Rumor of a rumor  from our community says Marvel was eyeing John Boyega to replace Jonathan Majors, but he said no, and now they are retooling and looking to gender flip the character and give us a female version of Kang.

For the first time in 15 years, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) is on strike. Today, Tuesday May 2nd, members began picketing at 1:00 p.m. at various locations including Amazon/Culver Studios, CBS, Disney’s Burbank headquarters, and more. A statement from the WGA last week alleges that the studios would not agree to any guaranteed number of weeks of employment for television writers and instead proposed a “day rate” for comedy/variety writers, which would basically make a new category for writers. The statement also claimed the parties stonewalled on proposals over minimizing work with no pay and regulating artificial intelligence writing. 

The ‘Year of the Video Game Adaptation’ (as coined here on Multiverse News) continues to shift into high gear as this week saw the release of trailers for 2 high profile motor-themed projects, based on Playstation games. Peacock’s Twisted Metal series,starring Anthony Mackie, is set to begin streaming July 27th, while Neil Blomkamp’s ‘Gran Turismo, with David Harbour, Orlando Bloom and Djimon Honsou attached, looks to race its way to big screens August 11th.

According to an exclusive via The Hollywood Reporter, Nic Pizzolatto, the creative force behind HBO’s True Detective, has been tapped by Marvel Studios to pen the script for the upcoming Blade film, reuniting him with Mahershala Ali, who starred in True Detective’s third season. Blade is currently slated to start production in late May and eyeing a September 6, 2024 release. The film will be helmed by Lovecraft Country’s Yann Demange. and also recently added Delroy Lindo and Mia Goth to its cast.

After being seen having lunch with Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman, Mila Kunis officially debunked rumors that she’d be starring as The Thing, by saying, “ I am not in the Fantastic Four film, but I know who is.”

Rob Delaney will reprise his role from Deadpool 2 as Peter in Deadpool 3

Pedro Pascal is in talks to join the cast of the Gladiator sequel

Noah Hawley’s Alien Series for FX Casts Sydney Chandler in Lead Role

Taika Waititi is in final talks to direct a film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s New York Times bestselling novel 'Klara and the Sun.'

Netflix and Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monster’ Anthology will  Focus on Menendez Brothers in Season 2

Guardians of The Galaxy Vol 3 To Feature Marvel Studios First F-Bomb 

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According to an exclusive from Deadline, Vince Vaughn will return to star in a sequel to 2004’s hit comedy, Dodgeball. The film is currently in very early development at 20th Century Studios and at this point, there is no certainty on who else may join Vaughn from the original cast or who will direct.

At Cinema Con, Lionsgate released the first trailer for The Hunger Games prequel: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The film, based on author Suzanne Collins’ prequel novel and starring Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzmann and Viola Davis, currently has a release date of November 17th 2023.

Also during Cinema Con, John Krasinski unveiled the first look at his upcoming A Quiet Place spinoff starring Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou and Denis O’Hare, A Quiet Place: Day One is currently set to release on March 8th 2024 and is an origin story for the alien invasion that forms the backdrop for this universe.

More from Cinema Con, Paramount and Tom Cruise debuted a new trailer and 20 minutes of footage of the upcoming Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part 1. The seventh entry in the action franchise starring Cruise and Hayley Atwell is set to hit theaters on July 12th 2023 and Part 2 is expected to be released on June 28th 2024.

The Super Mario Bros Movie remained number one in its 4th weekend of release and officially passed a total global gross of $1 Billion, making it one of 5 post-pandemic films to do so and the first of 2023.

A teaser trailer for the upcoming season of Black Mirror has been released. It will feature Salma Hayek, Aaron Paul, Kate Mara, Michael Cera, and will release in June of this year.

At Cinema Con, Christopher Nolan showcased footage from his upcoming film Oppenheimer, following the American physicist who developed the atomic bomb. The July 21st release will feature Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Rami Malek, Jack Quaid, and Gary Oldman.

