*EDITOR’S NOTE: A lot of interesting content was revealed at this year’s COMIC-CON, so I’ll be updating this page with new content over the next several days.
Its that time of year and Comic-Con is upon us once again! This the venue where audiences get a sneak peek at some of the most exciting and anticipated projects in the superhero, sci-fi, and fantasy genres. There were quite a few notable announcements, trailers, and first looks, so let’s dive right in!
MARVEL STUDIOS
After The Infinity Saga came to a close, fans have been eager to see where The MCU would go next. The head of Marvel Studios, Kevin Fiege, did not disappoint. As we’re heading towards the end of Phase 4, Marvel debuted the films and Disney+ shows that would make up not only Phase 5, but Phase 6 as well!
As you’ll notice, not all of the films and TV shows that make up Phase 6 have been revealed. Some of these projects could hidden beceause even their title would spoil certain surprises that Marvel has in store. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see some of those spots taken up by sequels for characters like Shang-Chi and Doctor Strange or even an X-Men related project. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a film about the main Marvel Universe version of The Illuminati or even a Doctor Doom solo movie. We’ll have to wait and see. Like The Infinity Saga before it, Phases 4, 5, and 6 will collectively make up…
Culminating in not one, but TWO Avengers films, with monumentally exciting titles…
Exciting stuff, but there’s more MCU where that came from…
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania
The 3rd installment in the Ant-Man franchise marks the beginning of Marvel’s Phase 5. The big news in this movie is Jonathan Majors appearing as Kang The Conqueror. When we met He Who Remains, a much nicer variant of Kang, in Loki Season 1, we were warned that his variant’s are dangerous to put it mildly. When it comes to The Avengers’ the greatest foes, three names top the list: Thanos, Ultron, and Kang. Considering that the next Avengers movie is called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, you get the idea that Kang is as bad and as dangerous as they come. Jonathan Majors did a fantastic job of playing a variant of Kang in Loki Season One so I’m very excited to see what he does with a much more malevolent version of the character in this film. Below Marvel revealed an exciting poster for the upcoming movie, where you get a good look at not only Ant-Man and The Wasp, but Kang The Conqueror in his traditional comic book attire, along with Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie as her superhero alter ego, Stature.
Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3
While some of the Guardians of The Galaxy panel is available to watch on YouTube, the brief teaser James Gunn cut together for the audience in Hall H , hasn’t made it’s way online yet. However, there were some cool reveals, it was officially confirmed that the film’s villain will be The High Evolutionary. The character will be played by Chukwudi Iwuji. Earlier this year, Iwuji played Clemson Murn in the spectacular “Peacemaker” series. He made a hell of the entrance by taking a page out of Tom Hiddleston’s playbook and showing up for the panel in character and costume.
Chukwudi Iwuji on stage in Hall H as The High Evolutionary.
The High Evolutionary is Doctor Herbert Wyndham, a geneticist who specializes in creating human/animal hybrids. Rocket has been frequently referred to as the central character in Vol.3., so going on some sort of journey of self discovery to find his ”creator” or ”father”, makes a lot of sense. Many fans have speculated that The High Evolutionary would be revealed to be Rocket’s creator. This reveal seems to have confirmed this running fan theory.
Daredevil: Born Again
Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio return as Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk in the first 18 Episode Disney+ series. Notably, Fiege referred to this as the show’s “First Season”, implying that this isn’t a one off, like WandaVision, for example. Born Again refers to one of Daredevil’s most iconic stories, however Season 3 of the Netflix Daredevil series was largely an adaptation of this classic Born Again storyline. Even if the Netflix shows aren’t completely considered canon in The MCU, I doubt Marvel would rehash a story that we’ve, mostly, already seen, canon or not. Especially with Cox and D’Onofrio returning. If i had to guess, I’d say this is probably a Civil War or Age of Ultron situation, adaptations in name only and vastly different from the source material. I think that’s the most likely situation with Daredevil: Born Again. Out of all the projects revealed at COMIC CON this year, this is the one I’m most excited about.
In this video, IGN does a great job of explaining what Daredevil’s future in The MCU looks like. Check it out:
DC ENTERTAINMENT
The Sandman
Neil Gaiman, the celebrated author and creator of The Sandman comic series that the new show’s based on, breaks down the trailer in the video below.
SHAZAM: Fury of The Gods
Black Adam
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We have a couple of pretty cool trailers this week, with the new trailer for Season 3 of AmazonPrime’s The Boys, as well as our first look at the upcoming MCU Disney+ series, She-Hulk: Attorney At Law! Both trailers a very exciting for their own reasons, but check them out below and then we’ll get into some interesting details about these upcoming shows…
The Boys: Season 3
At this point, what more is there to say about The Boys? We already know the show is fantastic and I have no doubt that the new season will deliver just as much, if not more, than the previous seasons. I love seeing Homelander beginning to seriously go off the deep end. It looks like Maeve is beginning to proactively work against Vought a bit more, which is interesting. It seems like Hughie has some level of authority over Butcher now. Which led the great line from Mallory (their old boss) to Butcher ”You’ve even started taking Hugh Campbell’s orders without strangling him.”.
