Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

With Avengers: Endgame finally overtaking Avatar to become the biggest film of all time, Kevin Feige announced what’s upcoming in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Black Widow will arrive in May 2020, starring Scarlet Johansson, alongside David Harbour, Rachel Weisz and Florence Pugh. Cate Shortland is directing from a script by Jac Schaeffer. “I don’t think I could have played this iteration of Natasha 10 years ago,” Johansson told the Hall H crowd. “I get to play her as a fully realized woman in all of her many facets. I am excited for fans to see the flawed side of her. I’m looking to wipe out that red in my ledger.”

Eternals will follow in November 2020. Richard Madden plays Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani is Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh with Angelina Jolie leads as Thena. The director is Chloé Zhao from a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo. Jolie explained, “I’m so excited to be here. I’m going to work ten times harder, what it means to be part of MCU, to be part of Eternals. We are going to be working very hard. I’m in training.” The film is currently shooting in London.

Simu Liu  will be playing the title role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Dave Callaham, coming in February 2021. Tony Leung will be playing the real Mandarin; the Ten Rings featured in Iron Man 3, where Ben Kingsley played a fake Mandarin.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will follow in May 2021, and will tie in to the Wanda and the Vision series on Disney+.  Director Scott Derrickson described it as the first scary MCU movie, although they won’t be going for an adults only rating.

And November 2021 will see Natalie Portman star as the female Thor in the fourth Thor movie, Love and Thunder. Tessa Thompson will return as Valkyrie, along with Chris Hemsworth as Thor in the movie written and directed by Taika Waititi

Feige also confirmed that other films in development include a Fantastic Four reboot, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, The Mutants and Marhershala Ali as Blade.