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Which THE LORD OF THE RINGS Movies Could We Soon See? THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM Producer Teases the Tolkien Stories He’d Like To Tell

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is riding into theaters. But it sounds like if this movie does well, the door may become open even wider to more new The Lord of the Rings movies in the future. Of course, we already have The Hunt for Gollum on the go, and possibly another Gandalf movie. But that doesn’t mean we have to stop dreaming about the kinds of Tolkien stories we might get to see on our screens. In celebration of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Nerdist spoke to producer Jason DeMarco about this new Middle-earth adventure, how Sauron figures into the story, what the movie adds to Tolkien’s world… and what might come next to The Lord of the Rings movie universe. Check out our full conversation below.

Nerdist: Out of all of Tolkien’s tales, what was it about this one story of Helm Hammerhand that made it leap out to your for adaptation in The War of the Rohirrim?

Jason DeMarco: I think we chose this story because we wanted a movie that could be a standalone movie. You don’t need to know anything before or after. What we liked about this story was that it’s self-contained, and it also is very Shakespearean in its spiel and scope, and it’s about the world of men. It’s not about elves or wizards or anything. You don’t need to have any lore. I think that was attractive for us because we could be very focused in our storytelling and look at one geographical area. And it also made it easier from a production standpoint because we didn’t have to build 50 different locations in animation and have all kinds of designs. So that, I think, was why we really liked the idea of this very focused story in this period of time.

Warner Bros.

Although it is this very focused story, wizards and elves and all of that are still out there. Do we see them at all in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim?

DeMarco: So, we put in a few things for The Lord of the Rings‘ world. I would call them more Easter eggs. We tried to remind people that this is a wild fantasy world, but we also didn’t want to break canon. So we didn’t try to shoehorn elves or wizards in when there aren’t any. I will say there are a few things in there, but we didn’t want to break canon and just have stuff in there that didn’t make sense.

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THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM’s Writers Talk Evolving Tolkien’s Rohan Lore and Creating Original THE LORD OF THE RINGS Characters

As far as the rings of The Lord of the Rings‘ Rings of Power, how do you feel they kind of play into the story?

DeMarco: I mean, we have one scene in The War of the Rohirrim, really just our nod to The Lord of the Rings‘ rings. Its just like, at some point, Sauron would’ve told all the orcs just grab rings from everybody. I don’t know where these rings are. So that’s what those two orc characters are doing in our scene. There are a lot of bodies being created in this war, and they’re taking advantage of that chaos to go through the bodies and just pull rings. And they’re bringing all the rings to Sauron because they’re orcs. They’re not that smart. They’re just like, “Here’s a bunch of rings.” Sauron is probably going to take those rings and go, “Get out of here!”

In The Lord of the Rings‘ lore, Wulf works with the Easterlings and Corsairs. And those are people who are loyal to Sauron. How much of a presence does Sauron in the story?

Warner Bros.

DeMarco: I mean, other than what you’re saying? Nothing really. Again, we stayed away from stuff we felt like was out of canon. The Easterlings and Wulf, and the Dunlendings, bringing them in, we thought made sense. You could see how Easterlings would end up there, even though they’re not really around there because they are mercenaries.

The Corsairs, we ended up leaving out of The War of the Rohirrim because frankly, going to Gondor and going to the coast and animating a bunch of ocean, which is very hard to do, would bring in another story element. And we just felt like, at a certain point, it gets a little too much. So we focused it more on the Dunlendings and the Haradrim, but that’s really all you’re going to see of Sauron is just those guys.

Warner Bros.

We get to see an earlier Rohan in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which is, of course, a place people know from the original Peter Jackson movies. How do you feel you retained the identity of Rohan but also gave it a different flavor?

