New Gods, which DuVernay has been developing as a directing vehicle with acclaimed comic book writer Tom King since 2018, would have brought to the screen the comic book characters created by the late and legendary artist Jack Kirby. DuVernay, however, remains in the DC fold and is currently working on the DC series Naomi for The CW.
The Trench, meanwhile, was to have been a horror-tinged project spinning out of Aquaman and focused on the group of the deadly amphibious creatures seen in the $1 billion-grossing 2018 film. Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald had written the script, which Wan was developing as a producer with collaborator Peter Safran. Wan, too, remains in the DC fold as he is prepping to shoot Aquaman 2 for the studio later this year.
The projects are being shelved but like many comic characters, could come to life down the road. DC Films, led by president Walter Hamada, is leaving the door open to revisit these properties in the future, but insiders note that when it became clear the upcoming DC slate did not have a natural spot for New Gods or TheTrench over the next few years, execs believed it was best not to leave the filmmakers hanging in development without a clear end in sight.
DC is currently building an interconnected slate in which projects will feed in and out of the big screen and the small, with films such as James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (Aug. 6) spinning off into the John Cena-led HBO Max series Peacemaker, and Matt Reeves’ The Batman (March 4, 2022) spawning its own Gotham police department focused show.
“Tom, I loved writing NEW GODS with you,” DuVernay wrote on Twitter, along with a photo of herself with King. “I’m upset that the saga of Barda, Scott, Granny, Highfather and The Furies ends this way. Diving into Kirby’s Fourth World was the adventure of a lifetime. That can’t be taken away. Thank you for your friendship. And remember… #DarkseidIs”
With The Trench, sources say that the upcoming Aquaman sequel was considered enough, but Warners could come back to it down the line if there is thirst for more adventures set in the Atlantean kingdoms. It was also considered a possibility for streaming, but it is more of a standalone story rather than having a strong tying into Aquaman or the rest of the DC universe.
New Gods, which would have been a sprawling tale, was complicated by the fact that its villain, Darkseid, just appeared as a major foil in Zack Snyder’s Justice League and there was a desire to have space between the latter and any new appearances.
Except for The Batman, which is set on an alternate Earth known to geeks as Earth-2, DC is plotting its films and shows to share the same universe. Key to setting up its new status quo will be The Flash (Nov. 4, 2022), which will tackle the multiverse and is said to also lend clarity to the future of the Justice League with multiple Batmen, as well as Supergirl, appearing.
Other projects on the slate due out in 2022-23 include Warners’ and New Line’s Black Adam (July 29, 2022) and Shazam! Fury Of The Gods (June 2, 2023), as well as Warners’ Blue Beetle, Batgirl, Supergirl, Green Lantern Corps and Static Shock.
Zatanna and a third Wonder Woman are also in development, while an upcoming Superman, from producer J.J. Abrams and screenwriter Ta-Nehisi Coates, is too early in development to say if it will be connected to the larger DC Universe or if, like The Batman, will stand on its own.
Tom, I loved writing NEW GODS with you. I’m upset that the saga of Barda, Scott, Granny, Highfather and The Furies ends this way. Diving into Kirby’s Fourth World was the adventure of a lifetime. That can’t be taken away. Thank you for your friendship. And remember… #DarkseidIs pic.twitter.com/XyyIjcB8Wv
The filmmaker Raoul Peck, perhaps best-known for his Oscar-nominated 2016 documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” tackles his most ambitious project yet with the four-part cinematic essay “Exterminate All the Brutes,” based in part on Sven Lindqvist’s book of the same name about Europe’s domination of Africa and in part on the scholarly work of the historian and Indigenous rights activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and the Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Relying on a mix of clips from old movies and new dramatizations of historical incidents — all overlaid with the director’s discursive narration — Peck considers how pop culture and the literary canon have shaped the narratives around Indigenous people and their colonial invaders. Equal parts informative and provocative, this project is aimed at changing the way viewers think about who history’s heroes and villains are.
