Peters, who for a few years was best known as Quicksilver in the ‘X-Men’ movies that kicked off with ‘First Class’ (he joined for ‘Days of Future Past’), has more recently made his name starring for Ryan Murphy as Jeffrey Dahmer in ‘Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,’ and in several seasons of ‘American Horror Story’.
He’s also been seen in movies such as ‘ Kick-Ass’ and ‘Elvis & Nixon,’ and appeared alongside Kate Winslet in limited series ‘Mare of Easttown’.
What’s the story of ‘Tron: Ares’?
No details have been released about the potential plot for this one, but it’ll likely pick up some strands from 2010’s ‘Tron: Legacy’, which saw the return of Jeff Bridges from the 1982 original and starred Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde. Jesse Wigutow has been writing the script, though any forward movement on that is on hold because of the writers’ guild strike.
‘Legacy’ director Joseph Kosinski talked up the idea of a sequel around that movie’s release, but development stalled out and he moved on to other things, including a slightly successful other legacy sequel called ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’
Leto’s name was first mentioned back in 2017, when he tweeted his excitement to be part of a follow-up movie.
Here’s his announcement:
“I am so very excited and proud to confirm that YES––I will be starring in ‘Tron’. We will work as hard as we possibly can to create something that I hope you all will love. We have some very special ideas in store for you all… See you in the grid! I’m struck with such gratitude for the opportunity to bring this movie to life, especially as both the original video game and the film affected me so deeply as a young child. The fact that I get to be a part of this new chapter is mind-blowing.”
Garth Davis, the director behind ‘Lion’ and 2018’s ‘Mary Magdalene’ was mentioned as a potential filmmaker, though despite aggressively pursuing the job, he’s since dropped off the project.
Rønning, the Norwegian filmmaker who made his name co-directing voyaging movie ‘Kon-Tiki’, has become a reliable go-to director for Disney.
As of right now, ‘Tron: Ares’ does not have a release date. And given the potential for actors to strike once the SAG-AFTRA contract runs out at the end of this month, we don’t expect that to change for a while yet. Shooting is scheduled for August, but we’ll see if it pans out.
A scene from ‘Tron: Legacy’ directed by Joseph Kosinski.
Based on the best-selling collection by Cheryl Strayed, ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ follows Clare (Kathryn Hahn) a floundering writer who becomes a revered advice columnist while her own life is falling apart. When we first meet Clare, her marriage to her husband Danny (Quentin Plair) is barely limping along; her teenage daughter, Rae (Tanzyn Crawford), is pushing her away; and her once-promising writing career is non-existent.
So when an old writing pal asks her to take over as the advice columnist Dear Sugar, she thinks she has no business giving anyone advice. After reluctantly taking on the mantle of Sugar however, Clare’s life unfurls in a complex fabric of memory, exploring her most pivotal moments from childhood through present day, and excavating the beauty, struggle, and humor in her unhealed wounds. Through Sugar, Clare forms a salve for her readers – and for herself – to show us that we are not beyond rescue, that our stories can ultimately save us, and, perhaps, bring us back home.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kathryn Hahn about her work on ‘Tiny Beautiful Things,’ what excited her about the role, Clare’s decision to become Sugar, and working with actress Sarah Pidgeon to create both versions of Clare as one seamless character.
Kathryn Hahn as Clare in Hulu’s ‘Tiny Beautiful Things.’ Photo: Jessica Brooks/Hulu.
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Hahn, Sarah Pidgeon, Quentin Plair and Tanzyn Crawford, and series creator Liz Tigelaar and author Cheryl Strayed.
Moviefone: To begin with, what were some of the aspects of the character that you were excited to explore with this series?
Kathryn Hahn: I was excited about her change, about her willingness, and about her courage to change. I was excited about really digging deep into how difficult it is to reframe and re-address how trauma lodges in someone. How hard it is, difficult it is to change as a human especially when you are in a long-term relationship, and especially when you’re a mother or when you’re defined as other things. That felt very compelling to me.
