Marvel Shared Film Universe: MCU Theatrical & TV (discussion, crossovers, etc.)

[Johnny Unusual]

Loved the first season of The Punisher, even though it was quite dark, although I'm a little concerned about the story they are rumored to be adapting for the next season.

"Black Like Me"?

[Cyrusso]

So the run time of Avengers Infinity war has been revealed to be a whopping 2 hours and 36 minutes. I'm not sure whether to be worried or not, wondering if they can tell the whole story in a compelling way in that much time.

[Pak-Man]

This is either the best or worst idea ever, but they should do what the comics do. Tell the core story through the big summer crossover event (Avengers) and then add to the story through their other monthly titles (Captain Marvel, Guardians 3, etc..)

[Edward J Grug III]

This is either the best or worst idea ever, but they should do what the comics do. Tell the core story through the big summer crossover event (Avengers) and then add to the story through their other monthly titles (Captain Marvel, Guardians 3, etc..)

Isn't that kind of what they do though?

[Pak-Man]

So far they've been more like a bridge. I'm envisioning something like, "While all that was going on, here's what Thor was up to!"

[Edward J Grug III]

So a TV show?

[LucasM]

I think what Pak is saying is more like the company-wide crossover 'events', where the 'main event' takes place in its own series, but for the bigger story on what individual characters do, one gets referred to their solo series.  Problem with that here, is that there's only two films between the two Avengers/Thanos films, and they are over six months apart, with one taking place to a large degree in the 1990s, so not much to work with.

Though they stopped calling them "Infinity War Parts 1 & 2", they are still Avengers & everyone else/Thanos films.  So I don't expect the entire (comic-equivalent Infinity Gauntlet) plot to be wrapped up in 'A:IW'.  But they said the two films were very different in tone, so what I suspect is that they will have varying degrees of Thanos and Thanos-introspection in them.  (i.e. one may be a more 'personal' Thanos drama, the other a more 'public' Thanos drama.)

[Darth Geek]

I still wish we knew more about Thanos going into Infinity War. We don't even know about his relationship with Hela (assuming they do that part of the storyline, which I hope they do). So that's just more stuff they have to spend time establishing in an already packed movie.

[goflyblind]

I still wish we knew more about Thanos going into Infinity War. We don't even know about his relationship with Hela...

ROAD TRIP MOVIE!

[LucasM]

Some thoughts:

on Jessica Jones season 2
spoiler is about a throw-away line that I believe relates to a future film release
One of the 'crazies' that were interviewed while trying to find new cases, said, "lizards wearing human skins are taking over the government."  This is most likely a veiled reference to the Captain Marvel film, which takes place either largely or entirely in the 1990s, and features the Skrulls - lizard-like creatures who 'take on human skins' as they morph into others.


My thoughts on Thor: Ragnarok:
While I've seen this four times now, I've only seen the 3D/IMAX-footage version once (last night).  Honestly, it is a better film with the IMAX footage (3D or not).  I haven't found the film terribly endearing - it might be the best Thor film, but not by much.  Some of the ad-libbed dialog sounds ad-libbed - which means: it sounds sloppy, like someone is making up stuff they think someone else would say then saying it... which is NOT smooth as most genuine conversation tends to be.  A fair amount of what I assume was supposed to be intended as amusing, wasn't (of course, I had to turn off 'What We Do In the Shadows' by about 10 minutes in - basically I gave up when the credits started rolling, because I found that film so irritating).  The Hulk acting like a pouting 3-year-old was massively annoying, bordering on angering, not funny.

And, finally, Zep's 'Immigrant Song' was a PERFECT choice for a Thor fight, though it feels intensely out of place since there is no other major popular music featured prominently in any other Thor film, or in the rest of this one.  However, the fact that 'Immigrant Song' was used TWICE massively decreased the effect and power of the tune in EITHER instance.  But in particular for the bridge scene it felt like, "yeah... dude... we couldn't think of anything else we could play... so here's Zep again: WOOOOO!!!"  The tune should have just been saved and used only for the bridge fight, and not used in the first, short, post-'comedic' Surtur confrontation... after all, it is about Vikings immigrating, which is what the Asgardians were about to do, if they survived the bridge fight.