DeMarco: The Rohan you see at the beginning of The Two Towers is a rundown Rohan that had years of Wormtongue sort of bringing everything down, winding it down on purpose. So Saruman could sort of take it over. Our Rohan, at the beginning of The War of the Rohirrim, is at its height. Everything’s very healthy. Helm Hammerhand is a very successful king. So we use a lot of the same design elements, but everything’s a little shinier, a little newer, and a little different because at the end of our story, Rohan basically burns down and is rebuilt. So you see some different aspects of Rohan that basically disappear after our film because it got burned down.

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Christopher Lee’s Return as Saruman in THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM Uses a Line Originally Said to Galadriel, Reveals Philippa Boyens

And what do you think this adaptation adds to the world of Middle-earth adaptations?

DeMarco: To me, it’s just another sort of example of these characters and stories. The Tolkien could effortlessly write that just tell human stories that don’t necessarily affect the bigger lore. In other words, he tells all kinds of great stories that aren’t about rings and wizards that are just little stories. And to us, there’s this great Shakespearian tragedy built into this. And I think when you watch our film and then you watch the two towers, it will hopefully you will respect even more what happened to those people and what Helm’s Deep represents and why it’s so important to them.

Warner Bros.

And just to tie it off, it sounds like if this movie does well, there’s space for more Tolkien adaptations in the future, maybe animated, maybe otherwise. And you mentioned you had a few ideas about what could come in the future. Is there anything you can sort of tease or hint at?

DeMarco: I can’t. Well, they’d probably kill me if I do.

What about in terms of your own personal goals?

DeMarco: I mean, personally, I think there are a ton of stories that happen around the War of the Ring that were not shown in any of The Lord of the Rings movies. There are battles, there are major sequences. I would like to revisit some of those.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim releases in theaters on December 13.

The post Which THE LORD OF THE RINGS Movies Could We Soon See? THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM Producer Teases the Tolkien Stories He’d Like To Tell appeared first on Nerdist.

THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM’s Writers Talk Evolving Tolkien’s Rohan Lore and Creating Original THE LORD OF THE RINGS Characters

There’s a high level of expectation when it comes to release a new The Lord of the Rings movie. And so, selecting a pair of writers who would do Tolkien’s world justice was imperative. Luckily, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim‘s Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou were more than up to task, delivering a beautifully dense and gorgeously literary-feeling film. In celebration of the movie, Nerdist chatted with Gittins and Papageorgiou on what they took from Tolkien’s lore, what aspects of Rohan’s story they grew and evolved, and creating original The Lord of the Rings characters for the story of The War of the Rohirrm. Check out the full interview below.

What about this The Lord of the Rings story made you all feel like it was worthy of adaptation?

Phoebe Gittins: I mean, really, that was a Philippa Boyens call. I mean, she was the one who conceived the idea of using the Helm Hammerhand story. But when we approached the script, we could immediately see why it was a good idea.

Arty Papageorgiou: It’s a story that is about people tearing themselves apart, which I think is kind of unique. Usually, it’s sort of baddies versus goodies, and obviously, you’ve got a bit of that going on, but you do get the sense in this story that things could have been different.

Warner Bros.

Phoebe Gittins: All the choices that are made. It’s interesting with Héra and with Wulf, that they really inherit this mess from their fathers. And it’s the choices that each one of them makes that lead them down very different paths, and that’s kind of really drew us in as storytellers as well.

The War of the Rohirrim‘s tale takes place over a hundred years before The Lord of the Rings story, as most people know it. But Sauron and his evil are lurking nonetheless. Will the film engage with the Dark Lord at all?

Gittins: Some Easter eggs.

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Papageorgiou: What is cool is that idea of playing with the idea that there is that darkness lurking around the periphery. And that was quite a fun part of our process. It’s like what do we choose to include or not to include, and is it an Easter egg, or does it inform our characters? Something like the Long Winter is probably a good example of that. So yeah, no, it’s not in there overly, but I don’t think you can have a Middle-earth story without it being there in and around the side.

Warner Bros.

