Summer is coming to a close, which means summer blockbusters will soon be tailing off to make room for holiday blockbusters – you can never have too many blockbusters these days. The past week has been dominated by superhero news, but then again, hasn’t every week for the past decade? It’s not all about Black Panther and the Avengers though – there’s also Bruce Willis. Well, not quite Bruce Willis…
The Bruce Willis Deepfake
Bruce Willis is starring in a series of Russian phone adverts, except he isn’t. Instead, it’s a deepfake of the Die Hard actor created by the company MegaFon. Everything appears to be nice and legal – Willis was paid an “unannounced fee for the licensing of his facial features” – but it still feels odd. It was one thing when celebrities were being paid money to star in cheesy commercials, but at least they had to put on the hot dog suit and dance for their money. Now they just need to give their permission for people to put a CGI version of their face in a hot dog suit – where’s the fun in that?
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Ironheart Will Debut In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The rest of the major news this week is related to superheroes, but at least it stars real people and not deepfakes. One of these real people is Dominique Thorne – best known for If Beale Street Could Talk – who has been cast as Riri Williams, AKA Ironheart. What’s more, rather than making her debut in the Disney+ show Ironheart, she will instead be first appearing in the Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever. I’ve already written about why this is a great idea, so gizza click to see why Ironheart in Wakanda Forever makes perfect sense.
Marvel's What If…? Won't Feature The X-Men Or The Fantastic Four
Sticking with Marvel, it has been confirmed that neither the Fantastic Four nor the X-Men will appear in the What If…? Disney+ show. The animated series is all about the various possibilities of the MCU and corresponding multiverses, but clearly none of those possibilities include 'what if we sort out our licensing agreements with Fox before the show needs to be written?'.
Even if the agreements had been made, it's understandable that What If…? isn't the place these iconic groups will make their bow. As an animated spin-off not set in the main universe, it's unlikely to be the most watched show, and with FF and the X-Men being the MCU's biggest remaining aces, you can understand Marvel keeping its cards close to its chest. WandaVision gave us 'Pietro', AKA Ralph Boehner, and you get the sense that his story hasn't quite finished yet. As for the Fantastic Four, WandaVision's tease went nowhere, so we'll just have to hang tight.
Black Canary Is Getting A Spin-Off Movie On HBO Max
Shifting gears to the DCEU, one of its most underrated characters has been confirmed for a well deserved spin-off series. The Suicide Squad was a brilliant film with a low box office, much like Birds of Prey, which TSS feels more like a sequel to than the original Suicide Squad. That leaves DC in a tricky position, but luckily, it seems like it's forging ahead with quality. Black Canary, one of the stars of Birds of Prey, is getting her own HBO spin-off show, with Jurnee Smollett reprising her role as the titular character. It's unlikely that Margot Robbie's Harley will appear for anything more than a quick cameo, but fingers crossed we see Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosie Perez, and Ella Jay Basco return as Huntress, Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain.
Spider-Man: Far From Home Trailer Leaks
It surely can’t be too long until we get a Spidey trailer, especially since the leak is now out in the wild. While not great quality – it’s a phone recording of a phone recording – it’s confirmation that the trailer exists, meaning we can probably expect an official reveal shortly. We won’t say much more so as to not spoil it, but you can read our breakdown of the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer leak here.
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