Live Long in Prosper in 2023

Tonight! Disney’s Daredevil Dark, Gotham After Dark, A Star Wars Director gives advice on Trolls and we remember Maggie Thrett and Stephen Greif. All that and more on this 2023 edition of Multiverse Tonight!


M3GAN
Jan. 6

A creepy artificial intelligence doll is tasked with being the friend of a recently orphaned girl. What could possibly go wrong? Gerard Johnstone directs this team-up from horror producers James Wan and Jason Blum starring Allison Williams.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Feb. 17

The latest installment in the Ant-Man franchise will see Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man and Evangeline Lily’s Wasp exploring the Quantum Realm and battling a new big bad, Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors.

Scream 6
March 10

The franchise update continues with the next-gen of Ghostface survivors attempting to leave Woodsboro behind for a new start in New York City. Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Melissa Barrera, and Mason Gooding return, along with Scream vet Hayden Panettiere.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods
March 17

Pushed from 2022, the Shazam! The sequel will see Zachary Levi’s hero square off against Helen Mirren’s Hespera.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
March 31

The movie adaptation of the beloved role-playing game from Game Night duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein stars Chris Pine as the head of a band of adventurers searching for a lost relic. Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Regé-Jean Page, and Hugh Grant round out the cast.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie
April 7

The latest attempt at bringing the video game to the big screen is an animated feature that has the eponymous Italian plumber voiced by Chris Pratt, with Charlie Day as Luigi and Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach.

Renfield
April 14

The horror comedy sees Nicolas Cage playing Dracula, with a focus on his henchman, played by Nicholas Hoult, who starts to consider life outside his servitude, finding a new lease on life in modern-day New Orleans.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
May 5

The final Guardians film takes place after Endgame, with Peter Quill reeling from the loss of Zoe Saldaña’s Gamora.

The Little Mermaid
May 26

The latest live-action animation from Disney is a remake of the 1989 classic and will have Halle Bailey starring as Princess Ariel. Melissa McCarthy will play Ursula, with Javier Bardem playing King Triton.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
June 2

The follow-up to the Oscar-winning Marvel animation will see Miles Morales diving into the multiverse, meeting new Spider-Mans and foes voiced by franchise newcomers like Oscar Isaac, Issa Rae, and Daniel Kaluuya.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
June 9

The first Transformers movie since 2017’s The Last Knight stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback and centers on Brooklyn archaeologists in the 1990s who uncover an ancient conflict.

The Flash
June 23

Ezra Miller as The Flash in 2017's 'Justice League
,
Ezra Miller, who has been mired in controversy, will lead the DC superhero stand-alone that will see the return of Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton as Batmans.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
June 30

Harrison Ford in 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny'

The latest Indiana Jones is set in 1969, against the backdrop of the Space Race, and sees Jones — along with a goddaughter played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge — attempt to uncover whether the U.S. government recruited their former World War II enemies in desperation to beat the Soviet Union.

Barbie
July 21
The long-awaited movie based on the best-selling toy has Margot Robbie starring as Barbie, Ryan Gosling playing Ken, and Greta Gerwig in the director’s chair.

The Marvels
July 28

The Captain Marvel follow-up will see the team-up of Larson’s Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris).

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Aug. 4

An animated feature based on the 1980s cartoon about humanoid, pizza-loving, and crime-fighting turtles, produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

Blue Beetle
Aug. 18

Previously destined for HBO Max, the stand-alone superhero movie is getting a full theatrical release. It follows a Mexican American teenager, Jaime Reyes, who gains superpowers thanks to a blue scarab beetle.

Kraven the Hunter
Oct. 6

Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as big-game hunter Sergei Kravinoff, a Spider-Man villain. Russell Crowe and Ariana DeBose also star.

The Exorcist
Oct. 13

After finishing up his take on another horror classic, Halloween, David Gordon Green is now back in theaters with The Exorcist, a sequel to the 1973 film about a 12-year-old girl who is possessed by a demon.

Dune: Part Two
Nov. 3

The second half of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi adaptation will pick up where Part One left off, with Paul Atreides looking to avenge his family by teaming up with the Fremen. Joining Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya will be Austin Butler and Florence Pugh.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Nov. 17

The Hunger Games prequel stars Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, the girl tribute from impoverished District 12 who is mentored by a then-18-year-old Coriolanus Snow.