Some adaptations have tied Helm Hammerhand to one of the human Rings of Power. Is that anything that you touch on at all in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim?

Gittins: Nope.

Cool. Easy answer! The War of the Rohirrim brings us an earlier story for Rohan. How did you tie it in the Rohan people are familiar with while giving it its own identity at this earlier time?

Gittins: I think the relationship between Helm Hammerhand and this unknown daughter is quite a nice example of that. We have this established character in the text, at least, and then we brought in this new character, this unnamed daughter of Helm. And so getting to kind of look at that relationship was a really exciting part of the storytelling as well.

Papageorgiou: There’s also those sort of classic Rohan traits in our characters, but it was fun being given a bit of space to flesh out what other types of characters would be in and around Rohan. I mean even Háma. It’s not just about Héra’s character, there’s other characters in there, which gave us an opportunity to look at the culture in different ways.

Warner Bros.Warner Bros.Warner Bros.

Can you speak a little bit about what you might reveal about the culture of Rohan?

Papageorgiou: That storytelling element, I think is interesting. We open up with Éowyn, with her narration. We’ve got hammers.

Gittins: The Rohirrim are people of song and of stories. So we liked the idea of starting with this narration from Éowyn as if you are sort of sitting around a fire, and she’s leaning in and saying, “Let me tell you a story.” So kind of leaning into that element of the Rohirrim culture, starting straight off the bat perfect.

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Luke Pasqualino Talks Villain Wulf’s Huge Vulnerability in THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM

Papageorgiou: Also looking at Fréaláf and looking at the younger generation and how they’re tackling the coming war. And also Wulf as well. We get to see that side of the Rohirrim as well, all the surrounding people. I mean, they were related in the past. And that’s what we were getting at before, about this story of people tearing themselves apart. So it is what we know, but we were able to be able to investigate it a little bit more deeply.

Warner Bros.

As far as the characters from the story, do they mostly come from The Lord of the Rings‘ lore or are there also original characters in The War of the Rohirrim?

Gittins: Yeah. We got to add several new characters actually in The War of the Rohirrim, kind of that one would be born out of the other, out of the other, sort of snowball effect.

Papageorgiou: But lore-driven, though.

Gittins: Lore-drive, of course. Of course. We have a good balance of who you expect to see in there, and then some new faces.

Warner Bros.

Papageorgiou: We dig into the shieldmaiden history a little bit. That’s something that is given a bit of investigation.

Gittins: Absolutely. Looking into that. Thinking about what kind of woman would’ve paved the way for the likes of Éowyn and drawing on her.

Papageorgiou: We’ve got Lief and Old Pennicruik. I mean there’s a few, great and very memorable.

Gittins: And a few new women. Yeah, we brought some girls to the table!

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim releases in theaters on December 13.

The post THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM’s Writers Talk Evolving Tolkien’s Rohan Lore and Creating Original THE LORD OF THE RINGS Characters appeared first on Nerdist.

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN Director May Take on the Live-Action Remake of Disney’s TANGLED

There’s simply no stopping the Disney live-action remake train. The latest animated classic that’s getting an updated version at the House of Mouse is none other than Tangled. According to a report in Deadline, The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey is looking to sign on to direct a live-action version of Walt Disney Animation’s rendition of Rapunzel. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, screenwriter of Thor: Love and Thunder and the I Know What You Did Last Summer remake, wrote the most recent screenplay. So get ready to make your Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and Mother Gothel fancastings known.

Walt Disney Animation Studios

Alongside the currently filming Moana remake, Tangled marks a pretty big departure from how Disney approached these live-action remakes before. Starting with Alice in Wonderland in 2010, Disney remade classics from at least one or more generations ago. Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King came out over 25 years after their original versions hit theaters. Meanwhile, movies like Cinderella came out 65 years after the iconic animated film. The original Tangled came out in 2010, not even 15 years ago. Both Tangled and Moana still feel like very modern movies in style, and a new modern version feels especially redundant.

