The box office may have taken an astonishing $30 billion hit during 2020, but the industry is slowly working its way to a sustained recovery, although Coronavirus cases continuing to accelerate and increase around the world is not a particularly encouraging sign. Every major production now has to implement rigorous health and safety protocols just to be able to call action, but Euphoria creator Sam Levinson managed to shoot an entire movie when restrictions were at their tightest.
Sylvester Stallone appears to have caught the superhero bug in a big way since joining the cast of James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as Stakar Ogord, and the post-credits scene of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's cosmic adventure has set him up for a return in Vol. 3. He's also reuniting with the filmmaker for The Suicide Squad, having joined the ensemble very late in the day, although his role remains under wraps.
The trolls who tried their hardest to downvote Captain Marvel into oblivion months before the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster was released aren't going to be happy when they discover that there's even more female talent on board for the sequel. Rising star Nia DaCosta will direct, and tackling a mega budget superhero movie marks a drastic step up for the 31 year-old filmmaker, who was behind the camera for the recent Candyman reboot which audiences won't be able to see until August now after it was delayed several times.
Marvel Studios have come in for a fair share and often justified amount of criticism over the years that the vast majority of their movies tend to tell the same basic story over and over again, but use new characters and settings to try and disguise themselves as something else entirely. Meanwhile, the second entry in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters is set to be released in March, but on paper at least, Morbius sounds awfully similar to Venom.
Mahershala Ali might have two Academy Award wins for Best Supporting Actor under his belt, but he's got a lot of work to do when it comes to dislodging Wesley Snipes as the first name that comes to mind when you think of Blade. No offense to Sticky Fingaz, of course, but the short-lived 2006 TV series was hardly the subject of widespread acclaim before it was canceled after one season.
In sweeping terms, Karen Gillan's Nebula operates in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Guardians of the Galaxy movies in a similar role to the one occupied by Tom Hiddleston's Loki in the Thor series. Engaged in a lifelong sibling rivalry with sister Gamora and desperate to prove herself worthy of her father's love, she's been just as likely to try and kill Zoe Saldana's character as she has been to save her.
If you can believe it, Henry Cavill was cast as Superman ten years ago this month, but it would be an understatement to say that the DCEU's Big Blue Boy Scout has been used fairly sporadically. Man of Steel may have launched the entire shared universe and raked in $668 million at the box office in the summer of 2013, but Warner Bros. have shown very little interest in giving the iconic character another solo movie.