Wonka
Dec. 15

Paddington director Paul King is behind this Willy Wonka origin story that stars Chalamet as the future candymaker. The story will center on how he met the Oompa Loompas on one of his earliest adventures.


Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Dec. 25
The sequel will see the return of Jason Momoa’s DC superhero, along with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Black Manta and Nicole Kidman’s Atlanna. Franchise newcomers include Randall Park as Dr. Stephen Shin, a marine biologist obsessed with finding Atlantis, Jani Zhao as Stingray, and Indya Moore as Karshon.

Marvel
THe Wandavision spinoff Agatha Coven of Chaos has added Three-Time Tony Winner Patti LuPone to the cast. She joins male lead Joe Locke, Aubrey Plaza, who is believed to be playing a villainous role, Ali Ahn and Maria Dizzia, who I hear are playing witches, and Sasheer Zamata. Emma Caulfield Ford also is expected to reprise the role of Dottie from WandaVision

Marvel has confirmed the creative team for a new Planet of the Apes comic that’s coming in April. Marvel revealed that David F. Walker would take up writing duties, while Dave Watcher will work on the interior art. Walker has previous experience writing Plane of the Apes COmics having done so for Boom! Studios run with the property.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Stan Lee's birth, Marvel announced the upcoming release of a new documentary about The Man. Stan passed away at the age of 95 back in November of 2018. No release date for the doc has been released.

Charlie Cox says that the Disney Plus version of Daredevil will be dark, but don’t expect the gore. In an interview with NME, star Charlie Cox clarified what fans can expect from the Netflix series and the Disney Plus titled Daredevil Born Again. Telling them quote “My opinion is this character works best when he’s geared towards a slightly more mature audience. My instinct is that on Disney+ it will be dark but it probably won’t be as gory.” He knows some people will be hoping for simply a continuation of the previous series. “I would say to those people, we’ve done that. Let’s take the things that really worked, but can we broaden? Can we appeal to a slightly younger audience without losing what we’ve learned about what works?” unquote Marvel is putting a lot of faith in Daredevil: Born Again. So much faith that they’re giving it a massive 18 episodes. Telling NME quote “I’m fascinated to discover why they’ve chosen to do 18,” he says. “I’m imagining there’s going to be an element to it that is like the old-school procedural show. Not necessarily case-of-the-week, but something where we go really deep into Matt Murdock the lawyer, and get to see what his life is like. If that’s done right and he really gets his hands dirty with that world… I think there’s something quite interesting about that, to spend a lot of time in a superhero’s day-to-day life and you really earn the moments when he suits up.” unquote 






DC
Fan favorite shows like Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Batman The Brave and Bold are leaving HBO Max at the end of January. It’s likely that they will end up being licensed out to other streaming services.

Superman and Lois will return to the CW on March fourteenth, picking up the story from Superman’s defeat of Ally Allston. Meanwhile, after Superman and Lois will be the premiere of Gotham Knights, which sees Batman’s adopted son turner Hays framed for his murder along with the children of some of Batman’s enemies: Duela (Olivia Rose Keegan), an unpredictable fighter and skilled thief who was born in Arkham Asylum and abandoned by her father, Harper Row (Fallon Smythe), a streetwise and acerbic engineer who can fix anything, and her brother Cullen Row (Tyler DiChiara), a clever transgender teen who is tired of being polite and agreeable.

With the charismatic and hard-charging District Attorney Harvey Dent (Misha Collins) and the GCPD hot on their trail, Turner will rely on allies including his best friend and formidable coder Stephanie Brown (Anna Lore), and unlikely Batman sidekick Carrie Kelley (Navia Robinson). But our Knights will soon learn there is a larger, more nefarious force at work within Gotham City. This team of mismatched fugitives must band together to become its next generation of saviors known as the Gotham Knights.