Nevertheless, from a business standpoint if nothing else, we hate to say it makes sense. Disney’s live-action remakes have been a stealth multi-billion dollar cash cow for the studio. Movies like Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Aladdin each raked in over a billion dollars at the box office. Disney no doubt wants to mine their more recent hits, fresh in the minds of audiences. This is probably why the studio relegated movies like Pinocchio and Cruella to Disney+ only, although the upcoming Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs seems to buck that trend. If a Tangled remake succeeds, then Frozen isn’t far behind. Prepare to hear “Let it Go” everywhere you go again.

The post THE GREATEST SHOWMAN Director May Take on the Live-Action Remake of Disney’s TANGLED appeared first on Nerdist.

Lord of the Rings’ Animated History is WEIRD

With Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim hitting theaters, Nerdist’s Kyle Anderson is taking a trip to Middle Earth to look back at the bizarre history of Tolkien in animation.

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PETER PAN’S NEVERLAND NIGHTMARE Trailer Takes Us Deeper Into the Twisted Childhood Universe

First, came Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a twisted take on a classic children’s story. Now, the “Twisted Childhood Universe” continues with another horror-tinged version of an iconic children’s fable. This time, it’s the world of Peter Pan, in Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare. This film reimagines Peter as a demented killer, who kidnaps unsuspecting children to take them to “Neverland.” Written and directed by Scott Chambers, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare arrives in theaters for three days only starting January 13, 2025, until January 15. You can check out the first creepy trailer right here:

Here’s the first official description for Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, along with the first poster:

The newest entry into the Poohniverse follows Wendy Darling as she strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from the clutches of the evil Peter Pan who intends to send him to Neverland. Along the way she meets a twisted Tinkerbell, who is hooked on what she thinks is fairy dust.

Iconic Events Releasing

This definitely looks to have some serious The Black Phone vibes, only with a demented fairytale twist. We can’t help but wonder, if Peter Pan is evil in this, then is Captain Hook the good guy? And what about the Lost Boys? (Hopefully, they’re not vampires. We’re afraid others have done that before.) Points to the Neverland Nightmare filmmakers if they somehow find a way to work an angry crocodile into the proceedings.

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare features Megan Placito as Wendy Darling, Martin Portlock as Peter Pan, Kit Green as Tinkerbell, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney as Michael, Kierston Wareing as Roxy, and Nicholas Woodeson as Steven. It is produced by Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey 1 & 2). You can purchase tickets online at Iconic Events Releasing or at participating theaters’ box office starting December 18, 2024.

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KRAVEN THE HUNTER Offers a Fleeting Glimpse at What Could Have Been

Almost exactly a year ago, I got to review Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. That film ended up in the truly unenviable position of a de-facto end of a cinematic universe, well after the reboot’s announcement. It was a troubled production regardless, with reshoots and release date pushes aplenty before it finally bowed. But at least, in theory, it could have been a success. A sequel to a billion-dollar smash with a bankable star and a proven director of popcorn fare. It didn’t do well, nor was it particularly good. Sony’s Kraven the Hunter finds itself in a similar spot, except with none of the success or the goodwill that Aquaman had.

Sony Pictures

Just a day before the embargo lifted for the review of Kraven—indeed, the day of the media screening—a report stated that the movie would be the de-facto end of Sony’s, let’s face it, ill-judged Sony Spider-Man Universe, a universe that, due to a deal with Marvel Studios, meant the current and super popular Spidey Tom Holland could not appear outside of the MCU. The SSU has been a laughing stock, let’s face it. Every attempt without Venom in the title to make a villain-focused shared universe was less successful and more inept than the last. I find Kraven the Hunter interesting in this way. It certainly isn’t good, but showed the most potential for what this Spidey-free Spider-Man universe could have been.

