mayor to make vigilantism a criminal offense — outlawing Daredevil, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and more street-level superheroes. The series also pulls from the Born Again storyline by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli spanning 1986’s Daredevil #227–231, which saw Fisk systematically destroy Matt Murdock’s life after learning his arch-enemy’s secret identity.

The Punisher Reloaded

Jon Bernthal reprises his role as the vigilante Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher, who wages a one-man war against crime to avenge his murdered family. Bernthal first appeared in Daredevil season 2 and last appeared in The Punisher season 2 in 2019. One batch, two batch, penny and dime…

Daredevil vs. Bullseye, Round 2

The mystery opponent seen battling Daredevil in close quarters (in another hallway fight) is former FBI Special Agent Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter (Wilson Bethel), better known as the super-accurate assassin Bullseye. His tactical outfit is inspired by Checchetto’s more recent design from the comics.

Daredevil’s New Costume

The horn-headed hero of Hell’s Kitchen has undergone another redesign after making cameos in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Echo. Daredevil’s new duds are crimson red with black highlights, but still no sign of the “DD” chest emblem.

Ironheart 2.0

Speaking of new suits: genius inventor Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) is suiting up in the Mark III Ironheart armor in her own Disney+ series. Riri built her Iron Man-like Mark I suit of armor by herself before Shuri (Letitia Wright) gave her the resources to create an upgraded armor — the vibranium-made Mark II — in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

The Hood

Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) is seen for the first time as Parker Robbins, a.k.a. the supernatural supervillain known as the Hood. In the comics, he was a common criminal who became an Avengers-level threat after stealing a demon’s magical cloak that is empowered by Dormammu, Lord of the Dark Dimension, and enemy of the sorcerer Doctor Strange. In addition to his mystical powers, the Hood possesses a pair of pistols that fire magical bullets.

Alden Ehrenreich as [Spoiler] 2.0?

The trailer introduces Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Oppenheimer) as Joe McGillicuddy, a character who doesn’t have a counterpart in the comics. However, it’s been rumored that Ehrenreich has been cast as — spoiler warning — Ezekiel “Zeke” Stane, the terrorist son of Jeff Bridges’ Iron Man villain Obadiah Stane: the original Iron Monger.

What If…? Season 3

New footage from the animated anthology series shows a cowboy Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) reunited, and a mecha Captain America. This suggests an episode is inspired by the five-issue series Avengers Mech Strike, where the Steve Rogers of Earth-21443 piloted a star-spangled mech suit.

Marvel Zombies

From the brraaaaains behind What If…? comes Marvel Zombies. The four-episode event series is rated TV-MA, meaning there will be blood, gore, and graphic violence. What If…? adapted Marvel Zombies in the season 1 episode “What If… Zombies?!,” which featured zombified versions of Iron Man, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, and more of Earth’s undead heroes.

Trevor Slattery’s Third Act

The Hollywood-set Wonder Man has a co-star: actor Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), who posed as the Mandarin in 2013’s Iron Man 3 and was later abducted by the Ten Rings (in the 2014 short film All Hail the King). After Slattery returned in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, he’ll make another comeback in the new series from Shang-Chi filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton.

Eyes of Wakanda

The trailer only offers a glimpse at the four-part animated Black Panther spinoff series, which “will explore Wakandan history through tales of the brave warriors who traveled the world to collect vibranium artifacts.”

The post Every MCU Reveal From Marvel’s 2025 Trailer, From Wonder Man to Muse and More appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Comic Book movies and TV shows are still going strong right now, with Sony-Marvel’s Venom: The Last Dance opening in theaters, while DC’s Batman spinoff The Penguin is earning major acclaim on HBO. Most superhero fans would agree that Venom 3 and The Penguin couldn’t be more different in terms of tone and subject matter; however, they do share something in common: breakout performances by lead actors (Tom Hardy and Colin Farrell, respectively), which are the heart of both franchises.

There’s also a dark weird connection between Venom: The Last Dance and The Penguin – specifically Episode 6, which aired during Venom 3‘s opening weekend:

Did You Spot The Same Actor In Venom 3 & The Penguin?

Actor Jared Abrahamson had quite a week for an aspiring actor: he played a bit role in Venom: The Last Dance as Captain Forrest, a member of Imperium; he also had a recurring role in The Penguin as “Squid,” a local shot-caller and drug dealer operating in the slums neighborhood of Crown Point.

Abrahamson was much more of a background character as Cpt. Forrest in Venom 3: he appeared in scenes as a right-hand-man to Imperium military commander General Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor); however, in the film’s third act, the symbiote god Knull sends his Xenophage monsters to attack Imperium’s base at Area 51 resulting in the death or retreat of nearly ever Imperium team member. Forrest’s fate is unknown after the film (though is wiki lists him as “alive”).

RELATED: The Penguin Just Turned One Major Character Into A True Villain

The Penguin gave Jared Abrahamson a much bigger spotlight in Episode 6: his story arc with Penguin’s sidekick Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) came to a head when Squid finally leaned on Victor to set him up with an introduction to Penguin. When Squid goes so far as to threaten Victor with snitching to the cops or rival gangs, Victor takes the drastic step of shooting him in the neck. Abrahamson got a bloody death scene as he bleeds out in an alley – but it’s a performance that will definitely spice up his highlight reel! Not to mention the rush that Abrahamson is probably enjoying right now, having two high-profile projects out simultaneously.

Jared Abrahamson has previously appeared in the indie comedy On the Count of Three (starring Jarrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott); episode arcs in the Hulu series Letterkenny and Ramy, and Apple TV+’s The Changeling. He is probably best known for starring in Netflix’s time-travel sci-f-drama-mystery series Travelers (2016-2018).

You can also catch him in Venom: The Last Dance (now in theaters) or in The Penguin (airing on HBO and streaming on Max).

The post The Penguin & Venom 3 Have a Weird Connection Fans Probably Missed appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Happy new comic book day! It’s another major week in comics, and the ComicBook staff have come together to break down and review as many of the big comics releasing this week as possible. Now obviously this isn’t every single comic on stands, but we’re breaking down new releases from Marvel, DC, Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse, Dynamite, Oni Press, IDW, Mad Cave Studios, DSTLRY, and more!

We’ve also carved out some additional space for three of this week’s biggest books, including The Amazing Spider-Man #60, It Happened on Hyde Street: Devour #1, and Poison Ivy/Swamp Thing: Feral Trees #1, so if our smaller review here piques your interest, make sure to check out the full review for a much more comprehensive analysis of all three issues. As for ratings, we keep things simple with a whole or half number out of five, and you can check out some of our previous reviews right here. With all that said, let’s get to this week’s new comics!

DC

Action Comics #1073
Other than the Superboy subplot that is wedged in the middle of things (and that, at this point, feels like it should have been a backup story rather than a subplot), Action Comics #1073 is outstanding. The issue sees Superman come face to face with Aethyr but then in a surprising twist finds himself in a much more dire situation when his attempt to find the way home goes sideways and lands him in an entirely different idea of home. What really works here is the centering of the story around the idea of what Jor-El really did in the creation of the Phantom Zone prison while still delivering on some high-stakes action. As for the Supergirl backup story, we get a little bit more about the mysterious prisoner, but the overall story still feels like a puzzle box that is moving towards solution at an almost too-slow pace. It’s interesting, but it just feels like there could be more. – Nicole Drum
Rating: 4 out of 5

Batman: The Long Halloween – The Last Halloween #2
Batman: The Long Halloween The Last Halloween #2 continues the slow burn of the story kicked off with the first issue, but keeps things moving by adding interesting elements, such as the arrival of the FBI — who has their own agenda — and by having Batman miss an important clue along the way. The tone of this issue is much more consistent than the first, particularly with Robin, and that also gives this issue a bit more gravity to it and makes it a bit more interesting, both to those unfamiliar with the original The Long Halloween and those who know it chapter and verse. The art fits the overall vibe very nicely as well.
– Nicole Drum
Rating: 4 out of 5

Poison Ivy/Swamp Thing: Feral Trees #1
DC has delivered the team-up I didn’t know I needed right in time for Halloween in a new one-shot special titled Poison Ivy/Swamp Thing: Feral Trees. As the title suggest, the issue brings Poison Ivy and Swamp Thing together in a haunting and emotionally complex adventure that conveys a clearer understanding of Swampy and Ivy’s roles in the protection of the green and how the Parliament of Trees fits into that equation and how they perceive outsiders. Poison Ivy/Swamp Thing: Feral Trees #1 keeps you hooked on the greater mystery and emotionally invested in the people in the center of it all the way through, and it’s an adventure you won’t want to miss.
– Matthew Aguilar (Read the full review here)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The Nice House By The Sea #4
James Tynion IV finds new layers as he continues to dig deeper not only into his characters but in the larger plot of Night House by the Sea as well. As things continue to open up and reveal the broader picture, questions still linger, making the entire thing all the more intriguing. Series art by co-creator Álvaro Martínez Bueno remains the high point of experiencing the series though as he not only captures specific moods and styles (this issue depicts security camera footage and actually making it terrifying). Jordie Bellaire’s color work also remains an MVP, elevating the already great images to new heights.
– Spencer Perry
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Marvel

Captain America #14
The most surprising thing about this Captain America run is that it’s somehow still going on. Issue #14 brings Thor and Spider-Man into the fold to try and give Steve some familiar faces to fight alongside. Their additions are more hurtful than helpful. Neither one of them are written particularly well, with Spider-Man feeling like the most frustrating of the two. This continues, month after month, to be one of the most baffling books in Marvel’s lineup.
– Charlie Ridgely
Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Namor #4
Namor is awesome. I tried to think of a more eloquent, intelligent way to phrase that, but that’s not necessary. “Namor is awesome” is exactly what needs to be said right now. This saga from Jason Aaron is already a gripping, complicated tale about a fallen king wrestling with his past in order to save the future of a people that hate him. Now we’re adding an entire army of sentient beings made of the seaweed and coral reef that have been relentlessly abused over the years? It just doesn’t get much better than this. An absolute bruiser of a book week after week. – Charlie Ridgely
Rating: 5 out of 5

NYX #4
NYX has been quietly putting together one of the more compelling corners of the X-Men universe, and it feels as if NYX #4 is the true boiling point that will shift the series into its next gear. Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly have successfully woven Ms. Marvel into the fabric of the X-Men saga in a natural and organic way, and her interactions with Prodigy and Sophie are major parts of why NYX #4 works so well. Kamala is the heart and soul of this book, but as we’ve learned with the character in the past, one of her most important powers is the ability to relate to others in a meaningful way and get through when most others can’t, paving the way for welcome turns and heartbreaking turns in equal measure. Artist Enid Balam and colorist Raul Angulo pull on the heartstrings throughout the issue in several key scenes, but they also deliver frenetic action sequences that take advantage of the cast’s dynamic power set. Also, Julian looks like an absolute powerhouse in several of these sequences, and that last page has my hyped for an anticipated and long awaited throwdown. NYX has carved out a unique identity within the X-Books and is really starting to hit its stride at the right time. – Matthew Aguilar
Rating: 4 out of 5

Phases of The Moon Knight #3
This has been a really great concept for an anthology story. The nature of Moon Knight makes for a story that can span numerous characters, time periods, and settings, and the series has done an excellent job of finding little corners where magic can come alive. Not every story is as good as the others, but they’ve all been enjoyable to some degree.
– Charlie Ridgely
Rating: 3 out of 5

Predator vs. Black Panther #3
Benjamin Percy has proven himself already to be well suited to writing these types of epic crossovers for Marvel. Percy weaves a tight narrative that not only respect the lore of Marvel’s hero and his home but also the larger Predator franchise, making them work together and mingle in a way that only works in comics. This issue features artwork by pencilers Chris Allen & Sean Damien Hill (with inks by Craig Yeung & Jonas Trindade and colors by Erick Arciniega) and that many cooks in the kitchen has resulted in some inconsistent art on the whole. Larger pages that deliver huge splashes and tell the story across unique fragmented images are the best, while the traditional pages often leave something to be desired. That said, Predator vs Black Panther continues to impress.
– Spencer Perry
Rating: 4 out of 5

Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising #3
There’s a good idea at the core of Insurgency Rising, it’s just a shame the book itself can’t reach quite as high. It’s scattered, both in its writing and its art. There’s little consistency with these characters and none of it ever feels particularly new. This is unfortunately just another stab at trying to tell fresh stories in a period of Star Wars canon that has been exhaustively explored. – Charlie Ridgely
Rating: 2 out of 5

The Amazing Spider-Man #60
Zeb Wells’ Spider-Man run is one that has been met with some major controversy thanks to some of the wild swings that it took with its story. The writer introduced us to the now infamous “Paul”, gave Mary Jane superpowers, stepped up Tombstone’s game, introduced the most villainous Ben Reilly to date, and even sent Spidey spiraling into the underworld. For all the flaws that Wells’ run might have had, the creator goes a long way in his final issue to not only pay tribute to Peter Parker but give a worthwhile ending to nearly every plot point that he introduced over the years. – Evan Valentine (Read the full review here)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Ultimate X-Men #8
Ultimate X-Men has some interesting elements and character beats that are a part of this new take on Marvel’s merry mutants but unfortunately, the series remains misplaced in terms of being the forefront of the Ultimate Universe in relation to the X-Men. Peach Momoko is able to give this series some really solid art but the story itself is one that just doesn’t resonate in the same way as its Ultimate counterparts. It feels…”off” in many regards in that it is a scattershot series that would work as an independent story but being the premiere Ultimate X-Men story hampers it. It just all feels extremely disconnected with its characters. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t have some noteworthy moments but they are not enough to right this ship’s trajectory. It’s really a shame but there are simply too many puzzle pieces that don’t fit here to truly make it stand toe-to-toe with the other Ultimates.
– Evan Valentine
Rating 2.5 out of 5

Wolverine: Revenge #3
One thing that I was expecting from Wolverine: Revenge, based on Hickman and Capullo’s first two issues, is plenty of blood and violence surrounding the Canucklehead. What I didn’t see coming was one of my favorite Logan and Deadpool interactions that I think I’ve ever read. In this alternate universe, Wade Wilson made a decision that means forgiveness might forever be out of his grasp, as Wolverine reminds him here. This story might not be “canon” but what the creative team is doing here might just give us one of the pinnacle Wolverine stories in Marvel history. There’s a lot to love in this tale of revenge and I’m beyond interested to see what takes place next when it comes to Logan’s journey, especially considering how this latest issue came to an end. – Evan Valentine
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Image Comics

Feral #7
The only thing that could make Feral more of a tension-filled affair has found its way into the series, and that comes in the form of three adorable little kittens. In Feral #7 the ice starts to subside and with it new dangers approach, and watching Elsie and Gigi try and navigate those unpredidtable dangers is as stressful as it is riveting. At this point I feel personally attacked by Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner, Tone Rodriguez, and Brad Simpson for how long I find myself forgetting to breathe as the story twists and turns, and that still didn’t prepare me for one truly unexpected cliffhanger by issue’s end. Feral continues to be must read each and every single month, and now the long wait for Feral #8 begins.
– Matthew Aguilar
Rating: 5 out of 5

It Happened on Hyde Street: Devour #1
While we are still getting to know the overall world of Hyde Street in the main comic, It Happened on Hyde Street: Devour #1 makes for a strong and impressive introduction to the lure of the world. By speaking to something that is so relatable and unfortunately common for many by taking on the obsession with being thin, Devour #1 reminds readers just how easy it is to succumb to the lure of a quick fix with no thought to the consequences. The result is a horror that maybe isn’t full of jump scares or gore, but settles right into the thoughts and is deeply uncomfortable less for the world the story inhabits, but for the world the reader actually exists in. – Nicole Drum (Read the full review here)
Rating: 5 out of 5

Kaya #22
Kaya concludes its journey down the Dragon Road in stunning fashion. The issue begins with Kaya’s portentous dream but from the moment she awakes onward, it maintains a fast pace as she, Jin, and their mysterious new ally Razel try to escape from Atrian pursuers. As always, Wes Craig impresses with his unconventional character designs and creative layouts but Tom Nopalitano’s lettering stands out in this issue for ably conveying tones, timbre, and meaning with emphasis, shape, and color. This issue’s plot feels a bit thin and also light on character development — Kaya and Jin begin the issue divided over how much they should trust Razel and they don’t budge any from those positions — but makes up for it danger and adventure as it successfully ramps up the tension as it leads into a situation where Kaya and company are stuck between a robot army and a haunted city. After the previous, much weightier arc, “Kaya and the Dragon Road” proves lighter and much more visceral, making for a nice change of pace in this gripping journey.
– Jamie Lovett
Rating: 4 out of 5

Violent Flowers #2
Violent Flowers #2 spends most of the issue explaining things before sending Carnelia after Erzsebet at a strange, supernatural party that doesn’t exactly go as planned. It is certainly an interesting take on vampire stories with a strange, sexy edge, but the issue is hampered by both a lot and nothing really happening along with some somewhat cliche dialogue during the confrontation. A bit of a cliffhanger closes the issue and pushes the story forward, but it is otherwise a bit of a mixed bag. – Nicole Drum
Rating: 3 out of 5

Other Publishers

Anansi Boys #5
The screwball comedy of it all intensifies in Anansi Boys #5 as Spider takes Fat Charlie’s place at work for the date and his lunch date with Rosie. Meanwhile, Charlie wakes up to find an unfamiliar woman with him in bed and his would-be mother-in-law at his front door. Charlie’s confusion and exasperation are appropriately inverse to Spider’s natural charm as he fills in for his brother in some helpful ways and some less so. There’s a bit of an unexplained plot hole in that Rosie’s mother never really explains why she showed up at Charlie’s home if she thought he’d be at work anyway — Perhaps she planned to slide the paperwork about the upcoming wedding under his door, but then why knock at all? — but there are also some sly artistic touches, with Graham Coates drawn every bit as small in Spider’s presence as Charlie once did upon entering the boss’s office. Setting aside the one plot tangle, it’s a charming issue with the art to match. – Jamie Lovett
Rating: 4 out of 5

Kill All Immortals #4
Finding interesting angles for immortal beings can be difficult, but Kill All immortals has an excellent angle that makes for a compelling read. Mixing this father/daughter rivalry and morality play with an organized crime saga is just really exciting stuff. These characters are fully realized and they fit seamlessly into the world that’s being created. – Charlie Ridgely
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Night Club 2 #3
Who knew that all it would take is a change of scenery for Mark Millar’s style to actually feel fresh. The scribe continues to explore superhero tropes through the lens of a horror comic in Night Club 2 and since he’s not making sure to have a piece of shock value every other page there’s a nice rhythm to the story. Night Club 2’s real highlight however remains the artwork by Juanan Ramírez with colors by Fabiana Mascolo, as the pair have created a distinct look that combines pop-superhero artwork with moody grim horror. The result is stunning splash pages and reveals when you turn the page that makes your jaw drop.
– Spencer Perry
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

