While it’s been common knowledge for a while that Black Widow would be set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, that made it no less shocking when former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff was killed off during the events of Avengers: Endgame last year.

Now, it’s beginning to look like the character’s solo movie will primarily revolve around her passing the “Black Widow” mantle to Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, but actress Scarlett Johansson has now revealed (via Digital Spy) how she learned of Black Widow’s shocking fate in the 2019 ensemble.

“Kevin called me and said, ‘Look, obviously we’re at a place where there’s going to be big sacrifices and big losses’. We had all anticipated that. So it didn’t seem out of character,” Johansson explained. “It kind of made sense to me, I guess, even though I was sad about it. But after I hung up the phone I remember I thought, ‘Okay, I guess it’s me.'”

“And it took me a minute to process it,” she concluded. “It was bittersweet, but it was not a shock.”

It was definitely a shock for fans, and of the original six Avengers, only three – Thor, Hulk, and Hawkeye – remain. However, with Clint Barton about to hand his bow to Kate Bishop, Jane Foster preparing to wield Mjolnir, and She-Hulk incoming, it feels like we’re witnessing a changing of the guard.

What do you guys think?

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Following an extended pandemic-fueled production shut down, cameras are finally rolling on Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 7 and along with the announcement comes a jaw-dropping photo from director Chris McQuarrie, showcasing one of the film’s stunning shooting locations and possibly teasing one of the many stunts Ethan Hunt (Cruise) will attempt to pull off come November 2021. 

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Paramount was forced to abruptly halt pre-production on the film’s Italy shoot back in November, sending crew members back home to their respective countries, but now, after weeks of quarantining and ensuring the proper safety measures have been installed, it looks like Cruise and company can finally start shooting, with their production schedule expected to last through May.

McQuarrie labels his post “Day 1,” marking the official start of principal photography, but prior to this, Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell did film – or, at least, rehearse – parts of the sequel’s high-octance opening sequence at a test track in Surrey, England back in March. 

Mission: Impossible 7 & 8 are headlined by Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick) as IMF ace Ethan Hunt, as well as fellow returning stars Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) as Ilsa Faust, Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) as Benji Dunn, Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) as Luther Stickell, and Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) as the White Widow. Newcomers to the storied action franchise include Hayley Atwell (Avengers: Endgame), Pom Klementieff (Avengers: Endgame), Shea Whigham (Joker) and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Dark Phoenix), who is rumored to be playing the villain. Henry Czerny (Sharp Objects) has also been confirmed to reprise his role as Eugene Kittridge from the first film.

There isn’t much information regarding who else will make up Ethan Hunt’s team for his seventh and eighth adventures, but fans still holding out hope that some combination of Jeremy Renner (William Brandt), Angela Bassett (Erica Sloane), Paula Patton (Jane Carter) and/or Maggie Q (Zhen Lei) will also return. There have also been rumblings that the likes of Henry Cavill (August Walker) and Alec Baldwin (Alan Hunley) may also be back in some capacity as McQuarrie recently teased, “Any character, dead or alive, is fair game to return.“

Both sequels are expected to film back-to-back, with Mission: Impossible 7 set to light the fuse in theaters on November 19, 2021, while its sequel, Mission: Impossible 8, will open the following fall on November 4, 2022. 

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In “Rumor Mill,” we share the hard to buy rumours that don’t come from reliable sources like the trades, but are still more believable (just) than what you might find on Reddit. 

With Ms. Marvel reportedly set to begin shooting later this Fall, fans are more anxious than ever before to see who Marvel Studios will choose to take on the role of Kamala Khan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character’s stock has risen a great deal in recent weeks thanks to the Marvel’s Avengers game that puts her front and centre, so excitement is at an all-time high for a big reveal. 

While we’re still waiting for that to become a reality, The Direct is reporting that actors Jasjit Williams (Street Voices) and Saagar Shaikh (Unfair & Ugly) are in talks to join the Disney+ series. 

It’s believed that Williams is taking on the role of Bruno Carrelli, a possible love interest for Ms. Marvel and Kamala’s tech-savvy friend. Shaikh, meanwhile, is being eyed for Aamir Khan, Kamala’s older brother. That’s likely to be a minor role, though it depends on how much time we spend with her family.

It’s exciting to think that Ms. Marvel is finally falling into place, especially when the hero’s live-action debut is so long overdue. What promises to be really interesting, though, is how Kevin Feige and company go about explaining Kamala’s Inhuman origins and what that means for those characters. 

We’ll keep you guys updated!

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The New Mutants is definitely a movie that was put through the wringer thanks to multiple delays and a merger between Disney and Fox many believed would lead to it forever remaining unreleased. At the end of last month, it finally arrived in theaters, and it received the response you would probably expect from a release that underwent zero reshoots (when Fox wanted to reshoot the entire thing). 

It was far from a Fantastic Four-shaped disaster – you can read our review by clicking here – but Boone has now reflected on some of those early issues during an interview with BBC. 

“We were just in a perplexing circumstance that most people don’t have to deal with,” the filmmaker explained. “I feel like we did it. But oh my God, there were a lot of bumps and bruises. You’re holding on to it as it gets smaller and smaller and then eventually you’re like, ‘I can’t believe we made this’. Once you start to find what the movie is, the budget comes in hard, you start to realize you’re gonna have to cut your dream of it in half.” 

Boone later added, “Not in a bad way, just in a ‘reality of Hollywood’ way that any director who goes to make a movie eventually has to do. So even if someone’s making a $200 million movie, I promise they needed $400 million.” Of course, it’s no secret that Fox slashed the budget, hence why Warlock ended up being cut…only for them to later decide to add him via those unfilmed reshoots.

While Boone has moved on to work on the small screen adaptation of The Stand, it’s unclear how the response to The New Mutants will affect his career moving forward. However, he made it clear he plans to “choose my next project wisely” after comparing this experience to the one he had on 2014 hit The Fault in Our Stars. 

“That we had just made that and a pandemic happened was already so weird,” he reflected. “And now we’re releasing a movie about kids in quarantine? And I’m just like – I don’t know – I’ll choose the next project more wisely.” What that will be remains to be seen, but it won’t be The New Mutants 2!

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In “Rumor Mill,” we share the hard to buy rumours that don’t come from reliable sources like the trades, but are still more believable (just) than what you might find on Reddit. 

There have been rumblings for a while about Wiccan and Speed – the children of the Scarlet Witch and The Vision – making their Marvel Cinematic Universe debuts in WandaVision, and our first look at the series appeared to confirm that. There have also been multiple audition tapes about children of various ages playing a role in proceedings, and it’s thought they’ll be aged up quite quickly.

That means the Disney+ series should end with the Young Avengers members as teenagers, and it’s now rumoured that the plan is for the magically powered Wiccan and super speedster Speed to join Elizabeth Olsen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This does make sense, and means at least three members of the Young Avengers (including America Chavez) will share the screen.

It’s believed the two teen actors who will play the heroes have already shot their scenes for WandaVision, but we’ve heard nothing about who’s playing them, so Marvel Studios is keeping that under wraps.

Needless to say, it’s best to take with this a pinch of salt as it’s definitely one of those “scoops” that seems to be primarily based on common sense. It’s certainly intriguing to think what Wiccan and Speed will mean for the MCU, and with Cassie Lang aged up and Hawkeye set to introduce Kate Bishop, the Young Avengers are quickly coming together (we just need Hulkling in Captain Marvel 2).

What do you guys think?

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