However, there was one thing problem I had that was on display in the trailer. In the comics, The Boys using something similar to Compound-V to level the playing field against the supes, is introduced fairly early in the series. So I didn’t really like M.M.’s sanctimonious “you’ve become the thing you hate! Blah, blah, blah“ schtick. If you’re going up against enemies with the power of gods, a move like this seems inevitable. So hopefully, that’s not a major subplot and this becomes a tool that The Boys use on a semi-regular basis when they need it .
Then, of course, the other big deal in Season 3 that has a lot of people excited, is Jensen Ackles joining the cast as Soldier Boy. We see much more of him in this new trailer and goddammit, he looks pretty damn cool. I feel like he’s going to be the wild card of the season. He’s the X factor. He doesn’t seem to be towing the Vought company line, but he doesn’t seem like a guy who’d necessarily become a straight up ally to Butcher and The Boys either. So it will be really interesting to see how his character is used and how his story plays out over the season. Ackles is a talented actor with a lot of range and I think he’s going to get a lot of attention with this role. The premiere can’t get here soon enough!
The Boys Season 3 begins streaming on PrimeVideo June 3rd.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
While I’ve always liked the character of Bruce Banner’s cousin, Jennifer Walters, I was surprised how much I loved the trailer for She-Hulk: Attorney At Law. The tone feels exactly right for a show like this and I thought She-Hulk’s character design really worked (I’ll get to the CGI/VFX in a minuet).
Let’s not forget some of the interesting familiar faces who show up in the trailer. It’s great to see Tim Roth back as Emil Blonsky a.k.a. The Abomination. We last saw him in Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, taking on Wong in a superhuman cage fighting tournament and it appears as if he’s been, at least a little bit, rehabilitated. Because after the fight in Shang-Chi, in the locker room he and Wong are clearly friends. Wong then opens a portal and walks through with The Abomination into a room that appears to be the same one that we see Tim Roth being kept in, in this new trailer.
Of course, I’ll take any excuse to see Mark Ruffalo pop up as Bruce Banner/The Hulk (some of you may disagree, but I love that he’s still in Professor Hulk-mode). Not to mention the persistent rumors that this is where we’ll see Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil again after his official re-introduction into the main MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Considering that Matt Murdock is a lawyer and this series is dealing with the creation of a superhuman law division, it makes a lot of sense for the character to make an appearance.
Something important to keep in mind when watching this trailer, is how on projects like this, the visual effects are continuing to be worked on and perfected up to the last moment. So while some of the She-Hulk rendering may not have been pitch perfect, the special effects wizards working on the show have literally months to perfect the process. I have no doubt that when the show premieres, we will have an impressive looking She-Hulk.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law premieres on Disney+ August 13th.
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
On this episode, Big Paul Sr. and I look back at 2021 and discuss our favorite movies of the year! We planned on going over our favorite TV shows of 2021 as well, but as usual, things went off the rails pretty quickly. So, expect a new episode of the podcast, where we talk about our favorite TV/Streaming series of 2021. We will most likely have it posted sometime in the next week.
The format of The World’s Best Podcast has always been very informal and conversational. Which means, that sometimes, we don’t get to go over certain topics as much as I’d like. While we spent a decent amount of time discussing most of our favorite movies of the year, there were a few that got left out or under discussed. Which is why I decided to included my official Top 10 Favorite Movies of 2021 list in this article, that we mention on the podcast. I’d love to hear what movies resonated with you in 2021, so let us know in the comments below or on social media.
My Favorite Movies of 2021
The Suicide Squad
Nobody
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Dune
Eternals
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings
A Quiet Place: Part 2
Batman: The Long Halloween
Last Night In Soho
Some of you may be surprised to see that Spider-Man: No Way Home didn’t make it onto the list. No Way Home is probably the biggest, most ambitious film to come out of The MCU, that isnt an Avengers movie. No Way Home has A LOT going on. I only saw it once and when I finally did, I was a little under the weather (Don’t worry, I’m not talking about COVID or anything like that. I would never be irresponsible enough to go to a movie, if I thought there was even a chance I was COVID positive). I have a feeling that, if I saw the film under better circumstances it would be in the Top 10. I didn’t feel comfortable including it on this list, until I see it again and decide where exactly I come down on Spider-Man: No Way Home. Anyway, enjoy this week’s episode of The World’s Best Podcast!