‘Patra #3
‘Patra #3 is part crime, part horror and while there is a lot of promise in the story of Patra hunting down the crazed killer Jeremy Jones, there’s a lot of character development and particularly dialogue between Patra and her sister that feels a little drawn out and very tedious when we could, at three issues in, already be getting further in the story. It’s also not quite clear yet what is really going on which is something that we should have some inkling about at this point. Still, the chase is interesting and if things ever really come together, it could be a cool story. Right now it’s just lot of extra that doesn’t fully come together. – Nicole Drum
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Power Rangers Across The Morphin Grid #1
Power Rangers fans have seen a number of their favorite Rangers appear in the comics, but with Power Rangers Across The Morphin Grid, they have a chance to see those characters written by the people that brought them to life on the screen. Across The Morphin Grid is a one-shot special featuring five stories from franchise favorites, including David Yost, Nakia Burrise (with JD Sutphin), Steve Cardenas (with Mat Groom), Walter Jones, and Meghan Camarena, and while some are stronger than others, they all capture the core elements that made their characters such favorites to begin with. Billy’s Metamorphosis takes a trip to the future with out of this world style thanks to Patrick Mulholland and Ellie Wright, while Tanya’s Heavy-Metal Rescue is a thrilling Alpha team-up with the stellar art of Tango and JP Jordan. In The Red by Groom, Cardenas, Anand Ramcheron, and Francesco Segala might be my favorite in terms of highlighting the underrated aspects of a Ranger. An Apple A Day is solid and has some fun moments, though the issue ramps up the fun with Camarena, Paulina Ganucheau, and Rebecca Good’s hilarious Chloe’s Chaos Kitchen, which is the type of HyperForce absurdity we’ve missed so much. Overall it’s a thoroughly entertaining one-shot that will delight fans of the franchise. – Matthew Aguilar
Rating: 4 out of 5

Red Sonja #15
While the art in Red Sonja #15 leaves a bit to be desired, story wise it’s an interesting read. I am admittedly jumping into this one blind, but the issue overall does a surprising job of getting the reader up to speed without being overly repetitive about what is happening and what Sonja is facing. There is also plenty of action to keep things moving as well as Sonja finds herself trying to run from death only to end up in a dire situation. There are seemingly real stakes here which makes it all that much more interesting. – Nicole Drum
Rating: 3 out of 5

Sonic The Hedgehog #74
Sonic the Hedgehog #74 brings the series’ racing arc to a satisfying climax. The villain is revealed, and the endgame is set in motion, but what’s charming is that it doesn’t fall entirely to the heroes. Regular folks doing their jobs and looking out for another also play a crucial role. Whether the idea that a villain’s wrongdoing being revealed would lead to their downfall or any real consequences is wholesome or naive will likely be determined by each reader’s level of cynicism. The artwork gives the issue a comic, cartoonish energy, with layouts providing the perfect timing for certain comedic bits and the story playing out at a lively pace.  As multiple points of tension hang in the balance and lives are on the line, Sonic and most of the book’s major characters spring into action, teeing up what’s shaping up to be a fun, kinetic, and dramatic finale. – Jamie Lovett
Rating: 4 out of 5

The post Comic Book Reviews for This Week: 10/30/2024 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Deadpool & Wolverine smashed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and teased Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and a brown-and-tan-clad Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) vs. the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). But the cameo scene, which paid homage to Todd McFarlane’s iconic cover of 1987’s The Incredible Hulk #340, cut away from the action before the Merc with a Mouth and the berserker mutant could face off against the angry Avenger. The new issue of Rob Liefeld’s last Deadpool comic, Deadpool Team-Up #3, delivered on that fight.

The circumstances are similar. But instead of the Void, Deadpool and Wolverine end up in Weirdworld, a domain composed of former magical realms. After a ninja clan tasked Wade Wilson with — deep breath — collecting dragon eggs that have been hidden by Ral Dorn, Dragon Lord, Wade learned that the warlord Baron Skagerackrakor stole Ral’s sacred staff so he could overthrow Ral as the rightful ruler of his home dimension of Rammatpolen and take revenge for his father’s defeat at Ral’s hands (in 1981’s Fantastic Four Annual #16).

[RELATED: Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine Streaming Release Date Confirmed]

Ral reclaimed his Dragonstaff and opened a portal to Weirdworld, where the heroes met a long-lost hero from the 1980s: Crystar, Lord of Crystalium, who hid the sacred dragon’s eggs within the catacombs under Crater Lake on Weirdworld. As they waded through the swamps, they were attacked by a towering Swamp Serpent, so Ral, calling on the sorcery of Rammatpolen, opened a portal to summon a champion: “A savage dragon to fell this serpent.”

Instead of Image’s finned, green-skinned superhero, Ral accidentally called forth another green goliath: the Hulk. This week’s Deadpool Team-Up #3 begins with Wade, Wolverine, Ral, and Crystar trying to convince the “Dragonslayer” to help them find the eggs, but an enraged Hulk only wants to smash the puny humans. Hulk shatters Crystar (whose body of enchanted crystals can reform itself) and goes toe-to-toe with Wolverine, who has “181 reasons” to put Hulk down (a reference to their first fight in 1974’s Incredible Hulk #181).

The rampaging Hulk swats Wolverine away, but the adamantium-clawed X-Man is as small and fast as Hulk is big and slow. Wade shoots Hulk in the face to prevent him from hitting what he can’t see, but Hulk gets his hands on Wade and slams him into the ground. Ral, who has no need for the emerald warrior now that he defeated the Swamp Serpent, ends the fight and sends the Hulk back to his realm on Earth. They find the eggs, and the issue ends with Wade wielding a golden sword: the Dragonslayer.

Just then, three Liefeld creations step out of the shadows to warn that taking the dragon eggs would be “the end of everything”: Cable, Lady Deadpool, and Major X, the son of Cable and the mutant goddess Storm from an alternate future. Deadpool Team-Up will conclude with a fifth and final issue on Jan. 22.

The post The MCU Teased Deadpool & Wolverine vs. The Hulk. A New Marvel Comic Made It Happen appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Disney+ has thwipped up the first footage from Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Marvel Studios unveiled a sizzle reel for its upcoming slate of 2025 TV projects, including first looks at the new Spider-Man animated series (Jan. 29), Black Panther spinoff Eyes of Wakanda (Aug. 6), and Marvel Zombies (Oct. 2025), plus the live-action Marvel Television series Daredevil: Born Again (March 4, 2025), Ironheart (June 24), and Wonder Man (Dec. 2025).

Fans can get their first look at the next Marvel Animation series in the video below, which shows Peter Parker (voiced by Hudson Thames) suited up in a prototype Spider-Man suit and the more classic red-and-blues. The footage also shows some of the supporting cast of characters that includes Harry Osborn (Zeno Robinson), Lonnie Lincoln (Eugene Byrd), Nico Minoru of the Runaways (Grace Song), Amadeus Cho, and Norman Osborn (voiced by Colman Domingo).

[RELATED: Deadpool & Wolverine Streaming Release Date on Disney+]

Marvel Comics will publish a five-issue prequel to the animated series starting in December, before the show’s series premiere on Jan. 29. The series, set during Peter Parker’s freshman year as a newbie crime-fighting vigilante, is inspired by the MCU Spider-Man but takes place in an alternate timeline.

Jeff Trammel (Disney’s Amphibia and The Owl House, Cartoon Network’s Craig of the Creek) created and executive produces Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which “follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming Spider-Man, with a journey unlike we’ve ever seen and a style that celebrates the character’s early comic book roots,” per the official synopsis. 

“Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is amazing, to say the least,” Brad Winderbaum, the head of streaming, television, and animation for Marvel Studios, told ComicBook, adding the show is “very much like a cut” from the classic Stan Lee and Steve Ditko era of The Amazing Spider-Man comic books.

“It’s Peter Parker back in high school just trying to make it work, take care of his aunt, completely broke, and having to be a superhero,” Winderbaum teased. “It’s so essentially Spider-Man. And what Jeff Trammell did, which I think people are going to love, is he built this ensemble of characters around Peter that you fall in love with. Similarly, just because it’s long-form storytelling, as those relationships brew when the stakes rise in that first season, things feel really tragic and dangerous, and pretty incredible. So, I love that show.”

That cast of characters includes Kari Wahlgren (Spidey and His Amazing Friends) as Peter’s Aunt May, Hugh Dancy (Law & Order) as Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, and Charlie Cox (Daredevil) as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. In addition to Doc Ock, other villains announced to appear in the series include Unicorn, Chameleon, Scorpion, Speed Demon, Tarantula, the Rhino, Butane, and Carmela Black. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man premieres Jan. 29, 2025, on Disney+.

The post First Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Footage Swings Online appeared first on ComicBook.com.

When Riri Williams returns in Marvel’s Ironheart series, she’ll be sporting some new armor. Fans got to meet Dominique Thorne’s Ironheart for the first time in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The young genius helped Shuri and the nation of Wakanda in their battle against Namor and Talokan, aka Atlantis. We’ve known Ironheart would star in her own Disney+ series for awhile, and we finally know when Ironheart will debut. Thanks to a new Marvel trailer highlighting all of the Disney+ content coming in 2025, we got a sneak peek at Ironheart, along with the armor Riri will be donning. And from the early look of it, it’s a major improvement from the armors Ironheart has worn in the comics.

Ironheart’s comics origin involves reverse-engineering her own Iron Man armor. Keep in mind she did all this in her tiny dorm room on the campus of M.I.T. After several iterations and tinkering with her suit, Ironheart eventually settles on a slimmed-down version of armor similar to Iron Man. She even moves from the trademark red-and-gold color scheme to something of her own choosing. Something we’ve noticed from Ironheart’s armors in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the Marvel sizzle reel of her upcoming series is how they’ve kept their bulkier frame. And in our opinion, that’s a good thing.

Ironheart’s MCU armor distinguishes her from Iron Man

Let’s take a look back at the different armors we’ve seen from Ironheart during her short tenure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Similar to her comic origin, Riri Williams has built an Iron Man-esque armor while at school. However, she uses the advanced technology of Wakanda to create the armor we see Ironheart use in the climax of Wakanda Forever. It’s much bulkier and larger than the armor used by Iron Man and War Machine, but in a way that should be expected. Riri should want to have as much protection as possible if she’s going into battle, and she’s less concerned with flexibility and agility.

An example of how quickly Iron Man can soar through the air is the Battle of New York from 2012’s The Avengers. Iron Man zips through the New York City skyline while being chased by Chitauri, and is able to navigate through the wormhole open in the sky. That’s something Ironheart probably isn’t able to do in her current state, but we’re pretty confident in saying Ironheart’s armor could withstand a blast from a Chitauri soldier.

The Marvel trailer reveals Ironheart sticks with the bulkier design, even smashing a car with it in the middle of the street. The choice to go with this armor doesn’t pigeonhole Ironheart as a copy of Iron Man or War Machine. Ironheart isn’t here to replace Tony Stark, but rather be a hero in her own right. Plus, it doesn’t mean that Ironheart is going to stop tinkering and modifying the armor she uses. There could come a point where Ironheart adopts a comics-accurate suit of armor, but for now we like what she’s wearing.

What do you think about Riri Williams’ armor in Ironheart? Let us know your thoughts on social media @ComicBook!

The post Ironheart’s New MCU Armor Is A Major Upgrade, And It Keeps Her Unique appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Zeb Wells’ Spider-Man run is one that has been met with some major controversy thanks to some of the wild swings that it took with its story. The writer introduced us to the now infamous “Paul”, gave Mary Jane superpowers, stepped up Tombstone’s game, introduced the most villainous Ben Reilly to date, and even sent Spidey spiraling into the underworld. For all the flaws that Wells’ run might have had, the creator goes a long way in his final issue to not only pay tribute to Peter Parker but give a worthwhile ending to nearly every plot point that he introduced over the years.

Amazing Spider-Man #60 is a comic that does everything in its power to make sure that there are no questions remaining for the old and new characters that were a part of Wells’ run. The preliminary story directly deals with the fallout from the fight against Tombstone, giving Peter Parker an ending that he might not have hoped for when it comes to the criminal justice system. The anthology-like issue also takes the chance to tell multiple stories, all written by Wells, to focus on the current state of Peter, his allies, and his enemies in one fell swoop. There’s plenty to love here in terms of the past while also setting the stage for Parker’s future.

The opening salvo makes for a good crescendo for the latest arc, as Peter not only has a face-to-face with Tombstone but also does the same with the Sandman, to a far lesser extent. What works so well about this initial outing is that Peter gets to have a quiet chat with his Aunt May, following the latter having a meeting with Parker’s alter-ego on the street. It’s a very quiet, meaningful discussion that adds a new layer to the relationship between May and Peter, while also injecting May’s thoughts on Spider-Man. There are instances where it’s a bummer that May no longer knows Spidey’s secret identity but this story works well in flipping that script. I would be remiss if I also didn’t mention John Romita Jr’s work here, which once again proves why he has become such a legend in the “Spider-Verse.”

Next up is “Doctor’s Orders”, which is clearly the story that sees Wells having the most fun. During Spidey’s journey to a demonic-filled world, one hanger-on has been the ridiculous “Rek-Rap”, a demonic doppelganger who is a twisted version of the wall-crawler. Joined by artist Ed McGuiness, this story is one that sees Wells trying his best to make sure that Rek-Rap has a future to hilarious effect. It’s a light-hearted story that is in and out, making for one of the lesser tales but it’s hard not to have fun here.

“Team-Up: Part 2” is next up and focuses on Wells teaming up with artist Todd Nauck to see Peter teaming up with the now super-powered Mary Jane Watson, aka Jackpot. Much of the controversy from Wells’ run has been the changes made to Mary Jane and the inclusion of her new partner, Paul. This story does have a hilarious element wherein Jackpot’s latest power creates countless versions of Spidey but much like the preliminary story that kicked off issue #60, Pete and MJ having a nice back-and-forth works well here in showing Wells’ handling of the characters. It again adds some heartfelt interactions into the mix of this Spider-Man story. There’s certainly reason to be sore that Peter and Mary Jane still are being kept from one another romantically but this story works well in accentuating the strength of their friendship at least.

The next story is perhaps my absolute favorite story of the issue, “Bubs.” In the “Brand New Day” era of Spider-Man, Peter Parker had a touching night on the town with Wolverine of all people, celebrating Logan’s birthday. This story is worth the price of admission alone, as Pete and Logan once again celebrate the latter’s birthday. Wolverine and Spider-Man might be like oil and water when it comes to their approach on tackling crime but boy do they work as one of Marvel’s best “odd couples” and that fact truly shines here. Wells is joined by legendary artist Paolo Rivera here, making for a welcome reunion.

“Same Spider-Channel” focuses on what is perhaps one of the most controversial characters of Zeb Wells’ run, Ben Reilly. Thanks to the Beyond storyline, the former Scarlet Spider went from becoming the new Spider-Man to completely losing his mind as the villainous Chasm. Like the stories before it, “Same Spider-Channel” works when Peter and Ben are able to have a quiet moment. Since I’m a big Ben Reilly fan, I’m not exactly thrilled that Wells decided to keep him in his role as an antagonist but it’s a well-told story all the same.

Finally, the issue closes with the one story not written by Wells as future writer Joe Kelly takes center stage to build toward Peter’s upcoming story as an underling of Doctor Doom, aka Marvel’s new Sorcerer Supreme. While not as strong as Wells’ stories here, this acts more like a teaser than anything else and proves that Kelly has a good handling on Peter’s web-swinging activities.

Zeb Wells’ Amazing Spider-Man run might only be viewed for its controversy but there are “diamonds in the rough.” This finale certainly is one of Wells’ best and the many moving pieces featured here work well to show off his strength as a writer. If I had to pick one issue to hand out to Spidey fans documenting the best of Wells’ work, it’s this one.

Published by Marvel Comics

On October 30th, 2024

Written by Zeb Wells, Joe Kelly

Art by John Romita Jr, Patrick Gleason, Todd Nauck, Paolo Rivera, Mark Buckingham

Colors by Marcio Menyz, Rachelle Rosenberg, Edgar Delgado

Letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna

Cover by John Romita Jr.

The post Amazing Spider-Man #60 Review: The End of an Era appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Deadpool and Wolverine are coming together — and coming to Disney+. Starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as best bubs Wade Wilson, the Merc with a Mouth, and Logan, the metal-clawed mutant known as the Wolverine, Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine snikt’d the record for the highest-grossing R-rated movie at the global box office when it opened in theaters over the summer. After finishing its run with a haul of $1.3 billion, the only Marvel Cinematic Universe movie of 2024 will be streaming before you can say “Gubernatorial.”

Keep reading for more about when to stream Deadpool & Wolverine, where to watch the Deadpool movies in order, and the full list of what’s new on Disney+ in November 2024.

When does Deadpool and Wolverine come to Disney Plus?

You can watch Deadpool & Wolverine on Disney+ starting Tuesday, November 12.

Disney+ subscriptions start at $9.99 per month (Disney+ Basic with ads) or $15.99 per month for Disney+ Premium (no ads). Other options include the $10.99/mo plan (Disney Bundle Duo Basic: Disney+ with ads and Hulu with ads), $19.99/mo (Disney Bundle Duo Premium: ad-free Disney+ and Hulu), $16.99/mo (Disney Bundle Trio Basic, which includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ with ads), or the priciest plan at $26.99/mo (Disney Bundle Trio Premium for ad-free Disney+ and Hulu, and ESPN+ with ads). In addition, subscribers can bundle Disney+, Hulu, and Max with ads for $16.99/mo, or Disney+, Hulu, and Max with no ads for $29.99/mo.

Where to watch Deadpool & Wolverine without Disney+

If you don’t have a Disney+ subscription, you can watch Deadpool & Wolverine online by buying the digital version for $19.99 on Fandango at Home (formerly Vudu) or Apple TV+. The digital release includes hours of special features, like a gag reel, deleted scenes, and an audio commentary with Reynolds and director Shawn Levy.

How to watch the Deadpool movies in order

The X-Men movies timeline can be confusing, but Deadpool & Wolverine largely ignores the events of the XCU and the MCU. If you want to watch Deadpool in release order, then the order is: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Deadpool (2016), Deadpool 2 (2018), and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).

If you want to watch Deadpool & Wolverine in timeline order, the order is Deadpool, Logan, Deadpool 2, and then Deadpool & Wolverine, which takes place after the events of Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine movie.

[RELATED: X-Men Timeline Explained: How to Watch the X-Men Movies in Order]

How long is Deadpool & Wolverine?

Deadpool & Wolverine has a runtime of 128 minutes, or 2 hours and 8 minutes.

Does Deadpool & Wolverine have a post-credits scene?

Yes, you’ll want to watch through the credits for a tribute to the Fox-made Marvel movies and a post-credits gag.

Who is in the Deadpool & Wolverine cast?

The cast includes Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool; Hugh Jackman as the “worst Wolverine,” a Logan variant from an alternate timeline and the last-surviving member of the X-Men; Matthew Macfadyen as TVA Agent Paradox; and Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova, twin sister of Professor Charles Xavier.

In addition to Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Rob Delaney as Peter, Karan Soni as Dopinder, and Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, the Deadpool & Wolverine cast includes (spoilers): Dafne Keen as Laura, a.k.a. X-23; Jennifer Garner as the lethal Elektra; Wesley Snipes as Blade, the vampire hunter; Channing Tatum as Gambit, a card-carrying mutant member of the X-Men; and Chris Evans as Johnny Storm/Human Torch of the Fantastic Four.