Kathryn Hahn as Clare in Hulu’s ‘Tiny Beautiful Things.’ Photo: Elizabeth Morris/Hulu.
MF: Can you talk about Clare’s decision to become Sugar and how that changes her outlook on life and her future?
KH: I think that’s the inciting incident for her for all of this change. I think that she had always wanted to be a writer, and a lot of that happened to do with her mother’s desire for her to be a writer, her mother who had died when she was very young, and that certainly was a starting point for her. She thought she was unworthy of being a writer, unworthy of any of it because of the self-destruction she had done once her mother died. She kind of threw herself into a pretty nasty degree of self-harm, and so it was impossible for her to see that there was a track back. Then, this man from her past played by the amazing Zak Orth, kind of got her back on track with this opportunity anonymously. I think it was once she started reading the letters and saw the radical, blindingly naked vulnerability in these letters that compelled her. She had no choice but to answer back with her own nakedly vulnerable and honest self in a way that she even was not quite ready to examine in her own voice. It was only through her writing.
Sarah Pidgeon as young Clare in Hulu’s ‘Tiny Beautiful Things.’ Photo: Elizabeth Morris/Hulu.
MF: Finally, you share your role with actress Sarah Pidgeon, who plays the younger version of Claire. Did you work closely with her to create a seamless performance for the character?
KH: Sarah Pidgeon is so extraordinary. We did not have much time to work together. I saw her amazing audition tape, and then she was cast. We had a very short workshop together, and that was basically it. She shadowed me, but I wish we had had more time. But she shadowed me, I think, for the first couple of episodes when we didn’t have as many flashbacks. She watched the monitor, and then it was off to the races, but the way you look at her, she had no idea who she was to become. She had no idea what her older self was going to be, so she was playing in this very raw emotional state, like the trauma had just happened. She was in the scene with her mom, so I was able to take a few things from her. 20 years is a long time, I’ve dyed my hair so many times since then, and I also shrank about a foot and a half. I feel like we were able to just seamlessly and wordlessly become one. Our transition seemed so seamless, and we would send each other poems and send each other pieces of music, and it was very nonverbal. I think it kind of worked in our favor because it was very important to me, and I think to Liz as well that it not feel like mimicry because, again, 20 years is a long time. So it just felt very organically and just perfect. I think she’s incredible.
Kathryn Hahn as Clare in Hulu’s ‘Tiny Beautiful Things.’ Photo: Jessica Brooks/Hulu.
When Marvel Studios yanked the rights to bring Daredevil stories to screens and Netflix unceremoniously cancelled their ‘Defenders’ series, which included the Man Without Fear, Charlie Cox, the Man with the red suit, might have feared that he’d taken down his last baddie.
Yet Marvel boss Kevin Feige had other ideas, bringing the British actor back for a cameo in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ and a memorable, funny, and charming recurring guest spot on ‘She-Hulk’, in which his Matt Murdock (the lawyer alter ego of Daredevil) meets and, er swaps legal briefs with Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters.
All that, though, was simply to re-introduce the character ready for a full show of his own, in which he’ll once again have to deal with the nefarious, powerful Kingpin, played by Vincent D’Onofrio (who got his own MCU introduction via ‘Hawkeye’ last year).
Now, with ‘Daredevil: Born Again’, to be overseen by ‘Covert Affairs’ veterans Matt Corman and Chris Ord, Murdock will be back, albeit slightly different as befits a Disney+ series.
“This has to be a reincarnation, it has to be different, otherwise why are we doing it?” Cox tells NME in a new interview. “My opinion is this character works best when he’s geared towards a slightly more mature audience. My instinct is that on Disney+ it will be dark, but it probably won’t be as gory.”
Marvel Studios’ ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
And for anyone keeping their fingers crossed for a full-on continuation of the bloodier Netflix series? “I would say to those people, we’ve done that,” he says. “Let’s take the things that really worked, but can we broaden? Can we appeal to a slightly younger audience without losing what we’ve learned about what works?”
