Fantastic Four villain Galactus loomed large over San Diego Comic-Con 2024… literally. Following Marvel’s surprise panel/screening for Deadpool & Wolverine on Thursday, the studio launched comic book-themed drone and fireworks into the San Diego night sky. Highlighting that show was the unmistakable silhouette of Marvel’s big bad purple planet-eater. When Marvel’s proper panel rolled around on Saturday evening, however, it was clear that they had much bigger plans for Galactus than merely a light show. The studio’s presentation covered upcoming films Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and Fantastic Four: First Steps. For the lattermost movie, studio head Kevin Feige…

When Harrison Ford took the stage at Saturday night’s Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con, he greeted the fans and then let loose with his mightiest roar. The crowd went nuts, but also registered more than a little surprise. After all, Harrison Ford has disavowed any knowledge of the Red Hulk. Even after the first trailer for Captain America: Brave New World featured a glimpse of the Red Hulk, the full CGI nature of the character made it at least plausible that Ford would have shot his scenes as President Thunderbolt Ross without having any idea of what happens…

Superhero fatigue, meet Deadpool. Deadpool, please “Careless Whisper” superhero fatigue out the door. Yep, it’s easy to opine this morning that Marvel Studios is back in a big way following one of the best opening weekends in the studio’s 16-year history. As of press time, Deadpool & Wolverine is estimated to have earned an eye-watering $211 million in its first three days at the North American box office. That’s easily a franchise best for Deadpool, Wolverine, and the greater X-Men saga, as well as the highest opening weekend for any R-rated movie. Ever. In fact, only five movies have grossed…

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is at a crossroads right now. Their post-Endgame dealings have been an overinflated mixed bag that supersaturated the market. Even their biggest hits have been more about giving a fond farewell to the past, whether it is goodbye to James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Sony’s earlier  Spider-Man movies, or Fox’s X-Men movies. Projects that try to build toward the future have had some success, but also some notable failures. It’s also been little help that the current Multiverse Saga lacks the same creative stability which underwrote the Infinity Saga’s build up of Thanos and the…

From roughly 2014 to 2019—starting with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and ending with Avengers: Endgame—Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe went on a run of massively successful films that dominated pop culture on a global scale. It arguably represented the absolute peak of the superhero genre’s reach and power, and certainly its popularity. Four of the biggest and best movies during that stretch, including the aforementioned The Winter Soldier and Endgame, were also directed by the same guys: Anthony and Joe Russo. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige saw something in the Russos’ pitch for The Winter Soldier, which…

Marvel’s next superhero team couldn’t be more different from the Avengers. Instead of Captain America and Hawkeye, they have U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) and Red Guardian (David Harbour). Instead of Black Widow, they have Florence Pugh’s White Widow. Instead of Iron Man, they have Ant-Man and the Wasp antagonist, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). In other words, Thunderbolts are a team full of B- and C-listers, baddies and supporting characters from other movies and shows who get assembled into a team by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, the shady CIA director played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Even though they don’t command the same name…

“You were an X-Man. You were the X-Man.” This line from Deadpool & Wolverine will likely become a classic among geek circles since it describes the importance of Hugh Jackman’s Logan, both to the Fox era of X-Men and to the brand as a whole. With that said, Deadpool & Wolverine was about the legacy of one specific Wolverine—or two, at any rate. And neither seems likely to be the Wolverine of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Which makes an eye-popping easter egg that was sneaked into Saturday night’s San Diego Comic-Con Hall H panel all the more shocking: Marvel is…

Doom is no man’s second choice. And that’s why the MCU is going back to its first choice. For years now, fans have speculated about the coming of the greatest villain in fiction, Doctor Victor Von Doom. And at the end of Saturday night’s Marvel panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige finally revealed the actor who will play Doctor Doom… and it turns out to be a familiar face: Robert Downey Jr. will return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Doom! He will furthermore be the big bad of the fifth Avengers movie, which has…

Shocking news out of San Diego Comic-Con and Marvel’s big Hall H panel Saturday night: Captain America: Brave New World looks to be taking on the best Cap comic book run of all time! That’s right, baby, the supervillains have unionized. Giancarlo Esposito, the consummate badass that everyone assumed would be playing someone befitting his menace, like GW Bridge, William Stryker, or even Magneto, turns out to be playing none of those characters. Instead he’s playing a mild-mannered economics professor and notorious Marvel Universe labor leader from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Probably. Maybe? Let’s unpack the surprisingly complicated backstory of Sidewinder, aka…

This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine. You can read all of our magazine stories here. How can somebody sound like they’re running if they don’t breathe? This is the sort of question Lupita Nyong’o had to ask as she was recording the voice of Rozzum unit 7134, the titular wild robot in The Wild Robot. “We did a scene where Roz was running through a field, and I realized, “Oh my God, Roz doesn’t have breath! So how do I perform her running with no breath, which would have been the default if I was performing a…

