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Movies & TV

08th Aug 2022

Two long-thought-dead Marvel projects appear to be in the works

Rory Cashin

Both projects were “accidentally” leaked by actors set to appear in them.

Disney and Marvel usually know exactly what they’re doing with all of their projects, but sometimes there are some complications that get in the way.

Complications such as Disney not owning the exclusive rights to particular characters, which is how Daredevil and Jessica Jones and the likes were able to appear on Netflix.

Or complications such as, well, the final product not being very good, which is why we recently celebrated the five-year anniversary of the only movie Marvel announced but never actually made.

Both of those reasonings actually tie into two Marvel projects which most of the public probably fairly perceived to be long dead.

Over the weekend, at the Chicago Comic-Con, Rosario Dawson got chatting about her Marvel career, and said the following:

This was the first time that any mention of a Punisher revival has been talked about, so fans have obviously been left very excited by this news, especially since Berenthal was pretty spectacular in the role.

But it also stands to reason that Disney and Marvel would proceed down this route, especially since they brought back Charlie Cox as Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and he’ll be back again for new Disney+ show She Hulk: Attorney At Law.

Additionally, fans noticed recently that when Jessica Jones was added to the Disney+ library, it underwent a very slight name change, from Jessica Jones to AKA Jessica Jones, which some figured was a hint that Krysten Ritter was also about to return to the role in some form or another.

And that wasn’t the only actor-letting-slip-information-not-made-public-yet, as Patton Oswalt can attest to…

@todayshow Pip the Troll, aka Patton Oswalt was here to talk about #TheEternals and filming with #HarryStyles. #todayshow #3rdhourtoday ♬ original sound – TODAY Show


Yep, Oswalt appears in the post-credits sequence of the first Eternals movie as Pip, the adventuring companion of Starfox (played by Harry Styles), who happens to be Thanos’ brother.

However, the first Eternals movie is the worst-reviewed movie within the MCU to date (47% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the second-lowest being Thor: Love and Thunder with 65%), and it also had the lowest box office of any Marvel movie since the first Captain Avenger movie in 2011.

Considering the poor reaction, and the fact that the rest of the MCU in general seems to be pretend that it never happened – even though there’s now a huge rock creature sticking out of the planet – it was pretty much assumed that there would be no sequel.

So the fact that there is a sequel in the works, with the original director Chloe Zhao coming back to make it, is a bit surprising.

But it would also go some way to explaining some of the unnamed projects that Marvel already have lined-up on their scheduled for 2024 and 2025.