Will Smith Has Seen Aladdin’s Final Cut, And He’s Hyped

Will Smith Has Seen Aladdin’s Final Cut, And He’s Hyped

Disney fans rejoice! The studio’s live-action season soon awaits as Dumbo, Aladdin and The Lion King get ready to hit theaters in the coming spring and summer months. It’s a lot of nostalgia to process at once, and each movie has some beautifully animated shoes to fill ­– metaphorically anyway: elephants, genies or lions don’t need footwear.

Of all the highly-anticipated performances, Will Smith’s Genie might be the one we are most anxiously bracing ourselves for, following Robin Williams’ iconic, hilarious and touching animated performance as the entity of the lamp. The actor recently took to his Instagram to announce he’s seen the upcoming movie and he’s blazing with joy. Check out his reaction below:

Are we ready to get on the hype train with Will Smith? The Aladdin star is calling it straight “FIRE” (emojis and all) and he doesn’t seem to mean that in a “hot garbage fire” kind of way.

A past Aladdin teaser revealing the first look of Will Smith’s blue genie caused some concern in fans of the movie’s CGI. The first image of the character went completely viral and was criticized for being "terrifying." However, the recent first full trailer eased some of this apprehension, as the wish-granting character’s CGI looks more complete.

The new trailer also offered a closer glance at the movie’s music numbers and recreations of famous scenes, such as Aladdin’s first meeting with the Genie, his makeover into a prince and one romantic magic carpet ride. The latest preview certainly looks promising and has many fans getting the memorable songs back in their heads and ready to see Disney’s new take on the popular animated film from the studio’s renaissance.

We should note the reaction from Will Smith is, of course, a bit of self-advertising on his part, and the actor certainly wants people to get excited and go out to see the movie. If Smith went on social media and said he hated the movie, that would certainly hurt the film’s chances at gaining positive buzz. However, it does help to hear the star sound excited for the release and the fact that he’s seen it means it’s that much closer to hitting big screens.

Following the in the footsteps of 1992 film, Aladdin follows a street urchin (Mena Massoud), who comes across a magic lamp, thanks to shady deal with Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) and finds a genie inside who helps disguise himself as a prince in order to woo the beautiful Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) as a vile power play unfolds between Jafar and the Sultan of Agrabah (Navid Negahban).

The film also stars Alan Tudyk as Iago the parrot and SNL’s Nasim Pedrad as a new character named Dalia, and it will include two new songs. Aladdin flies into theaters on May 24.

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Why Avengers: Endgame Can’t Really Be Affected By The Captain Marvel Movie

Why Avengers: Endgame Can’t Really Be Affected By The Captain Marvel Movie

The way that Marvel Studios maps out its releases, there are very few coincidences, but more than a few happy accidents. For example, Spider-Man (Tom Holland) was only inserted into Captain America: Civil War after it was known that Sony would share the rights to the character, which also led to Spider-Man: Homecoming.

But contrary to popular belief, the current MCU blockbuster, Captain Marvel, can’t really have as big of an impact on this month’s Avengers: Endgame, for a very specific reason: Namely, Joe and Anthony Russo planned out and actually shot the bulk of Endgame long before Marvel even told them that there was going to BE a Captain Marvel movie.

The Russos basically filmed Endgame and Infinity War back to back, and so when we recently spoke with Anthony and asked him if the response to Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel was encouraging, he honestly explained:

Part of the thing that I've always loved about Marvel, my brother and I have really appreciated it, is that Marvel has had this whole attitude of ‘One movie at a time.’ They want every movie to be everything it can be when it’s time for that movie to be made. And then once it's made, you carry the story forward from there. And it's been really effective. Obviously by now, because Marvel is making more movies per year, and because we made these two movies back to back, we couldn't really use that process at this point.

So the truth is we made these movies long before we could appreciate anything about [Captain Marvel]. Certainly not even how the audiences would react to Captain Marvel in her own standalone film. We had to make these movie before the idea of that film even exists. So our approach to the storytelling in regards to that character was just coming very specifically from the needs of this story.

People might not realize that Joe and Anthony Russo filmed a lot of Avengers: Infinity War and the continuation, which would become Avengers: Endgame, at the same time. In fact, when CinemaBlend traveled to the set of the movies in Atlanta years ago, we learned about scenes that we never saw in Infinity War, and many people on set for those days were never 100% sure what movie they were filming at any given time.

So from the sound of it, the Russos always knew that they were going to have Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) in Endgame, but didn’t know at all how her movie would set her up, or be received, when they filmed her parts years ago. I brought up to Anthony Russo that this sounds similar to them using Wakanda as a key location in Infinity War, long before audiences saw the movie Black Panther. But he clarified:

Back then, it was easier because we launched that character in Civil War. We had already begun, with our partners Markus and McFeely on the writing side, sort of creating and tracking that narrative forward. Certainly, what the Black Panther film with Ryan Coogler brought to that was a great surprise to us, and a thrill for us. But that was a little easier in the sense that we already had deep roots in that character on a narrative level.

Thankfully, for Marvel Studios, most audiences are gravitating toward Carol Danvers, and are digging Captain Marvel. Her movie has grossed nearly $1 billion at the global box office, and audiences are ready to see her fighting alongside the Avengers as they get vengeance on Thanos (Josh Brolin). But the current movie had no effect on the planning on Endgame, and now you know the reason why.

Avengers: Endgame will be in theaters on April 26, and as of today, you can buy your tickets, so go get them, now!

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The Russo Brothers Suggest Watching Two MCU Movies Before Avengers: Endgame

The Russo Brothers Suggest Watching Two MCU Movies Before Avengers: Endgame

We are T-minus 22 days until Avengers: Endgame hits theaters, and that gives fans just enough time to rewatch the 21 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date before The Infinity Saga comes to a close. You could do one movie a day, binge them, or you could take part in AMC’s epic 59-hour marathon. But if you don’t have time for that or you’re already committed to rewatching Game of Thrones (seriously, how awesome is April?) the Russo Brothers have suggested two MCU movies you should check out before Endgame. According to Anthony Russo:

It's a great question, and I will say we do work hard to make sure that the story works in a way that even people who haven't seen any thing [can still enjoy the movie] because we feel like that's very important. I think you see this movie after movie, the audience keeps growing for these films. So what that tells us is that people are seeing these movies who haven't seen the previous ones. So it's important that we are speaking to an audience that is perhaps seeing these stories for the first time. That being said, there's certainly an interconnected story being told. I would say, certainly, Civil War and Infinity War are probably the two biggest lead-ins to this movie in the sense that Civil War created the situation where the Avengers were divided.

