MarvelBlog News for March 17th, 2024

This week: Marvel fires somebody else, and Venom gets its subtitle.

You’ll want to read the latest edition of MarvelBlog News.

Marvel Fires a Director before His Show Airs

Just when we thought the behind-the-scenes turmoil at Marvel had ended, the studio dropped another bombshell.

Here’s the headline straight from Variety’s front page:

“Marvel shocker: ‘X-Men ‘97’ creator Beau DeMayo fired weeks before premiere.”

In reading that, I fear that all your excitement regarding this long-anticipated project may have just evaporated.

Should you feel that way? Honestly, I don’t know. But it’s a concern.

Here’s what we know. X-Men ’97 premieres on Disney+ on March 20^th. Yes, that’s this week.

The expectation was that Marvel had a surefire winner here because how could they mess up such an established formula?

Alas, that may not be the case. And I’ll emphasize MAY for the time being, as we don’t really know.

As is often the case with Marvel talent, DeMayo was simultaneously working on a different project.

You can probably guess that it’s one that’s experienced tumult, which narrows down the list considerably.

Specifically, DeMayo had written a take on the Blade film, and let’s just say it wasn’t well-received.

Then again, that’s been true of every attempt thus far, but none of the other scribes got fired via a very public Variety headline.

Since this situation is different, speculation has naturally ensued about whether DeMayo did something.

The content creator has a well-established presence as a gay black man who likes to post gym pictures of himself.

Last week, his social media channels went dark, which triggered instant speculation about whether something had happened.

Did Something Happen with DeMayo?

Nobody has commented in enough detail for us to have a clear picture of what went wrong here.

Thus far, there’s no indication that this is a Jonathan Majors-esque situation.

However, Marvel’s behavior here suggests that DeMayo isn’t welcome in the building right now.

Marvel cut off his email access immediately, with cast and crew learning of the situation in an odd way.

Studio executives indicated that the other people working on X-Men ‘97 shouldn’t communicate with DeMayo, as he was no longer involved with the project.

That…was a surprise. DeMayo had, by all accounts, finished the scripts for season two of X-Men ’97 and was already working on season three.

Given the long lead time for animated shows, there’s a distinct possibility that DeMayo receives writing credits in 2025 and beyond.

This could happen despite the fact that Marvel fired him in early 2024.

For the promotional team, this turn of events is pretty much a nightmare, as the firing raises all sorts of red flags.

Even worse, none of the people marketing the series has any idea what happened anyway.

The Variety article makes the point that Marvel has historically allowed fired talent walk the red carpet anyway.

So, the fact that DeMayo doesn’t get to do that is…something. It has definitely raised some eyebrows.

We may not learn the expectation for some time, but it’s certainly a hint that X-Men ‘97’s editing process has proven a bit contentious.

Also, Blade may just be cursed as a film project, and I’m not just saying that because the franchise once woefully miscast pro wrestler HHH in a sequel.

Venom: The Last Dance

Something I like about Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is how cleanly it divides.

We have the Spider-Man movies, which are universally excellent AND box office hits.

Then, we have the Venom films, which are good enough to earn lots of money and generally please fans.

Finally, we have everything else, and it’s this bucket that unintentionally creates the Morbin’ time memes.

Even at the Academy Awards, people were openly mocking Madame Web’s dialogue. It’s that unforgettably awful.

We’re not getting a Spider-Man movie for a while, which leaves Sony stuck between the lower two categories.

The more significant one, at least from a business perspective, is the upcoming Venom sequel.

Now, the third film in the franchise has received its subtitle, and it’s…weird. Honestly, it feels more like a Deadpool subtitle.

As indicated in the header, this film will be known as Venom: The Last Dance. And no, that doesn’t mean that Michael Jordan is involved.

Sony also moved up Venom 3’s release date from November 8^th to October 25^th.

That’s a bit of an unusual move in that studios have staked out early November as one of the most popular times to release a film.

Meanwhile, studios typically reserve the week before Halloween for horror fare.

I don’t think Sony will market Venom: The Last Dance with horror elements since the franchise is basically an action comedy.

Then again, until we see a trailer, I cannot speak to the film’s story.

To its credit, Sony has definitely nailed the casting, though, as Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor will join Tom Hardy.

Of course, Sony also hired Sydney Sweeney for Madame Web right before she became super-famous, and we see how well that worked out.

Marvel Miscellany

Speaking of X-Men ’97, there’s a new featurette to watch.

I’d hoped that reviews might drop before this article went live, but we had no such luck.

There’s also this remarkable interview with Michael Keaton regarding Morbius.

Yes, that’s someone who appeared in Morbius stated that neither he nor the producers understood why his character was there.

Ladies and gentlemen, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe aptly summarized!

I’ve got one final note for you, and it’s strange. However, I happen to love it.

The Agatha series started as Agatha: House of Harkness before switching to Coven of Chaos.

Later, Marvel chose Agatha: Darkhold Diaries before realizing that it’s objectively terrible.

So, now we’re back to square one again with the title. So, Marvel has taken the easy route.

From now on, we’ll know this Disney+ simply as Agatha.

Yes, as many internet observers have noted, the perfect title was Agatha all along.

 

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