Thanks for listening! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
Here are some beautiful alternate and artist made posters for Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings
On this episode of The World’s Best Podcast, we give our straight out of the theater reaction, to latest MCU film, Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings! While not a FULL SPOILER review, a few MAJOR SPOILERS get dropped in our discussion, so listener beware! Instead of the studio, we recorded this in our car, immediately after seeing the film, which is why there’s a little background noise. However, I did want to include some Easter Eggs, interesting background info, and connections to the rest of The MCU, that just might enrich your experience when seeing Shang-Chi.
I absolutely adore this Special Edition Cover for EMPIRE Magazine’s Shang-Chi issue
One of the cool things about Shang Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, is that certain elements of the character’s history have been present in The MCU, all the way back to the first Iron Man film in 2008. None of this really counts as a spoiler, because it’s nothing that hasn’t been shown in the trailer. is nothing that you haven’t seen in the trailers. The Ten Rings is like a more mysterious, ninja HYDRA. I’m going to elaborate on how the organization was pulling the strings and making moves during some key moments in The MCU. The Ten Rings make their debut in the first MCU movie, Iron Man, in 2008. The Ten Rings were the terrorist organization that kidnapped Tony Stark at the beginning of the movie. They want him to make a weapons of mass destruction but instead Tony plans an escape by building his Mach 1 armor. With that Iron Man, and the MCU, was born.
In Iron Man 2, it’s revealed that, in a deleted scene, agents of The Ten Rings, helped Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash get past security and onto the race track, where ha attacked Tony in his race car during the Monaco Grand Prix.
Even in Ant-Man, towards the end of the film the current head of Pym Tech, Cross has finally been able to replicate his hands on Hank Pym’s shrinking technology. Cross, who’s a real sack if shit, intends to sell it to the highest bidders. Many shady buyers showed for the unveiling of the Yellowjacket, Cross’s version of the Ant-Man suit. Including Hydra, A.I.M., several agents of The Ten Rings. If you have Disney+ I’d also recommend checking out the short film All Hail The King, starring Ben Kingsley‘s character from Iron Man 3, Trevor Slattery. Not only is it a really fun little short, it also has a really cool connection to Shang Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings.
Listen here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/46360628 Or subscribe/listen on Spotify, Stitcher, Spreaker, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Podchaser, Castbox, Podcast Addict, Google Podcasts, & Apple Podcasts/ITunes…
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It looks like 2021 is going to be a banner year for Marvel. Phase 4 of The MCU is off to a killer start with the Disney+ shows. WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Loki, have all been fantastic. Black Widow may have been a little lackluster, but the early reactions to Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings have phenomenal. One film commentator that I follow, called Shang-Chi his “favorite superhero movie since Logan” and that the film had “the best martial arts action I’ve seen since The Raid”. On his podcast, film insider and writer Robert Meyer-Burnett, who worked on The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, said that Shang-Chi was one of “:the best fantasy films of the last 25 years”. I was already extremely excited for this film. Like Guardians of The Galaxy and Doctor Strange, Shang Chi will open up a completely new corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the possibilities are extremely exciting. My only concern is that the movie lives up to the hype that I’ve built up in my head. I know I might be pushing my luck by saying this, but I have a feeling that Shang-Chi is going to be something really special. Between this film and Eternals, it seems like we’re in for some great MCU storytelling (Supposedly, Spider-Man: No Way Home is still coming in December, but we’ve literally seen nothing from this movie, so I’m beginning to wonder if this movie even exists at all).
Right around the corner from Shang-Chi, Eternals premieres on November 5th. The final (probably) trailer has dropped and this flick looks fucking excellent. Here’s the official synopsis from Marvel…
Marvel Studios’ The Eternals features an exciting new team of Super Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, The Deviants.
This is one goddamn beautiful trailer, but I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise with Academy Award winning director Chloe Zhao at the helm. Kevin Fiege, the genius head honcho at Marvel Studios, has seen more success in his career over the last 15 years, than almost anyone in Hollywood. So he isn’t a man given to hyperbole. He’s more humble than most big wigs in the movie business, and he has a killer track record to back it up. Which is why many were surprised a few moths ago, when Fiege made the bold declaration that Eternals will win The Oscar for Best Picture at next year’s Academy Awards. Fiege very rarely makes comments like this, which shows you the level of confidence he has in this project. After seeing this new trailer, I can see why. It’s absolutely stunning. There’s so much great stuff here: our first look at The Deviants. The stunning, cosmic gods, The Celestial. Seeing how The Eternals manifest their powers. I loved it! Take a look for yourself right here:
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First things first, if you haven’t seen it yet (and even if you did, watch it again), take look at this incredible video Marvel Studios put out, giving us a look at its upcoming films and reminding us why we love going to the movies in the first place! Watch it here:
My God, those sons of bitches at Marvel have done it again! Goddamn if this isn’t one of the most effective pieces of marketing material I have ever seen. The use of Stan Lee’s voice over, coupled with the images of all of the amazing MCU films we’ve seen so far was genius.