Speaking to Fandango, Anthony Russo explains that he, his brother and Marvel endeavor to make sure that the MCU movies are accessible and can bring in new fans and they have been successful in that. The hope is that you could theoretically come in to watch Avengers: Endgame cold, why you would do that is a mystery but the idea is that you could.

Nevertheless, this is obviously a story many films in the making and if you wanted to only hit the bullet points to enter this world or refresh your memory before Endgame, you should watch Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. These picks make the most sense, as they are the last two MCU films the Russo Brothers directed. And that makes them natural primers for Avengers: Endgame.

That you should rewatch Avengers: Infinity War is obvious. These two films were originally conceived of as two parts of a giant film and Infinity War set up the cliffhanger that will need to be resolved in Endgame. You need to know or refresh your memory on Thanos, the Infinity Stones, how they Avengers fought and how and who they lost.

Anthony Russo also says that you should watch Captain America: Civil War because that was the movie that divided the Avengers. That was the first film out of the gate in Phase 3, and it set up the fractured nature of the heroes that continued through Avengers: Infinity War. When Bruce Banner came back to Earth in Infinity War he found out that the Avengers were no more.

The various teams in Infinity War weren’t the product of a divide and conquer strategy, they were the natural result of the heroes no longer communicating with one another and working together. Consider that they might have had more time to save Vision and destroy the Mind Stone if Cap and Co. weren’t in exile and knew about the threat sooner.

To defeat Thanos for good the Avengers must truly assemble and that means healing the deep wound suffered in Captain America: Civil War. We’ve already seen Cap and Tony reuniting in the trailers for Endgame, so that schism will clearly be addressed and if you don’t remember exactly how it happened in the first place, rewatching Civil War is a sound idea.

Tickets are now on sale for Avengers: Endgame, hopefully you’ve managed to get yours during the website-breaking frenzy that took place yesterday. Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all this year’s biggest movies.

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How A Sons Of Anarchy Hiatus Led To Charlie Hunnam Landing A Gig With Guy Ritchie

How A Sons Of Anarchy Hiatus Led To Charlie Hunnam Landing A Gig With Guy Ritchie

Charlie Hunnam has successfully transitioned from TV to the big screen following his lead gig on FX’s Sons of Anarchy, but while appearing ahead of the release of his new Guy Ritchie collaboration The Gentlemen, the actor revealed that it was only thanks to a Sons of Anarchy hiatus that he had the opportunity to work with the longtime director.

I worked with Guy on King Arthur and he absolutely did not want to hire me for that. So, I was shooting a TV show that I was doing at the time, Sons of Anarchy. He was casting this right at the time and he was taking a week of meetings right at the time that I coincidentally had my hiatus.

Speaking at an STX panel at CinemaCon 2019, Charlie Hunnam and fellow The Gentlemen star Henry Golding both revealed how their respective first meetings with longtime director Guy Ritchie went. While Golding was taking meetings for The Gentlemen just ahead of the premiere for his massive global hit Crazy Rich Asians, Hunnam previously worked with Guy Ritchie on King Arthur: Legend of The Sword.

Charlie Hunnam then revealed that although Guy Ritchie wasn’t actually interested in him for the King Arthur role, he talked his way into a 3 ½ hour meeting that ended up working out for both parties involved.

So, although he said he wasn’t really interested in meeting me, I said, ‘Fuck that, I’ll fly myself over and can we just have a cup of tea together,’ because I felt if I got into a room with him I could sort of ‘wow him’ with my insight and passion for the script.

Sons of Anarchy finished out its epic run on FX back in 2014, so Charlie Hunnam was certainly looking around for a new gig around the time that project was ending. It’s just lucky the show happened to be on hiatus the week Guy Ritchie was meeting potential actors for the role.

It took a few more years for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword to actually premiere in theaters in 2017, but even though that movie only went on to make a little over $148 million worldwide (on a reportedly $175 million budget), it led the actor and director to consider working together again, this time on the STX production The Gentlemen. (Previously this project was known as Toff Guys or Bush.)

As for Henry Golding, the whole process of both meeting and filming with Guy Ritchie ended up being very different, as that actor shot The Gentlemen simultaneously while filming a holiday movie. He said of the experience:

It was sort of waking up in this [sic] gangster role. There were some days I would do [The Gentlemen] in the morning and then report to set for a Christmas movie with Emilia Clarke, so it was a very sort of strong contrast.

That movie is about drug lords, drugs and (sometimes comedic) moments of violence and it sports an all-star cast, including Charlie Hunnam and Henry Golding, but also previous collaborator Hugh Grant, Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, Michelle Dockery and Jeremy Strong.

The Gentlemen doesn’t have a release date yet, but if you missed or weren’t fond of King Arthur, the footage looks to be a very different type of movie, yet still with Ritchie’s signature pacing and style. We’ll bring you the trailer as soon as it drops, but for now the very least you can do is throw on episode of Sons of Anarchy or throw on your own "cup of tea" to toast Jax.

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Crawl Looks Like Jaws For Alligators And It's Awesome

Crawl Looks Like Jaws For Alligators And It's Awesome

You know what I love most about the trailer for Crawl? You KNOW that the creative team behind it basically watched The Meg – and knew about Jaws – and thought, “What other water-based creature can we tap into to produce that same fun vibe?” The answer appears to be “Alligators,” as this wild thriller appears to sell in the first giddy trailer for Crawl. Check it out:

What’s not to love about Crawl? It takes place during an unprecedented storm. It fully embraces its Florida setting, evacuating residents during a Category 5 hurricane. And it traps Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper in their slowly flooding home as a pack of wild alligators hunt them.

Perfect. Where do I buy a ticket?

You need more? The creative team behind Crawl is producer Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider-Man) and director Alexandre Aja (Horns, Piranha 3D, The Hills Have Eyes). The know horror, and Aja has shown with his movies that he understands how to have fun in truly terrifying situations. Also, did you notice that there’s a scene in the trailer where the crocodile bites down on Scodelario’s hand while she’s holding a gun, so she unloads a clip of bullets into the beast’s belly?

Again, where do I buy a ticket?

To coincide with the launch of the Crawl trailer, Paramount actually dropped a funny viral meme that will remind people of the Orange Tile used to drum up anticipation for the Fyre Festival. If you were scanning Instagram this morning and saw this, you might have wondered what was going on:

Well, it’s warning people that “Help isn’t coming.” Just like the orange tile warned Fyre Festival attendees that real food and luxury accommodations weren’t coming.