More surprising to the actor is the sheer number of episodes that will comprise the new series. Unlike the other Disney+ Marvel offerings, which have largely been around 8-9, ‘Born Again’ will be a whopping 18-episode first run.
“I’m fascinated to discover why they’ve chosen to do 18,” he says. “I’m imagining there’s going to be an element to it that is like the old-school procedural show. Not necessarily case-of-the-week, but something where we go deep into Matt Murdock the lawyer and get to see what his life is like. If that’s done right and he really gets his hands dirty with that world… I think there’s something quite interesting about that, to spend a lot of time in a superhero’s day-to-day life and you really earn the moments when he suits up.”
Cox claims he’s yet to see scripts or outlines, which sounds more like an actor choosing to be diplomatically evasive and avoid potential spoiler questions. But he did talk about the schedule, which sounds like he’ll be a tad busy next year… “They said to me, ‘We’re going to be shooting in 2023’,” says Cox. “I said, ‘Great, when?’ They said, ‘All 2023’. I start shooting in February and finish in December.”
In addition to Cox and D’Onofrio, ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ will feature Margarita Levieva, Michael Gandolfini and Sandrine Holt. No release date has been given for the show, but given that filming schedule, we can’t imagine it’ll hit screens much before the middle of 2024.
In related MCU Disney+ news, ‘WandaVision’ spin-off ‘Agatha: Coven of Chaos’ added a legend of the stage.
Three-time Tony winner Patti LuPone is the latest recruit for the show, which will focus on Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness.
The troublemaking witch, who caused so many problems for Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff. That is, until Wanda (drawing on more of her Scarlet Witch power) condemned Agatha to live as Agnes, the nosy neighbor character that she’d created to infiltrate the fantasy world Wanda had built for herself over Westview, New Jersey to hide from the grief of losing Vision (Paul Bettany).
While ‘WandaVision’ was built around sitcoms that represent Wanda’s happy place, we don’t yet know what sort of show ‘Coven of Chaos’ will be, other than it presumably sees Agatha regaining her personality somehow.
We have learned about some of the people who will be populating the new series, as Aubrey Plaza, Joe Locke, Ali Ahn, Sasheer Zamata and Maria Dizzia are all new recruits for the series. Emma Caulfield Ford, meanwhile, will return as her ‘WandaVision’ character Dottie Jones––though given that that was the fantasy persona created by Wanda, we may well see her more as her actual town resident Sarah Proctor.
This being Marvel, there has of course been no official statement confirming any of the casting or specifying who the cast beyond Hahn play, though Plaza is reportedly taking a villainous role. It’ll be fun to see Hahn and Plaza interact whatever the latter ends up doing, since while Hahn sometimes appeared on ‘Parks and Recreation’ (where Plaza was one of the leads), they rarely shared scenes.
The same goes for LuPone, though Deadline has heard that she’ll be playing a witch. Sounds like it could a fantastic role for her.
‘Coven of Chaos’ comes from Jac Shaeffer, who created and served as head writer on ‘WandaVision’ and returns for this. That’s not the only series she’s guiding. At a much more embryonic stage is ‘Vision Quest’, which would see the return of Bettany’s synthetic being following the events of the show.
As for LuPone, she’s a musical mainstay who has won two Olivier Awards and two Grammy Awards for her accomplished theater career. She will next be seen in ‘Beau Is Afraid’, an upcoming surrealist comedy horror film written, directed, and produced by Ari Aster and starring Joaquin Phoenix.
Marvel Studios’ ‘Agatha: Coven of Chaos.’
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Even before Marvel boss Kevin Feige formally confirmed at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con that the company had set a release date for a new ‘Fantastic Four’ movie, there had been chatter about the possibilities for Marvel’s “first family” and their future in the MCU.
Yet while Jon Watts, director of the successful most recent ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy had been tasked with shepherding the new movie, he left the gig in April, citing a need to focus on other projects (he has a movie with Brad Pitt and George Clooney starring and is also overseeing a ‘Star Wars’ series for Disney+, among other things).
