...And Shift That Focus!

So this week was the BIG Disney thing.  They made announcements about movies and streaming shows under both the Marvel and Star Wars brands.  Taken at face value, the slew of announcements blows my current concern about the state of superhero cinema totally off the map.

We've got shows from Star Wars that sound interesting.  The Mandalorian has been in production for a while and I'll definitely watch a show that gives us more from Boba Fett's home planet.  Add to that the announcement that Ewan McGregor would reprise his Obi-Wan Kenobi for a stint on the new Disney+ stream and I'm feeling like the Star Wars side of things is still ticking over despite the soon to release Rise of Skywalker being set to close out the trilogy of trilogies.  A lot of hardcore Star Wars fans aren't jazzed about the Disneification of the Wars but you can't say they aren't taking that ball and running with it.

As for Marvel there were a couple of movie announcements this week, including Kit (You know nothing, Jon Snow) Harrington being cast as Marvel villain the Black Knight in the soon to film Eternals and a May 2022 release date for Black Panther 2.  Nice and no problem with either the casting or the at long last confirmation that T'Challa and all the ladies are getting their well deserved sequel.

For television there's just a great big slew of stuff!  Wanda and Vision will be joined by a grown up Monica Rambeau (the adorable little girl from Captain Marvel, a character who becomes a version of Captain Marvel in the comics) in WandaVision.  Apparently this one will be short as one of the stars was quoted as saying it will be a great 6 hours.  There's a Spider-Man and his friends cartoon coming, which is likely to tick off the Sony gang who are finding it impossible to leverage their small corner of the Marvel-verse against the MCU juggernaut.  We're also getting the previously announced What If? cartoon that I'm really looking forward to.

As for live action that I wasn't aware of or expecting, the three they announced this week ALL make me very, very happy!  There's a Ms. Marvel show in development.  This one is about what happens when Captain Marvel fangirl Khamala Khan gets superpowers of her own.  A real step towards more of that diversity that Kevin Feige mentioned a while back, what with the lead being both female and Muslim.  And speaking of diversity, how about representing the female side of a minority of two?  She-Hulk is coming to Disney+, doubling the current count of  Green humans in the world.  I couldn't be happier!  I really, really want them to cast someone like Eliza Dushku (she voice her in the short lived Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. cartoon) who has the right badass attitude.  Go green or go home!

Finally, my very, very favourite (and otherwise information free) announcement this week.  Moon Knight is FINALLY getting some love.  If you aren't familiar, that's fine.  All you need to know is that Moon Knight is Marvel's Batman but by way of James Bond with a little mysticism thrown in for spice.  He's an absolutely AWESOME character from both a visual and narrative perspective.  I've said for years that he is probably the most television friendly of all the Marvel stable of B-list heroes.  Most of his action can be shot practically with multiple stunt people since he wears a full mask, meaning production time can be maximized and post-production costs minimized.  He's crime fighter, spy and mystical protector so the story lines are limitless and the potential for epic season or even series long narrative arcs are almost infinite.  Plus he's just damned cool.  He wears a white bodysuit, cape and full face mask in the comics which offers costume designers a very broad palate to play with.  Take a look at White Canary's uniform on Legends of Tomorrow and imagine that sort of subtle shading scaled up on a muscular male frame with a cgi flowing cape and a full face mask touched up with cgi to make it "live" in close up shots.  It can and should be glorious!

So, am I convinced that there won't be a superhero pullback in pop culture soon?  Nope.  I will be if all this plays out as our new Disney overlords say it will but so far this is ALL on the table, not in the bank.