‘The Nevers’
Starts streaming: Apr. 11
There’s a bit of steampunk and a lot of X-Men-like energy in “The Nevers,” a semi-comic action-adventure series created by Joss Whedon, the man behind “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly.” Whedon’s contributions have been downplayed by HBO’s promotional departments, in part because he left the production in the middle of its first season — and perhaps because of recent accusations of mental abuse from his past employees. Nevertheless, “The Nevers,” set in Victorian Britain, very much feels like one of his shows, with its alternately angsty and witty characters. Laura Donnelly plays Amalia True, a superhero who leads a team of strange and powerful women referred to by London aristocrats as “the touched.” As the ladies tackle supernatural phenomena, they also clash with an establishment that wants to keep them marginalized, because of what they can do and because of who they are.
‘Mare of Easttown’
Starts streaming: Apr. 18
Kate Winslet plays a dogged small-town Pennsylvania police detective with a messy home life in “Mare of Easttown,” a crime drama created by Brad Ingelsby, a screenwriter of the films “Out of the Furnace” and “The Way Back.” As with Ingelsby’s movies, this mini-series uses a pulpy premise — a murder mystery — as an entry point to a complex and absorbing study of a place at once familiar and unique. The director Craig Zobel and a top-shelf cast (including Jean Smart as the heroine’s opinionated mother and Julianne Nicholson as her former high school basketball teammate) capture the limitations and comforts of a community where everyone knows each other’s painful secrets. The gray tones and the procedural plot resemble those of a grim European cop show, but the performances and dialogue exhibit a lot of vitality.
Also arriving:
Apr. 1
“Made for Love”
Apr. 13
“Our Towns”
Apr. 15
“Infinity Train” Season 4
Apr. 16
“Mortal Kombat”
New to Hulu
‘WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn’
Starts streaming: Apr. 2
Like many stories about cutting-edge business ideas, the saga of the real-estate-sharing company WeWork ultimately comes down to the disconnect between its bosses’ public ideals and the ugly practical realities of making money. Directed by Jed Rothstein, “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn” features a wealth of insider interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, all describing a start-up that began by touting a clever solution to the modern urban problem of overpriced office space but then tried to evolve into an entire unwieldy lifestyle brand. Rothstein’s film focuses mainly on the charismatic co-founder Adam Neumann, and how Neumann and his fellow execs were spending like billionaires while misrepresenting — even to their faithful employees — what was really happening.
‘Sasquatch’
Starts streaming: Apr. 20
The journalist David Holthouse has spent much of his career investigating odd American subcultures, spending time with people whose lives have revolved around drugs, violence or the arcane. In the three-part docu-series “Sasquatch,” Holthouse heads into Northern California’s so-called Emerald Triangle — one of the most storied cannabis-growing regions of the world — to look into a legend he heard decades ago, about a trio of farmers who were dismembered by the infamous cryptid known as Bigfoot. The director Joshua Rofé follows Holthouse into the wild as he interviews locals who are enthusiastic about both marijuana and the paranormal. The stories they unearth are partly about eerie phenomena and partly about the very real dangers of a community teeming with crime.
Also arriving:
Apr. 3
“Hysterical”
Apr. 8
“Glaad Media Awards”
Apr. 9
“The Standard”
Apr. 12
“Spontaneous”
Apr. 15
“Younger” Season 7
Apr. 16
“Fly Like a Girl”
“Songbird”
Apr. 21
“Cruel Summer”
Apr. 22
“Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World”
Apr. 25
“Wild Mountain Thyme”
Apr. 28
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 4
New to Amazon
‘Them’
Starts streaming: Apr. 9
The first season of the new horror anthology series “Them” has the subtitle “Covenant,” referring to the rules for residents of a middle-class suburban subdivision in the early 1950s. Deborah Ayorinde and Ashley Thomas play a married couple with two young daughters, who move from North Carolina to an all-white neighborhood in Los Angeles looking for their piece of the American dream. They meet open hostility from their new neighbors (including the local housewives’ cruel ringleader, played by Alison Pill), while also being haunted by strange supernatural forces. Created by Little Marvin and produced by Lena Waithe, “Them” uses the discomfiting facts of racial discrimination to unsettle the audience, even before the nonhuman monsters arrive.
