The MCU is about to expand again—this time with a slate of new shows for Disney+, including Armor Wars, Ironheart, and Secret Invasion.
Last year, Disney formally brought its Marvel Television division under the wing of Marvel Studios ahead of the launch of its streaming service, Disney+. Where the franchise’s films and TV shows were ostensibly in the same universe, they were often very far apart. Bringing the two groups together allowed for Marvel to fully bring the MCU over into television, and announce a full slate of projects that would soon begin streaming.
Those initial projects included The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, Hawkeye, and What If…?, which were soon joined by Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk. That slate of shows will likely begin streaming in 2021 and into 2022. And now the next set of projects have been announced during Disney’s Investor Day presentation.
Samuel L. Jackson is back as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn from Captain Marvel returns as the Skrull Talos in Marvel Studios' Original Series Secret Invasion. Coming to #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/AuInHMuBRW
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) December 11, 2020
Earlier this fall, word broke that Marvel was developing a series about Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and according to Disney, it’ll be called Secret Invasion, and will also star Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, picking up on the Skrull storyline that we saw in Captain Marvel.
That arc was originally played out in a 2008 crossover comic series, which followed various superheroes as they dealt with a Skrull invasion of Earth. Captain Marvel complicated that story a bit by turning the Skrulls into sympathetic characters, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do with that.
Coming soon to #DisneyPlus, Dominique Thorne is genius inventor Riri Williams in Ironheart, an Original Series about the creator of the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man. pic.twitter.com/VB94VyPr9e
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) December 11, 2020
Ironheart will feature Dominique Thorne (If Beale Street Could Talk, Judas and the Black Messiah), who’ll play Riri Williams, an inventor who builds her own set of Iron Man armor. Her first appearance in the comics came during 2016 in Invincible Iron Man, in which she took over for Tony Stark. Given that Stark died in Avengers: Endgame, there’s plenty of room for her to pick up his mantle in the MCU.
Finally, Marvel announced that Don Cheadle will reprise his role as James Rhodes / War Machine in Armor Wars. That storyline also has its roots in the comics as a short arc from the 1980s, which was teased as “A classic Marvel story about Tony Stark’s worst fear coming true: what happens when his tech falls into the wrong hands?” That’s certainly something we’ve seen before in the MCU (Iron Man 2, anyone?) and could probably lead to some sort of crossover with Ironheart.
This new trio of shows are notable for another reason: they’re each fronted by a Black actor, which will help address a long-standing complaint about the relative lack of diversity within the MCU—something that Feige has said would be addressed in future phases of the franchise.
In addition to the new shows, Marvel Studios provided some updates about its previously announced projects:
- Ms. Marvel got a sizzler reel that introduced the character, and will debut in “late 2021” on Disney+
- Hawkeye is currently in production and will see Jeremy Renner reprise his character, along with Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop. The series will also include Vera Farmiga, Fra Free, and Alqua Cox, with directors Rhys Thomas (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Bert and Bertie (Troop Zero) helming various episodes.
- After denying her casting, Tatiana Maslany will indeed play Jennifer Walters in She-Hulk. Tim Roth (Abomination from the first Hulk movie) and Mark Ruffalo will appear in the show, while Kat Coiro (Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Anu Valia (Lucia Before and After) will direct.
- Moon Knight, which Oscar Isaac is rumored to be leading, is … still a thing.
Other Disney+ projects include a Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (set to debut in 2022), and I Am Groot, a series of shorts.
With the Skrull focus and the apparent road towards either the Young Avengers or the Champions in the other shows and films (Kate Bishop, Cassie Lang, etc.), I wonder if Hulkling will debut here.
From what I hear there are TONS of casting problems in Ms. Marvel, so it’s hard to get excited about it.
There is a Christian girl playing a Hijabi, and Trump supporter as Kamala’s best friend, and one of the men cast in a show about teenage girls has sexual assault allegations against him. I hope Disney fixes this.
The end of Far From Home hinted at Secret Invasion a bit as well.
And America Chavez is debuting in Dr Strange 2, so yeah, New Avengers here we come! Especially since I can see Loki’s series ending with him being reverted to Kid Loki
@2,
Especially since I can see Loki’s series ending with him being reverted to Kid Loki.
Yeah, I’m expecting that outcome, too — if for no other reason than it’d be a way to finally introduce Thori the Hel-Hound into the MCU.
Granted, I do wish the MCU would be done with Loki at this point, but having Kid Loki would be an interesting route — especially if Loki again brings together a new generation of Avengers.
This is all good news! Especially looking forward to more Nick Fury.
There hasn’t been mention of this here in the other posts, but this bit of news interested me the most:
Christian Bale will play Gorr, the God Butcher in Thor 4. That reveals a lot about the storyline: how Thor becomes unworthy and Jane replaces him. Hopefully they justify the unworthy bit a lot better than the comics did, not just “because Gorr said so.” And maybe we’ll see a young Viking Thor and a King Thor, plus granddaughters.
thor-love-and-thunder-villain-revealed
Bale’s casting builds another link in the DC Batman>Marvel villain pipeline. I wonder what’s in store for Clooney, Kilmer and Affleck.
@5,
Yeah, given the influence of Jason Aaron’s Thor run on the film, I was expecting Bale would play Dario Agger or perhaps even Ulik the Troll.
I certainly wasn’t expecting it would be Gorr, but Bale’s a fantastic casting choice for the God Butcher.
If the MU version stays true to the Comics version, then I can also guess the story’s catalyst: Thor being in space with the Guardians (as per Endgame‘s ending), hearing stories of other pantheons being slaughtered, and going to investigate.
I’m a little overwhelmed by the amount of Marvel shows (I can’t keep up, especially not with other things I’m trying to keep up with. To say nothing of books, lol) BUT…I love Ben Mendelsohn and I do love the idea of the Nick Fury/Talos team up :)