Transformers Rise of the Beasts has dropped it’s first trailer and will hit in theaters on June 9th.

Transformers: One, executive produced by Steven Spielberg, will be an animated origin Story featuring voices like Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan Micahel-Key, Jon Hamm, and Laurence Fishburne. The film will release in July of next year.

An R-rated live action/animation hybrid series about Winnie the Pooh character Christopher Robin is in development. The official description reads: “Christopher Robin is a disillusioned New Yorker navigating his quarter-life crisis with the help of the weird talking animals who live beyond a drug-induced portal outside his derelict apartment complex, the Hundred Acres.”

Ridley Scott’s long-anticipated Gladiator sequel appears to have secured Connie Nielsen who starred in the first film and Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn is in negotiations to play Emperor Caracalla. They join Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and Denzel Washington.

On the April 28 episode of the Brotherly Love Podcast, Matthew Lawrence opened up about his own experience with sexual harassment in Hollywood. The actor said he was dropped by his agency after refusing to take his close off for an Award-Winning director when he was up for a Marvel role

Adam McKay will reteam with Netflix after 2021's 'Don't Look Up' for 'Average Height, Average Build', a comedy starring Robert Pattinson as a serial killer seeking to influence American politicians to make murder easier. Amy Adams co-stars as a lobbyist who forms a unique connection with the murderer.

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Today, Warner Brothers held a lengthy presentation at Cinema Con during which footage was shown from several upcoming films including Barbie, Dune 2, Joker 2, Aquaman 2, Furiosa, The Flash, Wonka, The Meg 2, Beetlejuice 2, The Nun 2, and others. A full trailer was shown for The Flash, which is online now.Hayley

The Jonathan Majors debacle continues to worsen as the actor’s May 8 court appearance approaches. In addition to being dropped by his publicists and management firm, there have been reports of multiple alleged abuse victims coming forth to cooperate with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Majors’ attorney maintains his innocence and eventual inevitable exoneration.

Coming hot off the heels of the announced Harry Potter TV series reboot, we have news that Lionsgate is following suit and developing the Twilight Saga for a similar television treatment. This comes to us at the same time as reports of a Magnificent Seven series and a Galaxy Quest series.

Over in the casting rumor mill, multiple industry insiders have broadcasted scoops that Adam Driver is in final talks to portray The Fantastic Four patriarch, Reed Richards, in the MCU. Hayley

The Kraven The Hunter Spinoff from Sony starring Aaron Taylor Johnson is officially confirmed to be Rated R.

Two writers will write the 11th and final installment in the Fast & Furious saga, Christina Hodson, who wrote Bumblebee and The Flash, and Oren Uziel, who wrote the Cloverfield Paradox and Mortal Kombat.

Juno Temple who plays keely on Ted Lasso is in final Talks to Lead Venom 3 with Tom Hardy.

Adult Swim Announces a 10 episode Rick & Morty Anime Spinoff which will premiere on Max later this year.

Disney & Victoria Alonso have officially Settled Out of Court for an undisclosed amount. The former Marvel executive and head of VFX was fired by Disney last month in a messy public split.

'Peaky Blinders' creator Steven Knight is in very early development of a drama series based on the life of William Shakspeare.

Documentary About Alec Baldwin & the Accidental Shooting incident last year Is Underway as Rust Resumes Production.

In an interview with The Hollywood reporter, actress Patti LuPone seemed to insinuate that the upcoming Marvel show Agatha Coven of Chaos is a musical or at the very least, has some musical elements stating that not only is Kathryn Hahn singing lead while other witches sing backup, but that the songs have been written by the same writers who created the song Agatha All Along for WandaVision.

Netflix has released its first official teaser for season 3 of The Witcher.

In our Netflix corner this week we have three quick stories, They released a trailer for FUBAR, an action comedy led by Arnold Schwarzenegger about his character’s life as a spy intersecting his life as a dad.

