Entertainment

Disney announces 50 new Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar titles coming to Disney+

Including a new Fantastic Four film

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Because of the pandemic, the days of big Disney/Marvel announcement events are over. However, especially with Disney+ in its pocket, Disney can still announce great upcoming titles online. In today’s Disney Investor Day, the company did just that, revealing big titles for Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars. Here are the biggest announcements from the blockbuster event:

Old Marvel announcements getting the spotlight again

Marvel’s previously announced series just got their last chance aboard the hype train before their release dates next years. They all got new trailers and more definitive release dates: WandaVision on January 15, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier sometime in March, Loki in May, Hawkeye in the late Fall. Animated series What If? received a trailer, but no release date.

Two upcoming, previously announced MCU movies also made cameos. For one, long-time MCU helmsman Kevin Feige confirmed that they are not recasting King T’Challa in Black Panther 2 set for a July 2022 release. The third ­­Ant-Man film got its name, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and will feature a major Marvel villain, Kang the Conqueror, played by Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors. Finally, Christian Bale will star as the villain, Gorr the God Butcher, in Thor: Love and Thunder.

New Marvel titles coming up

Marvel also announced new series coming to Disney+ sometime in the future. Armor Wars will finally grant Don Cheadle’s War Machine his own series. Secret Invasion, named after a big Marvel story, will feature Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn’s Skrull Talos from Captain Marvel. Finally, Ironheart, a younger version of Iron-Man, will star Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams.

Similarly, James Gunn, who will helm Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, will also direct a special Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special to be released a bit before the film. Meanwhile, Jon Watts, who directed Spider-Man: Homecoming, will lead a MCU version of Fantastic Four, the super family’s first appearance in the universe.

Star Wars extravaganza

While Marvel mixed it up with old and new titles, Lucasfilm unloaded a barrage of upcoming Star Wars titles coming to Disney+. Besides the already successful Mandalorian series, the franchise is getting two spinoffs: The Mandalorian: Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka. The rest of the series will get Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Ando, The Acolyte, A Droid Story, Star Wars: Lando, and Star Wars: Visions. In other news, Hayden Christiansen will reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker in upcoming series Obi-Wan Kenobi (also featuring Ewan McGregor as the titular character).

For movies, the franchise is getting Rogue Squadron and an untitled Taika Waititi-led film.

Disney and Pixar

Outside of Disney’s most prolific franchises, Disney and Pixar are also expanding content from its own library of titles. Baymax, following Big Hero 6’s favorite character, will premiere in 2022. Zootopia Plus, named after the movie, is a series that will also debut in 2022. Meanwhile, Tiana and an untitled Moana series will hit Disney+ in 2023.

For bigger releases, Lin-Manuel Miranda is once again attached to a new musical from Disney, Encanto, set in Colombia. Lightyear brings us back to the Toy Story world with an origin story of the titular character as voiced by Chris Evans.

Entertainment

Transformers One trailer: Get to know Optimus Prime, Megatron’s origin stories

In cinemas September 18

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Transformers One

Paramount Pictures has released the trailer for Transformers One, the upcoming latest installment of the Transformers film franchise.

Before fans get excited for the Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover, this animated film focuses first on Optimus Prime’s relationship with his adversary, Megatron.

The origin story is set in Cybertron, long before the transformers land on earth in the chronological timeline.

The trailer reveals Optimus Prime’s previous name, Orion Pax. On the other hand, Megatron was previously known by D-16.

Joined by Elita-1 and Bumblebee, the two main protagonists journey to Cybertron’s surface, which hasn’t been explored beforehand due to the dangers it is said to have.

On the surface, the crew realizes that right away, but are bestowed the power to transform. After some figuring, they manage to utilize this ability to defend Cybertron from intruders.

Overall, the three-minute trailer gives a lighter and funnier vibe. That’s in contrast to the previous iterations where the story is more serious from the get-go.

The transformers’ appearance also looks simpler and more toned down, giving an old school feel which is appropriate, considering this movie is set an earlier time when Cybertron was more intact.