What, too soon?

Let’s hope that Crawl turns out to be more successful than the Fyre Festival. And again, with the people involved, we’re at least expecting a gratuitous thrill ride that’s more The Meg than it is Sharknado. Crawl will slither into theaters during the hectic summer blockbuster season, where it will go head to head against 21 Bridges and the action comedy Stuber. All three will want to hurry up and make their money, though, because The Lion King will be breathing down their collective necks the following weekend.

Alexandre Aja directs Crawl, the people vs alligator thriller, which stars Kaya Scodelario (Pirates of the Caribbean), Barry Pepper, Morfydd Clark and Ami Metcalf. Will they be more than simple alligator feed? Find out later this summer.

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Dark Phoenix - What We Know So Far About The New X-Men Movie

Dark Phoenix - What We Know So Far About The New X-Men Movie

Looking back, the X-Men franchise was key in the development of the modern comic book movie genre, and 19 years after it started it's still serving up superhero shenanigans. While the Disney-Fox deal has certainly changed what the future could look like for the franchise, there are still a lot of possibilities for interesting-looking spin-offs, not to mention new takes on previously shown characters and events which the folks at Disney and Marvel are surely already working to figure out. Not to be forgotten yet, however, is the main series of films, and it's the next chapter that we're here to discuss today.

After a relatively quick production period, but lots of delays, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is now finally less than a week away from release nationwide. But what is it about? Who is making it? What characters can we expect to appear? We cover all of these questions and more in our What We Know So Far guide below, so read on and learn!

What Have We Seen From Dark Phoenix?

It's been a long road, but September 26, 2018 finally delivered the first trailer from the highly anticipated movie. While that first look went heavy on the stress caused to Jean by meeting with the Phoenix force, and the resulting toll that will take on her friends and the world around her, the final trailer (above) gave us a better sense of some of the other action. This includes cool scenes of that meeting and a lot of the space action that would have led to it.

What Is Dark Phoenix's Release Date?

While June 7, 2019 will finally see Dark Phoenix hit theaters, it was a long road to get there. In 2017, the Marvel Cinematic Universe achieved something never before seen in Hollywood: releasing three franchise titles in the span of one calendar year. Well, in 2018 the X-Men movies were ready to compete. January through June should have seen both Josh Boone's The New Mutants and David Leitch's Deadpool 2 unleashed on the world, with 20th Century Fox is saving X-Men: Dark Phoenix for the winter months, having set it to come out on November 2, 2018.

That changed with some shakeups to scheduling in January and March of 2018, though. First, The New Mutants was pushed from April 13, 2018, to February 22, 2019, then to August 2, 2019 and now it rests at April 3, 2020. Dark Phoenix retained its November release date through the first scheduling change, but late March saw the superhero film get pushed to February 2019.

But then, just two days after the first trailer was released in late September 2018, Fox did more shuffling and set Dark Phoenix down in June 2019. With the exception of Deadpool and Logan, which hit theaters in the first quarters of their respective years, the X­-Men movies have traditionally been spring and summer releases, which makes this new strategy fall more in line with what we generally see.

While February is no longer a stranger to comic book blockbusters in the modern era, thanks to the aforementioned Deadpool and the recent, completely massive success of Black Panther, this release makes a lot more sense for the film. Rumors on the date change have suggested that the studio believes X-Men: Dark Phoenix will simply perform better then, especially in China, which went crazy for the trailer after it came out.

What Is Dark Phoenix's Rating?

Unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, the X-Men franchise has been a bit more experimental when it comes to the ratings of their comic book movies -- and it's resulted in some incredible success. Even though audiences under 18 couldn't see them without a parent or guardian, the aforementioned Deadpool and Logan both managed to bring in tons of cash appealing to more mature audiences. Because of these wins, there are now ratings conversations to be had about many developing superhero titles, but you can bet that X-Men: Dark Phoenix won't be rocking the boat.

To date, all of the main X-Men titles -- including X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse -- have all been PG-13, and that trend will continue with X-Men: Dark Phoenix. It surely will have (mostly bloodless) violence and thrilling sequences that might be too much for young viewers, but don't expect tons of gore, nudity or profanity.

Who Is Directing Dark Phoenix?

Simon Kinberg has been an important part of the X-Men world for years. He first became involved back in 2006 when he was hired to write the script for Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand, but has really been a key player ever since X-Men: First Class. Starting with that 2011 movie he has produced all of the franchises' features, and he is also a credited co-writer on X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse. He's also done script work on Dark Phoenix, but the bigger story is the fact that he's making the film as his directorial debut.

It's not often that you see a filmmaker dipping his toe into directing with a major superhero blockbuster, but he does have a good amount of experience within the industry in the last 15 years. We can't say much for the style we expect him to bring to X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but that's just another part of what we're anticipating when we head to the theater.

What Is Dark Phoenix About?

The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most famous storylines in the history of Marvel Comics - which fully explains why this movie will actually be the second big screen attempt at adapting it. The franchise tried to put its own spin on the familiar narrative with X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, but it's widely agreed that the job was botched. Following the continuity-changing events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the movies saw an opportunity to try and tell the story again, and that's what we're getting in Simon Kinberg's X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

Set a decade after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse (following a pattern set up by the previous two movies), Dark Phoenix is set in the early 1990s, and is set in a world that has changed quite a lot. In the 1980s people everywhere knew about the existence of mutants, but now the X-Men are basically rock stars. Under the leadership of Professor X (James McAvoy), the team is known worldwide for their heroics, and celebrated for them.

All good streaks come to an end, however, and the X-Men find theirs come to a conclusion in outer space. During a cosmic mission, an accident occurs involving what they believe to be a solar flare, but this energy merges with Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) in the process. It's found it greatly enhances her powers, but the team begins to witness some serious changes in her personality, and her lack of control over her new powers.

Those familiar with the Dark Phoenix Saga from the comics -- which is an arc big enough to span two feature films -- will recognize that this doesn't exactly match up with the source material, but it certainly is a hell of a lot closer than what X-Men: The Last Stand delivered. There is still a lot that we don't know about the story take and the adaptation, but we obviously don't have long until we can learn more.

Jean Grey

Jean Grey has been an important character in the X-Men movies from the very beginning, originally played by Famke Janssen, but now she is in her second generation. While Jean was initially introduced as a teacher at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, X-Men: Apocalypse was the first film in the canon to show her as a student, brought to life by Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner.

