In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Marvel Comics is proud to announce that this summer will see the launch of a brand-new Marvel’s Voices one-shot spotlighting some of the most legendary Asian super heroes: MARVEL’S VOICES: IDENTITY #1! This thrilling issue will take readers across the Marvel Universe with a collection of tales written and drawn by new and established Asian creators. Following in the footsteps of the mega-popular MARVEL’S VOICES: INDIGENOUS VOICES and MARVEL’S VOICES: LEGACY, MARVEL’S VOICES: IDENTITY #1 will continue the tradition of featuring inspiring and uplifting stories reflecting “the world outside your window.” These new stories will celebrate Marvel’s ongoing, ever-expanding representation of the vastness of all Asian, Asian American and Pacific Island cultures and identities including South Korean, Chinese, and more.

The giant-sized one-shot will be full action-packed of stories told in the Mighty Marvel Manner! Eisner Award-winning writer Gene Luen Yang continues his groundbreaking work on the Shang-Chi mythos in an all-new tale with artist Marcus To (Excalibur). Get ready for some fireworks when Generation X writer Christina Strain and artist Jason Loo catch up with everyone’s favorite mutant mallrat Jubilee. Greg Pak takes secret agent Jimmy Woo on another hair-raising mission that will mark the Marvel Comics debut of artist Creees Lee. Also new to Marvel, artist Lynee Yoshii joins critically acclaimed Maurene Goo to weave another unpredictable adventure in the saga of Silk. Plus, an amazing tale starring Ms. Marvel drawn by Mashal Ahmed and some bonus surprises that will be announced at a later date.

“It’s unreal to me that one of Marvel’s first Asian super heroes, Jimmy Woo, was first introduced in 1956. He predates the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the X-Men,” Editor Darren Shan said. “It just goes to show that Asians have been an integral part of Marvel’s history, both on the page and behind it. So I’m incredibly excited to celebrate that with all these amazing creators, new and established, featuring some of Marvel’s greatest (and dare I say it, best) super heroes!”

“I'm thrilled to be a part of MARVEL’S VOICES: IDENTITY #1,” Yang said. “Asian and Asian American super heroes are such a vital part of the Marvel Universe. Asian and Asian American creators, too. This book proves it.”

“Jubilation Lee was an important character for me growing up as an Asian American kid in the 90s, so it's an incredible feeling knowing that I've been able to directly contribute to the development of her character and history,” Strain said.

Check out Jim Cheung’s cover below and stay tuned for more information on MARVEL’S VOICES: IDENTITY #1 including new story details, variant covers, and more!

What is it like writing for Marvel Studios? Collider asked that very question of Michael Waldron, head writer of Loki and writer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Specifically they wanted to know what it was like creating new material in a collective universe like the MCU: "Well, I think one of the joys of being a writer in the Marvel world is getting to make terrible messes and leave them for your [successors]. Although, occasionally, you find yourself being your own [successor]."

His Doctor Strange sequel will be directly influenced by the Loki series. "For instance, you write the Loki show and then you end up writing Doctor Strange 2, having to clean up your own mess and that can be a lot of fun. It's certainly important to define the rules, the background, the history of this organization, as much as we can to tell the story. But ultimately, all that's canon is what winds up on camera. So everything between those lines is open for interpretation, changing and everything."

Waldron also mentions that, like in the comics, everything is open to reimagining in the future: "It's like somebody wants to do a story with the TVA moving forward, certainly, we can have a conversation and I can tell them, 'Hey, here's what I thought maybe it would be,' but that's their thing, at that point and they should take it in their own direction."

Did you wonder why Mobius (Owen Wilson) was drinking Josta Soda, a beverage that has been discontinued since 1999? Well, Loki director Kate Herron answered that question to the AV Club: “In the writer's room they were adding in stuff that basically doesn't exist anymore. So that was a fun joke that we tried to continue. I'm not sure who picked Josta... I think it might have been Eric Martin." Martin is an executive producer on the series.

It turns out it kind of shows the power of the TVA: "Because they exist outside of space and time and they have access to all this stuff. So, yeah, it's just little details like that, like you said, you watch it, and you're like 'Wait a minute, I know that drink!'" Consider it product placement for people who see time as a flat circe.

DC Comics has announced the creative team and details for the upcoming Deathstroke Inc. series. The series was originally announced back at the ComicsPRO event in February of this year along with ten other titles, but no details for the book was given at the time. The creative team of Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter will be reteaming after their recent run on The Flash. Williamson has been all over the DC universe having written Batman, Robin, Batman/Superman and the recent Infinite Frontier. Porter has a celebrated stint on Justice League, JLA, Superman and Batman Beyond Unlimited.

The synopsis for the series reads: After suffering too many losses, Slade Wilson decides it's time for a change. When he's enlisted to work with an ages-old secret organization called T.R.U.S.T. who want to take down the heavy-hitter villains, he's all in.