What’s new on Disney Plus in November 2024

Friday, November 1

Music By John Williams (Original documentary film)
Ayla & The Mirrors (New episodes)

Saturday, November 2

Endurance (Nat Geo documentary)

Wednesday, November 6

Kindergarten: The Musical (Season 1, 5 episodes)

Monday, November 11

SuperKitties: Su-Purr Adventures (Shorts) (Season 1, 4 episodes)

Tuesday, November 12

Deadpool & Wolverine
Dancing with the Stars (Season 33)

Thursday, November 14

The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking the Truth (3 episodes)

Friday, November 15

An Almost Christmas Story (Disney+ Original short film premiere)

Monday, November 18

Dancing with the Stars (Season 33, new episode)

Wednesday, November 20

Big City Greens (Season 4, 1 episode)

Friday, November 22

Out of My Mind (Disney Original movie Premiere)

Monday, November 25

Tsunami: Race Against Time (Season 1, 4 episodes)

Tuesday, November 26

Dancing with the Stars (Season 33, new episode)

Wednesday, November 27

Disney Jr.’s Ariel (Season 1, 4 episodes)

Thursday, November 28

Mary Poppins Special

Friday, November 29

Descendants: The Rise of the Red (Sing-Along Version)
Miraculous World London: At the Edge of Time
Oz the Great and Powerful
Beatles ’64 (Documentary premiere)

Saturday, November 30

Broken Karaoke (Shorts) (Season 2, 5 episodes)
Mickey and Minnie’s Christmas Carols (Shorts) (Season 1, 5 episodes)

The post Deadpool & Wolverine Streaming Release Date on Disney+ Revealed appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Marvel fans just got their best look yet at Disney+’s upcoming shows — including Daredevil: Born Again and Wonder Man. On Tuesday, fans who logged into Disney+ and pulled up Marvel content (specifically Agatha All Along), were given a sizzle reel advertising what’s to come for the platform’s Marvel programming including the arrival of Deadpool & Wolverine on the platform on November 12th, the third season of What If…? on December 22nd and their 2025 offerings as well. You can check out the teaser for yourself below.

As was revealed earlier in the day, the teaser confirms that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man arrives January 29th, Daredevil: Born Again on March 4th, Eyes of Wakanda on August 6th, and Marvel Zombies in October 2025 and Wonder Man in December 2025. What is perhaps most interesting about the teaser is that we get what appears to be first footage from Wonder Man, one of the shows that falls under Marvel’s new Marvel Spotlight banner. The Wonder Man footage also seems to confirm what Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has previously said about the series being different from anything they’ve done to date.

“Marvel is The House of Ideas, it’s always been The House of Ideas, and I hope we’ll always be The House of Ideas. Which means, taking new storylines and new characters to new places. Sometimes they’ll hit and sometimes they won’t,” Feige said previously. “When you stop trying is when you atrophy and the whole thing will fall in on itself. I think it’s trying to tell new and unique stories in different ways. We have a show coming up that we’ve talked very little about called Wonder Man, that I won’t talk about much today either except to say it’s extremely different than what we’ve done before.”

[RELATED: Paul Bettany Offers Major Update About Vision Series (And Reveals Why He’s Watching Agatha All Along)]

Wonder Man stars Yahya Abdul Mateen II as Simon Williams, Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, Demetrius Gross as Eric Williams, and Ed Harris as Neal Saroyan. Additionally, Lauren Glazier, Josh Gad, and Byron Bowers have been cast in undisclosed roles. While we don’t have details about exactly what the Wonder Man series will be about, the footage in the teaser does show us Mateen’s Simon Williams auditioning for the role of Wonder Man with Kingsley’s Slattery telling him at one point that they both have a lot riding on this — and not to mess it up.

The teaser also gives quick looks at Ironheart as well as our best look yet at Daredevil: Born Again with the latter suggesting just how different of a world the upcoming series is compared to what we’ve seen of Daredevil before.

“These characters have matured. The universe is different than it was. Things have changed. Society’s changed. Matt and Wilson have changed and their characters are going to collide in ways we’ve never seen before,” Marvel Television head of streaming Brand Winderbaum said previously. “It’s no longer enough to try to murder each other. There’s a whole game of politics at play.”

As was noted above, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man arrives January 29th, Daredevil: Born Again on March 4th, Eyes of Wakanda on August 6th, and Marvel Zombies in October 2025 and Wonder Man in December 2025 all on Disney+.

The post New Marvel Trailer Reveals Footage From 2025 Disney+ Shows Including Daredevil, Wonder Man appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It was the Battle of the Century. Not 1976’s Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, as the 96-page blockbuster was billed, but the competition between rival publishers DC Comics and Marvel Comics. The Golden Age of comics, which began with the Man of Steel’s first appearance in the pages of Action Comics, saw the rise of such costumed characters as Batman, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Captain Marvel, the Human Torch, Wonder Woman, and Captain America. But it was during the Silver Age, in 1961, that Marvel Comics ushered in the Marvel age of comics with the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men, and Spider-Man, challenging the “Distinguished Competition” for top spot of the comic book industry.

“The two (extremely competitive!) rival giants in comic books had agreed to join forces and publish the first-ever company crossover superhero team book of all time,” inker Dick Giordano wrote in a foreword to 1991’s Crossover Classics: The Marvel/DC Collection. “It would be the fans’ ultimate wish fulfillment.”

The tabloid-sized publication presented by DC and Marvel was touted as “the greatest superhero team-up of all time,” featuring the two publishers’ “centerpiece” characters: Superman and Spider-Man. “It took the better part of seven months to finish the project, having to get approvals from both companies, each determined to protect the integrity of its own characters,” Giordano recalled.

[RELATED: Marvel Ultimate Universe: One Year In is the Ultimate Crossover]

DC and Marvel’s collaboration was written by Gerry Conway and penciled by Ross Andru, who each worked on Superman for DC and The Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel, with inks by Giordano, lettering by the legendary Gaspar Saladino, and coloring by the prolific Jerry Serpe. Roy Thomas (who edited 1975’s MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz #1, the first joint publication between DC and Marvel) served as a creative consultant, as did Marv Wolfman (co-creator of DC’s New Teen Titans and Marvel’s Blade). Finally, the issue was presented by DC’s Carmine Infantino and Marvel’s Stan Lee, who remarked of his relationship with Infantino: “Talk would turn to the one thing we both knew would someday have to happen; the one thing that all fandom was clamoring for. We knew we couldn’t keep our top heroes apart much longer.”

“Readers everywhere were demanding a team-up of the best of the old and the best of the new,” Lee wrote. “Superman, the first, most powerful, most famous caped crusader of all, and Spider-Man, the newest, most realistic, most popular wall-crawler on the scene today — both together, in one titanic, unforgettable adventure.”

The issue, priced at $2, was a major success. It would spawn a sequel, 1981’s Superman and Spider-Man, and future DC/Marvel crossovers: Batman battled the Hulk in a story by Len Wein and José Luis García-López. Super-teams the X-Men and the New Teen Titans crossed paths courtesy of Chris Claremont and Walt Simonson. Eventually, in the 1990s, DC and Marvel would bring together characters like Batman and the Punisher, Darkseid and Galactus, Green Lantern and the Silver Surfer, and Batman and the likes of Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Captain America.

For the first time in over 20 years, these stories and more are collected in the DC versus Marvel Omnibus, out now from DC Comics. The 1,096-page omnibus, which features a standard cover by artists George Pérez and John Kalisz (left) and a direct market variant full-wrap cover by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair (right), contains the following stories:

Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man #1, Marvel Treasury Edition #28, DC Special Series #27, Marvel and DC Present: Featuring the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans #1, Batman/Punisher: Lake of Fire #1, Punisher/Batman: Deadly Knights #1, Darkseid Vs. Galactus: The Hunger #1, Spider-Man and Batman #1, Green Lantern/Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances #1, Silver Surfer/Superman #1, Batman/Captain America #1, Daredevil/Batman #1, Batman/Spider-Man #1, Superman/Fantastic Four #1, Incredible Hulk Vs. Superman #1, and Batman/Daredevil #1.

However, the omnibus does not collect the 1996 crossover event series DC vs. Marvel / Marvel vs. DC, the four-issue series that pit the heroes of the DC and Marvel Universes against each other in the showdown of the century. That series, which culminated in a merger between the two universes under the short-lived Amalgam Comics imprint co-owned by DC and Marvel, will be collected in the companion omnibus DC Versus Marvel: The Amalgam Age Omnibus. That book has been delayed and currently has a placeholder date of Dec. 31, 2024.

The post DC Versus Marvel Superhero Crossovers Return to Print for First Time in Decades: Omnibus Overview appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania was supposed to be a pivotal launching point for the next chapter of the MCU, as in addition to being the third film in an already successful series it was also introducing the next epic Marvel Universe threat in Kang. Unfortunately the film failed to deliver on those expectations, both in terms of building out the MCU and in financial returns. A new report from Forbes sheds further light on the financial impact of the film though, revealing that it actually made even less than what was initially thought.

The Actual Profit

While pure numbers aren’t always easy to come by regarding studio films, things get a little easier when they film in the UK. That’s because there’s a popular tax credit called the AVEC (Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit), which gives the studio a cash reimbursement of up to 25.5% of they spend there. That means they need to have at least 10% of the production costs relate to activities in the UK, and they have to prove those expenses for the reimbursement process through financial statements.

From those financial statements and details, Forbes broke down just how much Disney was reimbursed for Ant Man and The Wasp Quantumania, and that amount came out to $58.3 million. This brought down the cost of the film from $388.4 million to $330.1 million, but once factored into the final tax and profit analysis, shows that the actual net profit for the film was $88.236 million.

The box office total was a drop from the previous film, as Ant-Man and The Wasp brought in a worldwide box office total of $622,674,139 million, while the original Ant-Man also bested it with a worldwide box office of $519,311,965 million. With this being the third film in the franchise and the much anticipated debut of Kang, it was thought Quantumania would easily blow by both of those totals, but that ultimately wasn’t the case.

[RELATED: Marvel Star Michael Douglas Wanted Hank Pym to Die in Last Ant-Man Movie]

“Absolutely Chaotic”

While reactions weren’t great, there was apparently also some chaos during production according to Jentorra star Kay O’Brian. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, O’Brian joked “That was absolutely chaotic. I think we were getting new pages until the last day, and I think I was getting new fights the last day. I just show up, and they’re like, ‘Here’s a new fight.'”

While things could have been more streamlined and less frantic, O’Brian still enjoyed the experience, especially in regards to the cast. “I thought me being this kind of like newbie, they might, I don’t know, either ignore me or I would just feel out of place, but they just always made it as welcoming as possible. I was surprised by that environment.”

Ant-Man and The Wasp” Quantumania is now streaming on Disney+.

What did you think of Quantumania? You can talk all things Disney and Marvel with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The post Ant-Man 3 Report Reveals MCU Sequel Made Abysmal Profit at Box Office appeared first on ComicBook.com.

With the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe set to begin next year with the arrival of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, there’s been a lot of speculation about what’s next when it comes next — especially in terms of the Avengers films. The next two Avengers films, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars aren’t set to arrive until 2026 and 2027 respectively with both films being directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, but that hasn’t stopped fans from asking some big questions, such as could we see a return of the biggest Marvel villain to date, Thanos. Now, speaking with Collider, Thanos actor Josh Brolin is addressing the possibility revealing that he has one condition to returning as the Mad Titan — the character has to fit.

“I’m not kidding — there’s a thing with playing Thanos. It’s like, ‘Oh, they’re gonna bring Thanos back.’ It’s like Sicario; it has to be right,” Brolin said. “It’s like Ryan Reynolds and I talking about Taylor Swift and we should be talking about Deadpool 4. But we go back and forth. Again, it’s what in his mind fits, what in my mind fits. Thanos has to fit if you’re going to bring him back. I would do anything that the Russos wanted me to do.”

[RELATED: Marvel Reveals 2025 Disney+ Release Schedule, Including Spider-Man Series]

Brolin’s condition does make a good bit of sense. After all, Thanos met his end in Avengers: Endgame (twice, technically, once when Thor decapitates him after the surviving heroes track him down and try to get the Infinity Stones to undo the events of Infinity War and then again at the end of Endgame when Tony Stark sacrifices himself with a new snap.) The villain’s death was a significant and powerful moment for the franchise so bringing him back in any capacity would have to similarly have meaning and “fit” with the story being told in the next Avengers films.  That said, the opportunity to create that fit is there when one looks to the comics. In Marvel’s Secret Wars comics, Thanos is a part of the storyline which sees Doctor Doom seizing power. That said, it doesn’t seem like Thanos’ involvement in the story would be particularly expansive, though at this point everything is speculation until more concrete details about plans for not just Avengers: Secret Wars but Avengers: Doomsday start to come to light.

As for Brolin, he has made comments about returning as Thanos before. Earlier this year, he told ComicBook that he didn’t know if they would bring Thanos back, though he had heard some things “through the grapevine”.

“You know, I hear kind of like through the grapevine, that they’re gonna bring him back,” Brolin said at the time. “And there’s the What If…? series and that’s a different kind of Thanos and all that. But I don’t know in the Marvel world whether they’re going to bring him back, but I didn’t know that he was the most killed-off Marvel villain …. You learn something new every day.”

As for the future of the Avengers movies more broadly, Joe Russo recently suggested that Avengers: Doomsday will be as game-changing as both Infinity War and Endgame, suggesting that whatever is coming with the eagerly anticipated film when it arrives in 2026 will be huge.

“We’re all very close,” Russo said about the connection with Robert Downey Jr, who is returning to the MCU for Doomsday not as Tony Stark/Iron Man but as Doctor Doom. “We had been working on another project before Marvel approached all of us — so we’re working on another project with Robert — and there was a story that evolved through conversations that we got very excited about. Because it’s always got to be the story.”

He continued, “Why would we come back if we didn’t feel like we had a story that had a possibility of being on an equal footing with Infinity War and Endgame unless there’s a kernel there for an idea that’s really explosive?”

Avengers: Doomsday is presently scheduled to open in theaters on May 1, 2026. Avengers: Secret Wars is presently scheduled to follow on May 7, 2027.

The post Josh Brolin Shares Condition for Bringing Back Thanos in Avengers: Secret Wars appeared first on ComicBook.com.

You didn’t think Wade Wilson would stay dead, did you? The regenerating degenerate died in Deadpool #6 in September when new villain Death Grip — a student of Death herself — absorbed the Muramasa Blade, a mystical weapon with the ability to nullify healing powers. Without his superhuman healing factor, Death Grip put the “Dead” in Deadpool as he tore Wade limb from limb. RIP (rest in pieces). Wade’s daughter, Ellie, made her debut as the new Deadpool in the pages of Deadpool #7 in October, but her solo stint is about to be as short-lived as a tray of chimichangas during a Golden Girls marathon.

Solicits for upcoming issues of Cody Ziglar’s run on Deadpool confirm that the Merc with a Mouth is set to return in Deadpool #10. Out Jan. 29, the issue sees the family business — assassins-for-hire firm Deadpool & Daughters, LLC, consisting of Ellie, symbiote dog Princess, Doug Siravanta, and the mercenary Taskmaster — back in, um, business, as the father-daughter Deadpool duo team up.

[RELATED: How to Watch Deadpool & Wolverine Online]

But first, Elliepool will face the mutant Atelier assassin Valentine Vuong and M.O.D.O.K., the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, as she seeks a way to resurrect her father, whose corpse is currently posed Weekend-at-Bernie’s-style in the conference room at D&D HQ.

Not-a-spoiler-alert: Wade will also headline a new ongoing series with his BBF (best bub forever) in Deadpool/Wolverine, which launches in January from writer Benjamin Percy (X-Force) and artist Joshua Cassera (X-Men).

Deadpool #8

IT AIN’T EASY BEING DEAD(POOL)! Ellie Camacho, Mini Merc with a Mouth, Regenerating Teen Degenerate… It’s no laughing matter wading into Wade’s wide world, but Ellie and her half sister symbiote-wolf, Princess, are going to kick butt and take names now that the original ‘Pool is out of the picture. And no one’s going to stand in the way of their REVENGE! But if Ellie can’t track down an OLD FRIEND of Deadpool’s, Ellie’s career just might end before it ever begins! RATED PARENTAL ADVISORY.

On sale: Nov. 13, 2024

Deadpool #9

MERCENARY OFFSPRING DEPLOYED ONLY (FOR) KILLING! ELLIE has big shoes to fill as the New DEADPOOL! She’s making her name as a mercenary – but will the new ‘Pool fall at the tiny hands of M.O.D.O.K., the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing?! A major turning point – don’t miss it! RATED PARENTAL ADVISORY.

On sale: Dec. 18, 2024

Deadpool/Wolverine #1

WADE AND LOGAN – TOGETHER AGAIN! The most unlikely team-up turned most demanded one, DEADPOOL and WOLVERINE are BACK! Together again and ready to blow your minds in this ongoing series that hits like a never-ending action movie – with the fate of the world in the balance! When a fan-favorite VILLAIN is unearthed, you’ll get to see a new side of our heroes and their adversary, as an ages-long plan comes to fruition. And the only thing that stands between the Earth and annihilation is the Best There Is and the Merc With The Mouth. Brought to you by another legendary pairing – writer Benjamin Percy (WOLVERINE, HELLVERINE) and artist Joshua Cassara (X-FORCE, X-MEN) – these comic superstars put your favorite super heroes through their paces in a series chock-full of surprises, twist reveals and a villainous plot that’ll turn long-term and newly arriving X-readers’ heads. This is one for the pull list! RATED PARENTAL ADVISORY.

On sale: Jan. 1, 2025

Deadpool #10

HE’S BAAAA-AAAACK! THE RETURN OF WADE WILSON! DEADPOOL is in the house! And so is, uh, the new DEADPOOL! But WADE’s resurrection has come with a cost, and if WADE and ELLIE can’t cope, this may just spell the dissolution of Deadpool & Daughters! A new jumping-on point as an all-new chapter begins here! RATED PARENTAL ADVISORY.

On sale: Jan. 29, 2025

The post Deadpool: Marvel Is Bringing Wade Wilson Back From the Dead appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Venom is at it again. Not long ago, Venom: The Last Dance made its debut, and it was there fans watched the unexpected come to life. Eddie Brock’s made sure his return to the big screen wouldn’t fly under the radar. It is hard to ignore the insanity that is Venom’s new movie, and for good measure, the blockbuster locked in an anime collab that no one saw coming.

The whole thing came to light this week as Venom: The Last Dance went live in the United States. The movie, which is the third Venom has welcomed with Sony Pictures, has been a trip. Over in Japan, Eddie and his symbiote partner were eager to plug their comeback, so the pair negotiated not one but two different anime deals.

Venom Collides With the World of Anime

As for the first deal? Venom comes face to face with Brave Bang Bravern. The anime went live this year as part of the Brave franchise, and Venom is now linking up with the show. As you can see below, a promo was released in Japan for Brave Bang Bravern that shows its stars watching Venom: The Last Dance. In return, the Marvel movie posted a promo of its own, and it shows the character Isami being interrogated about the movie after watching it in theaters.

For the second anime deal, we have GeGeGe no Kitaro to thank. The classic anime posted a key visual that combines Venom: The Last Dance with The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe. Toko Yatabe, the current designer behind GeGeGe no Kitaro, posted a note about the wild crossover after being asked to tackle Venom. It turns out the artist never saw the collab coming, but he is grateful to work with an IP as diverse as Marvel.