Like many of her fellow X-Men in that film, the young telepath/telekinetic was only just starting to get a handle on her special mutation when she was doing battle with Apocalypse -- but, all the same, still demonstrated some incredible power. We can assume that her abilities and her control over said abilities will be much better at the start of X-Men: Dark Phoenix (there's a lot Professor X can teach in a decade), but even those practiced strengths will be nothing compared to what she is able to do when imbued with the Phoenix Force.

As powerful as Jean is naturally, her abilities intensely escalate when she is transformed into Phoenix, to the point where she becomes one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Opening stargates, destroying matter at the subatomic level, and generating cosmic fire are only a few of the scary skills in her arsenal, but also certainly not helpful is the way that the power tends to corrupt the user.

Charles Xavier a.k.a. Professor X

Going back to X-Men: First Class, we've watched Charles Xavier a.k.a. Professor X come a long way. He earned his doctorate at the age of 30, shortly thereafter establishing Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, and through X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse we've watched him evolve into the legendary leader we've always known that he would become.

By the time we catch up with him in Dark Phoenix, Professor X will have 30 years of leadership under his belt, but evidently he somewhat becomes a victim of his own bravado. He is very proud of the students that he has taught, and blissful with the reputation and popularity that the X-Men have received. There are obvious positive sides to this, but, unfortunately, the confidence also leads him to send his team into outer space for a mission that they aren't prepared for, leading to Jean Grey's accident.

As a leader and a teacher, Professor X has a very important responsibility when it comes to the X-Men, and one can imagine this mistake having a crucial impact on his arc in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. That said, he shouldn't have a ton of time to devote to self-reflection and self-flagellation if he's properly responding to the threat that the titular force represents.

Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops

It's no secret that the X-Men movies don't have a great track record of doing right by Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops. The character has been a fan favorite in the comics for decades, but on the big screen he was totally sidelined by a Wolverine-centric approach that painted him plainly as a romantic competitor for the heart of Jean Grey. It's partially because of this shortcoming that the franchise hit the restart button on Cyclops in X-Men: Apocalypse, and now they'll have the chance to properly explore the character in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, portrayed by Tye Sheridan.

Cyclops was only shown wearing his famous visor in the final moments of X-Men: Apocalypse, still learning how to control his optic blasts, but he should be a seasoned veteran with the equipment when we catch up with him. His specific role in the Dark Phoenix storyline still seems to be based on Scott's romantic bond with Jean Grey, with him trying to convince everyone she can be saved when she seems too far gone and dangerous to be allowed to live.

Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm

Within the post-X-Men: Days of Future Past continuity, we don't have much experience watching Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm as a hero. Portrayed by Alexandra Shipp in X-Men: Apocalypse, we got a glimpse of her upbringing in Egypt, but the titular villain was able to get to her far faster than Professor X. She was enlisted as one of the Four Horsemen, but the all-powerful blue mutant's Svengali-like hold over her was shattered when she saw her hero, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) in battle. Following her change of heart, Storm started fighting alongside the X-Men, and at the end of the movie we saw her suited up as a full-fledged member of the team.

Unfortunately, that's basically where details stop in regards to what we can expect from Storm in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Like everyone else, she will be 10 years older and wiser, and have much greater control over her abilities to control the weather, but we don't really know much more than that. Given how limited the character's time on screen has classically been -- going back to the Halle Berry era -- hopefully a nice chunk of narrative will be devoted to her.

Kurt Wagner a.k.a. Nightcrawler

We first got to see the fan-favorite teleporting mutant known as Nightcrawler up on the big screen in X2: X-Men United... but his run didn't exactly last long. Despite putting on a fantastic performance, Alan Cumming didn't return to reprise the part in X-Men: The Last Stand, and in the movie world Nightcrawler was ultimately put on ice for 13 years. That unfortunate trend ended in 2016 with Kodi Smit-McPhee playing a younger version of the character in X-Men: Apocalypse, and next we'll get to see him perform his advanced circus-like antics in Dark Phoenix.

In X-Men: Apocalypse, Nightcrawler was basically used to demonstrate that the world was accepting of his odd appearance -- but we didn't really get to learn much about him. Hopefully Simon Kinberg is able to successfully balance X-Men: Dark Phoenix as a true ensemble, and give Kurt Wagner the proper moments to shine that fans want to see, and that his legacy deserves.

Peter Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver

The last seventeen years have brought us an endless list of ridiculously awesome big screen superhero moments, but the usage of Evan Peters' Peter Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver in both X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse are certainly near the top. Bryan Singer made impressive use of modern filmmaking technology to craft sequences unlike anything we've ever seen with a speedster character, and in doing so also happened to create two of the most memorable movie music moments of the young century. He's an exciting presence in this franchise, which is why we're stoked that he will be back in X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

The full details regarding Quicksilver's development as a character have not yet been revealed, but we can probably take a few guesses regarding where he is at. Given his personality type, one can imagine that he is absolutely loving the celebrity status that the X-Men have earned, and is happy to take advantage of it every moment that he can -- which is pretty often given the way he moves.

We'll have to wait and see if he winds up reaching out to Magneto to reveal that he is his son (if that hasn't already happened in the last decade), but that situation is made tricky given the status of Magneto at the start of Dark Phoenix, which we'll get into a bit later.

Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast

Fans were initially disappointed when Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast didn't make the roster for Bryan Singer's first X-Men movie, but ever since X-Men: First Class he has been a key player. Portrayed by Nicholas Hoult, we have watched the character undergo some serious change -- some quite literally -- but he's certainly developed into the hero that Marvel readers have loved for decades.

Beast will once again be back fighting the good fight in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, serving alongside Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Quicksilver, and Mystique under the guidance of Professor X. Hank still seems to have control over his appearance, but we do get a lot of him totally blue and furry during the trailer, so we'll probably be treated to his natural state a lot of time, especially during the action scenes.

Raven Darkhölme a.k.a. Mystique

Similar to Wolverine, Raven Darkhölme a.k.a. Mystique wasn't always a core member of the X-Men character lineup in the comics, but the films have certainly treated her that way. Rebecca Romijn was very memorable in the original X-Men trilogy, but the fact that she has been played by A-lister Jennifer Lawrence since X-Men: First Class has kept her in the franchise's spotlight. At the end of X-Men: Apocalypse she was firmly established as one of the good guys, and apparently that's exactly where she starts at the beginning of Dark Phoenix as well.