Also arriving:
Apr. 2
“Moment of Truth”
Apr. 16
“Frank of Ireland”
Apr. 30
“Without Remorse”
New to Apple TV+
‘The Mosquito Coast’
Starts streaming: Apr. 30
Justin Theroux is both a producer and the star of the mini-series “The Mosquito Coast,” an adaptation of an acclaimed 1981 novel by his uncle Paul Theroux. The show’s co-writers Neil Cross and Tom Bissell, with the director Rupert Wyatt, have updated the story to the 21st century, but its still about the idealistic and eccentric inventor Allie Fox, who hates modern technology as much as he detests American materialism. Chasing his dreams — and dodging the federal authorities — Allie packs his family onto a rickety boat and floats them down to Latin America, where he plans to live off the land. The TV version deviates sometimes significantly from the book, but its heart is the same: a rich portrait of a brilliant madman, and of the people he’s dragged into his delusions.
Scarlett Johansson stars as Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow, in Marvel’s “Black Widow.”
Disney | Marvel
Disney made some major changes to its summer film slate on Tuesday.
The studio announced that “Cruella” and “Black Widow” will be released in cinemas and on Disney+ with premier access and its Pixar film “Luca” will head straight to Disney+.
“Today’s announcement reflects our focus on providing consumer choice and serving the evolving preferences of audiences,” said Kareem Daniel, chairman of Disney’s media and entertainment distribution.
“By leveraging a flexible distribution strategy in a dynamic marketplace that is beginning to recover from the global pandemic, we will continue to employ the best options to deliver The Walt Disney Company’s unparalleled storytelling to fans and families around the world,” he said.
In shifting its release strategy, “Cruella” will debut as planned on May 28 and “Black Widow,” originally set for May 7, is now debuting July 9. Both titles will also be available on Disney+ for an additional $30 rental fee.
“Luca,” which was initially slated for theatrical release will stream directly on Disney+ as part of the traditional subscription. In markets where Disney+ is not available, “Luca” will be released theatrically.
Other theatrical release date changes include:
“Free Guy” moves to August 13, 2021
“Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” now dated September 3, 2021
to dispose of its media assets, as officials grow more concerned about the technology giant’s sway over public opinion in the country, according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussions over the matter have been held since early this year, after Chinese regulators reviewed a list of media assets owned by the Hangzhou-based company, whose mainstay business is online retail. Officials were appalled at how expansive Alibaba’s media interests have become and asked the company to come up with a plan to substantially curtail its media holdings, the people said. The government didn’t specify which assets would need to be unloaded.
Alibaba, founded by billionaire
Jack Ma,
has throughout the years assembled a formidable portfolio of media assets that span print, broadcast, digital, social media and advertising. Notable holdings include stakes in the
Twitter
-like Weibo platform and several popular Chinese digital and print news outlets, as well as the South China Morning Post, a leading English-language newspaper in Hong Kong. Several of these holdings are in U.S.-listed companies.
Such influence is seen as posing serious challenges to the Chinese Communist Party and its own powerful propaganda apparatus, the people said.
The party’s propaganda department didn’t reply to a faxed request seeking comment.
Alibaba declined to comment on discussions with regulators pertaining to possible media asset disposals. In a statement, the company said it is a passive financial investor in media assets.
“The purpose of our investments in these companies is to provide technology support for their business upgrade and drive commercial synergies with our core commerce businesses. We do not intervene or get involved in the companies’ day-to-day operations or editorial decisions,” the statement said.
The asset-disposal discussions are the latest development in a series of run-ins between Beijing and Mr. Ma, who was once China’s most-celebrated entrepreneur. Late last year, Chinese leader
Xi Jinping
personally scuttled plans by Ant Group Co.—Alibaba’s financial-technology affiliate—to launch what would have been the world’s largest initial public offering, amid growing unease in Beijing over Ant’s complex ownership structure and worries that Ant was adding risk to the financial system. Mr. Xi was also angry at Mr. Ma for criticizing his efforts to strengthen financial oversight.
Antitrust regulators are also preparing to levy a record fine in excess of $975 million over what they call anticompetitive practices on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms, The Wall Street Journal previously reported citing people with knowledge of the matter. In addition, Alibaba would be required to end a practice under which, regulators believe, the tech giant forbade merchants to sell goods on both Alibaba and rival platforms.