It was like in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Luke doesn’t want anything to with The Jedi or The Resistance. Trusty old R2-D2 decides to give Luke a little kick in the ass, by playing Leia’s message from all those years ago, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” Luke gives R2 an annoyed, but slightly amused look and replies, “That was a cheap move.” Yeah. Sure. It was a cheap move, but it worked like a goddamn charm.
The video begins by showing us our most beloved moments and characters from throughout The MCU. All of this is set to Stan Lee’s beautiful voiceover. He delivered a message full of nostalgia, friendship, community, and hope. In other hands it might have sounded a little hokey, but this is Stan Fucking Lee. The guy’s a pro! From everything I’ve heard in addition to creating almost all of marvels most popular characters Stan was just a really good guy. Anyone who knew him talked about what an amazing person he was. He was humble man despite the indelible success. He always loved his fans and was genuinely grateful for reading his work. They didn’t call him Stan “The Man” Lee for nothing!
But then we’re shown a brief piece of footage, from an audience watching Avengers: Endgame opening night. A movie theater full of people, watching the now iconic “portals“ scene, culminating in Captain America’s unforgettable battle cry of “Avengers Assemble!” The theatre absolutely ERUPTS! Cheering! Applause! This is something I certainly related to because I had the exact same experience when I saw Avengers: Endgame opening night with my father. One of the things I’ve noticed over the last 20 years or so, is that for a really excellent film, if there was a rousing triumphant moment, people used to clap and cheer. Or even if the movie itself was just great, a cut above the rest, the audience would sometimes applaud. As if they were watching a Broadway show live. That has become increasingly rare over the last few decades. I can count on one hand the amount of times an audience has engaged with a recent movie like they did with Avengers: Endgame. The night I saw it, it wasn’t a special fans screening, it wasn’t a midnight show. It was just opening night, I’m sure a lot of the people in the audience were just movie fans not necessarily diehard marvel fans like myself and my father were. Yet when Cap picks up fours hammer and tape sign Thanos and when Captain America once again utters those immortal words “Avengers Assemble!” The entire audience flipped out, people were standing up and clapping as if it was a playoff game at a sporting event. That’s the kind of communal movie going experience I miss. That’s the type of audience interaction that I miss. For so long one of the big reasons I didn’t like to see films in theaters as much as I used to, is because audience etiquette has gone down the tubes. People talk and take out their phones. However if somebody yells something out, claps, or cheers simply because they got caught up in the moment, they became lost in the story unfolding on the screen, that kind of audience engagement is wonderful and has become all too rare. That’s the kind of movie magic Marvel is trying to remind us of with this amazing look at PHASE 4. it’s a big part of what I think is missing from the movie theater industry. It’s one of the reasons they’ve struggled over the last few decades. Marvel is sending us a very clear message here: LET’S GET BACK TO THE MOVIES!
A few interesting observations…
I really love how for some of these sequels were given new, creative titles, instead of just calling them part 2 or part 3. For example, we have Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (great title), instead of Black Panther 2. Captain Marvel 2 is now The Marvels and Ant-Man 3 is Ant-Man and The Wasp: QuantumMania
I thought it was particularly cool that Captain Marvel 2 has been re-titled, The Marvels. Carol Danvers is still the main character, but she’ll be fighting alongside two new lead characters with deep ties to Captain Marvel in the comics and The MCU. The film will feature Monica Rambeau, who was memorably introduced (and developed superpowers) in WandaVision, and eventually becomes the superhero known as Spectrum. To refresh your memory, the first Captain Marvel film took place in the 90’s and Monica was the daughter of Carol’s best friend. Monica was also one of the best side characters in WandaVision, so seeing her in the Captain Marvel sequel as an adult, with her own superhero experience, working alongside the woman she idolized growing up, will be a welcome addition to the film.
The Marvels not only marks the big screen debut of Monica Rambeau, but Kamal Khan, AKA Ms. Marvel, as well. Ms. Marvel is one of The MCU’s new Disney+ series premiering later this year. The story follows a Pakistani teenager named Kamal Khan from New Jersey who develops extraordinary abilities and her favorite hero just happens to be Captain Marvel. So Carol Danvers is a big inspiration for Kamala and connects to the character in some interesting ways that the Disney+ series will delve into. Ms Marvel is interesting because her story is basically a modern day retelling of Spider-Man. She’s a teenage girl juggling family, friends, and the life of a superhero. The Marvels premieres in late 2022, so we’ll get a much better idea of how this character will fit into this highly anticipated movie when the Ms Marvel Disney+ series debuts later this year.
