Today’s biggest Marvel news story is an exercise in the importance of blind belief even in the face of overwhelming evidence pointing to the contrary. Despite fans having been constantly expecting this comic book character to show up in the MCU for the past two years, only to be disappointed every time, it’s just possible that their dark dreams are finally coming true. Meanwhile, She-Hulk‘s Tatiana Maslany outlines the much more expensive finale we didn’t get to see.
The devil may finally be coming to the MCU, in the human guise of… Borat?
Following the wild news that Harrison Ford is thought to have joined Thunderbolts as Red Hulk, the latest bit of rumored MCU casting we never expected in a million years points to Mephisto at long last entering the franchise. And, as the story goes, he could be played by Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen. This left-field choice for the devil of the Marvel universe has actually gone down like hot cakes (straight from Hell’s kitchen) on social media, with folks convinced Cohen would kill it in the role.
Tatiana Maslany talks the action-packed She-Hulk finale ending we nearly got
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law served up inarguably the most bonkers finale to a Marvel series so far (and, we’re willing to bet, ever), but it wasn’t always planned this way. Tatiana Maslany has admitted that no less than 20 different versions of the ending were conceived, with one being a more straight-up, and much more expensive, action-packed climax that would’ve featured more fighting and less fourth-wall breaking. We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether that would’ve been better than the one we got.
Werewolf by Night avoided hypersexualizing its monster-hunting heroine
Werewolf by Night did a terrific job of opening the door to the horror side of the Marvel universe for the first time — don’t believe me? Check out its franchise-high Rotten Tomatoes score. Much of it felt authentic to the comics, then, but one way in which director Michael Giacchino was keen to diverge from the source material was in the presentation of Laura Donnelly’s Elsa Bloodstone, a character he felt is typically “hypersexualized” on the page. “I just wanted her to be a real person,” he commented.
Is this how Marvel will finally get around that no ‘Hulk’ solo movie rule?
For years now, Marvel Studios have been unable to make another Hulk solo movie due to Universal still owning the franchise’s distribution rights. But intelligent fans, who could go toe-to-toe with Smart Hulk, have realized that the MCU just finally found a way with which to circumnavigate this pesky roadblock. Werewolf by Night has pioneered the “Special Presentation,” a project somewhere between a movie and a TV show, which could be the perfect format for a new standalone vehicle for the Green Goliath.
See you back here on Sunday, Sacha Baron Cohen stans, for your next daily Marvel news roundup.