Just curious if anyone else thinks the Asgardian actor playing Loki in the play was an uncredited Matt Damon?  That is an oddly left-out-of-end-credits attribution (the actors playing the actors playing Thor, Sif, and Odin are listed in the end credits, but not the one playing Loki).  Since the person was a bit heavier than what Matt normally looks like, it actually looked like it could have been a brother of Damon (since they used Hemsworth's brother for Thor 'lesser-known brothers of actors' didn't seem out of the question), but I looked for pics of Kyle, and it definitely wasn't Kyle.

[Edward J Grug III]

Matt Damon plays Loki, Sam Neill plays Odin, and Thor is portrayed by Westworld actor and Chris Hemsworth's real-life older brother, Luke Hemsworth.

https://uproxx.com/hitfix/who-was-in-loki-play-thor-ragnarok-cameos/

[LucasM]

MASSIVE spoilers for The Defenders (and other Marvel/Netflix shows).  If you've not seen through The Defenders, you may want to skip this post.

OK... I'm just going to say this.  It has bothered me since The Defenders, and yet I've seen no-one bring this up.

The entire premise for the Marvel/Netflix series - with what The Hand did with the bones - is ASSININE!

Dragon bones are the core ingredient for the process keeping them alive for, potentially, forever.  They have a VERY limited resource, and are running out of it.

So they're grinding it up and selling it like heroin to people on the street for a few bucks?  Seriously?

That is the stupidest fucking premise I have heard of.  I actually, until near the very end of The Defenders, thought, "seriously, they're going to tell what was REALLY going on, and what the 'something else' was that was being sold as a drug, and it'll be something entirely different, right?!?!" because I simply could not believe that that insane a plot was approved at ANY level of production for those series.

They are running out of what is keeping them alive and they are selling it to average people for a few bucks to use like a drug?

That is idiocy.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Where was it said that they were selling "the substance" on the street?  I've watched The Defenders a couple times and do not remember that.  I only watched Iron Fist once, but I thought the drugs being sold by The Hand were regular drugs.

[LucasM]

It's been a while since watching it, but I remembered this.  I had to look through a few articles to find this again.  Spoiler-avoider I am, I read this after seeing the series, and it confirmed what I tried to convince myself I hadn't seen, because the idea was so stupid.

Interior quote is from an interview with show-runner Marco Ramirez.

'The Defenders' Showrunner Explains Connections Between 'Iron Fist' Mythology and New York

Q:    That dragon skeleton — that wasn't Shou-Lao the Undying's, is it? It's just a pile of bones implying that there had been dragons all over the world and one wound up buried under New York?

A:    Yeah, it's the second one. The idea of that was that there had always been this kind of mystery that the Hand can bring people back from the dead, but we never knew exactly how, and it made sense to connect the life-force idea of the chi in the Iron Fist to the idea of the life force [the Hand members] use for various purposes, so we're just saying it's dragon bone that they use, that that's the substance. That felt like the cleanest way to tie everything in.

       And it's been set up since Daredevil season 1; Gao operates in the background of New York with drugs made from that ground into powder. It felt like we could make back alley drug deals in New York and dragon mythology all part of the same story, so that was my way of trying to tie them all in.

It seems like a waste to put some of the limited supply of an ancient substance which provides immortality into street drugs, but evidently tying things together was more important than things making sense.

So, yeah: idiocy.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I don't remember it being mentioned in Daredevil either but I've only watched that once and it was a while ago.  I still haven't gotten around to season 2, and I'm waiting until I have nothing to do for a while before starting the new season of Jessica Jones, if I get snowed in tomorrow that might be an opportunity.

In The Defenders they only talk about the substance when they argue about how Alexandria used the last of it to create the Black Sky.  If Gao could no longer make her drugs you would think that would have come up.