Now, though, it appears Marvel has found a replacement. First broken (albeit in rumour form) by The Direct, word has hit the trades that ‘WandaVision’ director Matt Shakman is in talks to handle the movie.
Shakman, of course, did a great job with the stylish, quirky and emotional ‘WandaVision’ and would appear to be a good fit for the Four. Though his big screen directorial experience has so far been limited to indie crime thriller ‘Cut Bank’ in 2014, he has an extensive resume on TV, including shows such as ‘Succession’, ‘The Boys’, ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Billions’.
Paramount, meanwhile, clearly thought he was up to the task of a ‘Star Trek’ movie, putting him at the helm for the latest, in-development installment of that franchise. Though if he locks in the job on ‘Fantastic Four’, that might mean that the Enterprise will need a new cine-captain.
So, the Fantastic Four, then. They’re among the most famous superheroes from the comics world, but in case you’re not that aware of them, the Four were introduced into the pages of Marvel comics in 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Marvel’s Fantastic Four. Photo courtesy of Pinterest.
The core characters are Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards, a scientific genius and the leader of the group, who can stretch his body into incredible lengths and shapes; the Invisible Woman/Susan “Sue” Storm, who eventually married Reed, who can render herself invisible and project powerful invisible force fields and blasts; the Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Sue’s younger brother, who can generate flames, surround himself with them and fly; and the monstrous Thing/Ben Grimm, their grumpy but benevolent friend, a former college football star, Reed’s college roommate and a good pilot, who possesses tremendous superhuman strength, durability and endurance due to his stone-like flesh.
The characters have been brought to screens several times before, including an unauthorized Roger Corman adaptation (“to screens” is a misnomer in that case, since it’s mostly available as a bootleg), comedy drama takes in Fox’s 2005 outing ‘Fantastic Four’ and 2007 sequel ‘Rise of the Silver Surfer’, followed by a darker reboot in 2015, which didn’t thrill fans or score well at the box office.
As with the introduction of Spidey back in ‘Captain America: Civil War’, the studio is keen on skipping the origin story for the Four. “A lot of people know this origin story. A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before?” Feige told The Hollywood Reporter in July after stepping off the convention stage. “We’ve set a very high bar for ourselves with bringing that to the screen.”
If Shakman’s deal goes through, we’d expect to see the Marvel boss announce him at next month’s D23 event.
‘Fantastic Four’ is currently scheduled for release on November 8th, 2024, forming part of the MCU’s Phase 6.
(L to R) Elizabeth Olsen is Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany is Vision in Marvel Studios’ ‘Wandavision,’ exclusively on Disney+.
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In addition to Cumberbatch and Olsen, the cast also includes Benedict Wong as Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, and Xochiti Gomez as new MCU character America Chavez.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Benedict Cumberbatch about his work on ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.’
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You can read our full interview with Benedict Cumberbatch below or watch the interview by clicking on the video player above.
Moviefone: To begin with, what do you want to tell fans that are planning to see ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?’
Benedict Cumberbatch: Welcome back. Thank you for coming in your droves to see ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ and thank you for being here again. It’s just great to have you back. It’s great to have people in a seat about to see a film that I’m super proud of, and that’s got a lot of treats, thrills and surprises for you. It has some great nostalgia, and I think very interesting development of a character I love playing for you guys. I love being your Doctor Strange and I hope you love watching the film as much as we loved making it.
MF: Director Sam Raimi introduces horror elements to the MCU with this movie. Just how scary will this film be?
BC: It’s not ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose.’ But there are some jump scares. There’s some great cinematographer John Mathieson/Sam Raimi camera work, but it’s got to be palatable for a family. So, it’s kind of scary and it’s quite dark at times, but I wouldn’t say it’s a horror film, that’s for sure.
MF: When you saw the final film for the first time, did it scare you?
BC: First time, probably. I am very involved. I think I have a very different lens on when I’m watching my own work and it’s to give feedback for editorial notes, ADR and all the kind of post-production stuff, reshoots and everything that we kept doing to try and perfect it. I’m really looking forward to having the audience experience it in Los Angeles at the premiere, and I’ll be in that audience watching the movie. I had such a fun time doing that with ‘Spider-Man,’ and I know it’s going to be a similar ride with this, hopefully.