“I never thought Venom and The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe would collaborate! I was surprised when I first heard about it, but when I heard the catchphrase, ‘Our Partners Are Not Human,’ I thought, ‘I see!’ Both movies are exciting stories about different species of buddies who rely on each other to save the world, so please enjoy Venom: The Last Dance and The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe this fall,” the artist shared.

What Happens When Anime Becomes Marketing Tool?

Clearly, Venom: The Last Dance looked around when making its anime deals, and the promotions are now live overseas. No one would have expected the Marvel series to team with Brave Bang Bravern, but that is the beauty of Venom. The symbiote rarely does what we expect, and that is true whether we’re talking canon or not.

The blockbuster is also just one of many to lean into anime when promoting itself in Japan. Countless films have launched cross-promotions when facing the Japanese market. Not long ago, Dandadan stirred buzz when creator Tatsu Yukinobu collaborated with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. From the Star Wars franchise to Frozen and more, the trend is only growing. For years, these collaborations were sequestered overseas, but the rise of anime globally has raised their public profile. The Internet is more than happy to route these PR deals, and Venom: The Last Dance is the latest movie to take center stage.

As anime continues to grow, you can expect these cross promotions to grow in kind. Hollywood knows the power of anime, after all. The industry makes billions each year, and most importantly, it appeals to a key demographic. With Gen Z and Gen Alpha eating up anime, the industry has given Hollywood a new tool to reach younger audiences. Venom: The Last Dance is not the first blockbuster to take advantage of that optic, and it is not going to be the last.

What do you make of this latest Hollywood collaboration? Did you see this Venom promo coming? Give me a shout at @meganwpeters with your take! You can also let us know what you think over on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

The post Venom: The Last Dance Unveils an Unexpected Anime Crossover appeared first on ComicBook.com.

24 months. That’s how long the Ultimates have to fix the world remade by the Maker, the villainous Reed Richards of Earth-1610, who used the Immortus Engine to reshape reality into Earth-6160: the new Ultimate Universe. This universe’s Iron Man (Howard Stark) and Doom (Reed Richards) trapped the Maker inside his City for two years, at which point the Dome will open and this universe’s progenitor will return. Time is running out.

The new Ultimates escaped six months into the future to form the Ultimate Network, a superhero resistance consisting of the teenage Tony Stark (Iron Lad), Doom, Thor, Lady Sif, Captain America, the Human Torch (Jim Hammond), She-Hulk (Lejori Zakaria), Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Giant-Man (Hank Pym), America Chavez, and Hawkeye (Charli Hawks Eyes).

As the Ultimates assembled to unmake the Maker’s reality — by recreating the main Marvel Universe, Earth-616 — Tony set Peter Parker back on the course to become Spider-Man 20 years after the teen was supposed to be bitten by a radioactive spider.

[RELATED: Marvel’s New Ultimate Universe, Explained]

Meanwhile, the entire roster will unite for the first time in November’s The Ultimates #6 by Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri. The conclusion to the first Ultimates arc pits the heroes led by Iron Lad against the Immortal Weapons, the gamma-mutated army of the Hulk, who is out to smash the insurgent superheroes threatening to upend the world order ruled by the Maker’s Council.

The secret council of supervillains ruling the world from the shadows has been pulling the strings in the pages of The Ultimates, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Ultimate Black Panther — and it all comes to a head in Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1. The one-shot special by Camp and artist Jonas Scharf (Avengers of the Wastelands) is the finale to the first year of Marvel’s new Ultimate line, and will set the stage for its second year with the introduction of two new characters: Ultimate Nick Fury and Ultimate Wolverine, the Winter Soldier.

Marvel Comics will mark the one-year anniversary of the new Ultimate Universe with foil variant covers for the 13th issues of Ultimate Spider-Man (by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto), Ultimate Black Panther (by Bryan Edward Hill and Stefano Caselli), Ultimate X-Men (by Peach Momoko), and Ultimates (by Camp and Frigeri). In addition to the One Year In foil variant covers, artist Josemaria Casanovas (Edge of Spider-Verse) is uniting the heroes and villains of the Ultimate Universe on a six-piece connecting cover series (below) paying homage to Jim Lee’s X-Men (1991) #1 cover.

The covers span upcoming issues of Ultimate X-Men #8 (Oct. 30), Ultimates #6 (Nov. 6), Ultimate Spider-Man #11 (Nov. 20), Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1 (Dec. 11), Ultimate Black Panther #11 (Dec. 25), and Ultimate Wolverine #1 (Jan. 15), the first in an ongoing series by writer Chris Condon (Venom War: Daredevil) and artist Alessandro Cappuccio (Moon Knight). Year two of the Ultimate Universe will span the final 12 months until the Maker is no longer imprisoned in the City.

The Ultimate line’s second year will also feature Maystorm’s X-Men in Ultimate X-Men, Hickman’s homage to Kraven’s Last Hunt in Ultimate Spider-Man, T’Challa’s encounter with the Ultimate Sorcerer Supreme in Ultimate Black Panther, and the origin of Ultimate Luke Cage in Ultimates.

Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1

THE CLOCK IS TICKING DOWN TO THE MAKER’S ARRIVAL! Deniz Camp flips the narrative on ULTIMATES and takes us inside the Maker’s Council! The heroes of the Ultimate Universe aren’t the only ones who have been preparing for the return of the Maker, and the clock is ticking down… This unique one-shot sets the stage for the second year of the Ultimate line and includes the debut of the Ultimate versions of two major Marvel characters!
On sale: Dec. 11, 2024

Ultimate Wolverine #1

THE MAKER’S ULTIMATE WEAPON! From rising star Chris Condon (That Texas Blood) and MOON KNIGHT powerhouse artist Alessandro Cappuccio comes the story of the ULTIMATE WOLVERINE! In order to maintain control of their corner of the Maker’s world, three members of his council – Magik, Colossus and Omega Red – deploy their most lethal asset: The Winter Soldier! But WHO is the weapon behind the mask?
On sale: Jan. 15, 2025

Ultimate Spider-Man #13

KRAVEN’S MOST DANGEROUS GAME! The Sinister Six are all hunting Spider-Man and the Green Goblin for their ringleader, Kingpin – and this time, Kraven has the upper hand in Jonathan Hickman & Marco Checchetto’s love letter to “Kraven’s Last Hunt”!
On sale: Jan. 22, 2025

Ultimate X-Men #11

WHO ARE THE X-MEN? RISE OF THE MASKED MUTANTS! Maystorm takes the reins! No more hiding their powers – even if it means hiding their faces! Disenfranchised and despairing after the raid on the Children of the Atom, the man-made mutants seek out leadership – and Maystorm is ready to rise to the occasion!
On sale: Jan. 29, 2025

Ultimates #9

LUKE CAGE AND THE ULTIMATE PRISON BREAK! Juan Frigeri joins Deniz Camp to bring us the history and the future of Luke Cage! Spider-Man isn’t the only success story of Ultimates 1.0…meet the man who has been quietly sabotaging the Maker’s Council from behind bars!
On sale: Feb. 5, 2025

Ultimate Black Panther #13

ULTIMATE BLACK PANTHER: YEAR TWO STARTS HERE! With MOON KNIGHT defeated and the Maker’s Council forced to regroup, T’Challa must learn the secrets of vibranium – because his very life and soul are at risk! The SORCERER SUPREME can help understand the truth of the terrifying element that built Wakanda, but her aid comes with a price…

The post Marvel’s Ultimate Universe: One Year In is the Ultimate Crossover appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Venom: The Last Dance introduced Marvel’s god of the symbiotes, Knull, into Sony’s Spider-Man Universe franchise – but is that as far as the villain’s reach goes? Marvel fans know that Knull is a “big bad” in the biggest sense – a character that was teased in years of Venom comic storylines before finally escaping his prison and launching a massive symbiote invasion of Earth, which required the combined efforts of Marvel’s earthbound and cosmic heroes to defeat. With that kind of precedence, fans wonder if the onscreen version of Knull will be a similar threat – not only to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe but to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well.

Does Knull Already Know About the MCU?

In Venom: The Last Dance it’s established that there is a connection between Knull and all of his symbiote “children,” to the point that the symbiote and Eddie Brock can’t access their full Venom form, lest they immediately signal their position to Knull. That detail could be key to (finally) connecting the Venom franchise with the MCU.

When Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home were both released in 2021, they set up an exciting story arc that saw Eddie Brock/Venom (Tom Hardy) transported from the SSU to the MCU. Unfortunately, nothing really came of that reality-hopping event: Venom never showed up for the fight in No Way Home, and got snatched back to his home universe in The Last Dance. However, the post-credits scene of No Way Home made it clear that Venom left a little piece of himself behind on Earth-616, teeing up the MCU to have its own symbiote saga. If Knull is connected to all symbiotes, he presumably can sense the piece of Venom that exists in another reality – especially if that small bit of symbiote residue eventually bonds with a host and becomes a whole new Venom. Once that happens, Knull will have a roadmap across realities, to the MCU.

Will Spider-Man 4 Feature Knull?

The theory that Knull could be headed for the MCU has only been exacerbated by the recent news about Spider-Man 4:

We now know that Spider-Man 4 will be released in July of 2026, after Avengers: Doomsday (May 2026) but before Avengers: Secret Wars (May 2027). That has raised serious questions about how Tom Holland’s Peter Parker will react to seeing a Doctor Doom variant of his mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), and what kind of peril he’ll find himself in.

Based on Marvel’s history of Secret Wars stories, it’s a safe bet that Avengers: Doomsday will feature an event that finally fractures the Marvel Multiverse, with Doom having the mix of science and sorcery required to pull together a “Battleworld,” i.e. a Frankenstein mix of fragments from different realities, all mashed together as the last bastion of existence. It’s been a popular theory that the MCU heroes who survive Doomsday will be stranded in that Battleworld arena, where they will have to find each other and re-assemble, to reboot the multiverse (or the sacred timeline of the MCU) and soft-reboot the franchise with a new collection of characters.

That leaves Spider-Man 4 as the only currently confirmed MCU project that could be set in the Battleworld reality. If that’s the case, the realities of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and the MCU could finally overlap – meaning that Knull, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, and the Venom symbiote could all end up in the same film, without needing to do a whole lot of explaining.

These Marvel movie franchises – Marvel Studios, Sony, Fox-Marvel – have become too convoluted for most fans to follow – and yet, the end of the Marvel Multiverse Saga may let them all combine their strengths. Sony has a promising big bad, but no marquee character to battle him; Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise is looking for a blockbuster-sized villain to take on in his next film while offering fans the novelty of something like a black-suit-Spider-Man story in the MCU. Don’t be surprised to see it happen.

Venom: The Last Dance in now in theaters.

The post Venom 3: Is Knull Going to Be An MCU Big Bad? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Robert Downey, Jr. has become one of the highest-paid movie stars of all time, and he intends to use that money and cache to push back against ghoulish executives who would use technology to try and recreate his likeness. Appearing on the On With Kara Swisher podcast, Downey said that he trusts those currently in power at Marvel not to abuse his trust, and that when they’re gone (and after he’s dead), his attorneys will be looking out for him.

Asked about digital clones bringing Iron Man or other iconic performances back without his involvement, Downey shot it down pretty quickly, saying that while he doesn’t give the notion a lot of thought, he isn’t worried about it becoming an immediate problem.

“To go back to the MCU, I am not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there’s like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me, with or without me,” Downey told Swisher.

After she noted that executives are replaceable, and future executives won’t be held to that same code of conduct, Downey quipped, “Well, you’re right. I would like to here state that I intend to sue all future executives just on spec.”

When Swisher countered that he might be dead by then, Downey added, “But my law firm will still be very active.”

Likeness rights are likely to be one of the next big legal questions with the rise of generative artificial intelligence and other digital technologies that can create believable digital replicas of individuals.

A lot of attention has gone to people using generative AI to create deepfake nudes and other inappropriate images and videos featuring people who do not consent, with San Francisco suing one of the sites that powers that tech. In Hollywood, though, there are already years of precedent that “resurrecting” dead actors (like Star Wars‘s Peter Cushing) is acceptable behavior.

The use of generative AI has become a sticking point in writing and acting contract negotiations already, with last year’s WGA strikes dragging on after studios tried to insist that they wanted to use AI for a variety of tasks currently part of the writers’ purview.

Downey’s Iron Man persona is retired (at least for now) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he will return in 2026 with Avengers: Doomsday, in which he will play the role of villain Doctor Doom.

h/t Variety

The post Robert Downey Jr. Shuts Down Idea of Digital Likeness Replicas, Even After Death appeared first on ComicBook.com.

We’ve got a better idea of when a host of Marvel shows will make their debut on Disney+. A new listing by Disney includes release dates and timeframes for several Marvel shows, including Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies, and Wonder Man. We’ve already seen reports of when the Spider-Man animated series will premiere on Disney+, though that was quickly debunked. If this new listing is accurate, can expect Spidey to swing onto Disney+ in the beginning of 2025. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will be joined by two more animated series, Eyes of Wakanda and Marvel Zombies, as well as the live-action Wonder Man.

The following is the reported release schedule for Marvel shows on Disney+ (via Nexus Point News): Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (January 29, 2025), Eyes of Wakanda (August 6, 2025), Marvel Zombies (October 2025), and Wonder Man (December 2025).

The March 4, 2025 release date for Daredevil: Born Again was already confirmed by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, and we know Ironheart is scheduled for a 2025 release. The dates for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Eyes of Wakanda are new, as well as the release windows for Marvel Zombies and Wonder Man.

Marvel reveals logos for Eyes of Wakanda and Wonder Man

The release dates aren’t the only new information we got from Marvel. The studio also unveiled logos for Eyes of Wakanda and Wonder Man. Eyes of Wakanda is described as a four-part animated anthology series that follows warriors throughout Wakandan history who are tasked with traveling the world to retrieve Vibranium artifacts. According to Marvel’s head of streaming television, Brad Winderbaum, it’s the Marvel Animation series most tied to the MCU.

“Eyes of Wakanda, more than any other show we’re doing in animation, ties directly into the MCU,” Winderbaum told Marvel’s Official Podcast. “This is a story about Wakandan history. It’s produced by Ryan Coogler and directed by Todd Harris, who is one of our longtime storyboard artists who I first met when he designed the Hulk vs. Thor fight in [Thor] Ragnarok.”

“It’s an awesome show. The action is insane and the storytelling is fantastic. It’s both about the history of Wakanda, but also expands into the greater MCU at different time periods,” Winderbaum continued. “If you’re a fan of the movies, I think this show is going to be a real treat.”

Wonder Man is one of the shows that falls under the new Marvel Spotlight banner. These shows are less connected to the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe, to allow a more general audience to be able to tune in without having to know so much background information. Echo was the first foray into the Marvel Spotlight banner, with Wonder Man carrying the torch.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will star as the titular Wonder Man, and Kevin Feige recently teased how different Wonder Man will be from the previous series they’ve done.

“Marvel is The House of Ideas, it’s always been The House of Ideas, and I hope we’ll always be the House of Ideas. Which means, taking new storylines and new characters to new places. Sometimes they’ll hit and sometimes they won’t,” Feige told The Official Marvel Podcast. “When you stop trying is when you atrophy and the whole thing will fall in on itself. I think it’s trying to tell new and unique stories in different ways. We have a show coming up that we’ve talked very little about called Wonder Man, that I won’t talk about much today either except to say it’s extremely different than what we’ve done before.”

Are you excited for all this Marvel content we’re getting on Disney+ in 2025? Let us know your thoughts on social media @ComicBook!

The post Marvel Reveals 2025 Disney+ Release Schedule, Including Spider-Man Series appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The LEGO Marvel X-Men: The X-Mansion (76294) set is going to be one of the hottest releases of the year, and your chance to pick one up is rapidly approaching. It features 3,093 pieces, 10 minfigures, a buildable Sentinel, and a price tag of $329.99. What’s more LEGO Insiders will be treated to the LEGO Marvel Cerebro (5009015) set as a gift with their purchase while they last, which probably won’t be long. It wouldn’t be surprising if this set becomes difficult to find during the holiday shopping rush, so here’s everything you need to know to get yours.

The LEGO Marvel X-Men: The X-Mansion Buildable Set will be available first to LEGO Insiders starting on October 31st / November 1st at 9pm PT / 12am ET online here at LEGO. You can sign up for a free LEGO Insiders account right here. It will be available to the general public at the same time and in the same place on November 4th. However, we expect that the LEGO Marvel Cerebro gift set could sell out before the general release, so you’ll want to grab your copy as soon as possible. Note that the gift will only be available to LEGO Insiders.

Naturally, the LEGO X-Mansion set will be packed with details like a Cerebro element, switchable Danger Room items, an exploding cupola, a motorcycle for Wolverine, as well tons of graphical nods to the X-Men franchise. As noted, it will also include a buildable Sentinel and 10 minifigures, 5 of which are all-new for this set. These figures include Professor X in his wheelchair, a new variation of Jean Grey, Gambit, Iceman and Bishop. There’s also Magneto, Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops, and Rogue. You can take a closer look at some of the fun features of LEGO’s newest Marvel set in the image gallery below.

The LEGO Marvel Cerebro set (5009015) includes a minifigure of Professor Xavier in his wheelchair, a custom-printed “Cerebro” element and a blue transparent component on the console displaying Jubilee.

You can find all of the upcoming LEGO releases for November 2024 here in the “Coming Soon” section.  After the launch, they will shift here in the “Available Now” section. Some of the new releases will be available here on Amazon, but in most cases you’ll want to stick with LEGO to take advantage of their special offers. Everything you need to know about LEGO’s November lineup can be found right here.

The post The LEGO Marvel X-Men X-Mansion Set Is About To Drop appeared first on ComicBook.com.

There are just two episodes left of Marvel’s Agatha All Along and as we come to the end of The Witches’ Road, it’s hard not to notice that there’s something just a little unusual about it. We’re not talking the witchiness of it all. This is, after all, a magical path so a little bit of witchy strangeness is expected. No, the oddness in question here has more to do with fine details and the trials and, specifically, how they all seem to tie back to Billy. The deeper we get on the journey (and now that we’ve gotten a glimpse into Billy’s life as William Kaplan), the more we notice that The Witches’ Road and its trials seems to reflect Billy’s tastes and preferences and it’s making us wonder: is the road real at all or could this all be part of some new elaborate Westview hex that Wanda Maximoff’s son doesn’t know he’s creating in the first place?

Now, even from the beginning Agatha Harkness’ experience with the Road has been suspect — we’ve theorized that she’s lying about having done it. After all, her being the only known survivor pretty much makes it easy for her to just assert her success because no one is there to challenge her, but when we really look at how the coven came together and got this whole party started — particularly just how involved in the whole process Billy actually was — it seems more like the reality of the Road has always been in question. Each of the other witches knew of the Road, but thought it was a myth — Alice and Agatha both even said so — but it’s Billy who convinces them it’s real and they should walk it.  More than that, when the coven tries to open the road, they don’t seem to have much luck but it’s when Billy is in danger that things really pop off and he’s the first to head down the path and onto it. He also seems to know the most about the road and while we’ve been shown how obsessive he is in his research as it is linked to his identity, to know that much about the Road seems unusual.

