Marvel Comics reveals a newbatch of cover homages for Marvel Legacy.

Keanu Reeves (John Wick franchise) has been tapped to voice the role of Shadow in Paramount Pictures‘ Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Deadline has confirmed. Paramount had no comment, but Reeves joins an ensemble led by Ben Schwartz, who plays Sonic. In all three films, James Mardsen plays Sonic’s human ally, Sheriff Tom Wachowski, with Jim Carrey as the mad scientist Dr. Robotnik. The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise launched with a 2020 film of the same name, which grossed over $319M worldwide and was followed up with a hit sequel in 2022. Jeff Fowler has served as the director for all three films, with the newest to hit theaters on December 20.

Over the last few years, readers have gotten to experience all-new mutant sagas from the mastermind behind the X-Men’s most influential stories—Chris Claremont! The groundbreaking writer has introduced a multitude of hit limited series that fill in the gaps of X-Men canon, answering dangling questions and adding further depth to his historic and unparalleled run on the franchise. To celebrate Wolverine’s 50th anniversary this year, Claremont is back with artist Edgar Salazar for an all-new Wolverine story set during one of the X-Men’s most beloved eras in WOLVERINE: DEEP CUT! WOLVERINE: DEEP CUT sees Claremont return to the period when the X-Men operated out of the Australian Outback, and Wolverine was jetting off on secret adventures around the globe in his first solo series, also penned by Claremont. Now, witness Wolverine’s untold hunt before the Reavers’ brutal attack brought the X-Men’s time in Australia to a tragic end in Uncanny X-Men #251. OUT OF THE OUTBACK ON A LIFE-AND-DEATH MISSION! Logan sets off from the outback, leaving behind what was left of the X-Men, for a mysterious mission. After decades of mystery, Claremont reveals just what Wolverine got up to before his unforgettable battle with the Reavers! Featuring sinister revelations and claw-to-claw confrontations with Sabretooth, this is an ideal entry-point Wolverine story for new and long-standing fans alike that simply cannot be missed! “One of the amazing things about Chris Claremont’s work is how rich and multi-layered his X-Men stories have always been,” Editor Mark Basso shared. “In Uncanny X-Men #246, he had to move Wolverine off-stage to get to the plethora of other characters and plotlines he had going. DEEP CUT is going to finally step back and show what there just wasn’t time or space to show of Wolverine before he returned in #251, and make good on that title in all senses of the word! And, in true Marvel fashion, the story here will stand completely on its own, so if you have no idea what those plots entailed, rest assured you’ve got a complete adventure in this series.” WOLVERINE: DEEP CUT will be Claremont and Salazar’s latest “retro pick” adventure with Wolverine, following the Wolverine: Madripoor Knights series that launched earlier this year. Check out Phillip Tan’s WOLVERINE: DEEP CUT #1 cover and be there for the next Chris Claremont-penned mutant saga with this untold story of Wolverine’s most personal mission!

As it crossed the $1B international box office milestone this past weekend, Warner Bros again owned the frame with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and its third session haul of $33.7M from 71 markets. That was good for a 47% drop from the previous weekend and lifts the overseas cume to $278.6M and global to $436.6M. Meanwhile, WB and Legendary’s other major title in the marketplace, Dune: Part Two, now has a shot at getting to $700M worldwide. While 2024 may end up down on 2023, coming out of last week’s CinemaCon exhibition conference, it’s not all doom and gloom — something heard in a refrain — as several titles continue to post solid numbers. There’s also plenty of local play doing great business, notably in Japan this frame where the 27th movie in the Case Closed series, Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram, has opened to a franchise best launch of $21.8M, including $1.5M from only 50 IMAX screens. Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 added five markets this weekend, kicking up another $25.9M in 81 total (just 39% down in the holdovers). The offshore cume is now $279M for $452.6M global. Excluding China and Russia, KFP4 has topped Kung Fu Panda 3 overseas and is now the second biggest global DWA franchise behind Shrek. (via Deadline)