Transformers One is showing on Philippine cinemas on September 18. The voice cast includes Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime, Brian Tyree Henry as Megatron, Keegan-Michael Key as Bumblebee, and Scarlett Johansson.

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Entertainment

Joker: Folie à Deux 1st trailer finally released

The world is a stage

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Joker Folie a Deux

Warner Bros. Pictures has finally released the first trailer for upcoming musical thriller Joker: Folie à Deux. The two-and-a-half minute trailer debuted at CinemaCon. The Todd Phillips masterpiece will hit the big screens in the Philippines on October 2.

Phillips’ own take on a story loosely based from famed characters from DC, Joker: Folie à Deux was originally intended to be standalone film given that it is a musical. However, it eventually became a sequel to the Academy Award-winning Joker movie from 2019. The short clip shows titular lead actor Joaquin Phoenix and, for the first time, Lady Gaga.

Joker Folie a Deux

The trailer aptly starts with Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck character in solitary confinement inside Arkham. If you can recall, the end of the 2019 movie showed the Joker walking with bloodied footprints. This means he presumably killed the therapist he was trying to tell a joke to.

Inside the asylum, Joker meets Gaga’s character Harley Quinn. This is one of the obvious changes to the iconic DC character’s origin story. The movie depicts Quinn as Joker’s fellow patient, instead of being a psychiatrist in the asylum who eventually falls in love and helps her partner in crime escape. The clip eventually transitions to the two protagonists dancing in the streets. Hal David’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love” plays along.

Joker Folie a Deux

Towards the end, Gaga then dons a red blazer with black-and-white diamond checkered top inside. It’s nowhere near the classic Harley Quinn jester costume that Margot Robbie once put on in the first Suicide Squad installment, but it’s obvious that the getup somehow takes some of those elements.

The trailer concludes with Harley Quinn telling Joker, “I wanna see the real you” as she draws the latter’s signature red lips on a glass divider separating the two. It can definitely mean that Fleck is incarcerated for that particular scene, and it could be the scene that jumpstarts the escape from Arkham. Who knows? We can only wait until October to find out.

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Fallout on Prime Video: What inspired producers to create series

From video game to TV series

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Prime Video-exclusive series Fallout is finally streaming next week. Based from the popular video game franchise that has spanned decades, Fallout is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland world. It is quite reminiscent of the video games’ original environment that is damaged by nuclear war.

If you need quick refresher, Prime Video released the series’ official trailer a month ago. READ: New Fallout trailer dwells upon The Ghoul, brotherhood, more

So, what inspired the producers to come up with the sci-fi adaptation? According to Jonathan Nolan, who directed the first three episodes, the Fallout 3 game became his “entry point.”

“It’s dark, violent, but it’s also satirical and in some places almost goofy. It’s all these amazing things in one. I’ve never really experienced anything quite like it,” Nolan shared.

Bethesda’s 2008 action RPG was the third installment in the main Fallout video game series. The game featured the Great War of 2077, the several underground bunkers called vaults, and a vast wasteland set particularly in Eastern United States. Based on the trailers alone, the creators have worked with these elements for the series version.

Ten years after coming across the title, Nolan then met with Fallout 3 developer Todd Howard to explore the possibility of a TV series. Howard mentioned how Nolan played the game dedicatedly, and that the latter was “in sync” with what he was thinking.

Nolan’s vision led to the recruitment of the series’ two other directors: Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner. The creative trio crafted an original narrative within the Fallout universe that was consistent with the game’s storyline.

Robertson-Dworet added: “We’re not just adapting a game; we’re crafting a new story that delves deep into the complexities of humanity post-nuclear apocalypse.”

The Fallout series begins with a nuclear apocalypse, then a 219-year jump into the future – where life underground offers comfort and order, while the surface is a battleground for survival.

The series stars Ella Purnell as Lucy, Aaron Moten as Maximus, and Walton Goggins as The Ghoul, among others. Fallout premieres on April 11.

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