That film filled so many extraordinary kinds of desires. I mean, to be in an audience and experience the humor of it and hear the laughter, hear the cheer moments, but also to hear the pin drop silence of the emotional moments landing, it was such a thrill to be viscerally amongst a community of people experiencing that. It really amplified the joy I had individually watching it. So, I’m hoping that moment will come. if there are jump scares that work with a big audience, I’ll know it when I watch it at the premiere.
MF: Director Sam Raimi has also said publicly that this movie will “drastically change who Doctor Strange is.” Can you talk about that?
BC: I like to think so. I mean, there’s an awful lot going on in this film. I hope that isn’t lost on people. There is some character development, which I think is pretty crucial to him. I think we’ve seen him in his first introduction to the Marvel cinematic universe, as he was an arrogant neurosurgeon and a man trapped in a gilded cage of his own making. His ego was driving what he was doing, it was not out of a duty of caring. Then to have a duty of caring, the idea of doing things for others, being selfless and sacrificing, that came with his transition into a superhero.
I think since the last few films he’s been pretty omnipotent and unquestionable, and then a human relationship with Peter Parker has destabilized all that and creates the need for him to help someone he both admired as a fellow soldier on the battlefield, so to speak, but also as a human being who’d lost his mentor and someone he cared about by the end of the film.
It opened up the problem that he still faces in his own character, which is this level of arrogance believing that his way is the only way and only he can actually solve the problem. I think what he learns in this is it’s better to act together than to act alone. That’s the big shift I’d say, without pointing too much in the direction of how that happens.
Benedict Cumberbatch in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ from Marvel Studios.
MF: Finally, would you say that in real life you are a “people person” or more of a “lone wolf?”
BC: I think like most people, I have to be a bit of both. Certainly, with my craft, I lean massively on every department of talent, whether it’s costume and makeup or writer, director, and producer. I stand on the shoulder of many people when I’m in front of a camera doing a role, but I also then need some separation from all of that to try and own it, to believe in what I’m doing, contain it and immerse myself in it a little bit.
That’s kind of isolating, I suppose, that’s work you have to do on your own. So, it’s a combination. I think in life, one moment I’ll be fine being in a crowd in a party, the next moment, I just want to be on my own in a room, staring at a wall with nobody but myself. I like to mix it up.
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Poster. Photo Courtesy of Disney+.
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(L to R) Anton Yelchin, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, John Cho and Zoe Saldana in ‘Star Trek’ (2009). Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Ever since ‘Star Trek Beyond’ failed to launch at the box office, the big screen flagship of the ‘Trek’ franchise has been lingering in Spacedock, unsure which course to chart. Now, though it appears that Paramount is ready to engage the warp engines again, with Chris Pine and the rest of the current crew busy making deals to return.
The news comes as part of Paramount’s Investors Day presentation, in which it unleashed enough news to choke the Doomsday Machine, including an early season 2 renewal for the ‘Halo’ TV series (which is only just about to debut), lots of future ‘SpongeBob’ movies and more ‘South Park’.
Yet word on a return for ‘Star Trek’ crew who first boarded the USS Enterprise in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot of the franchise is perhaps the most exciting revelation.
It looked for a while as though Pine’s Captain Kirk, along with Zachary Quinto’s Spock, Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, Karl Urban’s Dr. McCoy, John Cho’s Sulu and Simon Pegg’s Scotty might never return to the final frontier, but Paramount is now going at full speed to put them on a new mission.
Abrams himself made the announcement. “We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new ‘Star Trek’ film that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast and some new characters that I think are going to be really fun and exciting and help take ‘Star Trek’ into areas that you’ve just never seen before,” he said. “We’re thrilled about this film, we have a bunch of other stories that we’re talking about that we think will be really exciting, so can’t wait for you to see what we’re cooking up. But until then, live long and prosper.”
