“The Inhumans” Movie Is No More! It Will Now Be A TV Series On ABC! First Two Episodes Will Be Released In IMAX Theaters

For some this may be good news, and for others, not so much. “The Inhumans” was originaly part of Marvel’s Phase 3 of movies and to be released theatrically on November 3, 2018. In the last year or so, the movie’s release date was shifted around several times and eventually was no longer included in Marvel’s Phase 3 round of movies. There were rumors that Marvel was dropping the movie. In a way, they did, but now it is being resurrected as TV series on ABC.

According To Variety:

ABC has ordered a new series, “Marvel’s The Inhumans,” based on the classic comic-book characters, in partnership with IMAX. Under a production, marketing and distribution agreement with the theater chain, a version of the first two episodes of the live-action series will premiere in IMAX theaters next summer. ABC will then debut the weekly hour-long drama on television the following fall.

The series will be produced by Marvel Television in conjunction with ABC Studios and filmed entirely with IMAX cameras. IMAX, a financing partner on the show, will premiere “The Inhumans” in September, 2017.

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Inhumans are a race of superpowered beings who first appeared in Marvel Comics publications in 1965. Inhuman characters appeared last season on ABC drama “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.” The new series, however, will not be a spinoff of “SHIELD.” It will focus on Black Bolt, the leader of the Inhumans, and his family.

ABC’s broadcast of the first two episodes in the series will feature original content not included in the IMAX version.

“This unprecedented alliance represents a bold, innovative approach to launching great TV content for a worldwide audience,” said Ben Sherwood, co-chairman, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney/ABC Television Group. “It highlights Disney|/ABC’s unrelenting commitment to finding new and creative ways to showcasing our very best programming and increasing global engagement and reach.”

Personally, this is bad news for me. I would always much rather see a theatrical movie than a TV production. Even though they will be using IMAX cameras, so what? You wont get the full experience on TV. Also the budget will be far less than what could have been spent on the movie. It was rumored a while ago that Vin Diesel would be playing The Inhuman’s leader, Black Bolt. You can forget about that now. People love Netflix’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. I’d rather watch a 2 hour theatrical movie with a decent budget then sit for 13 hours watching a one Season of these shows. Marvel does a great job with the Netflix series but it’s not my cup of tea.

Source: Variety

Kevin Feige Hints That “The Illuminati” Will Play A Role In “Avengers: Infinity War”

During the press tour for “Doctor Strange”, Marvel Head Honcho, Kevin Feige was asked about the possibility of The Illuminati appearing in the upcoming “Avengers: Infinity War”. Here is what Feige had to say:

“Well, what’s fun about the Illuminati is that there are certain characters interacting with other certain characters, so I don’t know about that particular story line, but certainly some of those characters you will see on screen in the next Avengers.”

So who are “The Illuminati”?

“The Illuminati” was a secret organization comprised of several of the world’s most powerful heroes: Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange; Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans; Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men and mutant rights activist; Reed Richards, founding member of the Fantastic Four; Namor the Sub-Mariner, King of Atlantis; and Iron Man (Anthony Stark), founding member of the Avengers. These six men worked together for an unspecified amount of time to mold and shape the status of the superhuman world and the world around it. Black Panther was also added to “The Illuminati”

As far as movie rights go, the MCU can use Iron Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange. Marvel also has the rights to Black Bolt of The Inhumans, so it would be a good way to introduce the character into the MCU. Namor’s rights are still confusing. Joe Queseda, president of Marvel comics, said recently that Marvel has the rights to the character. The rights were originally with Universal but they never did anything with the character and no movie was ever made. The big question is whether we will see Professor X or Mr. Fantastic? Those movie rights are squarely with Fox but is this a sign that things are starting to change with Marvel and Fox (also see article below)? After the disaster that was Fantastic Four, I still wouldst be surprised if Fox is talking with Marvel over bringing those characters over to the MCU, similar with Sony did with Spider-Man.

Fox and Marvel Recently Worked Together To Help Out Both “Deadpool” and “Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2” Movies

It may be the start of hell freezing over as it recently came out that Fox and Marvel entered in agreement to kind of swap characters for their movies. Kevin Feige mentioned this on Facebook:

“When I first pitched Ego as Quill’s father, I THOUGHT we owned the character. After I had worked out a very elaborate story with Ego the Living Planet as a very important part of the Marvel cosmic universe, I learned that we actually didn’t own the character. I had no back up plan, and it would be nearly impossible to just drop another character in. Thank God Fox came to us and wanted to make a trade.” 

So who was the character that Fox wanted? Well it seems that Fox actually did own the rights to the character, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, but they wanted to change her powers. Her original powers was just psychic, but in order to change a power, they had to get Marvel’s approval and both Marvel and Fox came to an agreement where Marvel would get Ego The Living Planet from Fox, who will be Starlord’s father in “Guardians Of The Galaxy 2” and Fox could change the powers of Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Here is what director of “Deadpool”, Tim Miller recently had to say to Empire:

“Her power, I mean, we chose her because we wanted a trainee for Colossus in the film and the writers and I just fell in love with her name. It’s just so out there and so Deadpool and it was Grant Morrison who named her, so we knew we had to get her in there. And then we thought, well, we’re going to need to make her powers fit with who she feels like she is in the movie and so to me it’s just like other characters in the Marvel universe, like Nitro, for instance, whose power is to just explode parts of their body. But we did try to do it so that it wasn’t just a simple, ‘oh, I can explode’, she can transfer the force of the explosion down so she can move upwards – she can put it into a punch if she wanted to. So it was really just her fist exploding as she hit somebody. we tried to mix it up, even though we didn’t use that particular thing in the movie, but it was the idea. Actually, we did use it in the movie, it’s just not in the movie now!”

Hopefully this will be the start of something bigger. Please Fox, release the “Fantastic Four” to Marvel! Not sure who they would want in return bet I bet money will work too!

“Deadpool: Director Leaves “Deadpool 2” Movie Over Creative Differences With Actor Ryan Reynolds!

Say it aint so! With the success of “Deadpool” a sequel was all set to go into production but recently director Tim Miller walked away from the project over creative differences. Rumor has it that Miller wanted to at least double the budget from the original movie which was only $68 million. Ryan Reynolds wanted to keep the movie more grounded like the first movie and keep to a moderate budget. Reynolds was also not happy with the directors choice of Kyle Chandler to play Cable. Both Reynolds and Miller met with Fox and Fox sided with Reynolds. It’s sad that it had to happen but you cant lose Reynolds as Deadpool. Shortly after in a sign of solidarity, composer Junkie XL also left the project siding with director Tim Miller. Is “Deadpool 2” in trouble? Right now, the answer is yes, but that doesn’t mean that it will be a disaster. We will just have to wait in see until “Deadpool 2” comes out January 12, 2018.

Sideshow Collectibles Corner

“Doctor Strange”

It’s been a while since I have posted a collectible figure from Sideshow but this one is definitely a beaut! Check out Bendict Cumberbatch as The Master Of Mystic Arts, “Doctor Strange”!

In anticipation of the opening of the movie, Sideshow, and Hot Toys are proud to present the sixth scale collectible figure of this charismatic and powerful superhero!
The movie-accurate collectible figure is specially crafted based on the image of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange in the movie, featuring a newly developed head sculpt, sophisticatedly tailored and highly detailed outfit, two styles of costume display options with a magnetically attachable Cloak of Levitation with intricate embroidery, a variety of mystical artifacts including the Eye of Agamotto, and a Doctor Strange-themed figure stand with character backdrop.

Source: SideShow

That’s it for this time!

Joe Hogarty