The Case for The Witches’ Road Being a Hex

The real “clues” that the Road could be something of Billy’s creation comes in when you closely look at the trials and how each one seems to line up with aspects of Billy’s interests and tastes. While each trial is focused on a different witch, they all seem to have some influence from Billy. The first trial lines up with Jen’s brand aesthetic, which is something that we saw in the flashback to Billy’s life as William Kaplan that Billy admired and was interested in. The second trial is centered around Lorna Wu and her Ballad, but the flashback also revealed that Billy is a bit of a Lorna Wu superfan who had her records and was apparently pretty regularly spinning them, particularly Lorna’s Ballad. The third trial is 80s horror film themed and, again, in the flashback, we are shown that Billy is a horror fan. Then, the most recent trial, the 4th, features fictional witches — notably Maleficent and both the Wicked Witch and Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz.

[RELATED: Agatha All Along: The Witches’ Road, Explained ]

You already know where we’re going with this: Billy has depictions of The Wizard of Oz and its witches in his bedroom. But it isn’t just the aesthetics of each trial that are very Billy-coded. Billy also seems to have some sort of innate mastery of each trial. He’s the person who figures out what they need to do each time and he’s also the one who is more or less always solving them in some fashion. That isn’t to say that each trial isn’t truly for the different members of the coven, but Billy seems to be very connected to each one in some fashion. Deviating from the trials, the Road also doesn’t seem to really conform to any real rules. There were no actual consequences for Lilia and Jen when they were tossed off of it. Rio came onto the road by being summoned, which doesn’t appear to be how one is supposed to access The Witches’ Road at all, and perhaps even more curious is that Jen spotted an exit: the unfinished transit system underneath Westview. For a Road that is supposed to be an all-encompassing journey once you embark on it, having an exit seems odd, but it does seem like something that might exist if the Road is actually a spell. Maybe Billy wanted there to be an “out” if things reached a certain point.

Does Billy Know It’s a Hex?

With so many elements of The Witches’ Road being very Billy-coded and connected to him in some way, it’s hard to not to wonder is the whole thing is a creation of his own magic that he’s not really aware he’s creating. It is possible that there is a real Witches’ Road that the myths and stories came from, but this one may be a hex, something created out of Billy’s own need. Agatha even tells Billy he’s so much like his mother and we know that it’s Wanda’s unwitting creation of a sitcom world for herself that led to all of this in the first place. It isn’t a stretch to consider that Billy, experiencing his own heightened emotions and having a desperate need for answers about himself and his brother, Tommy, may have accidentally willed this version of the Road into reality. He may even very well believe this this is all real; after all, Billy doesn’t really know how to use his powers. It’s an element that makes this all the more interesting. It is also worth noting that being able to create his own Witches’ Road is something that is very. much in the scope of his abilities. One of Billy’s powers in comics is reality warping — which really is a like mother, like son situation.

If the Road really is a manifestation of Billy’s magic, there are a lot of implications. First, it makes the deaths of Mrs. Hart, Alice, and even Lilia more profound and even more heartbreaking. It also would tie into the conversation between Agatha and Billy about witches being willing to kill other witches for their own goals — something Billy said he wouldn’t do but now seems less likely. It also makes one question what will happen when we get to the end of the Road. When Wanda was faced with the reality of what she was really doing with the hex, it was devastating. If we get to the end of the Road and realize this was all Billy’s creation, it could be devastating for him as well and there’s no way of knowing how he would react to that. It could also, however, work into another theory that we’ve floated previously about Agatha All Along being a redemption story for the titular witch. If it turns out that this Road really is a hex that Billy has created, Agatha has an opportunity to do the right thing and help guide Billy, rather than antagonize her the way she did Wanda. It opens up a chance for Agatha to be better, which could end up being where this whole path has been headed the whole time.

Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+. New episodes arrive Wednesdays at 9pm ET.

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Spider-Noir is starting to make waves as Marvel fans and mainstream TV viewers alike take notice of Nicolas Cage on set filming the Spider-Man spinoff series. As the curiosity of Spider-Noir peaks, so do questions about how this live-action series – and the decision to cast Nic Cage in it – connects to Sony’s Spider-Verse animated film series. With Cage playing the animated version of Spider-Man Noir in that film series – and now in this live-action spinoff – there’s understandably one big question Marvel fans are asking:

Is Spider-Noir Setting Up A Live-Action Spider-Verse Crossover?

There’s been a lot of speculation about how Sony plans to wrap up the animated Spider-Verse Trilogy with Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. The animated films have centered around Mile Morales/Spider-Man (Shamiek Moore), a character that Marvel fans have wanted to see get a live-action adaptation. Given the multiverse story elements of the Spider-Verse films, a big theory has been that the trilogy will end with Miles and other select characters getting either merged with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (currently in its own Multiverse Saga storyline) or have their respective universes explored in more depth through live-action spinoffs like Spider-Noir. Every franchise universe needs some kind of culminating event, and once the Spider-Verse characters start getting live-action adaptations, it seems inevitable that we see the full scope of the animated films – the fantastical stories and spider-character ensembles – realized in live-action, as well.

What’s fun about Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is that a live-action Spider-Verse crossover doesn’t have to happen on the scale of a blockbuster movie – it could be a TV event that runs through whatever shows Sony (along with Amazon/MGM) gets off the ground. If Sony wants to go big, then TV-level characters like Spider-Man Noir could be brought up to the theatrical movie level to be featured alongside movie marquee characters like Spider-Man or Venom. There are several ways to make Spider-Man TV and movie content feel more in synch in terms of quality and relevance, and establish some new character IPs along the way.

First things first: however: Spider-Noir needs to be a successful TV series for this next era of Sony Spider-Man Universe to have legs. So far, the movies have burned through one trilogy (Venom) and several character launches (Miles Morales, Morbius, Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter) without actually converging into an actual shared universe – and without connecting back to any of the live-action Spider-Man films that have come before. In the sequel film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse it was established that the multiversal Spider-Society has eyes on the MCU, which could vastly expand the scope (and hype) of what it means to have a live-action Spider-Verse crossover. If three Spider-Men can swing Spider-Man: No Way Home to a billion-dollar box office, imagine what a Spider-Man MCU movie with live-action Spider-Verse characters (like Nic Cage’s Spider-Man Noir) would be able to achieve as an event film?

At the rate things are going, a live-action Spider-Verse film might actually be quicker and easier to complete than actually finishing the Spider-Verse animated trilogy. We wish that was a joke…

MORE: Everything to Know About Nic Cage’s Spider-Noir TV Series

Spider-Noir is currently in production and is set to be released on MGM+ in 2025.

The post Will Spider-Man Noir’s Series Lead to a Live-Action Spider-Verse Crossover? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Venom: The Last Dance purports itself to be the end of the journey for Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, but that doesn’t mean the Venom movie franchise is over. In fact, Venom 3 has been leaving some fans confused as the threequel very much does the opposite of bringing the franchise to a close: it sets up entirely new storylines that can extend beyond the Venom franchise into the larger sandbox of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, with a “King In Black” crossover event with Knull.

But Sony can also keep going with the Venom solo franchise – with or without Tom Hardy – thanks to years of precedence set by the comics.

How Venom Movies Can Continue With or Without Tom Hardy

If Tom Hardy Returns – Tom Hardy may be done with the Venom movie series in the sense that he’s done with having to lead and produce movies where he’s giving a dual performance dialed up to eleven. Hardy has been the first one to let people know that should Sony or even Marvel Studios come to him asking for another Eddie Brock/Venom performance in some kind of crossover with Spider-Man, or King in Black event film, he’d answer that call.

The comic book version of King In Black saw Eddie and Venom ally with Spider-Man to fight Knull and an army of symbiotes that surround Earth and block it off from the sun. Eddie replaced Knull as the King in Black, becoming the new god of the symbiotes (at the cost of his humanity). A “King in Black” movie could see the dark anti-heroes of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (Morbius, Kraven, Venom) having to track down Hardy’s Eddie Brock and get him back together with the Venom symbiote in order to defeat Knull. That kind of scenario would only require Hardy to be one man in an ensemble cast, with limited screen time, and still get an epic showcase (and possible new arc) in the finale. It’s the kind of event worthy of Hardy making a return.

If Tom Hardy Doesn’t Return – The Venom symbiote has had several major hosts (and even more temporary ones) in Marvel Comics lore. One character a lot of Marvel fans want to see explored is “Agent Venom,” the version of the symbiote worn by Peter Parker’s old school bully Flash Thompson. Thompson (now a soldier serving in the Middle East) was wounded in combat and had his legs amputated. The former athlete is recruited into “Project Rebirth,” which gives him the Venom symbiote (with a tight least regarding bonding and usage) to make him the ultimate covert operative. “Agent Venom” eventually breaks loose of government shackles and becomes a full-fledged hero, and eventually the “Agent Anti-Venom” version the character. Sony retooling Venom as an action-espionage film with a superhero bend is the John Wick-meets-Marvel angle that could be box office gold!

Another big Venom host from the comics is Mac Gargan, the Spider-Man villain Scorpion who wore the Venom symbiote through the mid-2000s. Gargan’s Venom took the character back to classic villainy and mayhem committing crimes and eating brains. Eventually, Norman Osborn recruited Gargan’s Venom to his “Dark Avengers” team to impersonate a new black-suit version of Spider-Man. The story of a criminal masquerading as Venom and/or Spider-Man is the kind of soft reboot the Venom films could also work with.

Finally, let’s not forget there’s still the classic Venom origin story that has yet to be done – the one where the symbiote suit first bonds with Peter Parker, and learns about all the spider powers that explain why Venom takes on the form he does. If any of the Spider-Man actors (Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire) takes over as the star of the next Venom movie, it’s already a guaranteed box office hit – even more so if Tom Hardy shows up wanting his suit back.

Venom: The Last Dance Is now in theaters.

The post How the Venom Movies Can Continue – With or Without Tom Hardy appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Back in 2019, Avengers: Endgame seemed to be the sendoff for both Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and also for directors Joe and Anthony Russo within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed Downey and the Russos were returning for Avengers: Doomsday. While all of these figures have gone on to explore other storytelling realms since 2019, Joe Russo recently teased that he wouldn’t have returned to the MCU if it wasn’t for good reason, claiming that the upcoming Doomsday is on “equal footing” for how game-changing both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame were for the superhero genre. Avengers: Doomsday currently has a release date of May 1, 2026.

“We’re all very close,” Joe Russo shared with GamesRadar+ of the connection between the filmmakers and Downey. “We had been working on another project before Marvel approached all of us – so we’re working on another project with Robert – and there was a story that evolved through conversations that we got very excited about. Because it’s always got to be the story.”

He continued, “Why would we come back if we didn’t feel like we had a story that had that possibility of being on an equal footing with Infinity War and Endgame unless there’s a kernel there for an idea that’s really explosive?”

[RELATED – How Marvel’s Fantastic Four Could Set-Up Avengers: Secret Wars With Just Two Actors]

Virtually ever since Endgame, the Russo brothers and Downey have been asked about the likelihood of a return in any capacity, which resulted in a broad spectrum of answers about such returns. The Russo brothers have often expressed that a project in which Secret Wars could be brought to life would be enticing to them, with those hopes being announced as a reality at this year’s SDCC.

While fans are understandably excited about the upcoming returns, it comes as a result of a tumultuous period for the studio. Before Feige confirmed that Avengers 5 would be Doomsday, the project was expected to be Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Much like the studio had done with Thanos, various installments in the MCU were poising Jonathon Majors’s Kang the Conqueror to be the multiverse-spanning threat, specifically with Kang’s inclusion in Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. In 2023, Majors was found guilty on charges of both assault and harassment, resulting in Marvel announcing that they were parting ways with the performer.

The narrative seeds of Kang’s importance in the MCU understandably caused a number of questions about how the franchise would handle the figure going forward. With Kang not having earned as significant of a footprint within the MCU as Thanos and with The Fantastic Four: First Steps set to be released in 2025, the franchise likely has a more organic opportunity to hint at Doctor Doom next year before Downey fully embraces the character for the 2026 Doomsday.

Avengers: Doomsday is set to hit theaters on May 1, 2026.

Are you looking forward to the return of the Russo brothers? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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Spider-Noir is Amazon’s upcoming live-action Spider-Man TV series, featuring Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir character, who was a breakout hit of Sony’s Spider-Verse animated films. No doubt Spider-Man Noir is now a mainstream character thanks to Cage’s performance in the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; however, Cage wasn’t the first acclaimed actor to play Spider-Man Noir onscreen!

Who Played Spider-Man Noir Before Nic Cage?

This Is Us and Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia voiced an animated version of Spider-Man Noir in the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series (2012-2017). He was featured in the multi-episode Season 3 story arc “The Spider-Verse (Pt. 2)” where he both scrapped and teamed up with Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Drake Bell) from the “Prime Universe.” Spider-Man Noir was part of a coalition of Spider-Man variants (Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Girl, Spider-Ham, Spyder-Knight, Miles Morales) who are targeted by Norman Osborn/Green Goblin to have their DNA stolen, so Norman can become the “Spider-Goblin.” The animated version of the story drew from Spider-Man comics at the time, while also setting the stage for the Spider-Verse concept to get a blockbuster movie adaptation a few years later.

Ventimiglia’s Spider-Man Noir was a big geeky Easter egg when he appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man – but ironically, that more comic-accurate version (from a “Noir Universe” modeled after 1930s Film Noir) will now be the subject matter viewers get in this live-action Spider-Noir series. Thanks to Nic Cage’s comedic idiosyncracies, fans already buy into Spider-Man/Peter Parker Noir’s strange cadences and mannerisms – if Amazon MGM Studios can sell them on that entire world, Sony’s live-action Spider-Verse franchise takes a critical step forward, as Spider-Noir is the first (and most high-profile) TV series in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which has already seen projects (Silk: Spider Society) die in development.

READ MORE: Everything We Know About Spider-Noir

Spider-Noir will co-star Lamorne Morris (New Girl) as Robbie Robertson; additional cast members include Lukas Haas (Inception), Cameron Britton (Mindhunter), Cary Christopher (Days of Our Lives), Michael Kostroff (Luke Cage), Scott MacArthur (The Righteous Gemstones), Joe Massingill (Barry), Whitney Rice (Jury Duty), and Amanda Schull (Suits) in recurring roles. 

Emmy Award-winning director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Killing Eve) directs the series and will executive produce the first two episodes. Oren Uziel (The Lost City, 22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (Marvel’s The Punisher, Shantaram),  serve as co-showrunners and executive producers and developed the series with the Academy Award-winning team behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal.

Spider-Noir is currently in production. It will air on MGM+ in 2025.

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Deadpool & Wolverine is giving fans even more variants of Wolverine. This week features the release of Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine: The Art of the Movie, a deluxe art book that takes fans behind-the-scenes of Deadpool 3. It’s always fun to get to look behind the curtain and see what went into making these blockbuster projects, including a gallery of never-before-seen artwork. We’ve already seen a lot of concept art for Deadpool & Wolverine, but the upcoming art book reveals more Wolverine variants left on the cutting room floor. One in particular is an interesting mashup of Wolverine and The Incredible Hulk.

The Artbook Collector shared a video combing through the artwork for Deadpool & Wolverine. As you can see, there are several variants of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine that audiences saw in Deadpool & Wolverine, and some who never made the cut. There’s Weapon X Wolverine, Wolverine after he had his Adamantium ripped out of his body by Magneto, a Wolverine variant in soldier fatigues, Baby Wolverine, Patch alongside Hulk’s Joe Fixit persona, Ultimate Wolverine, and Wolverine in black leather from the X-Men movies. One small photo shows off a green Wolverine the size of the Hulk sporting Adamantium claws coming out of his fists.

Marvel’s Hulkverine explained

You may think of Hulkverine as just a variant created for Deadpool & Wolverine, but the character actually exists in the comics. Though not a Wolverine variant, “Hulkverine” was actually codenamed Weapon H and is a former military mercenary named Clayton Cortez. Created by Greg Pak and Mike Deodato Jr., the Hulkverine was Weapon X’s attempt to make a super-soldier with Hulk and Wolverine’s DNA. Instead of getting samples of their DNA, Weapon X had to settle for Amadeus Cho’s Brawn and Old Man Logan DNA along with nanites taken from Lady Deathstrike. Weapon H also underwent the Adamantium-bonding process, giving him Adamantium claws and Hulk’s massive grey form.

Marvel also released a Hulkverines miniseries that pitted the Weapon H Hulkverine against the very heroes he was based off of: Hulk and Wolverine. Of course, the three heroes wind up battling each other, though Hulkverine is being secretly manipulated by The Leader. He later starred in other Marvel events like War of the Realms and Absolute Carnage, as well as a new volume of Savage Avengers.

How bummed are you to see that Hulkverine was left on the cutting room floor in Deadpool & Wolverine? Let us know your thoughts on social media @ComicBook!

The post Deadpool 3 Concept Art Shows More Wolverine Variants Including a Hulkverine appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Weapon X program turned Wade Wilson and Logan into killing machines, but Deadpool & Wolverine turned them into best bubs. After their team up in the Marvel Studios blockbuster and the eight-part Deadpool/Wolverine: Weapon X-Traction this summer, Marvel Comics is reuniting the dysfunctional duo in the new ongoing series Deadpool/Wolverine by writer Benjamin Percy (X-Force) and artist Joshua Cassera (X-Men).

“The film was both a hit and a hoot, but we started working on this series long before we ever saw Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds tear each other apart in a Honda Odyssey,” Percy told IGN. “So I can’t say it was an influence, but I can say the dynamic between the characters will feel familiar to theatergoers: fun, thrilling, and both adversarial and bro-mancey (not to mention violent as hell).”

While the R-rated Marvel movie was similarly violent as hell, Deadpool/Wolverine is inspired by R-rated ’80s action classics Commando and Rambo: First Blood Part II.

“That was the vibe that Josh, I, and Mark Basso (our fearless editor) agreed upon: non-stop thrills, insane action set-pieces, and a gonzo 80s action movie precedent,” Percy said. “We want you to feel like Stallone/Schwarzenegger/Van Damme could be a guest star in any of these issues.”

[RELATED: How to Watch Deadpool & Wolverine Online]

Marvel has unveiled the first look at the premiere issue, which you can see below. Deadpool/Wolverine #1 goes on sale January 1, 2025, from Marvel Comics.

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The Venom films have not exactly been critical darlings, but the billion-dollar franchise managed to succeed largely due to how appealing audiences found them. With Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy and company are going out on something of a low note, at least according to one meaningful metric: the movie earned a B- CinemaScore, the lowest of the franchise, likely indicating that Venom 3 will not have the kind of word-of-mouth that drove the first one to become an instant cult classic.

When they were released in theaters, both Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage got a B+. At the time, Let There Be Carnage was seen as overachieving a bit, since the more violent a movie is, the more members of the audience may be turned off. That might not hurt as much on Rotten Tomatoes, where the reviews tend to be written hours or days later, but CinemaScore polls people right outside the theater. Instead of thinking holistically about what a good time you had, you might be thinking about that one image you really want to get out of your head. Venom 3 may have failed to clear the bar that Carnage did, because it really pushed its PG-13 as far as it will go.