Beyond media and online retail, Alibaba also has a sizable entertainment division, consisting mainly of Hong Kong-listed
Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd.
and Youku Tudou Inc., one of China’s largest video streaming platforms. Officials also reviewed Alibaba’s entertainment portfolio, although outright divestitures in that part of Alibaba’s business may not be necessary, people familiar with discussions related to Alibaba’s entertainment business said.
It isn’t clear whether Alibaba will need to sell all of its media assets. Any plan that Alibaba comes up with will need approval from China’s senior leadership, people familiar with the matter said.
Concerns have been growing in recent years in China’s officialdom over Alibaba’s media clout and how the company may have leveraged its investments in news and social media to influence government policies deemed unfavorable to its businesses.
Those concerns grew following an incident in May last year when scores of Weibo posts about a senior Alibaba executive’s alleged involvement in an extramarital affair were deleted.
After Jack Ma criticized Chinese regulators, Beijing scuttled the initial public offering of his fintech giant Ant and he largely disappeared from public view. WSJ looks at recent videos of the billionaire to show how he got himself into trouble.
An ensuing investigation by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet watchdog, found that Alibaba was responsible for the interference with Weibo posts and said the company had used “capital to manipulate public opinion” in a report to the leadership, the Journal has reported, citing officials who saw the report. It is the Communist Party that controls public opinion on all media platforms and the private sector should not take up the role, the officials said.
Alibaba owns about 30% of Nasdaq-listed Weibo Corp. and has been the largest customer of the social-media company, having contributed nearly $100 million in advertising and marketing revenue in 2019 to its platform, according to the most recent annual data available.
In June, the internet watchdog publicly reprimanded Weibo for what it called “interference with online communication” and asked it to rectify the situation. In November, Xu Lin, a vice-director of the Party’s central propaganda department, said in a public forum that China must “resolutely prohibit dilution of the party’s leadership in the name of [media] convergence, resolutely guard against risks of capital manipulating public opinion.”
He didn’t identify Alibaba by name during his speech but used the words that appeared in the cyber watchdog’s report.
Divesting its media interests isn’t necessarily a big negative for Alibaba, which could re-emerge from the regulatory onslaught in a more secure position with Beijing after giving up some noncore assets. It could also help steer the company clear of future political minefields as authorities maintain a tight grip on the media.
Alibaba isn’t the only Chinese tech giant that dabbles in media.
Tencent Holdings Ltd.
’s WeChat messaging service has become one of the primary ways in which ordinary Chinese people get news. Bytedance Ltd. operates popular news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, which employs artificial intelligence to push news to hundreds of millions of users.
It isn’t clear if any other tech companies will have to follow the same pattern as Alibaba in considering the disposal of media assets.
Alibaba’s media investments began before the company rose to international fame with its then record-breaking IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. Over the years, Alibaba and Ant purchased stakes in some of the country’s most popular media outlets, including business-focused Yicai Media Group and tech-focused news portals Huxiu.com and 36Kr.com.
One of the most prominent acquisitions was the South China Morning Post, which traces its roots to the era of British colonial rule in Hong Kong. Alibaba has also set up joint ventures or partnerships with powerful state-run media like Xinhua News Agency and local government-run newspaper groups in Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces.
Media outlets often met Alibaba’s overtures with enthusiasm, given the tech giant’s deep pockets and digital expertise. Since being bought by Alibaba in 2016, the Post has expanded its digital news offerings and editorial staff and completed a makeover of its Hong Kong headquarters.
Some journalists and readers worried that Alibaba, which has offices a few floors above the Post’s newsroom, would interfere with the paper’s coverage to please Beijing. But the newspaper at times published stories that appeared unfavorable to the Chinese leadership, including extensive coverage of Hong Kong’s 2019 and 2020 protests and Beijing’s growing control over the city.
Mr. Ma, explaining the reasons for his acquisition of the Post, said in a public forum in 2017 that he never interfered with newsroom operations and respected journalism.
“[We] must not let the media fall, must not let the media lose themselves, and must not let the media lose objective and rational communication because of money,” Mr. Ma said in the event, organized by Xinhua.