(L to R) Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in ‘Star Trek’ (2009). Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Yet Abrams won’t – as with ‘Beyond’ – be directing (though he’ll produce via his Bad Robot Company). Instead, ‘WandaVision’s Matt Shakman has that job, and he’ll work from a script by ‘Avatar 2’s Josh Friedman and Shakman’s ‘WandaVision’ colleague Cameron Squires. Their screenplay will be based on an earlier draft by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.
As for what’ll happen in the movie? That’s being kept behind the shields for now, though it’s unlikely to be the rumored time-travel concept that would have seen Kirk meet his dad, played (briefly) in Abrams’ original movie by Chris Hemsworth. Actors’ pay deals reportedly scuttled that idea, though it could be resurrected. (Does anyone have a Genesis device to hand?)
And while they appear to be drifting in a nebula for now, the planned expansions of the ‘Trek’ movie universe by ‘Fargo’s Noah Hawley and cult director Quentin Tarantino are still out there, waiting for their chance.
‘Star Trek’s fortunes have certainly turned around of late, with the TV side of things expanding exponentially, and now some positive forward movement on the theatrical end. Of course, any new movie will have to deal with the tragic loss of Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the previous three adventures, and hopefully the team will go the respectful route and have his character off on another mission rather than re-cast.
Still, with luck, a late 2022 shooting start means we could have a new ‘Star Trek’ movie beaming into theaters by the end of 2023. That’s news to even make Spock giggle.
Benedict Cumberbatch in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ from Marvel Studios.
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ is shaping up to be a major first for the MCU. But, not in ways that people expect. The upcoming sequel, which is directed by Sam Raimi, will be the first horror movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While this may not seem like a major upheaval of the formula Disney and Marvel have going, it could mean a change for the better for the future of the MCU and how Disney approaches its very heavily family friendly franchise.
Before we get into the MCU present, it’s important to note that Marvel has attempted to make horror movies in the past, outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brand. Marvel was dipping into the genre all the way back in 1998 with ‘Blade,’ and one can even argue 2007’s ‘Ghost Rider.’ Both films being massive successes, and ‘Blade’ being a stepping-off point for Marvel creating more comic book films in the future.
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When most people hear of a film so successful that it allowed Marvel to continue making movies, one wouldn’t think it was a ‘Blade,’ which was dark, violent and a horror film about a B-tier superhero. Not something as big as ‘Iron Man,’ or ‘Captain America.’ While you can easily explain this away as Marvel dipping its foot into the supernatural horror craze of the era, you can’t ignore the impact the film had on the superhero genre going forward.
Now, what does this mean for the current MCU? While we have a ‘Blade’ film currently in development, it will not be the franchise’s first horror film. But that doesn’t mean ‘Multiverse of Madness’ can’t help influence the tone the film might end up having. But to get to the bottom of that, we have to talk about the movie’s two different directors.
The first ‘Doctor Strange,’ released in 2016, was directed by Scott Derrickson, one of the prolific horror directors of the 2010s. The mind behind ‘Sinister‘ and ‘Deliver Us from Evil,’ both of which are incredibly terrifying and disturbing. While ‘Doctor Strange’ was a different project for him, it shared similarities with what he had done before. Surreal-sometimes scary-imagery, and otherworldly evil. You can’t argue that ‘Doctor Strange’ just felt different then everything in the MCU that came before it.
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Even with something incredibly different, ‘Doctor Strange’ still was a hit, making $677.7 million at the box office. The numbers don’t lie; audiences enjoyed, well, the strange (no pun intended) and weird. As we’ve seen before, Marvel listens to the box office and the viewers. So, what does that mean for ‘Multiverse of Madness?’
Enter Sam Raimi, and finally, why a horror movie could lead the MCU in the perfect direction. A lot of MCU fans know Raimi was the director of Marvel’s original ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy. But many more know him as the director of the iconic comedy-horror franchise, ‘The Evil Dead,‘ which was violent, funny and most importantly, scary. Everything that Marvel can use.
