6 Potential Mega-Franchises Just Waiting To Make Billions
The buzz in Hollywood these days is that every studio wants their own mega-franchise. After Disney and Marvel scored billions with their Avengers mega-franchise, we have Warner Bros. and DC trying to build one out of Superman and the Justice League, SONY trying to build one out of Spider-Man, and there are rumors that Universal is going to crossover all their classic monsters (starting with Dracula Untold), and that SONY wants to make one out of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. If you’re a screenwriter in Hollywood these days, plan for a mega-franchise.
I’m not a screenwriter in Hollywood these days, but I can still have fun planning a mega-franchise!
See what you have wrought!
The question, which movie franchises can become mega-franchises? Everybody with their hands on a superhero is already pushing for one. Star Wars is going to be a mindless series of sequels and spin-offs from now until the end of time. And I bet they’ll find a way to turn James Bond and Star Trek into some kind of mega-franchises before too long. Rebooted original crew teams up with rebooted Next Generation crew? Done! I’ll take my giant check now, Paramount!
In fact, all major Hollywood studios should get out their check books because I’m about to blow their minds with 6 potential mega-franchises just waiting to earn them billions!
Marvel is Going to Kick Things Up a Notch with a Cinematic Civil War!
Who can say if this is what will actually come to pass, but Variety is reporting that Robert Downey Jr. has signed on for a significant guest starring role in Captain America 3 in order to kick off the infamous Civil War storyline that pits superhero against superhero! The third Cap film will be titled Captain America: Civil War and will have long-reaching ramifications for future Avengers sequels and the Marvel Movieverse as a whole!
And they look like such bros in Age of Ultron!
Sounds good to me!
For those who don’t know, Civil War is a rather infamous story from the mid-00s that pitted hero against hero. The government imposed a Superhero Registration Act that sought to put an end to vigilantes by making superheroes register their secret identities with the government, turning all superheroes into government agents.
Tony Stark supports the law, Steve Rogers opposes it, leading to a civil war between two of Marvel’s biggest heroes (and probably the two biggest in the Movieverse).
This sounds like an excellent storyline for the movies considering how juicy the banter and potential rivalry could be between Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. They were already not seeing eye-to-eye in The Avengers. And considering Stark’s role in creating Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron, I bet he’d definitely be looking to make up for his mistakes by supporting such a law in the Movieverse.
So many mistakes
This would also be the perfect opportunity to debut Spider-Man into the Marvel movies. Marvel and Sony are reportedly in talks about sharing Spidey, if reports can be believed. I doubt Marvel would launch their own Spider-Man franchise, so why not make him a minor star in a Civil War-based Avengers sequel? Spidey was the face of Civil War in the comics. He was convinced by Tony Stark to reveal his secret identity to the world, only for his family to get hurt, so Spidey switched sides and joined Cap’s rebellion.
A Civil War movie would be the perfect place to debut Spidey. And personally, I think the Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man movies line-up perfectly with the style and tone of the Marvel movies.
Make it happen!
So I am definitely in favor of Civil War hitting the movies. It has the potential to be huge!
One thing that bugs me about Variety’s report, though, is Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter. According to the article, Perlmutter was so angry that Downey wanted a larger role in Cap 3 (including a larger paycheck) that he ordered the part cut out entirely, only for Marvel Studios Head Honcho Kevin Feige to prevail. Perlmutter is reportedly the same guy who is so angry at FOX Studios that he cancelled the Fantastic Four comic.
I realize that we all know to hate CEOs on principle alone, but did the CEO of Marvel Comics really have to be such a douchenozzle? Couldn’t Marvel, of all companies, have an awesome CEO?
Anyway, what do you henchies think about these Civil War plans for the Movieverse? I think it’s only going to help make bigger, more exciting films. Plus it would work nicely with the various actors’ contracts coming to an end. It would shake up the Avengers franchise as a whole and really provide some new and interesting stories.
And while we’re on the topic, Marvel put out a new teaser for Civil War comics coming in 2015.
You’re going to break him!
No one seems to have any idea what this teaser means. Cap, Spidey and Iron Man are all wearing their costumes from the original Civil War, but what does that mean? Is Marvel doing a new Civil War? Or are they just putting out some kind of collected edition of the original series?
One thing is for sure: there’s no way it’s a coincidence that Marvel would post that image and Variety would break their story on the same day. How much you want to bet Marvel heard about Variety’s story in advance and rushed something out themselves about Civil War?
Whatever the case may be, all of this sounds like good news for upcoming Marvel movies!
What do you henchies think? Do you think Civil War is a terrible idea for movies? A great idea? What about Robert Downey Jr. guest-starring in more flicks? Sound off in the comments!