Media Empire
Media assets held by Alibaba include:
100% of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s premier English newspaper.
Nearly 37% of Yicai Media Group, one of China’s most influential news outlets.
About 30% of Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform. Its stake is valued at more than $3.5 billion.
6.7% of Bilibili, a video platform popular among younger Chinese people. Its stake is worth nearly $2.6 billion.
5% of Mango Excellent Media, a subsidiary of government-run Hunan TV. Its stake is worth about $819 million.
Nearly 5.3% of Focus Media, China’s largest offline advertising network. Its stake is worth nearly $1.2 billion.
Media assets held by Ant include:
16.2% of 36Kr, a U.S.-listed digital media outlet focused on technology. Its stake is worth $25 million.
Former 5.62% stake in Caixin Media, one of China’s most respected news sources. Ant sold its interest in 2019.
Sources: The Securities and Exchange Commission, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, National Equities Exchange and Quotations of China, National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System of China, FactSet, Wind.
Note: Market values for U.S.-listed companies are as of March 12; for China-listed firms, as of March 15.
Imax broke its box-office records in China over the Lunar New Year holiday weekend and the results foretell what will happen when more U.S. movie theaters resume operations this summer, CEO Rich Gelfond told CNBC on Tuesday.
The company, which produces immersive movie experiences, said it grossed $25 million between Friday and Sunday, representing a 45% increase from a pre-pandemic record.
“It tells you [that] when it’s safe to go outside and people want to go, they’re going to run to go to the movies,” said Gelfond, who appeared on “Closing Bell” after trading ended for the day on Wall Street.
“Detective Chinatown 3,” a comedy adventure that was postponed from its Lunar New Year release last year, generated a large portion of Imax’s ticket sales during the three-day period. The film brought in $23.5 million, the best results Imax said it has ever seen for a Chinese film. The action film “A Writer’s Odyssey” and “New Gods: Nezha Reborn” animation also helped Imax reach both gross attendance and gross sales highs.
Imax shares coming off the news rallied more than 6% on Tuesday, its best day since November. The stock closed at $19.85 and is up more than 5% after hours.
Imax admitted more than 1 million people to theaters in China on Friday, its best one-day attendance on record. The results come despite capacity limitations that remain in place on entertainment establishments in China. The $25 million Imax grossed at the box office was better than what it saw during the comparable opening week in 2019, which preceded the coronavirus pandemic.
Most theaters in China have 75% capacity limitations, while parts of the country seeing higher transmissions of Covid-19 are limited to 50%. U.S. theater restrictions differ by state. Restrictions range from 25% capacity in Minnesota to 50% in Indiana to 100% in Alaska, according to data kept by the National Association of Theatre Owners.
The Lunar New Year seven-day holiday ends Wednesday. Theaters were closed in China this time last year as the country shut down in response to the rapidly spreading virus that was first discovered in late 2019 in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.
The movie rush was fueled by the traditional travel season in China being largely put on hold due to coronavirus restrictions. With travel plans scrapped, millions spent time at the movies.
Gelfond said Imax had expected strong turnout in China over the weekend.
“I think the only thing you can say is it’s pent-up demand, that people just got tired of sitting on their couches and, you know, watching streaming or whatever else they did,” he said. “I think they’re just happy to get out, and I think it foreshadows the rest of the world.”
Amid the pandemic, Imax’s business revenues plunged 74% in 2020 through September from its first three quarters the year before. The company is set to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 performance next month.
Gelfond said in December that 2021 U.S. movie releases, including a slate of films that were postponed from initial releases last year, would present “an embarrassment of riches” for Imax, should theaters in the country open up early in the year.
For the movie industry at large, mainland China generated sales of 6.77 billion yuan, or $1.05 billion, as of Tuesday for the holiday week, according to online ticketing platform Maoyan Entertainment. That figure tops the record 5.9 billion yuan brought during the same period in 2019.
Since theaters reopened there in June, box-office revenues have been climbing. Coronavirus cases have declined precipitously in countries such as China, Australia and South Korea, and movie ticket sales have been increasing.
Global movie ticket sales plunged 70% in 2020 from the year prior. Asia Pacific ticket sales made up about 51% of global sales, up from 41% in 2019, based on information from Comscore and Gower Street. The U.S. and Canadian box office made up just 18% of sales in 2020, down from 30% in 2019.
