Sci-Fi Storm

Warning…as Tom Holland says at the beginning, there is a major spoiler if you haven’t yet watched Avengers: Endgame, so go watch that first…but the irony of Tom Holland warning of spoilers…

This was a jaw-dropping moment today…Disney did an about-face and reinstated James Gunn as director for Guardians of the Galaxy 3, after having fired him back in July when old inappropriate tweets regarding rape and pedophilia of his surfaced. Gunn was immediately apologetic over his “poor judgement” at bad humor.

Today, Gunn was grateful for Disney’s letting him back in:

The reaction in social media seems relatively positive, but bears close monitoring.

I’ll just leave this here for you…

So the nominations for the 91st Oscars are out, and as usual we take a look at where the science fiction/fantasy genre landed – and it’s mostly Disney vs. Disney between Black Panther and Mary Poppins Returns – but neither received any acting nominations, which is disappointing.

Black Panther scored a Best Picture nomination, along with Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song for “All The Stars”, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing,

Mary Poppins Returns is nominated for Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song for “The Place Where Lost Things Go”,

Avengers: Infinity War, Christopher Robin, Ready Player One, Solo: A Star Wars Story all received one nomination for Visual Effects.

A Quiet Place received one nomination for Sound Editing.

Incredibles 2, Ralph Breaks The Internet and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse all share the Animated Film nomination with Isle of Dogs and Mirai.

The next chapter in Peter Parker’s journey as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, trying to take a vacation…

Thwips into theaters July 5th, 2019

It’s finally here…it’s called Avengers: Endgame and the release date is moved up to April 26th, 2019!

Legendary comic creator Stan Lee, who created Marvel Comics with Jack Kirby in 1961 and launched Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Black Panther and many many more, passed away early today, according to TMZ. He was 95.

In failing health in recent years he still did his best to meet with the fans, even coming to Boston Comic Con in 2017 not long after the passing of his wife, Joan. Questions surfaced more recently, however, about his managers and allegations of elder abuse, which more recently seemed to be resolved.

It is with great sadness that we mourn the godfather of the current cinematic era. Tears will be shed when we see his final cameo. Excelsior!

Captain America is hanging up his shield.

Actor Chris Evans said farewell in a tweet today:

“Officially wrapped on Avengers 4. It was an emotional day to say the least. Playing this role over the last 8 years has been an honor. To everyone in front of the camera, behind the camera, and in the audience, thank you for the memories! Eternally grateful.”

Officially wrapped on Avengers 4. It was an emotional day to say the least. Playing this role over the last 8 years has been an honor. To everyone in front of the camera, behind the camera, and in the audience, thank you for the memories! Eternally grateful.

— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) October 4, 2018

Despite Disney focusing a lot on its upcoming streaming service, they aren’t leaving their broadcast network out in the Marvel cold – Deadline reports ABC has given a production commitment for a series about female superheroes written by Allan Heinberg, the scribe behind Wonder Woman. No title or description has been given so far, but it is expected to focus on some lesser superheroes within the Marvel universe.

Heinberg has worked on various Shondaland series for ABC, starting with Grey’s Anatomy in 2006. And for Marvel Comics, he co-created and wrote Young Avengers and Avengers: The Children’s Crusade with co-creator/artist Jim Cheung. For DC Comics he re-launched Wonder Woman in 2006 and co-wrote JLA: Crisis Of Conscience.

Variety is reporting that Disney may be stacking the deck for its upcoming streaming video service by starting early development on some limited series based around characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and Loki and the Scarlet Witch are likely the be first.

The plan is for a number of limited series – generally 6 to 8 episodes each, and are expected to feature the same actors as have appeared in the MCU as well. Marvel Studios will produce and MCU shepherd Kevin Feige is expected to be fully hands on for the development. This differs than the previous network and Netflix efforts, which have focused on other characters or secondary characters from the MCU.

They would join a Star Wars series from Jon Favreau and a High School Musical series, along with original movies and recent releases.