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Gravity Falls: The Anime!
Anybody else watching the excellent Gravity Falls? It’s a delightful cartoon in its own right, but the writers have also packed it with so much mythology that there are whole websites dedicated to unraveling the mysteries. I like that in a show. I loved it in Lost, and Gravity Falls definitely has a good head on its shoulders. This is a video made by Mike Inel, taking a scene from a recent Season 3 episode and redoing it as an anime. I think the animation looks pretty slick!
A Bunch More New Comics!
Marvel revealed several new comics at New York Comic-Con this past weekend, and while Ant-Man was my clear favorite, I figured why not talk about the others? These blog posts are free, after all!
The Spider-Man books are going to get a lot more crowded in the new year. Following Spider-Verse, 2014’s big Spidey event, we’re going to get new ongoing series for both Silk and Spider-Gwen!
Everybody else is loving all the female-led books, right?
Silk is Cindy Moon, a new character from Amazing Spider-Man who has the double distinction of being bitten by the same radioactive spider that gave Peter his powers, and having possibly my least favorite superhero name of all time. Silk?! Really? I realize that both ‘Spider-Woman’ and ‘Spider-Girl’ are taken, but Silk? There were no other spider-related words you could come up with?
Anyway, I like Silk well enough in Amazing Spider-Man, so maybe her own comic will be fun. It’ll be written by Robbie Thompson and drawn by Stacey Lee. And at least she’s got a new costume!
Spider-Gwen (which probably won’t be is official name) will be written by Jason Latour with art by Robbi Rodriguez, and it will follow the adventures of the alternate reality Gwen Stacy with spider-powers. I liked her in her brief one-shot appearance on the Edge of Spider-Verse, so maybe she’ll be a lot of fun in an ongoing series. She’s definitely a darling already with the cosplay circuit, that’s for sure.
Of course, her costume is just plain awesome.
Outside the Spider-world, there’s also going to be Gamora, penned by Guardians of the Galaxy screenwriter Nicole Perlman. If you’re going to do a comic about the Guardians of the Galaxy, she’s probably the best choice for writer.
She likes knives
Not much else is known about this Gamora series at this time. I’ll give it a shot, but considering how much I hate the other comic versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy, I doubt I’ll stick around for long. I don’t know what my problem is, but I can’t stand comic book Rocket Raccoon!
What else…what else…oh yes! Operation S.I.N. is going to be a 1950s period piece that sees Peggy Carter and Howard Stark having fun spy adventures. This 5-issue series will be brought to us by Kathryn Immonen and Rich Ellis.
The very definition of synergy!
It’s also going to feature the ‘Man on the Wall’ guy that preceded Nick Fury from Original Sin. Considering how much I hate that whole concept, I doubt I’ll brother with this series – though Immonen is pretty amazing. Still, I have zero interest in anything here. Watching Peggy Carter’s TV show will be more than enough for me.
There’s going to be a Wolverines weekly series, which seems to be about X-23 and Sabretooth fighting over who gets to be the new Wolverine.
Does anybody else love AoA Sabretooth?
That could be fun.
And the big reveal was a new Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic! It’s going to be a year-long event that takes over from Hickman’s ongoing Avengers and New Avengers, currently undergoing their big ‘Time Runs Out’ storyline. Based on the preview picture, it looks like some kind of epic battle between alternate reality superheroes?
Everybody loves callbacks
That would make sense. Considering Hickman’s is currently telling an epic story about the death of the Multiverse, why not pit a bunch of Multiversal heroes against one another? Sounds like a solid comic book premise to me!
Though isn’t that exactly what Multiversity is doing?
Anyway! Those are the new comics from Marvel for the upcoming year. What do you henchies think about them? I’ll probably buy a few issues of each to see what they’re like.
I don’t remember if DC announced anything new at Comic-Con. Their loss!
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For Some Reason, Animated Guardians of the Galaxy Rubs Me The Wrong Way
I don’t know what my problem is! I absolutely loved the Guardians of the Galaxy! It was an amazing film! I loved it and can’t wait to buy it on DVD (which says a lot!). But there’s just something about how the characters are written or portrayed in other media that I can’t stand – and that includes comics! I think part of it is that Star-Lord’s red coat outfit just doesn’t translate well out of live action. He looks dumb. And the writing is just…I don’t know. All I know is that this snippet of an animated Guardians of the Galaxy rubs me the wrong way.
If you like it, by all means, like it! Don’t let me bring you down. I think I’m just unintentionally being some kind of curmudgeon.
Henchman-4-Hire 