Elizabeth Olsen stars as Wanda Maximoff in “WandaVision” on Disney+.
Disney
Kevin Feige warned us that the Marvel series on Disney+ would have implications for the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe. And he’s kept that promise.
On Friday, the fifth episode of “WandaVision” arrived on the streaming service, bringing with it a major cameo that has left viewers with a lot to ponder before episode six arrives next week. The reveal not only has ramifications within the sitcom-based TV show, but for the entire Marvel universe… or should I say multiverse.
Now would be a good time to look away if you haven’t seen the most recent episode of “WandaVision.”
**Spoilers ahead**
The fifth episode, titled “On a Very Special Episode…,” our ragtag team of FBI Agent Jimmy Woo, Dr. Darcy Lewis and Captain Monica Rambeau inch closer to understanding the Westview anomaly.
Meanwhile, Vision, still part of the simulation, but now set in the ’80s, grows more and more suspicious of the world around him. Neighbors have begun to act strangely, his twin sons age at their own will and his wife, Wanda, while attempting to dismiss his concerns, only causes them to grow.
Just as the newly minted husband and wife are set for a superpowered argument, the doorbell rings. Wanda, confused by this twist, answers. Standing on the front poor is Pietro Maximoff, just not that Pietro Maximoff.
Elizabeth Olsen stars as Wanda Maximoff in “WandaVision” on Disney+ with special guest Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff.
Disney
It’s Peter Evans, not Aaron Taylor-Johnson that appears on the other side of the door. The actor portrayed the mutant Quicksilver in several X-Men films, which up until 2019 were owned by 20th Century Fox.
It’s hinted that Wanda had not planned to bring her brother into her sitcom simulation. After all, only a few scenes prior Wanda refuses to bring her sons’ deceased puppy back from the dead.
“You can fix anything mom, fix dead,” one son remarks. After declining, even nosy neighbor Agnes, who is theorized to be pulling at least some of the strings of Wanda’s simulation, asked if she actually could do that.
“I am trying to tell you that there are rules in life,” Wanda explains to her two boys. “We can’t just rush aging because it’s convenient and we can’t reverse death no matter how sad it makes us. Some things are forever.”
This statement sparks two questions: Is Vision dead or has Wanda (or someone else) brought him back? And Did Wanda bring back a different Pietro accidentally or did someone else?
Both will likely be answered before the credits roll on the final episode in just a few weeks.
Already, audiences have gotten glimpses of what happened prior to the Westview anomaly early in the episode when Wanda appeared on security camera footage stealing Vision’s body from a secret lab. And there are likely plenty of Easter eggs yet to be uncovered that provide more clues.
Welcome to the multiverse
So, what about this new Pietro?
Before Disney acquired Fox’s entertainment brands in a deal worth $71 billion, the two studios made an agreement. Disney could use Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, but could not make reference to them being mutants or being the children of Magneto. It’s why in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Wanda and Pietro derived their powers from an infinity stone and not genetically.
Keen viewers might have noticed during Friday’s episode that when Tyler Hayward, the director of S.W.O.R.D., asked if Wanda had a moniker like some of the other Avengers it was said that she did not. Wanda has never been called Scarlet Witch in any of the MCU movies.
As for Fox, the studio was permitted to utilize Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in its films as long as it did not make any references to the Avengers. In fact, Peters’ Quicksilver goes by Peter and not Pietro.
Elizabeth Olsen stars as Wanda Maximoff in “WandaVision” on Disney+ alongside Paul Bettany as Vision.
Disney
In recent months, rumors have circulated as Marvel executives have hired some familiar faces to return in future MCU films.
Disney has already confirmed that Jamie Foxx will return as Electro, from “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which featured Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. And Alfred Molina, who portrayed Doctor Octopus during Tobey McGuire’s turn as the famed webslinger, is also confirmed as appearing in the film.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange is also set to appear.
There has been speculation that other characters from the MCU, or even from the previous iterations of Spider-Man, will join the cast, but Disney has not confirmed these rumors.