The details surrounding Black Panter: Wakanda Forever are a little bit more ambiguous. I’ve heard conflicting reports about what this movie is going to actually be. Very early on, Marvel announced that they didn’t intend to replace Chadwick Boseman in the role of T’Challa. They were going to move forward with Black Panther 2, presumably with someone from the existing cast, most likely either Shuri or Okoye, taking up the mantle of The Black Panther. With the greatest respect to Chadwick Boseman, I think that would be a big mistake. I think if you could ask him, he would probably agree that characters like Black Panther transcend the people who play them, just like with Heath Ledger and The Joker. So often you hear actors compare these superhero roles to Shakespeare characters like Hamlet, that are interpreted over and over again by different actors. With each new actor putting their own spin on it. T’Challa is just too important and cool a character to introduce into The MCU and then not be part of it as we move into this exciting new future. I always thought the best course of action would be to, put that sequel on hold for a respectful couple of years, re-cast, and just make Black Panther 2. For a good while it seemed like that was not the way they were going to go, they were going to move on seemingly without T’Challa as the lead character. If that ends up being the way they go, exactly how they will explain his absence from the film is complete mystery. However, if some recent reports are to be believed, then there is a possibility they may be re-casting the role, which honestly I would prefer. I don’t think it’s necessarily in bad taste. As I said before I’m sure if you could ask people like Heath ledger or Chad Boseman they would agree that these characters are larger than the people who play them. They’ve been here before us and they will be there long after. Of course we will update you as information comes to light, but for the time being I will say I love the title of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever !
If your regular visitor to the website, you know how much I love The Fantastic Four and how much I’ve been dying to see them make an appearance in The MCU. We were teased at the very end of this presentation that FF is essentially going to be the last film in Phase 4. Now if I had to pick which of of these projects I am most excited for, it wouldn’t be FF. We just don’t know enough about Fantastic Four yet for me to be super intrigued, because I don’t know what their approach is going to be. I know that Jon Watts the director of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home will be directing FF, which I think is an excellent choice. But other than that nothing is known about the movie. I’m certain as more information comes out my excitement for FF will increase, but for now there are a lot of PHASE 4 projects highlighted here to get really excited for!
It’s important to remember that when Phase 3 of The MCU was announced, the slate of films that we got and what was announced have some major difference. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 & 2 became Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The Inhumans film was dropped from the slate completely and made into a TV miniseries. Two Spider-Man films, as well as Ant-Man and The Wasp were added to the lineup. Marvel is always willing to change and adapt when it’s appropriate, which is one of its strengths. To wrap things up, this is an extremely exciting and impressive look at things to come from one of pop-culture’s most exciting storytellers.
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. We’re on Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
We got out first look at the highly anticipated MCU movie, Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, when Marvel dropped the first trailer this week. Not to mention the cool new poster (above) and some photos courtesy of EW.com. Now, I’m sure some of you out there might be asking: Who the hell is Shang-Chi? Before I answer, don’t forget that just a few years ago, audiences asked the same question about Iron Man and Thor, Captain America and Black Panther. Hell, before Marvel Studios announced the film, even I had no idea who the Guardians of The Galaxy were! Now these characters are household names! Marvel Studios has proven time and again that they can take the most obscure Marvel characters and make magic.
Who Is Shang-Chi?
Simu Liu as Shang-Chi
Shang-Chi is widely regarded to be the deadliest and most skilled martial artist on Earth. He’s better than Iron Fist, Black Widow, even Daredevil. I always like to describe Shang- Chi as: Imagine Bruce Lee, if he was an Avenger? Bruce Lee and his films were a huge influence on comic books featuring Shang-Chi. Stan The Man Lee wanted Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon Lee, to Star in the role whei a film was being developed in the early 80’s. Some comic book artists like to model their character on real people, so quite a few artists based their version of Shang-Chi on Bruce Lee (in one instance, complete with nunchucks straight out of Enter The Dragon).
It’s sort of like the now classic story of artist Bryan Hitch drew Nick Fury, to look exactly like Samuel L. Jackson in The Ultimates. An iconic Avengers comic that Hitch worked on with writer Mark Millar. Of course, Jackson eventually saw this, being an avid comic book reader himself. He and Marvel Studios contacted each other and the rest is history!
But I digress! Sorry about that, I tend to ramble sometimes. Anyway, back to Shang-Chi! Without any enhancements, like the super soldier serum Captain America and Bucky were exposed to call, I think Shang-Chi is so skilled that he would even be able to hold his own, if not out right beat, “enhanced” individuals like Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes. I’m sure we’ll see his skill as a martial artist on full display in the movie.
Shang-Chi with Black Widow and Steve Rogers, during one of his stints in The Avengers
Shang-Chi became such a force of nature because of the brutal and cruel father spent Shang’s entire life forging him into a human weapon. To say that Shang-Chi has a complicated relationship with his father is an understatement. Shang is a hero, one of Earth’s champions, an Avenger. His father Wewun on the other hand, happens to be one the most dangerous supervillains on the planet and he wants he son to join the family business (whether Shang-Chi likes it or not). Wewun has gone by many names over the years, including one Marvel fans have heard before, but to say anymore would get into SPOILER territory. Just trust me when I say Wewun is a very cool, badass villain and I can’t wait to see what they do with him in this film. Wenwu wields Ten Rings (5 on each forearm) as you can see in the photo below. The Ten Rings bestow unimaginable power up their bearer, each with it’s own unique power. Fire and water manipulation, lightning blasts, some low level psychic abilities, just to name a few. Basically, Wenwu is a guy you do not want to fuck with. With the heart of this film being about a father and son who are diametrically opposed to one another, some powerful emotional (and liter) fireworks are going to fly.