Mystique has classically been an enemy of the X-Men, but now that she's a part of the titular team, we'll see her take on a leadership position because she's older and has been fighting longer than most of the other X-Men. It also looks like she'll handle Jean Grey's transformation into the Phoenix by pointing out some important truths to Charles, and by being a true leader and trying to help Jean even though she knows how dangerous she's become.

Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto

At the end of X-Men: Apocalypse Michael Fassbender's Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto aided in the reconstruction of Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, but he made the decision not to stick around. Having lost his wife and daughter, and nearly aiding in the destruction of the planet, he decided that it was best that he leave and start a life for himself elsewhere in the world. It's noteworthy that X-Men: Dark Phoenix will address the question of "Where?" and it turns out the answer is super interesting: the island of Genosha.

While Genosha has a bit of a spotty history in Marvel Comics, in Dark Phoenix it will be portrayed as a safe haven for mutants who can't find a home anywhere else in the world -- and it's where Magneto has worked to try and rebalance his life. He finds himself involved with the main narrative because Jean Grey seeks him out for guidance in the midst of his transformation.

The Mysterious Villain

Yes, that's a super vague heading, but the reality is that we don't have much to work with in this area. It's been confirmed that Jessica Chastain will be playing the central villain in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but in a move that seriously increases our curiosity, the folks behind the film will not identify her character. It has been said that she is an "otherworldly shapeshifter" who is out to control the power of the Phoenix, but nothing else is known beyond that.

We just have a few day now until X-Men: Dark Phoenix is in theaters, so be sure to head out and get the rest of the answers to what this movie has in store for audiences for yourself!

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The Russo Brothers Don't Think Iron Man Was Wrong About Ultron

The Russo Brothers Don't Think Iron Man Was Wrong About Ultron

Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame.

Avengers: Endgame has been in theaters for three weekends, still maintaining the top spot at the box office over new releases like Detective Pikachu. The Russo Brothers did the impossible with the blockbuster, surpassing even Infinity War in regards to scope and character-driven story. Endgame was intimately connected to the previous 21 movies in the MCU, and that includes Phase Two's finale Avengers: Age of Ultron.

When Iron Man and Nebula were rescued by Captain Marvel and towed back to Earth in Endgame, Tony had an altercation with Steve Rogers. Exhausted and starving, he maintained he was right all along regarding the measures needed to properly protect the planet. Now The Russo Brothers have come to Tony's defense in regards to his Age of Ultron actions, with Joe Russo saying:

He was not wrong that there was a great threat coming, and they needed to build a suit of armor around the world, and at what point do civil liberties trump—no pun intended—do civil liberties come before the government’s ability to protect its citizens? I think what’s interesting is that to some extent, they had to go through this. There was a sense of destiny to this. They had to go through it to win it. And in a way both he and Cap were right.

Captain America and Iron Man's relationship started becoming strained during Avengers: Age of Ultron, as they had idealogical differences to the morality of superheroics. Ultron's inception came as a result of Tony's singular focus on protecting the planet, although Earth could have used it when Thanos and his forcea came knocking in Infinity War.

Of course, Joe Russo's comments to Slate also point out that Captain America has his own valid points in the argument. Both heroes had the best of intentions, but were ultimately unable to come together and find viable compromises. That powder keg eventually exploded in Captain America: Civil War, and it broke up the Avengers in the process.

Related: How Spider-Man: Far From Home Can Wrap Up Marvel's Phase Three

Ultron may have ended up turning against his creators and the planet, but the thought behind his creation was a big picture idea. Tony and Bruce Banner wanted to provide a more comprehensive protection of the planet, with Iron Man knowing that the Battle of New York was no fluke. Unfortunately, Ultron had other plans-- although Vision was also born in the process.

But Thanos was only able to be defeated because the surviving heroes were able to work together. Despite Tony's initial reaction to arriving home, he was able to bury the hatchet with Steve Rogers, and they made the time heist happen together. The duo also faced off against Thanos during the epic final battle, and Cap even witnessed Iron Man's final breath.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now. Be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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5 Questions About Captain Marvel We Want Answered In Avengers: Endgame

5 Questions About Captain Marvel We Want Answered In Avengers: Endgame

The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Captain Marvel**.**

Captain Marvel is finally here, and that means we’ve had a chance to finally see the hero that we all expect is going to be the key to victory in the forthcoming Avengers: Endgame. While the movie did answer a few interesting questions that we’ve had about the MCU, like what happened to Nick Fury’s eye, it also created a bunch of new questions for us to ponder.

On the plus side, we don’t necessarily have to wait too long to get answers to those questions because Avengers: Endgame is only a few short weeks away, but while that movie may be focused on saving half of all life in the galaxy, we certainly hope it leaves time to answer these burning questions about the movie we just saw.

Where The Hell Has Captain Marvel Been?

At the end of the movie, our hero leaves Earth with apparently two major goals in mind. She plans to help the Skrulls find a new home where they can live in peace, and to take the fight to the Kree, with her eye on ending the galactic control the Kree have been attempting. And then, as far as we know, she’s never seen again on Earth until post-Decimation.

Now certainly, fighting a one-woman war against the Kree is going to be a time consuming endeavor, but it’s been two decades since the events of Captain Marvel, and not only has Carol Danvers not returned to Earth, she’s been so far off the radar that nobody knows anything about her. We see Ronan the Accuser take a particular interest in Danvers, but when we see Ronan later in Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s focusing on entirely different things, when clearly he hasn’t killed Captain Marvel yet. When Ronan attacks Xandar, where the hell is the lady who made it her mission to defeat the Kree?

Did Captain Marvel Cause The Kree/Xandarian Peace Treaty?

There is one possible answer to the above question, but if true, it also raises other questions. Is Captain Marvel the ultimate reason that Roan the Accuser goes rogue in Guardians of the Galaxy and works works with Thanos. When we first meet Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy, we learn that he's no longer part of the Kree collective, but is instead working alone. The Kree and the planet Xandar have signed a peace treaty, but Ronan doesn't agree with it. The war between these two has apparently raged for generations, causing the deaths of many in Ronan's family. It's never made clear why the Kree have made peace now, based on the way we see them in Captain Marvel, they don't seem like a race that makes peace easily.

However, if the Nova Corps were to get some additional assistance by somebody like Captain Marvel, it's possible that could have thrown the balance of the war off in such a way that the Kree had no choice but to make peace. Of course, if all this were true, it wouldn't explain why Carol Danvers didn't show up to help at the end of that movie when Ronan attacked Xandar.