So what’s the movie about? Well, it’s a Sony origin movie, so it takes a while to get there. As teens, Sergei and Dmitri Kravinoff leave their expensive New York private school to go live with their Russian gangster father Nikolai (Russell Crowe). Nikolai is a toxic piece of crap who chooses to take the boys on lavish African hunting expeditions as a way to prove that killing “lesser” creatures is fine. During the trip, a big ol’ lion attacks Sergei and he’s super dead. However, due to the deus-ex-machina path-crossing of a young girl named Calypso, he returns to health. See, her grandma is some kind of shaman and gives Calypso a serum that restores life, yadda yadda.

Sony Pictures Entertainment

The long and short of it is that Sergei now has animal powers. This is mostly the ability to climb up things, unfathomable strength, seeing great distances, smelling people, etc. Sixteen years later, a grown up Sergei (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is knee-deep in his one-man crusade to kill poachers, drug dealers, and any sort of criminal. Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) remained with Nikolai, the shunned weaker son, but with the ability to mimic anyone. Another gangster, the Rhino (Alessandro Nivola), wants Nikolai’s empire for himself. He also wants to kill this so-called Kraven the Hunter. He hires an assassin called the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott) to do it. Meanwhile, Kraven catches up with an adult Calypso (Ariana DeBose) for help or whatever.

That is a very, very condensed version of the plot, and even that leaves out plenty. One of Kraven‘s main issues is that it has tons of plot but almost no story. We never really get to understand why and how Kraven went from protector of animals to murderer of criminals. Nor do we understand how he’s able to travel the globe in an, apparently, chartered military airplane. The plane’s pilot has a voice and a back of a head, but she’s never more than that. I have a strong suspicion this was a name actor who got cut out and revoiced at some point.

Sony

This illustrates the other enormous aspect that makes the movie unsuccessful: it’s barely coherent on a filmmaking basis. J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, A Most Violent Year) is a fine director generally. The action sequences in Kraven are in general pretty fun, if a bit repetitive. Sergei rarely changes up tactic as he bloodily annihilates hordes of goons. But as with all of these SSU movies, whatever issues the studio deemed the initial cut had, are subject to endless reshoots and offscreen ADR to somehow massage the movie into something they deem palatable.

The moment-to-moment editing suffers greatly. Out of nowhere, in the middle of a dialogue scene, we’ll get a shot of Taylor-Johnson or DeBose, clearly 18 months later with noticeably different hair, saying some line only to cut back to the original scene. The scene-to-scene editing suffers too, because with few exceptions, each new scene seems totally unrelated to the one previous. The effect is numbing. We keep watching people saying and doing things in a particular order only for our brains to try to fill in why we’re watching them in this specific order.

On their own, the individual scenes are fine. If you remove the clear reshoots, the scenes progress whatever is happening. The stakes just never seem to rise on a personal level, the characters never grow. If anything, the more the movie goes along, it only serves to make us more confused. Calypso is the biggest victim of whatever post-production horse pucky Sony mandated. She’s apparently a lawyer in London, but also has a weird past we don’t know anything about. She also has several added-later scenes of “F words” just to help bump the rating up… as though it being PG-13 was the problem.

And look, there’s obviously loads wrong with the movie on a technical level, but it probably didn’t help that the performances are all over the map. Taylor-Johnson is doing his usual facial expression acting coupled with what I like to call “Buff Guy Walk.” You’ve probably seen it. He moves his shoulders inorganically with every stride to accentuate his beefy arms. It happens in movies a lot. Crowe could literally give his performance in his sleep. Abbott seems so absurdly out of place in a comic book movie, especially as a weird hypnotic assassin.

But the creme of the crop, the performance that has the biggest potential to live in internet infamy is Nivola’s as the Rhino. Through his not-quite-Russian accent, he plays the character as a quiet psychopath and I feel like every single line delivery is a new kind of WTF. At one point he lets out what I can only describe as a prolonged bleat to show displeasure. It’s so weird.