Wenwu, Shang-Chi’s father, played by the great Tony Leung. Hmmm, those are some interesting bracelets he’s wearing…Wenwu is a man who has walked the Earth of a very time and has gone by many names…
The exciting thing about Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, is how it parallels the first Iron Man movie when it came out in 2008. No one who knew who the fuck Iron Man was and this great film, with this great characters, exploded onto screens and started this incredible journey. One of the greatest film franchises of all time both creatively and commercially. Like Iron Man, even among comic book fans Shang-Chi is a fairly blank slate. Beyond appearances as a key member of the team in some Avengers comics, as well as Daredevil and Iron Fist, I haven’t read one of the characters solo titles. Something I will be rectifying shortly with the new mini series that just became available in trade paperback/graphic novel. My point is this has the potential to blow up and be huge in the same way Iron Man has. Like Black Panther before it, this is the first major superhero, blockbuster featuring an Asian lead, with an almost entirely Asian cast, and an Asian crew. Shang-Chi can do for Asian children, what Black Panther did for young black kids all around! Not just children, but all Asians who want to see themselves represented in the biggest and coolest franchise in the world. If the people making this film play their cards right, this could be fucking amazing. Without further ado, take a look at the first trailer for Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, here:
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens 9/3/21
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I really fucking hate that I have to keep writing about this horrible pandemic. I wanted my readers, as well as the listeners of my podcast, to come here for an escape from all the tragedy that has been brought about by this health crisis. Unfortunately, a problem on a global scale like this is going to touch virtually all aspects of life, including the film and entertainment industry. As we get closer to Summer Movie Season, film studios have had to start making hard decisions about what they’re going to do with their large summer, tentpole films that were scheduled to be hitting theaters soon.
Some companies are bumping back their films an entire year to next summer, like Sony Pictures. One of the big summer movies that I was really looking forward to was Ghostbusters: Afterlife.Sony decided to move Ghostbusters afterlife and several other of their High profile movies back to summer 2021. Some studios will choose to release certain films digitally and on streaming services, but I seriously doubt any of the very high profile movies will take that route. With Disney+ hitting over 50 million subscribers, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some smaller Disney films that were scheduled to be released, popping up on Disney+ throughout the summer. Like they recently did with Pixar’s Onward.
Check out this INCREDIBLE fan made poster for Thor: Love and Thunder.
As you might suspect, my biggest concerns were the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Fortunately, Marvel Studios has just released their new plan for rolling out their upcoming film slate. It seems like basically everything has just been bumped back by one movie. For example, Black Widow was originally scheduled to come out in May 2020 with The Eternals hitting theaters in November. Now Black Widow gets the November release date and the Eternals gets bumped to February 2021. Check it out in the image below:
Not included in the schedule above is Spider-Man 3, which currently has a release date of July 16, 2021. Marvel also officially announced Ant-Man 3, Blade, and Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3, but those three films have not yet been giving official release dates. However, Marvel has movies coming out on October 7, 2022, February 17, 2023, May 5, 2023, July 28, 2023, and November 3, 2023. So the three aforementioned films will each take up one of these release dates, leaving 2 dates open for unknown movies. Could either of these dates be Fantastic Four or X-Men projects? Who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see…
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
As this year’s San Diego Comic-Con continues, breaking news, trailers, announcements, and other cool reveals keep on blowing minds of fans everywhere! But it can be a pain in the ass trying to find all the SDCC news. So keep it HERE at World’s Best Media, where you can find all of the up to the minuet info, you want the most! We’ll be updating this page all weekend with the breaking news and content that can’t be missed from SDCC 2019!
WOW. We got some killer stuff today! At the Marvel Studios panel, Kevin Feige did not disappoint. He rolled out the next 2 years of Marvel’s PHASE 4 slate, which will consist of 10 projects. They include both theatrical releases and projects to be released on Disney +. Plus, Feige offers up some tantalizing hints on MCU projects coming after the slate of shows and films. It’s all pretty exciting, so I’m going to break it down for you right here…
MARVEL STUDIOS PHASE 4 (The Next 2 Years)
The Eternals – Release date 11/6/20
Dir. – Chloe Zhao
Staring – Angelina Jolie as Thena , Richard Madden as Ikaris. The cast also includes Selma Hayek.
The story of the film, broadly speaking, follows The Eternals, a race of aliens imbued with power and immortality by The Celestials (some of the most powerful beings in the existence of The Marvel Universe). The Eternals are charged with protecting Earth and humanity from The Deviants, an evil, monstrous mirror race of The Eternals. To use a poor analogy. Think of The Eternals and Angels and The Deviants as Demons.