What Happened To Maria And Monica?

One of the biggest questions we had after Avengers: Infinity War involved taking stock of the MCU and figuring out who might still be alive following The Snap. Anybody that we didn’t see on screen in the final minutes of that movie has no clear fate, and that’s a lot of people that fans care about. Captain Marvel added two more, Maria and Monica Rambeau. Carol Danvers' friend and fellow pilot was one of the highlights of the new movie, and her daughter was also instantly endearing.

Did one or both of them fall victim to Thanos or are they still with us? While the post-credits scene of Captain Marvel showed us Carol Danvers hasn’t aged much, likely due to her powers, Maria and Monica would be 20 years older, meaning Monica is now an adult. As comic book fans know, she potentially has a superhero life in front of her as well, so the question of their fate, both now and in the future, is potentially important.

Is Goose Still Around?

If there’s one thing that pretty much everybody who saw Captain Marvel can agree on, it’s that Goose is just the best. Say what you will about the movie itself, but Goose the cat is getting rave reviews from every corner, and so we have to wonder, is the little guy still around?

Goose would be something over 20 years old, which is damn old for a cat and would mean that’s unlikely, but as we know, Goose isn’t actually a cat. He's an alien called a flerken that simply resembles a cat. Exactly what the lifespan of the flerken is, we don’t really know. It appears that Nick Fury has kept Goose around, which isn’t good news since Fury is now gone. Who’s going to feed Goose? Even if the little fuzzball has survived this long, he may have been dusted himself, which is just too heartbreaking to think about.

How Did Mar-Vell Get The Tesseract?

We know more about the history of the Tesseract, a.k.a. the Space Stone, then we do any of the other Infinity Stones. We know it was being hidden in Norway in the 1940s when the Red Skull obtained it. Captain America then defeated the Skull and the stone was lost, along with Cap himself, but Howard Stark recovered the Tesseract while looking for Steve Rogers. The next time we saw it, it was in the hands of SHIELD, so it appeared that Stark handed it over to his bosses at the SSR, which later became SHIELD, and they'd had it all this time.

But now Captain Marvel has revealed that may not actually be the case. Somehow, Mar-Vell got her hands on the Tesseract and used it to create a lightspeed engine. By the end of the film, the Tesseract is in the hands of SHIELD, or at least Nick Fury, but exactly how Mar-Vell got it is still a mystery, Did Mar-Vell get it, or take it, from Howard Stark at some point in the past? Did she steal it from the SSR/SHIELD? At this point we don't know.

At this point, we have no idea what's next for the MCU after this year's films wrap up, which means we have no clue when we might get an answer to any of these questions unless they're actually part of Avengers: Endgame. Could we have to wait multiple years to learn what happened to Goose? Please don't let that be so.

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Alita: Battle Angel Director Got Hundreds Of Pages Of Notes From James Cameron

Alita: Battle Angel Director Got Hundreds Of Pages Of Notes From James Cameron

James Cameron famously worked on bringing the Battle Angel Alita manga to life on the big screen for the better part of two decades, with the can getting continually kicked down the road due to development issues and Cameron's busy schedule. When the Titanic director finally handed off his passion project to director Robert Rodriguez to go hang out in the world of Pandora, he made sure that all the work he put in on Alita: Battle Angel was not for naught.

Robert Rodriguez told Digital Spy that James Cameron generously promised not to send him the 1,000 pages of notes he had done on Alita: Battle Angel, instead stating that he would only send him a meager 600 pages. Robert Rodriguez naively took this figure as a jest, only to find out that James Cameron was quite serious when a tome of notes for Alita: Battle Angel, 600 pages in width, arrived in the mail.

It just goes to show how much James Cameron cares about Alita and the ridiculous amount of work he put in over the years to get it right and bring it to the big screen. He obviously put a lot of thought into adapting the property and likely learned a ton of valuable lessons along the way.

So by giving Robert Rodriguez hundreds of pages of notes on the film, and a 15-minute presentation, artwork and story concepts, James Cameron gave Robert Rodriguez a head start and set him up for success. Robert Rodriguez ultimately was the one who directed the film, but all those notes had to help, even if they were somewhat overwhelming.

It’s like a group project in college: even if you’re the one saddled with writing the paper, it sure makes things easier when your group members do all of the research for you.

Intriguingly, James Cameron’s 600 of pages of notes, culled from 1,000, encompass a much larger vision than just one movie, as Robert Rodriguez explained:

There's like one whole document about the trilogy, because that's just part of his process. 'Here are three movies. Just so you know what to include in the first story and whatnot.'

James Cameron’s vision for Alita: Battle Angel extends beyond just one film and he already has it all laid out on paper, like what to include in the first movie and what will be saved for later. At a time when big franchises don’t always seem like they are operating with a firm plan or guiding vision in place, this is quite exciting.

The ending of the first film definitely whets the appetite to see what happens next and where the story goes. James Cameron knows the answer to that and has already mapped out a whole Alita trilogy, but whether he as producer and director Robert Rodriguez will get to tell it though is unknown.

Alita: Battle Angel is still Number 5 on the worldwide box office charts in 2019, but it’s unclear if that will be enough. Although domestic audiences did the film no favors, international box office elevated Alita’s worldwide run to $404.8 million. However, given its budget, the film may have needed $500 million to break even. So although it didn’t flop like it was suspected to, it isn’t an outright success either, making its sequel chances unclear.

If it doesn’t get a sequel, maybe James Cameron can just publish his notes as a very heavy book and we can all get a look at what might have been. If you’d like to see Alita: Battle Angel get a sequel though, it finally arrives on digital on July 9 and on Blu-ray, DVD and Ultra HD 4K on July 23.

Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all of this year’s biggest movies.

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Netflix's Always Be My Maybe Trailer: Watch Keanu Reeves And Ali Wong Dirty Talk

Netflix's Always Be My Maybe Trailer: Watch Keanu Reeves And Ali Wong Dirty Talk

While we may never understand just how Netflix manages to develop so many original films and television shows each month, but we’re not complaining. The streaming platform has recently played a part in a resurgence of the romantic comedy with hits such as To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and Set It Up. Now it’s releasing a rom-com with some seriously funny comedians including Ali Wong, Randall Park and … Keanu Reeves? Check out Always Be My Maybe.