Netlix also announced The Boroughs, a sci fi series that will be produced by Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers,

And finally, Netflix announced All the Light We Cannot See, limited series by Shawn Levy, Director for Stranger Things and Free Guy. It will star Mark Ruffalo and be based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

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We’ve got a number of announcements coming from HBO Max’s launch of it’s new Branding.  The Streaming Platform is using the absorption of Discovery+ content to rebrand to just…Max. New pricing tiers are also being released with different ad levels.

The announcement I’m personally most excited for is The trailer for The Penguin series.  It will be a spinoff from Matt Reeves’ The Batman.  The series will see Colin Farrell return to the role he played in The Batman with an eight episodes run premiering in 2024, Audiences will watch the Penguin navigate the power vacuum left in the underworld of Gotham City.

The big announcement from Warner Brothers also revealed a new Game of Thrones prequel series is in the works. Based on George R.R. Martin’s series of novellas, the Dunk and Egg books, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will follow the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and Aegon V Targaryen 90 years prior to the events of A Song of Fire and Ice.

Up next, Horror and  Crime Thriller fans can look forward to two series of favorite franchises coming to Max. Peter Safran and James Wan of the The Conjuring movies are helming a drama series set in the horror universe audiences love. And Nic Pizzolatto’s anthology series True Detective returns with Jodie Foster solving a bone-chilling mystery in True Detevtive: Night Country set in Alaska.

Moving on to other things, In Marvel news, we learned that a 45-minute storyline of Thanos obtaining the Power Stone on Xandar was cut from the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War. Wanting to keep the already long movie at a reasonable runtime, the scene did not receive full special effects treatment, but does exist in some form.

Fans of The Walking Dead are set to get a new show as well with a six-part, short-form story series being produced by AMC+. Following in the footsteps of similar off-shoots before it, The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne will premiere in 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

A new animated series from DC is set to premiere in 2024 as the first entry to the DC Universe helmed by Peter Safran and James Gunn. Featuring voice actor extraordinaire Alan Tudyk, David Harbor,Indira Varma and Frank Grillo, the series, called Creature Commandos, will update the original comics characters who were a precursor to the Suicide Squad set during World War II, but still stay true to those storylines and themes.

Morena Baccarin and Stefan Kapicic have joined the cast of Deadpool 3 and will reprise their roles of Vanessa and Colossus

Michelle Yeoh will reprise her role of Emperor Philippa Georgiou in a Star Trek Section 31 film for Paramount+

Mia Goth who starred in the horror films X and Pearl last year has joined the case of Marvel’s Blade in an unknown role 

A Galaxy Quest series is in development for Paramount+. It is not known at this time if it will be a reboot or a continuation of the original 1999 film.  

Star Wars Celebration just wrapped up in London and oh man, have they been dropping amazing news! We’re going to cover the major highlights that have been released as the majority of our coverage on today’s show.

Episode 2 of Multiverse News is here! Lots of trailers to discuss plus universes possibly being rebooted and others possibly getting new life!

The Secret Invasion has begun in earnest as Marvel Studios unveiled it’s first full trailer for the series during the Phillies/Rangers basketball game, Sunday night. The trailer confirmed the release date of June 21 and the accompanying variety article confirmed Emilia Clarke’s role as Talos’ daughter, G'iah.

Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse released it’s official trailer giving us a closer look into Miles’ dilemma with both the multiversal villain, The Spot, voiced by Jason Schwartzman, and Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O’Hara aka Spider-Man 2099.

Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves is at a 91% critic score and and even higher 94% Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and had a nearly $40 million box office weekend, capturing the top spot and wowing critics and audiences.

DC wowed us with our first look at the upcoming Blue Beetle flick with a trailer full of laughs and horror homage, plus some insights into Jaime Reyes’ family dynamic.