Sony

Ultimately, as if you needed this fine a point, Kraven the Hunter doesn’t work. But, and here’s the key: it could have worked. Of any of the SSU movies to this point, Kraven seems to have nearly hit on what a Spider-Man movie without Spider-Man could have been. It utilizes multiple Spider-Man rogues and places them in the same world and makes it reasonable they’d interact. At no point does it tip its hand toward the possibility that Spider-Man could show up and as a result the audience doesn’t spend the whole movie thinking about the lack of Spider-Man. If The Penguin is any indication, Sony could have made a movie about Tombstone in a gang war with Hammerhead and it could work.

Kraven the Hunter is yet another ignominious end for a cinematic universe that never even had one good movie to hang its hat on. The first Venom was at least fun. Kraven isn’t particularly fun, nor does it ever cross into that Morbius or Madame Web territory of so-bad-it’s-genius. It’s a whatever movie that won’t make any money and will exist merely as a footnote in superhero cinema until Sony can figure out the next way it can squeeze some money out of film rights.

Kraven the Hunter ⭐ (2 of 5)

Kraven the Hunter hits theaters on December 13.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Cast Spill the Beans on Spoilers, MCU Easter Eggs, and All Those Cameos

Deadpool & Wolverine ruled the summer with fans watching it multiple times in theaters. Summer is now a distant memory but, with the film out now on digital, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD, it can be the movie of the winter, too. Now you can enjoy Wade and Logan beating the crap out of each other from the comfort of home. The home video release has several special features, including interviews with the film’s stars, director Shawn Levy, and more. In this exclusive clip, the Deadpool & Wolverine crew discuss MCU spoilers, Easter eggs, and more. You can check out the exclusive clip right here:

Director Shawn Levy points out a few of the many, many MCU Easter eggs scattered throughout the film. Of course, the Captain America shield is one many Marvel fans will recognize right away. It’s the Howard Stark prototype shield first seen in Iron Man 2. It was our first hint of Cap, a solid year before Captain America: The First Avenger hit theaters. But did you notice Thor’s classic comic book winged helmet? It’s lying in the dirt in the wasteland of the Void. Although Thor briefly wore a helmet in his first film, the one here looks like his classic Jack Kirby one. We love stuff like that.

Marvel Studios

Of course, Channing Tatum as Gambit was perhaps the film’s most delightful surprise, and the cast and crew had to mention him as well. In fact, they mention how all of the film’s pre-MCU Marvel heroes who appeared in the film were a delight, and that everyone was ready to reprise roles they hadn’t played in decades, in some cases. Or in the case of Tatum as Gambit, never got to play at all, until now. Some roles are just worth the wait.

Deadpool & Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, and Mary Puppins as Dogpool, is now available on Disney+, Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD.

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DC’s LANTERNS Star Aaron Pierre Hasn’t Seen the GREEN LANTERN Movie with Ryan Reynolds

Casting is so important when it comes to iconic characters, naturally. It can make the difference between “Okay, we’ll see” and “Holy crap I’m so excited.” With the latest casting announcement for Max’s upcoming DC Studios series Lanterns, I’m definitely in the latter category. After already casting Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, DC announced Aaron Pierre will costar as young Green Lantern John Stewart. Pierre had my personal vote for a while now. This only solidified after his outstanding turn in Jeremy Saulnier’s Netflix thriller Rebel Ridge.

Funnily enough, in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Aaron Pierre admitted that he has not seen the Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds. But he is a big fan of the John Stewart Green Lantern in the comics. He also opened up about his casting process, saying that it was a “beautiful experience.”

“I was just locked into giving the very best version that I could of this beautiful character in the rigorous audition process,” he said. “I’m a firm believer that what’s meant for you won’t miss you. So, I gave my best and then set it free. Now I’ve been gifted the opportunity to bring this beautiful character to life and, hopefully, I serve John Stewart. Hopefully, I serve the Green Lantern Corps. We’re just really excited for the people to see what we put together here.”

