Marvel Actress May Be Fired From Disney?

Posted on by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

If you have followed the Star Wars franchise for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with the controversy surrounding former Mandalorian actress, Gina Carano, that began in 2020 and culminated with her firing in February 2021.

Carano, who played New Republic Marshal Cara Dune on  Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s hit Star Wars series, The Mandalorian — was ultimately let go by Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company due to her controversial Tweets about social justice and political topics.

Gina Carano as Cara Dune holding a blaster

Now, another actress who works for a  Disney subsidiary, Marvel Studios’ Evangeline Lilly (Hope Pym/The Wasp), is reportedly in hot water with the company for a similar reason. Recently, Lilly made waves online for backing the Canadian trucker protests and blasting Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

evangeline lilly as hope van dyne aka the wasp and paul rudd as scott lang aka ant man

A new rumor circulating online indicates that Lilly could be facing the “Gina Carano treatment” and ultimately be fired from her Marvel Cinematic Universe role for her online activity. One recent report indicated that Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios is considering ending its professional relationship with the actress after the third Ant-Man movie, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023), but no concrete decisions have been made at this time.

Evangeline Lilly as the Wasp (left) and Paul Rudd as Ant Man (right)

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania has been filming and is due to hit theaters on July 28, 2023.

‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Forced to Shut Down Production

Posted on by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is currently being filmed in Georgia — as are most Marvel films — and is scheduled to be released as part of Marvel’s Phase 4 slate in November. Marvel had originally planned for the highly-anticipated Black Panther sequel to be released in July, but it was pushed back in October, along with a number of other Marvel films, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Unfortunately, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now experiencing another setback as production has been put on hold indefinitely as star Letitia Wright — who plays Shuri — recovers from an injury she sustained in August. While Marvel originally stated that Wright’s injury would not affect the production schedule — they would shoot the scenes that she was not a part of — it looks like that has now changed. Marvel has apparently shot all the scenes that they can without the starlet, and they must now go back to the drawing board to figure out how to continue.

Black Panther

The Hollywood Reporter received a statement from Wright’s representative and reported the following:

Wakanda Forever had been filming mostly in Atlanta for the last two months. Director Ryan Coogler is said to have shot all footage that his crew is able to without Wright.

Sources say the production is taking the hiatus to reconfigure the shoot to get things back on track for an early 2022 restart. The shutdown is expected to begin the week of Thanksgiving.

“Letitia has been recovering in London since September from injuries sustained on the set of Black Panther 2 and is looking forward to returning to work early 2022,” a representative for Wright said in a statement to THR. “Letitia kindly asks that you keep her in your prayers.”

Letitia Wright Black Panther

After sustaining the injury while filming in Boston, Wright traveled to London, where she has been healing ever since. Wright was promoted to the lead role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever after Chadwick Boseman — who played the titular superhero — died of cancer in 2020, so it is safe to assume that there are not too many scenes that she will not be a part of.

Marvel has said that, at this time, they do not anticipate the release date of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to be impacted by the pause in production.

Anthony Mackie Is Back For Captain America 4

Posted on by Mathew Corn Disney+, Uncategorized

After the extremely popular Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, we now have information about Captain America 4.  It was revealed that Anthony Mackie will be back to play Captain America.

It’s currently unclear if the film will include Sebastian Stan, who stars as “The Winter Soldier” in the Disney+ series and multiple Captain American movies.

We don’t know a lot about the film except that it is being written by “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ” head writer and creator Malcolm Spellman, along with series staff writer Dalan Musson.

Disney Will Seek Arbitration in Scarlett Johansson Lawsuit

Posted on by Mathew Corn Disney+, Uncategorized

Via wdwnt.com

There has been quite a bit of back-and-forth between Disney and Scarlett Johansson, who plays Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The star recently filed a lawsuit against Disney over her most recent outing as the super spy in this month’s “Black Widow.” And after more than a week of responses in the media and in legal filings, Disney is now seeking arbitration according to the Wall Street Journal.

Johansson’s lawsuit alleges that by releasing the film on Disney+ simultaneously with the theatrical release, “Disney intentionally induced Marvel’s breach of the agreement, without justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson from realizing the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel.” Johansson reportedly took a partial back-end deal, in which her salary for the film was derived from the box office sales which, the lawsuit alleges, were undercut by the Disney+ sales.

After multiple delays in release due to the COVID-19 pandemic shuttering theaters nationwide, it was announced in March that “Black Widow” would be one of several films pushed through to the Disney+ streaming service as a Premiere Access title. Despite an $80 million opening in the US and Canada and $60 million garnered from Disney+ sales, the film still sits at $359 million worldwide. With $174 million total domestic take as of press time, this makes “Black Widow” the 2nd lowest-earning marvel film ever, behind “The Incredible Hulk.”

In the Wall Street Journal, Disney released figures touting that Johansson had already earned $20 million from her deal. Previously, Disney attorney Daniel Petrocelli had called the lawsuit a lost cause because the contract is iron clad. “We treated Disney Premier Access (revenue) like box office for the purposes of the bonus requirements in the contract,” Petrocelli told Variety. “No amount of public pressure can change or obscure the explicit contractual commitments. The written contract is clear as a bell.”

Disney’s arbitration would make the case confidential and the details would not become publicly available even after the case ends, which Johansson’s lawyer John Berlinski decried as Disney’s attempt to “hide its misconduct from the public in a confidential arbitration,” according to the Wall Street Journal article.

Scarlett Johansson Sues Disney Over ‘Black Widow’ Disney+ Release

Posted on by Mathew Corn Disney+

Big news coming out of the film industry today… and it involves a lawsuit again Disney. Marvel’s newest film, Black Widow, recently debuted on both Disney+ Premier Access and in theaters on the same day. Now, the star of the film, Black Widow herself – Scarlett Johansson – is suing Disney for breach of contract. Apparently, the simultaneous release of the film in theaters and on Disney+ was not part of the originally plan.

As reported by Wall Street Journal: Scarlett Johansson, star of the latest Marvel movie “Black Widow,” filed a lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court against Disney, alleging her contract was breached when the media giant released the film on its Disney+ streaming service at the same time as its theatrical debut. Ms. Johansson said in the suit that her agreement with Disney’s Marvel Entertainment guaranteed an exclusive theatrical release, and her salary was based in large part on the box-office performance of the film. “Disney intentionally induced Marvel’s breach of the agreement, without justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson from realizing the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel,” the suit said.

“This will surely not be the last case where Hollywood talent stands up to Disney and makes it clear that, whatever the company may pretend, it has a legal obligation to honor its contracts,” said John Berlinski, an attorney at Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP who represents Ms. Johansson. According to the complaint, Ms. Johansson’s representatives sought to renegotiate her contract after learning of the dual-release strategy for “Black Widow,” which she has said is her ninth and last Marvel movie. Disney and Marvel were unresponsive, the suit said. The decision to put the movie on Disney+ is projected to cost Ms. Johansson more than $50 million, a person familiar with details of her contract claimed.