The 30th anniversary of the original animated film version of “The Lion King” will be celebrated at the Hollywood Bowl next month with a live-to-film concert/screening that will include cast members from both the movie and theatrical versions — and beyond — including Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Billy Eichner, Ernie Sabella, Jason Weaver and Bradley GIbson. The shows will take place at the Bowl May 24-25 and be produced by Disney Concerts, Fulwell 73 Productions, AMP Worldwide and Live Nation-Hewitt Silva. The general on-sale begins Friday at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster, with an American Express cardholder presale starting Tuesday at 10 a.m. (via Variety)

This summer may mark the end of Krakoa, but Forge’s mission is just beginning! Announced last week, Forge will lead the all-new iteration of mutantkind’s deadly strike team in Geoffrey Thorne and Marcus To’s X-FORCE. Set in the X-Men’s upcoming From the Ashes era, X-FORCE kicks off with Forge unlocking an Omega-Level aspect of his one-of-a-kind power of invention. Witnessing everything broken in the world, he builds the ultimate solution—X-FORCE, a team of handpicked mutants for off-the-books missions so dire, so integral to the fate of the Marvel Universe, there’s no time to stop for permission! Today, fans can see this elite team on an assortment of new variant covers for the debut issue! Superstar artist Clayton Crain returns to the world of X-Force with his own line of character-focused variant covers, starting with the team’s leader, Forge. Acclaimed Excalibur artist Mahmud Asrar draws mutantkind’s hottest new couple, Betsy Braddock and Rachel Summers, in action. And Tony Daniel assembles the entire squad including former New X-Men leader, Surge; the mastermind behind Krakoa’s X-Force, Sage; and Tank! Wait… Who? Plus, like all of Marvel’s major launches, X-FORCE #1 will shine on stands with a special FOIL COVER. The title will frequently feature A-List guest stars that Forge recruits for specific missions, starting with regenerating degenerate, Deadpool! See him steal the spotlight in an outstanding piece by best-selling cover artist David Nakayama. Check out all four covers now and preorder X-FORCE #1 at your local comic shop today!

Rich Johnston over at Bleeding Cool has an article posted talking about Mark Millar and how he’s been talking about doing more Superman comics over the last few years. Millar has been vocal about his desire to do the comics and work with a top-notch artist, but it seems that working on a deal with DC may not be going all that well as Millar wants the company to share profits 50/50 after 60,000 copies are sold rather than the normal 2% royalty. Now Millar is talking about waiting until 2033 when the character ends up in the public domain and anyone can make books about him… or at least the version that first appeared in the early days of Action Comics. This would mean no Jimmy Olsen, no Perry White, no Kryptonite and definitely no flying. Rich also seems to think that Millar would be competing against other companies also putting out their versions of Superman like Marvel, Image, Todd McFarlane, etc. And of course, none of them could make a comic called Superman as DC Comics will still own the trademark, so they would have to call it something like “Into Action” or “Metropolis” and then just call him Superman inside the book. But would people want to read a Superman story that’s not part of the DC Universe? Is the draw of the character exactly what Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel put on the page in 1938 or is it all that plus the 85+ years of continuity that makes people want to read his adventures? This will be important to figure out as once Superman goes into public domain, Batman won’t be far behind. 