The return of Pietro in the form of Peters signals that Marvel is already on its way to exploring the multiverse. This was teased during San Diego Comic-Con in 2019 when Marvel announced that the Doctor Strange sequel would be called “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
For those unfamiliar, the Marvel multiverse is just a fancy way of saying a collection of alternate universes. They are similar in nature to each other, but have slight variations. It’s a very popular concept in comic books, as it allows writers to reinvent characters and storylines for new generations.
With Wanda already confirmed as part of the Doctor Strange sequel and Doctor Strange part of “Spider-Man 3” it’s no surprise that Marvel is sprinkling bread crumbs early. After all, the seeds of the infinity stones show up in “Thor” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” long before they are named as such.
Marvel used the mind, power, reality, soul, space and time gems over the course of a decade, using them to weave in new characters and situations that ultimately led to “Avengers: Infinity War” and the highest-grossing film of all time “Avengers: Endgame.”
Introducing the multiverse in “WandaVision” works on multiple levels for Disney. Not only are they setting a path for future MCU movies and shows, the company is also making its streaming content must-see television. Fans have to watch these shows if they don’t want to miss out on plotlines or character introductions that will be integrated into feature-length films.
“WandaVision” may have been the first Marvel project to debut since “Spider-Man: Far From Home” in July 2019, but it won’t be the last in 2021. On Disney+, it will be quickly followed by “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” in March, “Loki” in May and the animated series “What If…?” in the summer.
Theatrically, Marvel is set to debut “Black Widow” on May 7, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” on July 9, “Eternals” on Nov. 5 and its co-produced “Spider-Man 3” on Dec. 17.
But one of the Caped Crusader’s most fervent supporters lies not in a comic book, but in the US Senate, and he’s known the Bat for more than 80 years.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and the longest-serving member of the current Senate, is a Batman aficionado who’s turned his fandom into philanthropy. He’s even used the comics to forward his legislative agenda.
Now President pro tempore of the Senate, Leahy is third in the presidential line of succession. Though it’s unlikely he’ll ever have to serve as President, his high-profile position shines a brighter light on his colorful resume — which includes multiple appearances in the “Batman” films.
When he’s not working in the Senate chambers in Washington, Leahy retreats to Gotham, where Batman fights cartoonish villains and mans the Batmobile. It’s a comfort he took up when he was 4 years old.
“If you live in the real world all the time, it can be kind of boring,” the senator told Vermont alt-weekly newspaper Seven Days in 2008.
When Leahy met Batman
Leahy declined an interview for this story through his spokesman, but his affinity for all things Batman is well-documented. As he wrote in the foreword of “Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman,” he was born just one year after Batman’s first comic published in 1939.
He first discovered Batman at age 4, when he received his first library card. He frequented the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, where he spent many an afternoon poring over comics. While his school friends raved over Superman, Leahy found a “kindred bond” with the Bat.
“Entering Batman’s world through my imagination opened an early door into a lifelong love of reading,” he wrote in his foreword.
He’d continue spending hours at the library each day until adulthood, and even after he moved to Washington, he’d make time to pop in. He’s a vocal advocate for literacy and the preservation of libraries so children can have similarly formative experiences with books.
“Some of my fondest memories as a child were at the library, where everyone fit in and possibilities were limitless,” he writes on his Senate website.
Leahy’s appearances from page to screen
Leahy was elected to the Senate in 1974 and until the mid-1990s, his affinity for Batman didn’t have much to do with his duties on Capitol Hill.
That changed in 1996, when Leahy collaborated with DC Comics to create “Batman: Death of Innocents: The Horror of Landmines,” a graphic novel warning of the dangers of landmines. Leahy has long advocated to end the use of landmines, and he told the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call that he placed copies of the comic on every senator’s desk that year.
Leahy’s first foray into screen acting — something he does strictly when Batman is involved — came in 1995, when he appeared in the critically reviled “Batman Forever.” The same year, he voiced a character billed as “Territorial Governor” in “Batman: The Animated Series.”
