With the upcoming lineup of Disney Plus shows in various stages of development and new additions to the big screen like The Eternals, Shang-Chi, Blade, Deadpool, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men all arriving over the next few years, the scope and scale of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is set to expand dramatically throughout Phases Four, Five and Six.
There’s going to be a lot of new faces signing up to the most lucrative franchise in history, all the way from headlining superheroes right down to the minor supporting characters that jump between the various film and TV projects to tie it all together. The MCU is only getting bigger and bigger, and even though the continuing Coronavirus pandemic has forced virtually the entire entertainment industry into hibernation, there’s no doubt that the higher-ups at Marvel are working feverishly to prepare for the future.
Once the crisis is over, casting is really going to start heating up with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man 3 and Thor: Love and Thunder all set to shoot before the end of the year, and we’ve also heard that Marvel are keen to recruit somebody to play a prominent role in the long-running comic book series beyond that.
According to our sources – the same ones who told us Taskmaster would be the villain in Black Widow and a Ms. Marvel show is coming to D+, both of which were correct – the studio want The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun for one of their in-development projects, something that’s been rumored for a while now. While there’s no word yet on which exact role he’ll land – if any – we’ve heard that both Namor and Iron Fist are possibilities, although it could ultimately end up being somebody else altogether who snags those parts.
Namor has been slated to join the MCU for a while now, possibly as soon as Black Panther II, and with rebooted versions of the Defenders reportedly on their way back to our screens, Iron Fist could show up as early as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Either way, Yeun has been linked to the franchise several times over the years, and would no doubt jump at the chance to sign up for the biggest game in town. We’d love to see him suit up as one of the aforementioned characters, too, so hopefully he can work something out with the studio.