Even though he is no longer working on the series after being let go by Marvel Studios, X-Men ’97 creator Beau DeMayo broke his silence to speak about the shocking fifth episode of the series. DeMayo wanted to give context to the ending and how everything was specifically done to set this up. He posted on Twitter: “Lotta questions and so I’ll momentarily break silence to answer. Episode 5 was the centerpiece of my pitch to Marvel in November 2020. The idea being to have the X-Men mirror the journey that any of us who grew up on the original show have experienced since being kids in the 90s. The world was a seemingly safer place for us, where a character like Storm would comment on how skin-based racism was ‘quaint’ in One Man’s Worth [the season 4 premiere of the OG series]. For the most part, to our young minds, the world was a simple place of right and wrong, where questions about identity and social justice had relatively clear-cut answers.” DeMayo then shifts to how everything changed after September 11th, 2001. “Things weren’t so safe anymore. Grassroots populist movements began to rise around the world as a whole nation struggled to deal with collective trauma and fracture at the seams of every diverse demographic. The effects we still feel today, and have only been exacerbated by more collective traumas like COVID or several recessions.” His plan for the series was to reflect on similar attacks in American history. “Yes, it looked like Gambit’s story was going a specific direction. The crop top was chosen to make you love him. Him pulling off his shirt was intentional. There’s a reason he told Rogue any fool would suffer her hand in a dance, even if it ended up not being him suffering. But if events like 9/11, Tulsa, Charlottesville, or Pulse Nightclub teach us anything, it’s that too many stories are often cut far too short. I partied at Pulse. It was my club. I have so many great memories of its awesome white lounge. It was, like Genosha, a safe space for me and everyone like me to dance and laugh and be free. I thought about this a lot when crafting this season and this episode, and how the gay community in Orlando rose to heal from that event. Like many of us who grew up on the OG cartoon, the X-Men have now been hit hard by the realities of an adult and unsafe world. Life’s happened to them. And they, like we did, will have to decide which parts of themselves they will cling to and which parts they’ll let go of in order to do what they’ve been telling humanity to do: face an uncertain future they never saw coming. As Trask told Cyclops in the premiere: ‘you have no idea what it’s like to be left behind by the future.’ Now the X-Men do, and like each of us, they’ll have to weigh whether this is a time for social justice — or as Magneto preached at his trial — is it a time for social healing.” 

While it seems like it’s been forever since the season finale of Peacemaker aired, February 17th, 2022 to be exact… most indications were that it would still be a while before season two would get started. The delays were attributed to writer/director James Gunn taking on a side project called Superman and becoming the co-head of DC Studios. And while star John Cena had been hinting that it may be time for him to return to the role, no one was expecting what was posted yesterday. On Threads Gunn posted a selfie of himself as seen through the reflection of Peacemaker’s helmet. The post simply read, “Day 1 S2.” This means Gunn has both the film and television projects active at the same time, but he will not be as hands on with the second season as the first, admitting previously that he would not be able to direct all of the episodes as he had done in season one. One of the things that will definitely change will be the opening credits. While they were well loved, a few of the characters are no longer with us, so I would expect a new opening and with Gunn’s love of obscure rock songs, I would expect new music as well. 

Tom Hiddleston appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote his returning series The Night Manager and of course the host asked him the important question, was he done playing Loki? His answer was somewhat vague, but then again, it’s rare to get a direct answer when the question involves Marvel Studios. But Hiddleston said: “I don’t know. I really don’t know. We’ve reached some sort of narrative conclusion with season 2, which feels satisfying to me.” The actor doesn’t see Loki as a villain, saying “Once upon a time he was making some misguided choices,” but has since made, “slightly more generous, loving and heroic choices.” And when Jimmy Kimmel points out that Hiddleston has been playing the role for 14 years, the actor says that blows his mind and the role completely changed the course of his life.   

Also joining Kevin Feige on stage at CinemaCon this week was Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy. And while they wanted to stress the R rating of the film and did so with Feige using the “F” word three times before bringing Levy out, the biggest surprise was they showed nine minutes of footage from the film. We get to see Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) trying to adjust to a normal life as he’s hung up the red and black suit and is focusing on being a car salesman. He talks about “aiming for the middle because then you never miss”. We then see him at home for a surprise birthday party that includes Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), Peter (Rob Delaney) and many other friends from previous films. We also see Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and learn that she and Wade are no longer dating. But the party gets broken up with the TVA arrive and he is taken away to met Mr. Paradox (Matthew MacFadyen) who explains to Wade that he’s needed to save the sacred timeline. Most of this is an extended version from the trailer and we see some teaser cameos like possibly Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and we learn that he gets an upgraded suit plus adamantium katanas. I’m sure that won’t be important later. We do get other footage, this of Deadpool and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in a car where Deadpool accuses Wolverine of being a fan of the Los Angeles Rams because of the blue and yellow costume theme. Reynolds previously said that he meant this film to be like an old “Road Movie” and that is the vibe the scene gives off. The film is slated to be released in theaters on July 26th.