Since then, Leahy has appeared in nearly as many “Batman” films as the Caped Crusader himself. He usually appears as a scowling politician (though in “Batman & Robin,” which his son Mark also had a cameo in, he was allowed to enjoy a raucous party). He even met an explosive end as the curiously named Senator Purrington in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
“I explain to everybody that getting blown up was OK ’cause my wife’s a registered nurse,” he joked to Roll Call in 2016. “She put me back together and I never missed a vote.”
His most notable cameo, though, came in 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” when he confronts Heath Ledger’s Joker and famously tells the villain that he’s “not intimidated by thugs.” The Joker, true to form, responds by grabbing Leahy’s character and menacing him with a knife.
Ledger, who died before the film’s release, is Leahy’s favorite Joker.
“He scared the heck out of me, when he came at me with the knife,” he told Roll Call. “I didn’t have to act.”
He’ll be absent from the upcoming reboot “The Batman,” starring Robert Pattinson in the titular role. Citing a busy schedule, he told the Burlington Free Press he “didn’t even seek to be in it.”
“I have too many other things going on with Covid, with appropriation bills,” he told the paper in August.
While his film roles have certainly satisfied his inner fanboy, Leahy does it for the library where his love for reading bloomed. He donates every fee from his appearances and royalty checks from residual showings to his beloved Kellogg-Hubbard Library, where he helped finance a children’s wing named for him. From his roles in “The Dark Knight” trilogy alone, Leahy has donated more than $150,000 back to his hometown library, said Carolyn Brennan, co-director of the library.
In 2012, the library hung a plaque honoring Leahy, who staff called their “super hero.”
Why Leahy loves Batman so
Leahy found Batman when he was a boy, but his love for the fictional hero is foundational to who he is and the lawmaker he became. Batman instilled in Leahy a love of reading and promoting literacy and of delivering justice (though as a government servant, not a caped vigilante).
Leahy preferred Batman to other characters because, unlike the god-like Superman or the super-powered Spider-Man, Batman was just a man, albeit an extremely rich one, with “human strengths and human frailties.” The danger Batman faced was different than that of other heroes — his felt real, Leahy wrote in the DC collection foreword.
“The Batman prevailed through superior intellect and detective skills, through the freedoms afforded by great wealth and through sheer will,” Leahy wrote in his foreword. “Not superpowers, but skill, science and rationality.”
Much like Bruce Wayne, Leahy is just a man, albeit one with more power than most and the chance to make real, tangible changes in his own Gotham. Following Batman’s example, he’s vowed to use that power wisely.
Gregory Sierra, a longtime character actor who appeared in television shows and movies, most notably on “Barney Miller” and “Sanford and Son,” died Jan. 4 in Laguna Woods, Calif., from cancer. He was 83.
A New York native, Sierra’s breakthrough came when he was cast as Julio Fuentes, the Puerto Rican neighbor to Redd Foxx’s Fred Sanford on “Sanford and Son.”
After he left that series, Sierra played one of the original detectives working out of the diverse 12th Precinct in Greenwich Village on ABC’s “Barney Miller.” He was written out of the series after the second season to star in “A.E.S. Hudson Street,” a sitcom about a frantic emergency room, but it lasted just six episodes.
Sierra also appeared as a radical Jewish vigilante in “Archie Is Branded,” a 1973 episode of CBS’ “All in the Family,” wherein someone paints a swastika on Archie’s door. The episode, which ends in silence, was among the most memorable from the long-running series.
Gregory SierraWalt Disney Television via Getty Images
Born on Jan. 25, 1937 in Spanish Harlem, Sierra attended the Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception, in Brooklyn. After school, he worked with the National Shakespeare Company and in the New York Shakespeare Festival before moving to Los Angeles, where he started getting bit parts in television and supporting roles in movies like “Beneath the Planet of the Apes,” “Getting Straight,” “Papillon” and “The Towering Inferno.”
He had recurring roles in multiple television shows, including “Hill Street Blues,” “Miami Vice,” and “Murder, She Wrote,” and made appearances in a slew of other series.
“Miami Vice” star Edward James Olmos tweeted that he read news of Sierra’s death and wept. “Gregory Sierra will forever be with us,” Olmos wrote. “Those that knew him. His laughter. His wit. His kindness. His extraordinary artistic ability. He was a friend, a Mentor, a force of nature that I was so grateful to have known & worked with. RIP.”