Wait… you watched until the end right? I promised you Keanu Reeves and the only way to deliver is if you’ve see the trailer to the very end, but we’ll get back to him in a bit.

Always Be My Maybe follows Sasha (Ali Wong) a successful celebrity chef with a good-looking fiancé, played by Lost and Hawaii Five-0’s Daniel Dae Kim. When she goes home to San Francisco for business, she runs into her childhood crush Marcus (Fresh Off the Boat’s Randall Park). Will Sasha gets starry eyes for the one who got away? Or in her case, the one who didn’t move as she left and pursued her career goals.

The trailer from Netflix reveals her fiancé skips out on their wedding plans while she’s at home and he’s on vacation, sparking a hilarious line from Wong as she says she hopes he gets Malaria and shits himself to death. Then, it’s revealed a child’s birthday party was in close vicinity to hear her vile burn.

Sasha then finds herself spending more time with Marcus as she pursues dating on the side. Their chemistry is pretty obvious to everyone else but the couple seem oblivious to it on their own. It’s a classic “will-they-won’t-they” scenario for rom-com fans to eat up.

Always Be My Maybe drives down memory lane a bunch with the couple, flashing back scenes of them when they were kids and in a funny scene where the two make jokes about being in the same car where they once had sex as teens. Oh, and of course Mariah Carey’s ‘90s hit “Always Be My Baby” is playing in the background.

Right when it seems Marcus has drummed up the courage to tell Sasha he’s been in love with her for 15 years, Sasha drops a big bomb. She met someone… and yes, he’s played by Keanu Reeves. The actor makes a grand entrance and helps end out the trailer on a hilarious note as he and Ali Wong say things like “I missed your thumbs” closely into each others faces and Marcus’ heart drops.

It’s also perfect for Reeves to show up in the Always Be My Maybe on the heels of John Wick 3 heading to theaters this weekend and his new role in Toy Story 4 soon hitting screens.

While the trailer shows a lot about the movie, this moment serves as a great hook for audiences to watch the release on the streaming platform when it’s released on May 31.

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Could Captain Marvel Hit A Billion Dollars This Weekend?

Could Captain Marvel Hit A Billion Dollars This Weekend?

Captain Marvel has gone higher, further and faster than many of Marvel’s other superheroes, at least where box office is involved. The movie is already well over the $900 million week after hitting theaters earlier this month, but will it be able to hit 1 billion this weekend? It’ll be close.

First and foremost, as of March 25, Captain Marvel has already pulled in a whopping $914 million dollars worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). Box office numbers typically slow down earlier in the way and pick up closer to the weekend, so once Monday and Tuesday’s numbers are official, I’d expect it to add to the tally but not get us close to the billion dollar mark yet.

Which brings us to this weekend. Domestically, Captain Marvel is facing the behemoth that is Jordan Peele’s Us. Disney itself will also enter a bit of competition into the fold this weekend with its live action Dumbo remake spearheaded by director Tim Burton.

If you’d like to see the full list of releases so far in 2019, we have you covered.

Last weekend, Captain Marvel earned $35 million domestically, which was definitely enough for second place, but earned well below Us, which opened to $70.3 million. It’s likely that Captain Marvel’s numbers will drop domestically again, although it should do well enough that it should make a few million to add to that over $900 million total.

The worldwide box office has contributed much of the box office intake for Captain Marvel and that likely will continue into the weekend. However, Captain Marvel has already previously opened in most major markets, including China.

It has also opened in Mexico, South Korea, The UK, Brazil, France and other markets, so there’s not a lot of room for the movie to continue to squeeze out top dollar overseas. Just like the domestic market, as new and exciting movies hit theaters, the audience for older movies wanes.

The question really isn’t if Captain Marvel will be able to hit $1 billion worldwide, but when. There’s a chance the Marvel flick flies to that record this weekend, which would mean the movie has hit that box office milestone before it has even been in theaters for a whole month. However, it’s going to be close, and I think it may fall short over the weekend.

The good news is that once Captain Marvel hits a billion, it will actually be the seventh Marvel flick to achieve that massive number, so it will be big news when it happens. It should also be the start of a giant box office tally for Marvel in 2019, as the studio also has Avengers: Endgame coming. That movie should open high and could go on to make over $2 billion for Disney. Spider-Man: Far From Home and it's complicated infrastructure with Sony and Disney will also be released in 2019.

If you’d like to see the movie get there sooner rather than later, you can always catch it in theaters this weekend, perhaps even for a second or third time.

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Toy Story 4 Is Breaking Pre-Sale Records For Animated Blockbusters

Toy Story 4 Is Breaking Pre-Sale Records For Animated Blockbusters

Pixar’s upcoming Toy Story film will bring back a lovable ensemble characters and wrap up the long-running franchise with an emotional conclusion. Wait… is Toy Story 4 the Avengers: Endgame of animation? Signs point to yes (box-office wise anyway). The movie recently broke some records for the best first day pre-sale tickets for an animated movie ever. Woody and friends will not be collecting dust this summer, that’s for sure.

When Toy Story 4 pre-sale tickets went on sale on Tuesday, Fandango reported that movie outpaced the current record-holder: 2018’s Incredibles 2, which became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time during the same weekend last summer. What's more, the upcoming sequel also broke the same records for Fandango's competitor Atom.

The Pixar’s superhero sequel earned $182 million during its 3-day weekend opening and went on to make $608 million domestically and $1.2 billion worldwide. Toy Story 4 may now be on track to beat out these numbers, perhaps scoring a potential $200 million during opening weekend. This would place the flick well over last month’s tracking of $105 to $130 million previously predicted.

Toy Story 4 also brought in higher presale figures than 2016’s Finding Dory, the live-action Beauty and the Beast and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on Fandango. And the Toy Story sequel also sold nearly 50% more tickets on Atom than the site’s top 3 animated titles combined (Incredibles 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Hotel Transylvania) in a 24-hour period.

If Toy Story 4 delivers on these expectations, it will easily be the most successful opening weekend for the franchise. It has been nine years since Andy’s toys graced the big screen. 2010’s third installment made $110 million during its debut and over $1 billion worldwide by the end of its run. It was 2010’s biggest movie of the year. NowToy Story 4 likely won’t top Endgame opening weekend but it has a strong chance to become the second best opening of 2019 since the MCU culmination.