That’s at odds with the PopcornMeter over on Rotten Tomatoes, where the audience score is 80% positive — the same as the first Venom. That ties it for second, since Venom: Let There Be Carnage scored 84%. That movie hasn’t aged as well as the first, with many fans now calling it the worst of the three, but it benefited from the first movie’s cult-camp status, and earned a whopping 57% positive reviews from critics (Venom only got 30%, and The Last Dance got 37%).

Venom managed to deliver a hit series for Sony in spite of the fact that Sony spent the last handful of years trying and failing to launch other Spider-Man-adjacent franchises like Morbius and Madame Web. Venom: The Last Dance — which Hardy has said will be his last ride with the symbiote — came out in theaters this weekend and grossed $51 million at the domestic box office, a franchise low.

Hardy’s Venom won’t be the last big-screen take on the character, of course; Venom originated as a Spider-Man villain, and as recently as Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Marvel Cinematic Universe teased the possibility of introducing symbiotes to the main-line universe. Some rumors peg Venom as the villain (or one of the villains) of Spider-Man 4, which was recently confirmed to be headed for production soon.

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Venom: The Last Dance may have been the end of a trilogy for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock, but it definitely also opened some big new doors for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. Venom 3 introduced the new big bad threat of Knull, the “King in Black” who is the god of the symbiotes. On the other side of that conflict stands “Imperium,” a pivotal new organization that (kind of) gets introduced in the threequel.

It’s clear from the events and ending of Venom: The Last Dance that Imperium is set up to do more in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe than what we get in this initial debut.

Venom 3: What Is Imperium?

Just putting it out there: it feels like Venom: The Last Dance director Kelly Marvel and editor Mark Sanger cut a large portion from the movie, that gave more detail on The Imperium. What we do know is that the group is a mix of scientists led by Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) and military operatives, run by commander Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Strickland reports to a shadowy figure whom he communicates with over video chat, but the organization’s function is made clear: monitoring, tracking, and containing, studying, and/or neutralizing alien threats on Earth – specifically the symbiotes.

By the end of Venom: The Last Dance, Imperium’s base at Area 51 is left completely destroyed, and the teams run by Payne and Strickland are left decimated, with nearly all of the soldiers, security guards, and scientists dead in the battle with Knull’s Xenophage beasts. That said, it’s pretty clearly hinted that Imperium is an organization operating on an international scale, and it’s easy to assume that the setback of losing one base hasn’t ended the group entirely.

While Strickland died in the Battle of Area 51, Dr. Payne made the leap of bonding with a symbiote suit and becoming the speedster symbiote “Agony.” With her suit and powers, Payne saved research scientist Sadie Christmas (Clark Backo), who had also temporarily bonded with a symbiote, but lost it in the fight. Payne and Christmas know first-hand that Knull is still a threat to the universe – and that the symbiotes are still the only potential allies that can save Earth.

What Is Imperium’s Role In Sony’s Spider-Man Universe?

Right now it seems that Imperium is being set up as the SHIELD of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe – with the first storyline event being Marvel’s King in Black crossover, which saw Venom, Spider-Man, and the heroes of the Marvel Universe having to unite against Knull and an entire symbiote invasion.

The only lingering question is whether or not Knull and the King in Black storyline is only taking place in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, or if it’s an event that could extend all the way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well.

Assuming that “King in Black” is being positioned as an event that could bring the SSU franchise characters together (Venom, Morbius, Kraven the Hunter, the Madame Web Spider-ladies), Imperium would likely serve as something more along the lines of Amanda Waller’s A.R.G.U.S. in the DC Universe – a clandestine group and hard-line leader who coerce the violent, unhinged, characters of the SSU to work together fighting Knull. On the other side of the battle would likely be whatever version of Spider-Man Sony finally introduces into the SSU, working with a team of other Spider-people that could include the Spider-Girls/Spider-Women whose origins were established in Madame Web, or other live-action versions of Spider-Verse characters like Nic Cage’s Spider-Man Noir from the upcoming Spider-Noir TV series.

Between Imperium, the SSU ‘monsters,’ and the Spider-family, there are enough moving parts to make “King in Black” an actual event film. Of course, Sony has to actually get that far, as right now (at the time of writing this) we have yet to see any cohesive interconnected story for the SSU, after five (nearly six) films. In that sense, there’s every real chance we never hear from Imperium again.

Venom: The Last Dance is now in theaters.

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Nicolas Cage is reprising his Spider-Verse voice role as Spider-Man Noir in a new live-action series. Fans got to meet Cage’s version of the noir-inspired webslinger in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and while he only had a short cameo in the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man Noir is expected to have a larger role in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. As Sony Pictures looks to get its Spider-Man Universe off the ground on the big screen, Spider-Noir will push the franchise on streaming. Spider-Man Noir has a dedicated fanbase, and there is interest in what the first Spider-Man live-action series will look like.

Before we dive into everything you need to know about Spider-Noir, the first thing we have to talk about is Sony’s plans to expand its Spider-Man Universe on television. Venom: The Last Dance is out in theaters, as underwhelming as it appears to be so far, and on the horizon is Kraven the Hunter. The big screen is where Sony is focusing on villains in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, and streaming is putting the spotlight on our Spider heroes. Leading the charge is Spider-Man Noir, but he wasn’t the first hero picked to headline a streaming series in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.

Spider-Noir replaces Silk: Spider Society as first Spider-Man live-action series

The first Spider-Man live-action series officially announced wasn’t Spider-Noir; it was actually Silk: Spider Society. The joint venture from Amazon/MGM and Sony Pictures Television was announced back in November 2022 with The Walking Dead Universe writer/producer Angela Kang serving as showrunner. Silk: Spider-Society was going to launch the Spider-Man TV Universe into with a domestic release on MGM+ before being available globally on Prime Video.

However, earlier this year we learned Silk: Spider Society would not be moving forward at Amazon after all, with Sony Pictures Television shopping the show to other buyers. There were issues with the show’s development, from Silk: Spider Society‘s writers room being let go and the show reconfigured to somehow not focus on its central character of Silk.

Spider-Man Noir getting live-action treatment

Enter Spider-Man Noir. Reports of a live-action Spider-Man Noir series being in the works at Amazon surfaced in February 2023, though Nicolas Cage was not attached to the project at that time. The character hails from Earth-90214 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, which is a Depression-era world where Marvel’s superheroes are reinvented to fit into the aesthetic of noir detective movies. Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot will serve as showrunners, who developed the series with Into the Spider-Verse‘s Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Amy Pascal.

Nicolas Cage wasn’t officially announced to be starring in Spider-Noir until May 2024. The show was originally referred to as Noir, but now appears to have taken the name of Spider-Noir, possibly to let the audience know it’s a part of the Spider-Man Universe.

Spider-Noir cast revealed

Aside from Nicolas Cage, one of the first actors linked to Spider-Noir was New Girl star Lamorne Morris, who is playing the fan-favorite Spider-Man character Robbie Robertson. He is one of Peter Parker’s bosses at the Daily Bugle, and while Peter typically has a dicey relationship with J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie Robertson has often been a loyal associate and friend to the wall-crawler. The description of Morris’ Robbie Robertson calls him “driven, hard-working, and won’t take no for an answer. A dedicated journalist trying to make it with the odds stacked against him as a black professional in 1930s New York, he takes on riskier stories that no one else would touch in order to catch attention and a paycheck. He is willing to do whatever is necessary for his career.”

Golden Globe and Oscar-winning star Brendan Gleeson (he Banshees of Inisherin) is playing the villain of Spider-Noir. Details about Gleeson’s role weren’t immediately available, but Marvel’s original Spider-Man Noir comic re-imagined many of Spider-Man’s classic villains as gangster types in 1930s New York. They included Norman “The Goblin” Osborn, a carnival freak turned crime lord, and his carnie cronies Kraven (a former animal trainer), the Vulture (an animalistic freak show cannibal), and the Chameleon (a master of disguise).

Li Jun Li (Wu Assassins) also joins Spider-Noir as “a singer at the premier nightclub in New York,” and The Marvels star Abraham Popoola plays “a World War I veteran who is looking for an opportunity to get ahead.” Additionally, eight other actors were also added to the Spider-Man live-action series: Lukas Haas (Inception), Cameron Britton (Mindhunter), Cary Christopher (Days of Our Lives), Michael Kostroff (Luke Cage), Scott MacArthur (The Righteous Gemstones), Joe Massingill (Barry), Whitney Rice (Jury Duty), and Amanda Schull (Suits) in recurring roles.

Spider-Man Noir rocks a comics-accurate costume in live-action series

Fans recently got to see photos of Nicolas Cage on the Spider-Noir set, and there’s even photos of the iconic black costume Noir donned in the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse animated movie. The first set of photos show Nicolas Cage maskless in a black trenchcoat, acting out a strange-looking sequence that has him both kneeling and lying on the ground, seemingly dodging or run away from some unseen force or assailant.

However, it’s the comics-accurate photos that are sure to catch fans’ attention. It’s noted that it’s not Nicolas Cage in the Spider-Man Noir costume; rather a stunt double performing the action sequence that features our hero on top of a speeding car.

How many episodes is Spider-Noir?

Nicolas Cage revealed how many episodes the first season of Spider-Noir will consist of. “Forty-five minutes. I mean, it’s eight episodes. So it’s the equivalent of four movies in five months. And I’ve got another movie I’ve gotta prepare for, and then a movie right after it,” Cage told The New Yorker in July.

Eight episodes seem to be the sweet spot when creating TV shows based on comic books. Each season of The Boys has been eight episodes, and Marvel’s Disney+ content has been between six and 10 episodes on average.

What is Spider-Noir about?

Spider-Noir tells the story “of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero,” per the official logline.

Emmy-winning director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Killing Eve) is overseeing the series and executive producing the first two episodes. Oren Uziel (The Lost City, 22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (Marvel’s The Punisher, Shantaram) serve as co-showrunners and executive producers, and developed the series with the Academy Award-winning team behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which includes Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios.

What is the release date for Spider-Noir?

Spider-Noir will debut domestically on MGM+’s linear channel, then globally on Prime Video in 2025.

The post Spider-Noir: Everything We Know About the Live-Action Spider-Man Noir Series appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Hasbro’s 1027 event took place over the weekend, and it included details on pre-orders for Marvel Legends figures inspired by the upcoming film Captain America: Brave New World. First unveiled at the MCM London convention, the lineup will include Anthony Mackie’s Captain America, Harrison Ford’s General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross aka Red Hulk, and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres / Falcon.

Pre-orders for the Captain America 4 collection of Marvel Legends figures will begin today, October 28th at 1pm ET for Pulse Premium Members and 2pm ET for the general public. Those who don’t wish to pay for a Pulse membership should have no problem getting their figures here at Entertainment Earth after 2pm. Hasbro also revealed a Dark Avengers Warbird figure that will be available at in the same location on November 7th at 1pm ET. You can take a look at the entire wave in the gallery below. UPDATE: Direct links added.

Note that EE is running a promotion that offers $10 – $50 off orders over $100 with free U.S. shipping through Halloween. All other orders have $7.95 flat shipping with a mint condition guarantee. The figures should also be available on Amazon. Direct links will be added to the list below after the launch.

• Marvel Legends Captain America – See at Entertainment Earth / Amazon
• Marvel Legends Red Hulk – See at Entertainment Earth / Amazon
• Marvel Legends Falcon – See at Entertainment Earth / Amazon

The Captain America and Falcon figures are both deluxe offerings with wing accessories and alternate hands. Red Hulk will include an alternate head and hands, though it seems as though they don’t have the rights to use Harrison Ford’s likeness. Still, we expect that the Red Hulk figure will be the most popular of the wave, so go after it first.

What Is Captain America 4 About?

When Captain America attends a birthday party for Isaiah Bradley, he catches wind of a new tech venture that sounds too good to be true: magnificent floating platforms in the sky, where the disenfranchised can apply for land grants and establish their own farms. But after Sam discovers the organization’s dark underbelly, he’ll have to tangle with its head of security: Red Hulk!

Who is in Captain America: Brave New World?

Captain America: Brave New World stars Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Captain America, Harrison Ford as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross / Red Hulk, Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres / Falcon, Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley, Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns / The Leader, Harrison Ford as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, and Shira Haas as Sabra. Xosha Roquemore, Rosa Salazar, and Giancarlo Esposito have been cast in unknown roles, with Esposito recently being added to the film in reshoots. Esposito announced at San Diego Comic-Con that he is playing the Serpent Society villain Sidewinder. Captain America: Brave New World is directed by Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox, Luce), with a script from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showrunner Malcolm Spellman, as well as Dalan Musson and Matthew Orton.

Captain America: Brave New World arrives in theaters on February 14, 2025.

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Viewership numbers for Agatha All Along are trending upward ahead of the series finale. Episdoe 7 of Agatha All Along debuted last week, and it focused on Patti LuPone’s Lilia Calderu. William/Billy/Wiccan and Agatha are getting closer and closer to completing the Witches’ Road, setting up an extra-sized two-episode finale this Wednesday. Marvel fans have been enjoying every step of the way in Agatha All Along, and the global views for Episode 7 came up as 4.2 million in its first 24 hours. In comparison, the 4.2 million views is up 35% from Agatha All Along‘s two-episode premiere.

The only other available viewership numbers for Agatha All Along were for the first episode, which had 9.3 million views in seven days. Streamers are typically tight-lipped on revealing viewership numbers for their shows, and only announce things when they are favorable for them. Since Disney is providing views for Agatha All Along‘s latest episode, that should be seen as a positive sign heading into the finale. Just like the premiere, Agatha All Along will conclude with two episodes on Wednesday, October 30th, just in time for Halloween.

What can fans expect out of the Agatha All Along finale?

There is a lot of anticipation heading into the season finale of Agatha All Along. Fan have been reunited with Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness, the breakout character from WandaVision. There was also the mystery of who Joe Locke was playing, with speculation pointing to Scarlet Witch’s son, Wiccan. That turned out to be correct, but there have been several more twists and turns in Agatha All Along.

For example, take Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal. Her character was a mystery to the audience as well, and the only things we know was that Rio and Agatha shared some kind of history. Before Patti LuPone’s Lilia Calderu sacrificed herself to stop the Salem Seven, Lilia uncovered that Rio is the living embodiment of Death. What that means for Agatha and Wiccan as they try to complete the Witches’ Road remains to be seen.

There is also the hope that Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, makes some kind of appearance in the Agatha All Along finale. Fans saw Wanda die in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Agatha All Along referenced Scarlet Witch’s death several times. However, Agatha also left some doubt to the accuracy of her death, and as we all know about comic book deaths, if you don’t see the body, it’s not confirmed.

The two-episode finale of Agatha All Along will be available to stream Wednesday, October 31st on Disney+.

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Sony may have bitten off more than it can chew when it comes to the live-action Spider-Verse. Even before the first Venom sank its teeth into $856 million at the global box office, spawning the franchise that became known as Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, the studio announced plans to mine its 900-character pact with Disney-owned Marvel. By 2018, Sony had begun developing spinoffs starring Spider-Man villains Morbius, Kraven the Hunter, and Silver Sable, with plans for Black Cat, Jackpot, Silk, and Nightwatch, a lesser-known character with a dozen appearances in Spider-Man comic books.

But then 2022’s Morbius, starring Jared Leto as the living vampire, and 2024’s Madame Web, led by Dakota Johnson as the clairvoyant Cassandra Webb, both bombed at the box office. (Morbius actually flopped twice after Sony re-released the film into 1,000 theaters in an attempt to capitalize on social media memes.) Morbius ($167 million worldwide) and Madame Web ($100 million worldwide) effectively wiped out plans for characters that, like Tom Hardy’s Venom, the studio hoped would anchor their own trilogies in the SSU (the rechristened Sony’s Spider-Man Universe). And El Muerto, once planned with Bad Bunny in the title role, is effectively dead.

[RELATED: Who Is Venom 3 Villain Knull? Explaining the King in Black]

Venom: The Last Dance, the third and final installment in the trilogy, opened to a franchise low $51 million at the box office this weekend, which is better than Joker 2‘s disastrous $37.6 million opening weekend earlier this month but worse than the $67 million that the Dwayne Johnson-fronted Black Adam earned over the same weekend in 2022. The DC movie received a similar Rotten Tomatoes score (39%) and went on to finish its run with $390 million globally.

Venom 3 is off to a global start of $175 million, meaning Sony has already recouped its $120 million price tag (not accounting for marketing costs). Industry projections initially had the movie opening domestically at upwards of $70 million — down from the $80 million of 2018’s Venom and the $90 million of 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage — before dropping to $65 million in the days before Thursday previews. The original Venom held the record for the biggest October opening weekend with $205.5 million until it was surpassed by Joker a year later, and went on to earn $856.1 million worldwide; Venom 2 managed to gross $506.9 million globally despite releasing mid-pandemic in 2021.

Why the diminishing returns? The Venom 3 Rotten Tomatoes score is above average for the SSU at 37% — better than Venom (30%), Morbius (15%), and Madame Web (11%), lower than only Venom 2 (57%) — but the film received a B- grade from opening night moviegoers polled by CinemaScore (Venom and Venom 2 both earned a B+ grade). That’s on par with 1986’s Howard the Duck, 2003’s Hulk, 2008’s Punisher: War Zone, 2019’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and 2024’s The Crow. (To compare, the much-maligned superhero movies Elektra, Catwoman, Green Lantern, and The Marvels received a B grade.)

What began as an attempt at its own Marvel Cinematic Universe and an interconnected continuity didn’t pan out: aside from a mention of Venom in Morbius or Michael Keaton’s Vulture teasing a crossover that is unlikely to come to pass, the Spider-Man-less universe has been mostly standalone. Which is why it’s bizarre that Venom 3 introduces Knull, the god of the symbiotes, a Thanos-like villain in the Marvel comics who is set up to return despite Hardy declaring this to be his final Venom movie. It’s unclear if this plot thread will continue elsewhere in the SSU, or if Sony Pictures is planning another inter-company crossover by bringing Hardy or Knull into the MCU to battle Tom Holland’s wallcrawler in Spider-Man 4.

Sony will release its third Marvel-based movie this year, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter, in December. The R-rated action movie, which is reportedly bloodier and more violent than Deadpool & Wolverine, is being positioned as counter programming for the two family-friendly movies that will release one week later: Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The J.C. Chandor-directed Kraven could dethrone 2004’s Meet the Fockers for the highest-grossing R-rated December opening ($46.1 million), and with a reported budget of $130 million, it would need to
gross at least $325 million before beginning to become profitable.

Can a non-Venom Sony-Marvel movie reach those numbers in this climate? It seems that Venom 3, in part, paid for the sins of Morbius and Madame Web, both rejected by critics and audiences alike (each received a C+ grade on CinemaScore). So far, Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine is the only comic book-based hit of the year with a global haul of $1.37 billion, while Madame Web ($100 million worldwide) and Joker: Folie à Deux ($201 million worldwide) limped over their respective box office milestones.

The SSU has had a symbiotic relationship with the MCU since Venom 2 and Morbius made half-hearted attempt to link the two universes through the multiverse — but with nothing officially announced after Kraven, it seems Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is about to take a bow on its last dance.

Also starring Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange), Juno Temple (Ted Lasso), Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man), Alanna Ubach (Euphoria), Peggy Lu (reprising her role as Mrs. Chen), and Stephen Graham (reprising his Venom 2 role as Detective Mulligan), Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters.