Though talks are still in a preliminary state, HBO is planning to reboot the Harry Potter franchise into a TV show that will be at least 7 seasons, one for each novel, with the potential for universe expansion with Fantastic Beasts.

A Scott Pilgrim anime for Netflix that reunites the entire original cast from Edgar Wright’s 2011 film adaptation is in development. Edgar Wright is executive producing, while Scott Pilgrim creator, Bryan Lee O’Malley is co-writing and co-showrunning the series with Ben David Grabinski.

A Game of Thrones prequel set 300 years before Game of Thrones following the targareon conquest of Westeros is in development at HBO.

Following in the footsteps of 2019’s joker, Mike Flanagan has pitched a Clayface feature to WB.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is in development for Paramount+.

Lee Sung Jin, writer of Netflix’s Beef, plus episodes of Silicon Valley and Dave has been hired to rewrite Marvel’s Thunderbolts.

Ed Harris is in talks to join the Wonder Man series opposite Yahya Abdul-Mateen of Watchmen already cast as Wonder Man. along with other heavy hitters like Werner Herzog, Ben Kingsley in his role as Trevor Slattery, and - rumored - Courteney Cox and Bob Odenkirk.

The E3 gaming expo has been canceled as a result of Most gaming companies holding their own reveal events.

James Gunn did an interview where he gave us somejuicey nuggets. First, He says Superman Legacy will have a very different tone from Guardians. He also says that Writing Marvel movies post Endgame has been challenging because it was such a universe-ending event. Gunn also did not know that the Guardians would take off with Thor at the end of Endgame. Gunn also expressed that Superhero fatigue is real, but not because of the characters, because of the stories being told, too much focus on the spectacle and not on the characters

Welcome to the first episode of Multiverse News! We endeavour to be your one stop shop for Geeky Pop Culture news about all of the fictional universes that you love!

This week!

Marvel Studios has finally released some new details about upcoming projects, while behind-the-scenes drama seems to have captured the focus. Kang actor, Jonathan Majors, was arrested and charged with domestic assault and harassment, but his lawyers say they have video and witness testimony that will clear his name. Also, long-time Chief of visual effects and Post-Production at Marvel, Victoria Alonso, has filed suit against Disney after she was suddenly fired last week. Alosno claims she was fired after refusing to go along with something reprehensible and Disney says it was because of an indisputable breach of contract. And while we’re reeling from all of this behind-the-scenes news, Marvel announced the return of Liv Tyler will appear in Captain America: New World Order, reprising her role as Betty Ross, from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk; a writer’s room is working on the WandaVision spin-off Vision Quest, and thank God we finally have a release date of June 21st for Secret Invasion on Disney Plus.  Then turning to rumors,  Sacha Baron Cohen is rumored to appear in three Marvel Projects as Mephisto.

Deadline confirmed news that Warner Brothers is working to apply the cinematic universe idea to the Lord of the Rings franchise, which would involve rebooting the trilogy of movies. While not directly involved, director Peter Jackson has offered encouraging words about the future of the franchise.

John Wick Chapter 4 achieves the best opening weekend ever for the franchise with an incredible $70 million opening weekend. This is encouraging news for movie theaters after still feeling the effects from COVID-19 shut downs. There are also talks that the spin-off movie “Ballerina,” starring Ana de Armas will release in 2024, with a spin-off series “The Continental” releasing on Peacock this year, according to Fandango.

Amid the entire shakeup of DC, Shazam: Fury of the Gods opened with a fairly low box office weekend of just $30 million, With a Rotten Tomato critic score of 51% but a much more respectable 87% Audience score.  Could this be the new standard for the remaining old guard DCEU movies while we await the emergence of James Gunn’s DCU . The film is coupled with rumors that Shazam actor Zachary Levi and Black Adam actor Dwayne Johnson have issues working together, with Levi backing reports that Johnson blocked any use of the Shazam character in the Black Adam movie. All of this amidst reports that Tom Cruise has seen The Flash movie and loved it..

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