The Flacon and The Winter Soldier Release Date – Fall 2020 on Disney +
Starring – Anthony Makie as The Falcon/Captain America, Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier, and Daniel Bruhl returning as Baron Helmut Zemo ( This time he WILL be getting the classic Baron Zemo mask!)
As expected, this series will see Anthony Mackie don his really cool Captain America uniform which is a combination of The Falcon in Captain America’s classic look. So it seems like this series will be about Sam Wilson adjusting to this great weight on his shoulders and Bucky Barnes being with him along the way, like he was with Steve Rogers. All the while having to deal with Baron Zemo not much more than that is known at this time. But I can’t wait for this one, I think it’s going to be really cool.
Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings – Release Date 2/12/2021
Dir. Denton Daniel Cretton
Starring – Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tony Leung as The REAL Mandarin
Not much is know about the story at this time. Shang-Chi is the greatest martial artist in the world. He’s a hero and adventurer. In the comics his father was the criminal mastermind Fu Manchu. I can see for racial reasons why Marvel wouldn’t want to use that character. So I strongly suspect that The Mandarin will be Shang-Chi’s father in this movie. A lot of the character drama from Shang-Chi’s story comes from the pain he feels being a hero who wants to do the right thing, when his father is one of the greatest villains in the world. Despite the fact that The Mandarin was smoke and mirrors in Iron Man 3, it’s been strongly suggested that a “real” Mandarin is out there. For several years, Marvel would release fun short films as an extra feature on the Blu-Rays for their movies. The last one Marvel produced was on the Blu-Ray for Thor: The Dark World and called “All Hail The King”. In that short film, it’s revealed that Aldrich Killian co-opted much of his bullshit Mandarin story from some real sources and it turns out that The Mandarin is a very real, very dangerous guy, who is very pissed that his name had been dragged through the mud in Iron Man 3. The film ends with one of The TRUE Mandarin’s disciples, breaking Trevor Slattery (played by Ben Kingsley) out of prison, the actor who played the fake Mandarin for Aldrich Killian, so he can face justice at the hands of the real Mandarin. So, we’ve known for a while that the real Mandarin was out there and it was only a matter of time before we see him somewhere in The MCU. This is the perfect project to use him in. It’s also worth pointing out that the terrorist group who originally kidnapped Tony Stark in the very first Iron Man movie was called The Ten Rings.
Shang-Chi
The Mandarin
WandaVision – Release Date Spring 2021 on Disney +
Starring – Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Paul Bettany as The Vision, Teyonah Paris as adult Monica Rambeau (the daughter of Carol’s best friend in Captain Marvel)
For some reason people seem to be down on this project, but I think it has the potential to be something special. Kevin Feige he himself has said that this series is very strange. One of the more interesting things about Wanda maxim off is her exponentially growing power and her increased mental stability. Panel confirmed that this series takes place after endgame. Which makes me wonder, have a wonders abilities progressed to the point where she can resurrect vision, as she eventually has the power to do in the comics at great cost.
LOKI– Release Date Spring 2021 Disney +
Starring – Tom Hiddleston as Loki
As we saw in endgame, low-key managed to get away with the space stone. Apparently this show will be a trip through history and Loki is very long life. I’ve heard it described is almost something like quantum leap. It appears that it will involve low-key mixing it up at important historical events with famous historical figures. Which sounds like a whole Lotta fucking fun. I am in.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness – Release Date 5/7/2021
Dir. Scott Derrickson
Starring – Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange and Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff
OK, this is the movie I’ve been fucking waiting for. According to director Scott Derrickson, this will be Marvel’s first “scary movie“. Which is about as close as you can get to saying you’re going to do a horror movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you don’t think that’s awesome, there’s something fucking wrong with you. Doctor Strange was a great origin movie and in Infinity War and Endgame, we got to see a lot of cool shit from Doctor Strange and what he’s capable of. I can’t wait to see how his powers have progressed. It’s important to note that this director knows how to do a really creepy, disquieting, fucked up movie. Hopefully Marvel will let him embrace that. It’s also really interesting to see Scarlet Witch in this movie, though not completely surprising, because in the comics it’s been suggested multiple times that her powers are magic-based. Maybe she will turn to Doctor Strange after something that happened in WandaVision? Who knows. But I can’t wait for this one! The more Doctor Strange the better!
Hawkeye– Release Date Fall 2021 on Disney +
Starring – Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye
This looks like it may be more of a limited series than some of the other shows on Disney +, but it will apparently focus on Clint Barton training a new protégé, a girl named Kate Bishop, making her first MCU appearance. In the comic books, after years of training with Clint Barton and other superheroes, Kate is viewed more as a hero in her own right, rather than simply being Clint’s sidekick. In fact, both Cling and Kate both go by. I know it can be confusing, but hey that’s those crazy comics for, ya! The series will also explore Clint’s time as Ronin in the wake of Thanos’ decimation. This show looks like it’s heavily borrowing from the fantastic Hawkeye comic book run by writer Matt Fraction and Artist David Aja.