The post What the Venom 3 Box Office Means for the Future of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Tom Hardy has famously been in favor of an R-rated Venom movie ever since the franchise launched. The star, who played Eddie Brock/Venom in the films, managed to deliver a hit series for Sony in spite of the fact that not only did they never go all-in on the violence and mayhem…but they’ve also spent those years trying and failing to launch other Spider-Man-adjacent franchises with both Morbius and Madame Web. The third and final installment in Hardy’s franchise — which the actor has said will be his last ride with the symbiote — came out in theaters this weekend and grossed $51 million at the domestic box office, a franchise low.

Inevitably, there will be fans and critics who point to the movie’s PG-13 rating as a source for consternation, and there are plenty of reasons for that. Ignoring the fact that Hardy himself has always wanted an R-rated Venom that leans a bit more into the horror inherent to the antihero, there are some other factors, too.

The year’s highest-grossing movie is Deadpool & Wolverine, the third installment in what is presumed to be a trilogy for Ryan Reynolds’s take on the Merc With a Mouth. Whether that movie would be rated R was actually kind of up-in-the-air (at least in the fans’ imaginations) for a while, because it’s the first Deadpool movie made since Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Ultimately, according to both Reynolds and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, there was never any serious consideration given to a PG-13 Deadpool movie.

Still, there was reason to question it. Marvel Studios proper had never released an R-rated superhero movie before, and the last Fox/Marvel joint that was rated R came in the form of Logan in 2017. The oft-delayed New Mutants was, at one point, rumored to be a lot more horror-tinged, and reportedly there was a cut at one point that likely would have drawn an R rating. 20th Century Studios wasn’t into it, though, and made sure it came out as a PG-13 film.

Cycling back a moment — Logan. That movie, like Venom: The Last Dance, was the third installment in a trilogy, where the previous two installments had both been rated PG-13. Logan earned around $615 million at the global box office, easily becoming the highest-grossing installment in the trilogy. It was the only Wolverine solo movie to earn more than $200 million at the domestic box office, and the only one to make over $500 million worldwide.

Certainly, Logan feels like the clearest example to go by — although the similarities are kind of limited. Logan earned $600 million and an Oscar nomination — but in doing so, it still underperformed both of the first Venom movie, which actually made $856 million worldwide. Granted, Venom: Let There Be Carnage did significantly worse at the international box office…but that movie also opened huge in the U.S. and then went on to gross almost exactly as much at the domestic box office as Venom did.

And here’s the thing: both fan and critical reviews of Venom: Let There Be Carnage have pointed out that the movie stretches its PG-13 as far as it will go. It’s difficult to judge whether an R-rating would significantly change the movie’s box office prospects…but it doesn’t feel like it would have changed much about the movie itself.

With poor reviews and a franchise-low B- CinemaScore from moviegoers, it feels like it would have taken real, material changes — not just a couple more brains and a slobbering, maniac version of Venom — to have materially changed the movie’s box office prospects.

That said…should the have done it anyway? Forget the financial side, should they have gone all the way to an R rating just because that’s what Tom Hardy (and many of the franchise’s most vocal fans) wanted?

Well, your mileage may vary on that. It doesn’t seem like an R rating would have changed much about the movie’s story, execution, of box office draw. So, should they have done it just for the benefit of a handful of people who would have loved it?

Maybe.

Venom isn’t Deadpool, but it has also never been a normal superhero franchise. The first movie surprised everyone by being shockingly entertaining and incredibly weird and silly. Hardy knew exactly what kind of movie he was in, and it was that aspect — the weird, campy, wild energy — that made the Venom movies so beloved.

If an R rating could have helped them go one step farther in its final outing, embracing the weird and wild in a way they hadn’t before, that could have been pretty interesting. Maybe word-of-mouth would have boosted the box office beyond the first week.

Should Venom: The Last Dance have been an R-rated movie? Sound off on social media and tag @comicbook to let us know your thoughts. Or if you haven’t seen it yet, go catch Venom: The Last Dance while it’s still in theaters.

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What has been billed as the final entry in Sony’s Tom Hardy-starring Venom film series hasn’t been expected to live up to the lofty box office expectations of the rest of the franchise. Venom: The Last Dance was projected to deliver a significantly lower opening than the previous Venom entries, with the pre-release numbers suggesting it would pull in around $65 million domestically this weekend. The Last Dance actually opened much lower than that here in North America, but it got an unexpected boost overseas that makes its opening haul a lot more respectable.

Venom: The Last Dance brought in just $51 million domestically this weekend, which is well below the $80 million and $90 million opening weekend totals of its predecessors. While that is certainly disappointing for Sony, international audiences showed up to save the day.

Sony’s new Venom film received a $124 million opening from 64 international markets, which combines with the domestic total for a $175 million global opening. For a movie that carries a reported budget just over $100 million, that international boost goes a long way toward making it another profitable Venom outing for Sony.

Maybe the biggest surprise of Venom‘s opening weekend is the massive success the film has had in China. The Last Dance earned $46 million over its five-day opening in China, which is good enough to make it the biggest Hollywood opening in the country all year. It’s also the biggest superhero movie opening in China since Spider-Man: Far From Home back in 2019.

Only Disney’s Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine have had better international openings in 2024, which makes Venom: The Last Dance an instant overseas success. That definitely makes up for the weak domestic opening, that could’ve been disastrous for Sony’s Symbiote franchise.

While Tom Hardy seems content to walk away from Venom after completing the trilogy, the events of the film make it clear that Sony has plans to continue playing in the Venom/Symbiote sandbox. Knull has been set up as a potentially major villain for future films, while other major Symbiotes were introduced and teased for additional stories down the line.

Had the global opening for Venom: The Last Dance followed the trend of its domestic opening, Sony might have had to abandon those plans. With this massive international success, though, the studio clearly sees that there is life left in the world of Venom and Knull.

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Marvel’s Vision series isn’t set to arrive on Disney+ until 2026, but star Paul Bettany just revealed a major update on the eagerly anticipated series. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Bettany revealed that the series is expected to begin production next year and he’s excited about it, but he also revealed that he’s been keeping up with WandaVision spinoff series Agatha All Along — there’s so much for him to “learn” as he heads into making the Vision series.

“I love it. I love it and I’m so proud of [showrunner] Jac Schaeffer and I am going to watch again because there’s so much for me to learn moving forward into my contribution,” Bettany said when asked about Agatha All Along.

Marvel’s Vision series — which has also been referred to as Vision Quest, though it does not yet have an official title — will be the second spinoff of WandaVision. The series will follow from the events of WandaVision which saw Vision’s white robotic body going off on a search for identity. When the series was first announced, Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer was listed as the showrunner for the series, but it was reported earlier this year that Terry Matalas was instead taking on the role. Schaeffer confirmed to ComicBook in September that she is no longer involved with the Vision series — but she’s rooting for it.

[RELATED: Agatha All Along: Did This Week’s Tragic Death Bring Back a Major MCU Character?]

“I’m not,” Schaeffer confirmed. “I so wish them well. Paul’s a dear friend and he’s an extraordinary person. He owns this character, so I’m not involved, but I’m entirely rooting for it.”

Outside of Schaeffer confirming that she’s not involved with the series, we don’t have a ton of details about the Vision series. It has been confirmed that James Spader will return as Ultron. The actor previously gave voice to the villain in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The series also recently added Star Trek: Picard and 12 Monkeys star Todd Stashwick as “an assassin who is on the trail of [the titular] android and the technology he possesses.”

How Will Agatha All Along Influence the Vision Series?

With there being no concrete details about Vision just yet, it’s unclear how much of an influence Agatha All Along will have on the series. Bettany’s comments about rewatching Agatha All Along could very easily be more a reference to some of the series’ major revelations — namely that Billy lives — rather than any direct plot throughline. That said, given that it is possible that the Vision series will draw from Marvel’s Vision Quest storyline from West Coast Avengers comics in the 1980s, and the possibility that Agatha All Along could see a return of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch — one of the biggest theories about the series is that Wanda will return, somehow, by series’ end — there are any number of ways for Agatha All Along, WandaVision, and the upcoming Vision series to connect.

Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+. New episodes arrive Wednesdays at 9pm ET. Marvel’s untitled Vision series is currently expected to arrive sometime in 2026.

The post Paul Bettany Offers Major Update About Vision Series (And Reveals Why He’s Watching Agatha All Along) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance you’ve already seen Venom: The Last Dance and have come away wondering about Spider-Man and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the Venom franchise seemingly shelved (for now) and development on Spider-Man 4 gearing up, there’s never been a better time to daydream about a Venom and Spider-Man crossover. But a team-up of that magnitude calls for a worthy adversary, and Venom: The Last Dance may have provided that with Knull, the creator of the symbiotes. If Sony Pictures is serious about building its Spider-Man Universe, it needs to start building towards a King in Black event of epic proportions.

*WARNING: Spoilers for Venom: The Last Dance are coming your way.

King in Black was a Marvel crossover event featuring Knull as its Big Bad final boss. Knull and his symbiotes tried to take over the Marvel Universe, but Venom was able to defeat Knull and take the “King in Black” mantle for himself. Audiences were deprived of seeing Venom face off against Knull, but that could be because Sony is looking to hold that grudge match for a special occasion. It doesn’t entirely make sense to introduce a villain with the pedigree of Knull and not fully utilize him. If there was ever a time for that Spider-Man/Venom crossover to happen, it’s now.

King in Black should be Sony’s Spider-Man Universe first event

So movies that fall under Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man Universe include the three Venom movies, Morbius, Madame Web, and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter. Aside from the Venom flicks, it’s not a murderer’s row of hits to be found. These films have yet to feature Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in any way, aside from his identity reveal from Spider-Man: Far From Home being show in the Venom: Let There Be Carnage post-credits scene.

Sony owns the rights to the Spider-Man characters and has an agreement with Marvel Studios for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man to feature in the MCU. So that explains why Morbius hasn’t taken a bite out of anyone’s neck on the Avengers, for example. If there’s anything the MCU has taught us, it’s that fans enjoy interconnected storytelling. Every project doesn’t have to directly tie to the next one, but there should be a sense that it’s all leading to something. With Knull introduced, King in Black is the obvious next step, and the build-up can begin in Spider-Man 4.

Spider-Man 4 needs to build towards King in Black

Tom Holland confirmed filming for Spider-Man 4 will start in Summer 2025. Audiences saw a piece of the Venom symbiote left behind in the Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credits scene, which is a natural segway to Peter Parker donning the black-and-white symbiote suit. Spider-Man’s identity is a secret again, so telling a self-contained story of Spidey wrestling with the responsibility of the symbiote costume would be a great concept for his next movie.

You can also add in Knull sensing the symbiote Spider-Man is wearing, and then you have the King in Black as the big-level “Thanos” type threat for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. The only complicated thing is figuring out a way to incorporate Morbius, Kraven, and the Madame Web heroes. It can be done, but it just gets tricky having it make sense.

Another wild idea is that somehow the Venom symbiote is able to transport Peter to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. At least that way it allows him to meet these other characters, and the entire King in Black event can take place outside the MCU. Plus it gives Sony it’s own event that isn’t tied to what the MCU has already built.

We’re curious to hear your thoughts on Sony doing King in Black as a Spider-Man Universe event storyline. Let your voice be heard on social media @ComicBook!

The post Is Sony Doing A Spider-Man Universe King in Black Crossover Event? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Agatha All Along continues to get more eventful each and every week, taking the Coven deeper down the Witches’ Road and causing Marvel fans to dust off their tin foil hats. The show’s seventh episode, which aired on Disney+ this week, continues that trend, delivering a couple of massive moments that could easily have a major impact on the MCU down the line. One of those involved the long-awaited arrival of Death. The other, while not any kind of actual confirmation or reveal, planted the seeds for a potential return of the Scarlet Witch herself.

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Agatha All Along! Continue reading at your own risk..

At the beginning of the new Agatha All Along episode, “Death’s Hand in Mine,” Agatha and Billy actually talk directly about the fate of his mother, Wanda Maximoff (who seemingly died in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). Billy asks Agatha point-blank if his mom actually died. She plays coy, giving him multiple different answers in a row, alluding to the fact that Wanda’s demise may not have been quite as final as we thought. Now put a pin in this conversation — we’ll come back to it later.

The climax of the episode sees Lilia performing a high-stakes tarot card reading for Billy as one of the Coven’s trials. With the Salem’s Seven hot on their tails – and the trial itself an issue as she realizes the reading she needs to do is not for Billy but herself – she completes the reading and pushes everyone else through the door to the next trial, taking on their hunters alone. As the Seven close in, Lilia flips the Tower card upright, causing the entire room to turn upside-down. Both Lilia and the Seven fall to their deaths, impaled by the swords on the ceiling.

That one card could have done more than just killed Lilia and the Seven, however. There’s a theory floating around with Marvel fans online that the Tower in the upright position may have flipped the fortunes of those in that room, as well as Wanda Maximoff.

Think back to when William (the teenager whose body Billy inhabits) was at his Bar Mitzvah and Lilia performed his reading. She pulled the Tower card in a reversed position, which represents crisis on the horizon. He left that reading and was in a car accident that killed him (though Billy quickly inhabited his body). The Tower was again played in reverse during Billy’s reading in the trial.

While a Tower reversed represents chaos and imminent crisis, a Tower upright represents enormous, seismic change. It’s an upheaval, as seen literally by the immediate gravity change that killed the Seven. It was a change of fortune for everyone involved. Is there a chance Wanda is among those affected?

The mountain where Wanda met her doom in Multiverse of Madness isn’t all that dissimilar from the Tower on the tarot cards. Obviously not the same thing, but structurally they’re not too far from one another. There’s also the fact that this all ties into Billy’s story. The initial reading was for him, and the turning of that card seems to represent some upheaval, a massive change for him on the horizon. Yes, that could literally just be about the Salem Seven that are killed while trying to find him and Agatha. It could also have something to do with the family he lost.

Remember that pin in the conversation a few paragraphs ago? This is the most direct conversation about Wanda we’ve seen on Agatha All Along to this point, and it’s all about her fate. Agatha makes it clear that the events of her death are up in the air. Perhaps she was still breathing beneath the rubble inside the mountain, waiting for the Tower to flip upright.

Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+ with new episodes arriving Wednesdays at 9pm ET.

The post Agatha All Along: Did This Week’s Tragic Death Bring Back a Major MCU Character? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

As Spider-Man’s movie future remains mysterious, there is a much-anticipated version of the character heading to TV. That would be Spider-Man Noir, the fan favorite 1930’s inspired hero from Earth 90214, and he will be played by the one and only Nicolas Cage in live action. Fans have started to get a glimpse at what that will look like, and if you’re not familiar with the character, there are several major differences between Spider-Man Noir and the mainline universe’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, including their respective origins.

While the main universe Spider-Man calls the present day home, Spider-Man Noir is set in the midst of the Great Depression, taking place in 1930s New York City. This Peter Parker is also raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and also loses his Uncle Ben in a tragic way, though what led to this and how it happened differ drastically.

In this version of the events, Peter’s Uncle Ben is gruesomely murdered by The Goblin (aka Norman Osborne) in a form of retaliation for organizing a strike on Goblin’s businesses. While there’s no evidence, Peter knows it was Goblin who killed Uncle Ben, and sets about trying to figure out how to prove it. That leads to an encounter where they are saved by The Daily Bugle’s Ben Urich, who takes Peter on as a protegee.

The Spider-Bite

This sets the stage for Peter to get his powers, but again, things are far darker in tone than in the mainline universe. In this story, Peter discovers Ben is a drug addict after finding him passed out, and that’s how he intercepts a tip about one of Goblin’s shipments. Peter heads to the pier and thanks to one a dropped Spider Idol, a host of spiders are freed, and one of them bites Peter.

This turns out to be no ordinary Spider of course, and the god-like entity imbues Peter with the powers of a spider that we’ve all come to know. He has enhanced strength, speed, reflexes, and his trademark spider-sense, and he can create webs from his wrists as well. This leads Peter to head back to Ben and confront him, learning that he’s been blackmailed by Osborn to feed his drug habit.

After this encounter, Peter creates his Spider-Man costume, basing it off of Uncle Ben’s airman uniform, and is resolved to take the Goblin down. Unfortunately he no longer has Urich to count on, as Urich is dead when he finds him next, and then he ends up embroiled in the death of Jonah Jameson, but we learn there’s far more to the story than what initially appears.

That’s the origin of Spider-Man Noir, and you can see how it retains the core elements of Spider-Man while also making grand changes in a grittier tone. We’ll have to see what the live action film does with the material, but it is easily one of the most exciting Spider-projects on the horizon.

Are you excited for Spider-Man Noir? You can talk all things marvel and comics with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The post Spider-Man Noir Has a Wildly Different Origin Story From the Spidey You Know appeared first on ComicBook.com.

One of the very best jokes in Marvel’s smash-hit Deadpool & Wolverine is starting to feel less like a joke and more like somebody reading tea leaves. The film features the return of Wesley Snipes as Blade, reprising his role from the beloved trilogy of solo Blade movies that began back in 1998. When a reference to alt-universe Blades is made, Snipes’ Daywalker simply replies, “There’s only ever been one Blade. Only ever gonna be one Blade.”

It’s a great joke on all fronts. Marvel’s Blade reboot, starring Mahershala Ali, has been struggling through development since 2019. It’s funny that Deadpool & Wolverine is a Marvel Studios production that is straight up making fun of another Marvel Studios production as it actively struggles. It’s also just a great character bit for Snipes and his iconic take on the Daywalker.

All that to say, as we sit here the week of Deadpool & Wolverine‘s physical release (months after its theatrical debut), things for Marvel’s Blade reboot haven’t improved. They’ve actually seemed to get even worse.

Blade lost its second director over the summer as Yann Demange exited the project. More writers have been brought on to try and crack a script that has gone through several enormous changes over the last few years. Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts scribe Eric Pearson is the latest writer to take on Marvel’s Blade, which brings the total number of potential Blade writers to six.

The cast has also changed quite a bit as Blade has limped through development. Both Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre (recently named DC’s new Green Lantern) left Blade after initially being cast. For now, only Ali and Mia Goth remain on the call sheet.

This week, Disney finally pulled Blade off the release schedule, which felt like a move that was destined to happen. Not only did a November 2025 release date feel unrealistic without a director attached, but Disney CEO Bob Iger previously said during a quarterly earnings presentation that the company would be focusing on just three theatrical Marvel movies each year. 2025 already has Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps slated for release.

Some of the issues that have plagued Blade are no fault of the studio or those involved with the movie. A global pandemic and industry-wide strikes have both shut productions down since Blade was announced at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2019. When Blade seemed ready to get rolling last year, the strikes put it on hold and it still hasn’t found its way back to life.

Those issues can’t be helped, but they’re far from the only reasons Blade has yet to see the light of day. There have been so many stories and reports floating around about the wide variety of different approaches Marvel has taken with this film, which should theoretically be a pretty straight-forward affair. Every one of these reports should be taken with a grain of salt, but there have been far too many over the last couple of years for there not to be some truth to the situation, especially when so many writers have exited the project.