A case can be made that in the 21st century Bumblebee has become the most popular Transformer. He’s certainly the most loved Autobot after the big red fire truck we call Optimus Prime. This is in large part due to his starring role in the first live-action Transformers movie of 2007. Despite having almost no lines of dialogue—the poor robot lost his voice!—Bumblebee found novel ways of communicating with Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky: he used music and created the sensation of your first car as a teenager being your best mate. It’s a trick that was expanded on in the…

This article is the best at what it does, but what it does is spoil Deadpool & Wolverine. When it comes to the big screen, there’s only one Wolverine and his name is Hugh Jackman. After Dougray Scott stuck shooting Mission: Impossible II for longer than anticipated and had to drop out of playing Logan in 2000’s X-Men, Jackman has owned the part. Not even a noble and beloved death in Logan can put a stop to Jackman’s reign as cinema’s premiere Canucklehead, as he dons the goofy mask and yellow duds in full for Deadpool & Wolverine. But while…

This article has Deadpool & Wolverine spoilers galore. Going into Deadpool & Wolverine, conventional wisdom held that the film would be a definitive end to the X-Men movies produced by 20th Century Fox. After all, even if Kevin Feige had a hand in crafting that universe, serving as a producer on X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand, he didn’t enjoy the full control that he has now as head of Marvel Studios. And given the multiple wrong turns, not to mention more than a few bad men who have been involved with the franchise, it might be nice…

From his very first appearance in 1940’s Batman #1, the Joker has been an evil genius, a man whose madness allowed him to concoct plans that no one could anticipate. But the most recent Oscar-winning version of the character (and it’s weird to realize there’s more than one!) couldn’t be more different from that idea. Todd Phillips, director and writer (with Scott Silver) of 2019’s Joker, and maestro of the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux, recently went so far as to explain the difference between Arthur Fleck, the character he and Joaquin Phoenix have developed for the screen, and the…

Disney+, Hulu, and Max are joining forces and offering subscribers the opportunity to bundle all three streaming services and save a little money in the process. Though this may seem like a somewhat desperate grab by the media companies, which have continually raised prices and added ad-tiers on their bleeding streaming platforms, it nonetheless seems like there will be a benefit to subscribers who want to save a little money while having access to all three streamers. At the current price, the bundle saves subscribers 38 percent of what it normally costs to subscribe to each of these streaming services…

When Chris Hemsworth was presented with the challenge of playing a younger version of Optimus Prime in the animated film Transformers One, he probably thought to himself, “Roll out!” But that famous catchphrase, delivered by Peter Cullen since the original 1984 cartoon show, actually presented a challenge for Hemsworth as well. “I don’t want to follow or mimic what Peter Cullen’s done,” the Australian recalls telling producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura when he was first offered the part. If he was going to step into another iconic character’s, err, wheels, he would need to make it his own. Fortunately, Hemsworth learned,…

Warning: contains spoilers for Time Bandits (1981) & (2024) episodes one & two. “Strong language, self-harm references & violence. This programme isn’t suitable for younger viewers,” is the warning from Channel4.com to anybody currently wishing to stream Terry Gilliam’s 1981 fantasy adventure film Time Bandits in the UK. Despite the film’s “G” (all ages admitted) rating, the streamer asks viewers to confirm that they’re over the age of 16 before it will play. An overreaction, or fair dos, in light of the film’s meaty battle scenes and famously bleak ending? The Original Time Bandits Ending In the film’s final scenes,…

While perhaps not as immediately obvious as a drooling xenomorph with acid-for-blood, one of the many secrets to the Alien franchise’s longevity has been its casting. The original 1979 movie directed by Ridley Scott is rightly celebrated for introducing Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley to the world, yet that whole film’s ensemble is pretty extraordinary. For all intents and purposes, it marked American audiences’ introductions to John Hurt and Ian Holm while also featuring an overall grizzled naturalism, courtesy of actors like Tom Skerritt and Yaphet Kotto. When the folks starring in the series’ latest iteration, Alien: Romulus, think back…

This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine. You can read all of our magazine stories here. When Hostel director Eli Roth was cast as the Bear Jew in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009), fans were skeptical that he would be up to the task, considering his relative inexperience in front of the camera.  “At the time, people were saying, ‘Why is Tarantino casting Eli? He’s not an actor,’” Roth tells Den of Geek magazine. “And Tarantino is going, ‘Yes, he is. Wait until the movie comes out.’ Fifteen years later, the Bear Jew is a classic character. The…

This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine. You can read all of our magazine stories here. During the earliest production stages of an animated movie, it is common to begin the process with a series of exploratory paintings. “They are abstract and loose and just delicious paintings,” says Chris Sanders, the director of films such as Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Croods. But something special happened during the production of Sanders’ latest film, The Wild Robot, while he was sitting in a meeting and being shown some of these conceptual paintings. “Someone pushed…