The first issue is set to release on September 28th, 2021.

X-Men star Anna Paquin was interviewed by the Hollywood Reporter and asked about who she was closest too while filming: "Hugh [Jackman] was definitely my best friend on the first one. Then they started bringing in cast members that were closer to my age...there was like a kind of younger little gaggle of late teens, 20-somethings, but Hugh was the person I was always closest to because I had all my scenes with him and he's just wonderful."

She also mentioned just how much Jackman was put through during the first film and how he was always great to her. "He is still a lovely, gracious human being, but he got put through the wringer on that first one and never ever complained. [It would] be minus-40 [degrees], he's being dropped off some building onto his back over and over and over again and [he] still has all the time in the world to just be a nice normal person."

She gave a specific example of how close they were, talking about how the scene at the truck stop where he had his claws out and smoking a cigar, which he couldn’t do without hurting himself with the claws, so she would pick the cigar out from between his teeth. “What are friends for?”

The upcoming Amazon series Reacher, based on the character of Jack Reacher from author Lee Childs, is growing it’s cast quickly. Joining Titan’s star Alan Ritchson who will be playing the title character are some familiar faces. Kristin Kreuk (Smallville, Beauty & the Beast), Marc Bendavid (Dark Matter, Good Witch) Willie C. Carpenter (Devious Maids, Brawl in Cell Block 99), Currie Graham (Murder in the First), Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows) and Maxwell Jenkins (Lost in Space) have all been added to season one of the series that will be an adaptation of the first Jack Reacher novel, the Killing Floor, which is set in a small town in Georgia. The series is being exec produced and showrun by Nick Santora.

The Ubisoft video game franchise, Far Cry, is the subject of not one, but two new projects in the works over at Netflix. According to Deadline, Already announced was Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix from Adi Shankar. This is of course tied to Far Cry 3. The company has now announced a second anime series based on the franchise but no further details were released. The first installment of the first person shooter dropped in 2004 and Far Cry 6, which will feature Giancarlo Esposito, will be released this October.

It has been a while since we had any news of season four of Westworld, but Deadline is reporting that Aurora Perrineau from Prodigal Son will be joining the cast in an unnamed recurring role. Reports say she will appear in at least five episodes of the new season. She has also been seen in the Netflix series When They See Us and the Hulu series Into the Dark. A premiere date for season four has not been announced.

Negotiations between CBSViacom and MGM Television have completely stalled, putting the chances of Clarice, the Silence of the Lambs sequel’s future in serious doubt. And Deadline is reporting that there is no viale way for the show to return to CBS as the network has already committed to a full slate for the fall, leaving Paramount+ as it’s only real option. Word had surfaced about a month ago that Clarice and SEAL Team Six would both move from CBS to Paramount+, and while the deal for SEAL as well as Evil have been made, the negotiations for Clarice are stalled and likely will mean that a show that once had a second season pickup will now be laying off 300 people.

Freya Allan, a breakout in the Netflix series The Witcher, is set to star in Baghead for Studiocanal and The Picture Company, Deadline reports. Production will begin in the fall in Berlin. Allan stars in the upcoming Studiocanal/The Picture Company action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake for Netflix.

The film will be directed by Alberto Corredor, who directed the short film that was acquired to be turned into a feature length horror film. Christina Pamies and Bryce McGuire wrote the script. Studiocanal will commence worldwide sales at the Cannes Market.

Baghead revolves around a mysterious figure called Baghead, a diminutive wrinkled up person who is able to manifest the dead and bring them back to our world for short intervals. People seek out the mysterious medium to reconnect with lost loved ones. Once in contact with Baghead, however, the title character’s true powers and intentions are revealed and there is a high price to pay for its contact with the deceased.

The feature transfer will build on that storyline and take a Saw-like approach, adding in supernatural elements. Allan will play the film’s lead, who must contend with the evil entity which has deep connections to her family’s past.

Sony is reporting the Thursday night previews to Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway which began at 4 p.m. yesterday at 2,572 theaters, and the long-awaited Will Gluck directed sequel grossed $900K. The first Peter Rabbit in February 2018 didn’t hold any previews.

Sony earlier in the week was expecting $8M-$10M, but the sequel could very well do in the teens at 3,300. As far as Thursday night comps to Peter Rabbit 2, it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison due to pre-pandemic numbers, however, both Sony’s Emoji Movie and Fox/DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls posted $900K Thursday nights, and respectively went on to $24.5M and $46.5M opening weekends. Peter Rabbit 2 has a 70% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The first installment of Peter Rabbit opened to $25M domestic and went on to make $115.2M domestic, $351.2M WW. While Sony has sold off some of its movies to Netflix (licensed out global rights, if you will), the Culver City lot kept Peter Rabbit 2, as they knew they could make some dough off of this one. Already, the sequel has banked over $46M offshore, after a staggered launch out of Australia at end of March (before Victoria closed down), and heads into China this weekend. (via Deadline)