Max PR/Warner Bros Animation

“Aaron Pierre is somebody who I’ve wanted to work together with for a long time,” said James Gunn during an NYCC panel. “People don’t know, but he was almost cast as Adam Warlock. He’s an amazing actor, and I just really admired him from the beginning of his career. Seeing him read with Kyle was one of those miraculous moments. I don’t care what they’re saying, I just love what they’re saying together. When we first started the DCU, the first couple of weeks of heading this out, we got together with a group of writers, and Tom King was one of those writers, and we were in this room, and we came up with sort of this concept for Lanterns. It’s a much more it’s a very grounded series, a very real series, which is a strange thing to say about a Green Lanterns show. But it’s going to be something like nobody’s ever seen before.”

DC Studios co-head James Gunn welcomed Pierre to the family in an Instagram post. “After a long and grueling series of auditions I am absolutely sure we’ve found an incredible John Stewart,” he said in the post. Pierre was reportedly in the final two for the part along with Stephan James, who played Jesse Owens in the biopic Race and Congressman John Lewis in Selma.

Pierre had previously starred as Dev-Em in the Syfy/DC series Krypton and was cast in an undisclosed role in the Blade movie for Marvel before the project changed the character was excised. He’s no longer at all affiliated with that film. Famously, Pierre also played Mid-Sized Sedan in M. Night Shyamalan’s Old.

The Lanterns show is one of the more intriguing of the nascent DCU under Gunn and Peter Safran. A prestige drama akin to a sci-fi True Detective, the series “follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”

Gunn has put his stamp on the role of running DC Studios with the first batch of announcements. I feel like all of them are make-or-break. His high-profile Superman film will set the stage, hopefully redeeming the character in many fans’ eyes who were turned off by the Snydery darkness of the previous universe. Other announcements like Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Batman: The Brave and the Bold will trickle off of that one movie.

For me, Lanterns is maybe the second most important. It will bring the DCU onto television in weekly HBO style. The stink of the 2011 Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds still hasn’t fully worn off the title. This show has a real chance to do that, and Chandler and Pierre are perfect choices in that respect.

I’m stoked, and we’ll report on what’s to come as we learn more!

Originally published on October 21, 2024.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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KRAVEN THE HUNTER Will Be the Last Entry in the Sony Spider-Man Universe

Thanks to a report in The Wrap, we now know what most fans have long suspected. The upcoming Kraven the Hunter is the last entry, at least for now, of Sony’s “Spider-Man Cinematic Universe.” Of course, Kraven the Hunter could surprise everyone and make a billion dollars. But if it flops, as the tracking suggests, it seems Sony is putting a fork in this ill-conceived cinematic universe. According to the report, Sony is going back to focusing on Spider-Man movies alone, and the animated Spider-Verse films. And for now, that’s it. Here’s what an unknown Sony representative told The Wrap:

Sometimes that lack of quality meets a movie no one asked for, which was the case with Madame Web, and that is a no-win scenario. It may be time for Sony to start cultivating different IP to launch new franchises.

Sony Pictures

There are a lot of reasons why Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, or SSU, failed. Chief among them, the movies have not been exactly stellar. And that’s us being nice about it. Morbius and Madame Web crashed spectacularly at the box office, and became jokey internet memes. But bad movies make money all the time, especially the ones starring superheroes. So why not Sony’s? What made Sony’s Spider-Man universe such a disaster?

Well, you can’t have an “SSU” if there’s no Spider-Man actually in it. And that’s exactly what they did. For legal reasons, mainly Marvel Studios’ involvement with the actual Sony Spidey films, Sony couldn’t use the Tom Holland Peter Parker in their non-MCU films. So characters whose only existence in the comics centered on interacting with Spider-Man, like Kraven and Madame Web, couldn’t do that on screen. So it all seemed pointless. Even without being connected to the actual Spider-Man films, you’d think the existing films like Morbius and Venom would be connected to one other. But that didn’t really happen either.