Raimi is quite possibly the best director that can integrate horror into the superhero genre. Many consider the original ‘Evil Dead’ a great first-time horror film, and a great lead into the spooky and the scary. And while ‘Spider-Man’ was a long way from being scary or terrifying, Raimi has shown his props in both genres.
Director Sam Raimi at San Diego Comic-Con.
Horror is very moldable. We’ve seen everything from psychological horror, to comedy, to even humor driven towards the young adult genre. Horror can be done without being terrifyingly scary, which is what I believe to be a major misconception the filmgoing audience has, and is prominent in how people are handling the ideas of ‘Multiverse of Madness’ being a horror film.
When one looks at horror, all they see is jump scares or brutal, gory violence. But horror can be used in so many ways, some of which has already been shown in the trailer. Everything from dimensional beings such as Gargantos (which in the film bears a striking resemblance to Lovecraft-inspired monsters) and even from everything we’ve seen, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) herself, which one can argue is a take on the monstrous feminine trope.
What I’m trying to get at here is that Marvel would be really giving up something special if they don’t go full-in with the horror route. Horror is a genre that is very rarely touched in big name franchises like this, but the MCU has shown it’s not afraid to dip its toes into experimental works, with ‘Eternals‘ being a huge example of this.
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But as we know, horror can scare away an all-ages audience. You alienate an audience by deviating too far from the mold, and this does seem too far to the normal viewer. This is all leading up to the reason why Marvel adding horror into such a huge franchise is fantastic.
While early, they’ve shown that horror isn’t something they’re afraid to dive into to fit the source material. If ‘Blade’ had been released with no vampires save for Blade himself, how would that have worked? Or if the Spirit of Vengeance’s skull in ‘Ghost Rider’ was incredibly dumbed down and not realistic? For both films, the horror would have been pretty much non-existent and it would lose the point of the adaptation in the first place.
Doctor Strange’s comics have always been weird and otherworldly. And while the first movie tackled that fantastically, the second film has a chance to continue. The first movie can be considered a toe-dip, inching people into the idea of an even freakier and out-there sequel. They’ve seen what the world looks like, now what if we go deeper?
Benedict Cumberbatch in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ from Marvel Studios.
While going deeper keeps it close to the comics, it also helps audiences open to the idea of this sequel breaking genre expectations. While you’d have trouble calling the first movie “scary”, that leaves ‘Multiverse of Madness’ open to pick up that mantle. And as we discussed, Marvel has a crazy number of angles they can take this from.
But let’s also look at how crazy appealing this can make the horror genre. While we have had superhero horror films in the past, they have been considered cult. ‘Multiverse of Madness’ has a huge chance to change that, welcoming so many viewers into a genre that would have once scared them off, now having them in with open arms.
It can also show that horror doesn’t just need to be for adults, and can create something that nearly every audience can lose themselves in, without returning home with nightmares (at least I hope not!) With ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,’ Marvel seems to be setting up their chance at branching out into other genres and experimental plans in the process.
Whether this works out or not is still to be seen, but I think if any company can pull off getting a massive audience into a new genre of film; it’s Marvel. And I can’t wait to see how spooky they take it!
In this exclusive interview with Made in Hollywood’s Kylie Erica Mar, ‘WandaVision’ stars Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olson, Katherine Hahn, and Teyonah Harris join director Matt Shakman to talk about the new Disney+ series.
Olsen shares how she felt about hearing Kevin Feige’s idea for the series, and she and Hahn talk about shooting the first episode in front of a live studio audience. Harris and Olsen talk about the different decades covered in the show, and Bettany and Shakman confirm the reports that ‘WandaVision’ has more VFX shots than ‘Avenger’s Endgame.’
And finally, Bettany shares how excited he was to work with a particular actor for the final episodes of the series. He wouldn’t say who that was, so if you want to know, you’ll just have to watch the series on Disney+.
“WandaVision,” the Disney+ series about (who else?) MCU characters Wanda and Vision, just revealed more of its cast, all of whom have a way with one-liners.