Marvel and the creative teams that have been assembled for Blade just can’t land on something they’re happy with. It now feels like Blade is back at square one, with Eric Pearson writing a script that will hopefully please Kevin Feige, Mahershala Ali, and a yet-to-be-named director (some conflicting reports suggest Demange is still attached). Blade has no release date and the next couple of years are going to be focused on the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars saga.

Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan have been able to write, pitch, cast, shoot, and soon release a whole vampire blockbuster in a fraction of the time that Blade has been in development. Their film, Sinners, isn’t part of a major franchise or existing IP, so it hasn’t needed all of the same approvals and oversight as a Marvel movie, but it’s still astounding to see in real time just how quickly a similar project can come together when things are going smoothly.

At some point, you start to wonder if Wesley Snipes had it right when he was shooting Deadpool & Wolverine. He’s the only Blade we’ve ever had on the big screen, and it doesn’t seem like another one will be showing up any time soon.

The post Was Deadpool & Wolverine Right About Marvel’s Blade? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Venom: The Last Dance is now in theaters, and as the final film in the trilogy, expectations were high. The reviews have been mixed overall for the film, and now the latest box office report doesn’t have especially great news either. Variety is reporting that The Last Dance brought in $22 million from 4,131 theaters stateside on Friday and through previews, which is considerably down from the first day debuts of the previous two films. This also puts it on pace to come up short in initial first weekend projections.

Those projections had The Last Dance bringing in $65 million over the weekend, but if the lower trend continues, that might not happen. For comparison, the original Venom film in 2018 hit $32 million on its first day, while 2021’s Let There Be Carnage brought in the highest amount of the trilogy with $37 million.

Continuing that comparison, the original Venom would go on to bring in over $80 million over its launch weekend, and would ultimately total over $856 million worldwide at the box office at the end of its theatrical run. Let There Be Carnage would best the opening weekend total of the original, bringing in over $90 million, but it wouldn’t hit the previous bar for total box office, as it ended its run with a worldwide total of over $506 million.

As for where this leaves The Last Dance, unless it ends up with long legs at theaters, it could end up falling below both the original film and its sequel in both the initial weekend and the total box office total. It has a chance to surpass Let There Be Carnage if the international audience really turns out like it did for both previous movies, but it would have to retain quite a bit of interest from week to week, and there are more movies on the way to take up attention.

It’s not all bad news though, as The Last Dance is still the biggest domestic opening since Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and it carries a lower blockbuster budget at $120 million. Right now the film has a B- Cinemascore, which isn’t bad at all, though it is down from the first two movies and their B+ score.

Joining Venom: The Last Dance in the top three are Smile 2, which moves into second place in its second week. Smile 2 looks to bring in $10.3 million in its second week, which would be a 55% fall from its opening last week, and if projections land, it would cross the $40 million mark after the weekend is done. At third place is Conclave, which earned $2.5 million from 1,753 theaters on its first day at theaters. It holds s B+ Cinemascore.

There’s also the much talked bout Terrifier 3,which has brought in $4.5 million so far in its third weekend. If predictions hold, it will clear $44 million through the weekend, which will impressively triple the totals of both Terrifier and Terrifier 2.

Where do you think Venom: The Last Dance will land at the end of its opening weekend? You can talk all things movies and marvel with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The post Venom: The Last Dance’s Opening Day Box Office Is a Series Disappointment appeared first on ComicBook.com.

After years of being the works (and being subjected to a fair share of rumors), Sony’s Spider-Man 4 seems to finally be getting off the ground. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton was brought on board the project earlier this fall, with franchise star Tom Holland most recently stating that he is excited by the current possibilities of the project.

“It needs work, but the writers are doing a great job,” Holland shared of the script for Spider-Man 4 earlier this month. “I read it three weeks ago and it really lit a fire in me. Zendaya and I sat down, read it together and we at times were bouncing around the living room.”

Of course, there are still plenty of unanswered questions surrounding Spider-Man 4, including who Peter might go toe-to-toe with in the actual conflict of the film. So, who could possibly be the main villain — or even just a side antagonist — of Spider-Man 4? Here are our biggest theories.

Scorpion

By this point, Holland’s movies as Spider-Man have spanned close to a decade — but they have left a fair share of unanswered questions in their wake. In and amongst them is the fate of Mac Gargan / Scorpion (Michael Mando), the criminal whose fate as a full-blown supervillain with a lizard-like suit of armor was teased in the post-credits scene of 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.

All these years later, we are not any closer to seeing Scorpion’s story continued, or Mando even reprising his role. That, coupled with the fact that general audiences are largely unfamiliar with Scorpion in a live-action context, could make him an easy and satisfying candidate to fight in Spider-Man 4 — at very least, to wrap things up.

Black Cat

Another character woefully unexplored in Spider-Man’s live-action (outside of a plain-clothes appearance from Felicity Jones in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2), Felicia Hardy / Black Cat has already become a bonafide fan favorite. An expert thief with a unique romantic infatuation with Peter and Spider-Man, Felicia has evolved into being a hero, antihero, and straightforward villain — but either way, audiences love her.

If Spider-Man 4 wants to explore Peter’s evolution both inside and outside of the costume, all while complicating his tragic romance with MJ, including Black Cat might be the perfect way to do it.

Silver Sable

Whether as a standalone hero, the leader of the ragtag group the Wild Pack, or even as a love interest of other Marvel characters, Silvija Sablinova / Silver Sable also has her own storied history and passionate following. A bounty hunter armed with an arsenal of skills and a traumatic past with her Nazi-hunting father, Sable can be introduced as an ally of Holland’s Peter Parker or some sort of government adversary, not unlike her recent portrayal in the Spider-Man video game franchise.

If the now-defunct Silver and Black crossover movie between her and Felicia can’t become a reality, we at least need to see Silver Sable in live-action in some capacity — and Spider-Man 4 could be an unexpected outlet for that.

Mister Negative

The Spider-Man video games have also helped bring another character to the forefront of fans’ minds — Martin Lei / Mister Negative. A gangster-turned-philanthropist with ties to things throughout New York City (including the F.E.A.S.T. Project where Peter’s Aunt May volunteers in the comics), Martin was secretly experimented on by the crime boss Silvermane. This led to him having control of the Darkforce and Lightforce dimensions under an alter ego, as well as the ability to transform his appearance into an inverted negative.

Mister Negative’s visual design is undeniably stunning, and his appearances in the games proved how it could be realized beyond a static image. His distinct and tragic gimmick and his street-level connections could make him a powerful villain for Peter to fight, both as himself and as Spider-Man.

Kingpin

Of course, any conversation about street-level villains for Spider-Man to fight is not complete without Wilson Fisk / Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). While usually associated with his rivalry with Daredevil, Kingpin has been at the center of some memorable Spider-Man stories in the comics, and there has been an eagerness to see the two cross over for as long as D’Onofrio has been playing the character.

Based on prevailing rumors, it will remain to be seen if the street-level culmination of Kingpin’s rise to power in New York will actually happen in Spider-Man 4 — but it certainly would be cool if it did. It would allow for Peter’s second chapter to have some decidedly grounded roots, and bring the two beloved actors into the same frame.

Venom

That being said, there have also been the theories that Spider-Man 4 might ultimately take a more multiversal angle, especially if it is sandwiched between Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. If that is the case, and depending on how the events of the new Venom: The Last Dance movie shake out, it could be fun to see Holland’s Spider-Man finally fully cross over with Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock / Venom.

Some convoluted post-credits scenes aside, Hardy’s fan-favorite portrayal of Venom has yet to properly bump elbows with the larger Spider-Verse. Not only would that give fans a modern-day cinematic version of the iconic rivalry from the comics, but it would certainly create an interesting rapport given the personalities of both characters.

Knull

Going even bigger, The Last Dance is confirmed to include Knull, the primordial King in Black who rules over the symbiotes across the universe. Those involved with the film have said that Knull’s story might not be limited to a single project, which has naturally led to speculation about his involvement in Spider-Man 4.

While that conflict would run the risk of potentially being repetitive of what fans just saw in The Last Dance, it would give Holland’s Peter a massive conflict to go up against.

Doctor Doom

And finally, depending on how Spider-Man 4 fits into the puzzle of Doomsday and Secret Wars — could we just see Robert Downey Jr.’s Victor Von Doom / Doctor Doom appear? It would be an unexpected conflict for Peter, doubly so given his past rapport with Downey’s now-deceased Tony Stark / Iron Man.

Spider-Man is, coincidentally, getting a new costume from Doctor Doom in a forthcoming Marvel comic, but we’ll have to see if that translates into anything on the big screen.

The post Spider-Man 4: 7 Marvel Villains That Should Appear in the Next Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

With Deadpool and Wolverine on home video and (hopefully) nearing its streaming release date, more and more details on how the long-awaited film was brought into reality have started making the rounds, including how one very small (but awesome) cameo costume ended up costing around $100,000. That was one of several delightful costume appearances from Hugh Jackman in the film, and now seems like a perfect time to put together how those new costumes and Wolverine’s previous film costumes stack up against each other.

Now, a few notes before we get this going. There’s an emphasis on actual costumes, so while I appreciate that Logan has had like 4 different white tank tops and jeans looks, we’re not ranking every single one. The same goes for the various versions of the black leather suits from the original X-Men films, as they didn’t change that drastically from one iteration to the next, and they still kept the core central look.

We’re also starting with an honorable mention before we get into the core ranking, and that honorable mention is the alternate ending for The Wolverine. In that ending, we saw Logan open up a case to reveal a slick brown costume that even had a mask, and it looked fantastic. Jackman never actually wore the suit though, and that’s the only time we’ve seen it since, so since he didn’t wear it on screen, even for like 1 minute, it gets put in the honorable mention category.

12: Logan Uber Driver
Just to get this out of the way, Logan is one of if not the best versions of Wolverine on screen, period. This is not a ranking of film quality. Instead, it’s a ranking of costumes and looks in the film, and as it stands, the Uber driver suit Logan is just not enough to move it higher up the list. Now, there is a version of Logan seen here that does live higher in the list, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

11: Old Man Logan (Comics Version)
Speaking of Old Man Logan, while the Logan film gave us its own version of the character, the comic version we’ve more frequently seen made its debut in a quick cameo in Deadpool and Wolverine. There we get a glimpse of several Wolverine variants, including the brown long coat and brown hat version of the character seen in the original Old Man Logan comics story. It’s a famous look at this point, so it was lovely to see this version finally get its due on the big screen.

10: Patch
Another infamous version of Logan from the comics is his undercover alias Patch, and this version also made his big screen debut in Deadpool and Wolverine. In the comics, Logan had to keep a low profile in Madripoor to help out Jessica Drew, and he adopted this white suit jacket and eyepatch look. We get to see that look play out in the movie as well, and while it’s not up there with some of his best movie costumes, it’s still a cool nod and one that longtime Wolverine fans loved to see on the screen.

9: White Tank and Jeans
So this is one of the first times in the list where we consolidate various versions of a look to one ranking on the list. At this point, Wolverine has appeared in his classic comics white tank and jeans look in several films, including the aforementioned Logan. Arguably the most iconic version in the films is found in X2: X-Men United, though that also has to do with the scene the look accompanies (which is one of my favorites in the franchise). This is a classic comics look and looks fantastic on screen, so it deserves a spot on the list.

8: Wolverine’s Brown Jacket
The same is true of Wolverine’s brown jacket look, which ahs appeared in different ways in several films, including X-Men, Wolverine: Origins, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. There are differences of course, especially with the ’70s flair of Future Past, but the one that actually brought together several elements really well was the Wolverine: Origins version, despite the film itself not really following suit.

7: Weapon X
It’s difficult to find a look that Wolverine has sported over the years more iconic to the character than Weapon X, and while we’ve seen a few glimpses of Logan’s past in other films, this was the first time we’ve seen this iconic look brought to life in such a visceral and authentic way, even the changes to the helmet. The iconic nature of the look moves it higher on the list, though as a costume, it’s still like some pouches and a bulky helmet, which is why it’s not higher up.

6: Black Suit and Tie
Alright, we’re moving into full costume territory soon I promise, but we have one last stop to make, and that’s The Wolverine. In this film, Logan is wearing an all-black look once again, but this time around he trades in the leather for an all-black suit and jacket combo that just looks fantastic in motion. It fits the tone and more violent nature of the film beautifully, and I was frankly surprised by how much I loved seeing this look in action on screen.

5: Original Black Suit
Speaking of black suits, it’s finally time to get to the original costume that started Jackman’s Wolverine journey. The X-Men originally wore black leather costumes with small accents of color, and in Wolverine’s case, the suit featured a thin orange lining. Wolverine rocks this costume in X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and X-Men: The Last Stand, and though there are some changes between these suits, the overall look remains the same. Time has certainly had an effect on how we look at the costume, but it still holds a special place in many fan’s hearts and likely always will.

4: Age of Apocalypse
Deadpool and Wolverine is going to be a major player at the top of this list, though it doesn’t occupy every spot. That said, while this one will likely get some flack and depend on how much you love Age of Apocalypse, I couldn’t have a ranking of movie costumes and not have Wolvie’s AoA look not represented. During Deadpool’s hunt for Wolverine, one of the variants we see is the Age of Apocalypse version, who is known as Weapon X. The trademark red and blue suit is accompanied by the stump on his hand and even wilder hair than usual, bringing a beloved look onto the big screen for the very first time. Only thing that would have made this better is if we got a Jean Grey or Cyclops Age of Apocalypse to go with him, but hey, I’m not complaining in the least.

3: Days of Future Past Armor
I did say that not all of the top spots would be from Deadpool and Wolverine, and that’s because a spot in the top 3 is deserved for X-Men: Days of Future Past. In the grim future, Wolverine is wearing an armored costume that mixes in the core black aesthetic you’d expect from the films with some hints of color, and it presents the sleekest version of the character from this era. The darker colors make sense for the time timeline, and yet there are actually some yellow and blue highlights in the arms to offset that. It’s utilitarian but still has some sleekness to it, and before newer suits came into the picture, this was my favorite Jackman suit to date.

2: The (Very Expensive) Brown Suit
Another standout amongst all of those Deadpool and Wolverine cameos was finally seeing Logan in his classic brown costume and in a classic comic sequence no less. At one point we see the classic battle with the Hulk brought to life, with one particular scene even recreating the famous cover of The Incredible Hulk #340. The brown suit looks great in action, even from this brief glimpse, and it should by the way, as it cost $100,000 to create for that small scene in the film. Honestly, though, it was totally worth it, and now fans have one of the all-time Wolverine looks finally realized on screen.

1: Blue and Yellow
To say this was an easy choice for the top spot would be an understatement, and I feel like there are many that would agree. After years of wanting Wolverine just to have a proper costume in film, nonetheless the classic yellow and blue version, it seemed up to the MCU to finally make that happen. That was actually the case in a way, as Deadpool and Wolverine not only brought Jackman back as Wolverine but also brought a modern version of the classic yellow and blue costume to life magnificently. It just looks fantastic, but then they did one better and added the comic-accurate mask, sending it over the top. This is easily the new movie standard for Wolverine, and will likely hold the top spot in this list for a long time to come.

Alright, that’s our list, but let us know what you think! You can talk all things Marvel, comics, and movies with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The post Wolverine’s Movie Costumes, Ranked (Including the Incredibly Expensive One) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Alright, let’s address the question on the mind of all Marvel fans: Will Wesley Snipes make another return as Blade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The Blade actor was one of the surprise guest stars in Deadpool & Wolverine, making a return to the Daywalker after more than 20 years. Audience reaction to Snipes as Blade was overwhelming, with Deadpool & Wolverine even poking fun at the notion of Marvel attempting to reboot Blade with Mahershala Ali. That particular project has had a rocky road in its production, with Marvel removing the rebooted Blade from its 2025 calendar. All of this is to say that if there was ever a time for Wesley Snipes to reprise his role as Blade in the MCU, it may be now.

Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds has been in favor of Wesley Snipes playing Blade again, and he speaks from a place of experience. Reynolds starred alongside Snipes in 2004’s Blade: Trinity, and was a big advocate of Snipes being a part of Deadpool & Wolverine. Reynolds even wants Snipes’ Blade to get the Logan treatment, stating, “There is no Fox Marvel Universe or MCU without Blade first creating a market. He’s Marvel Daddy. Please retweet for a Logan-like send off.” But with Snipes’ Blade existing in a different universe, and the MCU deep in the Multiverse Saga, maybe there’s a way for him and Ali’s Blade to co-exist at the same time.

Maybe Wesley Snipes and Mahershala Ali can both play Blade in the MCU

As much as Wesley Snipes has helped usher in this era of blockbuster superhero films, it’s also fair for Marvel Studios to look ahead to its future and reboot Blade with a younger actor like Mahershala Ali. Marvel has been fleshing out its supernatural corner of the MCU with projects like Moon Knight and the Werewolf By Night Special Presentation on Disney+, and a new Blade movie would just help push that along. It’s not Ali’s fault that Marvel can’t seem to settle on a director or script for the project. It also didn’t help that Hollywood shut down for the writers’ and actors’ strikes, delaying work even further.

But just imagine that we finally see Mahershala Ali’s version of Blade teaming up with Kit Harington’s Black Knight, while Wesley Snipes makes another return as Blade for something like Avengers: Secret Wars? The big crescendo to the Multiverse Saga is bringing back filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo to direct, and there’s already been fancasting for the film to include Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men. There’s a good chance Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine will also be involved, especially since he’s chilling on Wade Wilson’s world after Deadpool and Wolverine.

Whatever state the MCU is left in following Avengers: Secret Wars, it’s a good bet that older actors like Hugh Jackman and Wesley Snipes won’t be sticking around for more team-ups. The passing of the superhero baton will be taking place, but Wesley Snipes can get a hero’s sendoff in the process. And we’re not even talking about dying in the line of duty. Maybe the Fox characters survive on their world, and Snipes’ Blade finds a nice home there. Then, Ali’s Blade can get down to the business of officially forming the Midnight Sons.

Wesley Snipes’ Blade deserves a Logan sendoff

It may be a controversial opinion to not let either Wesley Snipes or Mahershala Ali be the primary Blade of the MCU, but in our scenario, everybody wins. Fans that are currently championing for one final run for Snipes get to see him be the Daywalker once again, and Marvel gets its future Blade off the ground with Ali. The way we’re thinking is Ali’s Blade movie is a standalone feature that introduces audiences to his version of the character, and Wesley Snipes shows up later for the big superhero ensembles, maybe even getting to meet Ali’s Blade while all this is happening.

It’s not often that fans service lives up to the hype, but that’s a possibility with Blade. Wesley Snipes never envisioned he’d get to play Blade again, but thanks to Ryan Reynolds, he got to suit up again.

“I did not think it was possible,” Snipes told Entertainment Tonight about his Blade return. “I didn’t think we would be able to pull it off. I didn’t think that Marvel was into it, Disney was into it – also because they had Mahershala [Ali] cast for the next upcoming version of it … I thought it didn’t make sense to me, but [when] you get a call from Ryan Reynolds out of the blue after 20 years, you go, ‘Okay, I got to take this call. Let’s see what this is about,’” he explained. “He told me the idea… They said ‘yes’ and ‘it’s a go.’ ‘If you’re in, we’re in.’ Here we are.”

Since Marvel had no issue bringing Wesley Snipes back as Blade for Deadpool & Wolverine, there’s nothing stopping the actor from doing it again as an official part of the MCU.

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