Depending on how popular Frozen II fares in earnings later this year, Toy Story 4 could also become the highest-grossing animated film of the year. The first Frozen didn’t earn a huge first weekend, but became popular on the big screen as world of mouth caught on. This lead to a $1.2 million global gross, making it the most-successful animated worldwide release. On the domestic front, Toy Story 3 beat out Frozen by just $15 million, so it could be a close race to the top.

After Pixar has offered up a dizzying amount of sequels in recent years, it’s been said the studio will soon be going back to making original animated films after Toy Story 4, starting with Onward coming in 2020.

Toy Story 4 comes to theaters on June 21 and will see the return of classic characters such as Tom Hank’s Woody and a handful of new one’s such as Tony Hale’s Forky and Keanu Reeves’ Duke Caboom.

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Dark Phoenix Will Have Two New Characters, One Being A Hellfire Club Nod

Dark Phoenix Will Have Two New Characters, One Being A Hellfire Club Nod

While still not officially confirmed, it’s looking like Dark Phoenix will be the end of the main X-Men film series that began in 2000. Still, this saga looks to be wrapping things up with a bang through its new adaptation of The Dark Phoenix Saga that bares little resemblance to 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. Among the many differences in Dark Phoenix is the introduction of two new characters, Selene and Red Lotus, with Selene being a nod to the Hellfire Club, the organization that played an integral role in Jean Grey being corrupted into Dark Phoenix. Here’s what director Simon Kinberg had to say about Selene’s inclusion:

One of the characters is based on a character from the comic, and the other character is sort of an amalgam of different characters from the comic and inspired by different characters. The one that’s from the comic is Selene, which is a little bit of a nod to the Hellfire Club. It’s obviously a huge part of the original Dark Phoenix Saga in the comics, and it’s not something we really explore in this film. I wanted to have something that would at least be an homage to that, and it’s also a character I always thought was cool and cool-looking.

For those unfamiliar with X-Men comic book lore, the Hellfire Club was introduced in 1980’s Uncanny X-Men #129, and with the organization’s Inner Circle at the time consisting of Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, Harry Leland, Donald Pierce and Jason Wyngarde, a.k.a. Mastermind. Mastermind slowly manipulated Jean Grey into doing his bidding on behalf of the Hellfire Club, but she eventually broke free of his control and went on her infamous reign of terror, which included consuming a star. The Hellfire Club was introduced to the big screen in 2011’s X-Men: First Class, but following the death of Kevin Bacon’s Shaw, it hasn’t been seen or referenced since in that universe (presumably it collapsed). Still, Simon Kinberg decided to use Selene as a stand-in for the organization during this latest exploration of Jean’s fall from grace.

Selene is played by Kota Eberhardt in Dark Phoenix, and Simon Kinberg told CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg at WonderCon that although she’s a brand-new actress, he saw her audition tape and found her to be “really interesting.” Since Selene doesn’t have a lot of screen time in Dark Phoenix, the person who would play her needed to be “striking,” and Eberhardt was deemed the right woman for the job.

As for Red Lotus, he’s played by Andrew Stehlin, but don’t expect him to be an exact copy of how he is depicted in the comics. Simon Kinberg continued:

And then the other character is a character that, like I said, is sort of a combination of different mutants and an original creation. And that’s played by, actually, a guy who’s one of our stuntmen, and he was originally doing the stunt choreography and the coordination for it. And I was looking at him, and I was like, not only is he so good at doing the action, which is primarily what that character does in this film, but also he’s just very interesting-looking. And it turns out he can act as well, ‘cause he’s got a couple lines in the movie.

Simon Kinberg also noted that Red Lotus’ braids are connected to his powers, so some of the time the braids is real and other times they’re CGI. We have yet to learn how Selene and Red Lotus will be brought into the Dark Phoenix proceedings, but as you can see in the image at the top of the page, they will be affiliated with Magneto, perhaps indicating that they share his sentiment that Jean Grey is beyond saving and needs to be eliminated before she gets too out of control.

Dark Phoenix arrives in theaters on June 7, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on the project. For now, check out our 2019 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out this year.

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Avengers: Endgame’s Don Cheadle Explains Why Rhodes Was So Good At Piloting War Machine

Avengers: Endgame’s Don Cheadle Explains Why Rhodes Was So Good At Piloting War Machine

Avengers: Endgame has been in theaters for three weekends, but the blockbuster is still on everyone's lips. The Russo Brothers crammed a ton of exciting twist and characters into the massive blockbuster, essentially ending the narrative that began with Iron Man. Given the state of the MCU and it's unknown future, there's been some reflection on the past 22 movies and decade of filmmaking.

James Rhodes is a character that debuted back in Iron Man, although he was originally played by Terrence Howard. Don Cheadle ended up taking on the role starting with Iron Man 2, which saw Rhodey become the superheroic War Machine. One Twitter user recently asked Cheadle why his character picked up piloting armor so much easier than Tony Stark, and he said:

Tony Stark may have been the first Marvel hero to armor up and save the day, but that doesn't mean it necessarily came easy to him. Iron Man showed RDJ struggle with the suit's abilities, especially when it came to flying. Meanwhile, Rhodey jumped in with relative ease.

Don Cheadle's Tweet shows how methodically the 54 year-old actor has thought out his long tenure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While fans seem eager to find plot holes or potential goofs in the shared universe, Cheadle knows exactly why his signature Avenger was able to adjust to wearing Tony's suit so quickly. It all has to do with his piloting background, and Tony's programming in making each suit intuitive to its user.

War Machine is one of the first heroes to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and has remained relevant presence in the MCU since taking on the mantle. In addition to his appearances in Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Rhodey had a particularly very strong outing in Phase Three.

He was an influential voice in the drafting of the Sakovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War, taking Tony Stark's side and urging the other Avengers to follow suit. He eventually participated in the tarmac battle, and sustained a major injury in the process. He now bares the physical scars from that scuffle, in addition to feelings of guilt.

War Machine provided both comedy and action in Avengers: Infinity War, helping to defend Wakanda from Thanos' forces in the film's third act. While unable to stop the Mad Titan himself, Rhodey got lucky and managed to survive Thanos' finger snap of death. He's go a meaty role in Endgame as a result, as the spotlight focuses on the survivors and their shared grief.

Related: What Marvel’s War Machine Movie Would Have Been About, According To Don Cheadle

It should be interesting to see what comes next for War Machine. The future of the MCU is largely a mystery-- at least until Spider-Man: Far From Home arrives and completes Phase Three. But considering which characters perished in Endgame, it might be a time for Rhodey to have an even bigger presence in the shared universe.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now. Be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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