Thor: Love and Thunder – Release Date 11/5/2021
Dir. Taika Waititi
Starrring – Chris Hemsworth as Thor/Odinson, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster/Thor
So I love the direction they’re going in with this new movie. First of all, I was thrilled another Thor film was being made, and they were bringing back the same director: Taika Waititi, who gave us the fantastic Thor: Ragnarok. But it also seems like the story will be largely taking it’s cues from the recent and ongoing Thor comic book run by writer Jason Aaron. Which is a good thing, because it’s probably one of the best Thor stories that I’ve ever read.
In that story, due to a complicated series of events, Thor is no longer worthy of wielding his mighty hammer; Mijonir. Meanwhile, Jane Foster has been fighting her own battles, against the cancer that has ravaged her body. In this story, a Parliament of World’s is formed. Like a U.N. for The Ten Realms, set up to keep the peace throughout the realms and it’s people. Jane is the representative from Midgard, so even though she and Thor are no longer dating, she spends quite a bit of time in new Asgard and has made some wonderful new friends in the process. The Parliament meets on New Asgard (a shadow of Asgard’s glory days) which resides on Earth’s Moon. As a sidenote, at this point Asgard has taken up residence on an area near what they called the “Blue Area” of the moon. It’s the only place on the moon that perfectly simulates Earth’s pressure, gravity, temperature , and most importantly, you can breathe there.
So, while on a walk through the blue area of the moon, contemplating her depressing situation, Jane Foster comes across Mijonir and attempts to lift Thor’s legendary hammer (after Thor has spent months attempting to lift it unsuccessfully) and as the inscription says, “whosoever holds this hammer, should they be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor“ At which point Jane’s shocked to see herself turned into a beautiful, god-like, female version of Thor. She is unrecognizable as Jane Foster. Now I can already hear some of the assholes on the Internet complaining that a woman will be, in a way, playing Thor. First of all, in the comics, this is one of the best Thor stories they have done in years. A great story is simply a great story. Also, this isn’t just a story about Jane Foster. It’s also is a very profound story about Asgard and Thor himself.
So for you idiots thinking Thor is going to get kicked to the wayside because of some bullshit liberal agenda…relax. The movies going to be great. I am really thrilled to see Marvel is taking some interesting chances with their with their projects. I have a few guesses, but I can’t wait to see who the villain will be in this movie. Gorr The God Butcher, perhaps? We can only hope!
Black Widow – Release Date 5/1/2020
Dir. Cate Shortland
Starring – Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Rachel Weiss and David Harbour appearing in unknown rolls
This movie will be a prequel taking place before Captain America: Civil War. It will feature such classic Marvel bad guys as Taskmaster, who I’m very excited to see. Natasha also faces off against the “evil Black Widow”, Yelena, another product of The Red Room Program. This woman is Natasha if Hawkeye never showed her a better way to live and became here friend. Yelena is a vicious, manipulative killer, a mirror image of what Natasha could have become. This will be the next Marvel movie we have to look forward to. I think this is a long time coming. Black Widow is more than capable of carrying her own film. It will be really cool to see how they incorporate this into some other events in a MCU history.
Before things wrapped up, Kevin Feige had one more surprise for the crowd. After listing all of these projects, he brought out, the fantastic actor, Mahershala Ali, and announced Ali will be playing Blade in an upcoming movie, introduce The Day Walker to the MCU. No release date has been announced . That is pretty fucking cool nonetheless. Ali is a fantastic actor. He’s perfect for this role. There have been rumblings of Blade in the MCU for a few years now ( even some suggesting Wesley Snipes would return ) so it’s going to be really exciting to see what they do with the character.
Feige wrapped things up by explaining this is what they have in production that will be hitting theatres and screens over the next 2 years. Two years is a lot shorter than any of the previous phases of the MCU, which makes me think that this is just the first half of Phase 4 and more announcements will be made along the way. However, he closed things out by saying Guardians Vol.3, Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, and (FUCK YES) The Fantastic Four!!! will be coming soon after these projects. He had to drive the crowd wild by mentioning one more thing coming soon, one word:“Mutants.” So that was the Marvel Studios presentation this year. It certainly did not disappoint.
New Trailers For Movies & TV Series
Watchmen:
Westworld-Season 3:
Arrow – The Final Season
Supergirl – Season 5
The Witcher (Netflix)
The Flash Season 6
Star Trek: Picard
Supernatural: The Final Season (Chevy Impala Tribute)
OTHER NEWS
DC Universe announced that their series Young Justice will officially be back for a fourth season.
World’s Best Media 