Sony Pictures

Of course, Venom was a surprise success, leading Sony to believe they could do the same trick with other Spidey villains and supporting cast. True, Venom as a character may have started as a Spidey villain. But for the past 30 years, Venom has been a successful solo antihero. You can’t say the same for Kraven, a character that exists entirely as an antagonist for Spider-Man. This is something that clearly no one at the top at Sony was aware of. (This is where it helps to have a Kevin Feige in charge.) We just hope when the dust settles, and the SSU smoke clears, Sony will use characters like Kraven and Morbius in their original capacity—as Spider-Man villains in Spider-Man movies.

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Who Will Chris Evans Play in AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY?

As long suspected, Chris Evans is returning to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday. But as who? Given the multiversal aspects of the film, along with Secret Wars, we think he almost certainly won’t just be the stalwart Captain America we’ve known for years. Or will he? When it comes to Cap, there are a few options on the table. Here’s who we think Chris Evans might play when he returns to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday.

Marvel Studios Hydra CapMarvel Comics

With Robert Downey Jr. coming back as Dr. Doom, could Marvel Studios also be bringing back Chris Evans in an equally villainous role? If so, the easiest choice is for him to play the so-called “Hydra Cap.” Marvel Comics introduced this controversial character in the Secret Empire event, back in 2017. In that series, we meet a version of Steve Rogers raised to be a secret Hydra sleeper agent. Could we meet a multiversal variant that’s an evil fascistic Cap? Chris Evans might not be able to resist playing a villain alongside his buddy RDJ. We feel this Cap is the most likely.

What If…? Steve RogersMarvel Studios

One of the most fun episodes of What If…? season one featured a Peggy Carter who received the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers. But even though Steve never got a dose of the serum, he was still heroic and found a way to battle evil. In fact, he did it in a prototype Iron Man suit, created by Howard Stark. Inside the suit, Steve was still a scrawny, skinny little guy. With a little digital trickery, we could see Chris Evans go back to that version of Steve, proving he’s heroic even without all the bulging muscles.

Old Man SteveMarvel Studios

Of course, Evans might just be playing the Steve Rogers we’ve always known, who is now a very old man. Despite the rest of the world believing Cap died in the battle in Endgame, we of course know he went back in time and lived out his life with Peggy Carter. Yes, he’s probably well over a hundred years old at this point. But that trusty super soldier serum seems to keep him (relatively) healthy. Maybe he’ll be in old age makeup the whole time, in a mentor role to a new team of Avengers.

Johnny Storm/The Human Torch Twentieth Century Studios

You’re probably thinking “Wait, didn’t Evans’ Johnny Storm die horribly at the hands of Cassandra Nova in Deadpool & Wolverine?” Well, yes he did. But that might not actually be the exact same version of the Human Torch from the 2005 Fantastic Four film. It might just be another Johnny variant from the multiverse. After all, the Johnny of those films wasn’t that big of a potty mouth. So maybe the actual Human Torch Evans played in those films is still out there. And he could play a role in Avengers: Doomsday. It might be “Flame On!” time again for Chris Evans.

World War II Captain AmericaMarvel Studios

If Doomsday is crossing multiversal lines, maybe it’s also crossing timelines? After all, in the MCU, “timelines” and “parallel universes” are kind of the same thing. It might be fun to have a fresh-faced Steve Rogers, during his gung-ho Nazi-fighting days. This was back when he was a little more naïve. He was very much a different character from the one we know from later Avengers films. Sure, at this point, some digital de-aging would have to take place. It’s been more than a decade since The First Avenger after all. But Evans is in great shape still. So we don’t think the digital effects guys would have that much work to do in this regard.

We’ll find out for sure who Chris Evans is playing when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on May 1, 2026.

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