Star Wars
Rian Johnson, director of the Last Jedi has an answer to the racist and sexist trolls on the internet who say crap about Star Wars. Speaking with wired.com quote "It's all the same. There was a phase where the common wisdom was, 'Don't feed the trolls. Ignore it.' That's not true. You gotta shut it down, like a body fighting an infection. It was very heartening to see the huge outpouring of very vocal, 'This is not who this fanbase is.' And shoving it out. It's just so depressing. But if there's any kind of hopeful glimmer, it's the notion that these fan bases are getting wise and realizing, 'No, we gotta punch these people out.'"

The filmmaker was happy to admit that these trolls were entirely in the minority of most fandoms and also that, while not all criticisms among any fandom are rooted in hateful perspectives, it's quite obvious what motivates the more passioned attacks. Saying quote "Well, and also, that one percent tries to do this shell game where they say, 'Anyone who doesn't like the movie is a racist.' That's a bad faith argument. It's so clear," the filmmaker expressed. "We're not talking about whether you like something or whether you don't, we're talking about whether you're toxic and abusive online and whether you're an odious sexist racist." unquote 

Check out all of the Star Wars projects coming to Disney+ next year below and new details about the various series from Disney.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 - January 4, 2023
When the new season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch opens, months have passed since the events on Kamino, and the Bad Batch continues their journey navigating the Empire after the fall of the Republic. They will cross paths with friends and foes, both new and familiar, as they take on a variety of thrilling mercenary missions that will take them to unexpected and dangerous new places.

The Mandalorian Season 3 - March 2, 2023
The journeys of the Mandalorian through the Star Wars galaxy continue. Once a lone bounty hunter, Din Djarin has reunited with Grogu. Meanwhile, the New Republic struggles to lead the galaxy away from its dark history. The Mandalorian will cross paths with old allies and make new enemies as he and Grogu continue their journey together.

Star Wars: Ahsoka
Set after the fall of the Empire, Star Wars: Ahsoka follows the former Jedi knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew - 2023 TBA
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, set in the New Republic era, is about a group of kids lost in the Star Wars
galaxy trying to find their way home.

Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 - 2023 TBA
Star Wars: Visions is an animated anthology series featuring celebratory expressions of Star Wars storytelling. Seven Japanese anime studios brought their unique talents and perspective to Star Wars: Visions - Volume 1. Launching in 2023, Volume 2 will feature stories from creative teams from Chile, France, Japan, India, Ireland, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, the U.K., and the U.S. to showcase the incredible animation happening across each country and culture, through the mythos of Star Wars.

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - 2023 TBA
The first full-length animated Star Wars series created for preschoolers, early grade schoolers, and their families, these original stories will follow Younglings as they are swept off into adventures and start their journeys on the path to becoming Jedi Knights, learning valuable skills for our galaxy and the galaxy far, far away. The Jedi-in-training will tackle topics of compassion, self-discipline, teamwork, patience, and friendship.

Star Trek
In 2021, the Boston Museum of Science and the family of Leonard Nimoy announced plans to develop a memorial honoring the late Star Trek legend. The project has been seeking donations and now work can start, thanks to an anchor donation from Android, Inc. co-Founder Rich Miner.
The planned monument is a 20-foot, illuminated, stainless steel sculpture shaped in the famous “live long and prosper” Vulcan salute developed by Nimoy for Star Trek. The sculpture is designed by artist David Phillips and will be located in front of the Boston Museum of Science at Science Park. The project has a fundraising goal of $500,000 but after a year, the museum had only collected a fraction of that amount. Now thanks to a six-figure donation from Rich Miner the museum has enough to get started while continuing to fundraise.

The Boston Museum of Science and the family of Leonard Nimoy are working on developing the next phase of the Memorial project and will announce more details soon. While Miner’s generous donation is enough to get the project going, they will still need more funding to finish the project.

Those interested in donating can visit mos.org/Nimoy

Geek
Schitt’s Creek star Eugene Levy and The Orville’s Victor Garber have been named in the New Year honors list for the Order of Canada, in recognition of their achievements at home and in Hollywood.

Emmy-winning Levy received a promotion to companion of the Order of Canada, which is the highest rank in Canada’s honors system. The Canadian-born actor, also well known for his star turn in the SCTV sketch comedy series, was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2011.

Levy received the latest Order of Canada honor “for elevating the stature of Canadian television on the international stage as an acclaimed actor and producer.”
Garber, a stage and screen veteran with film credits like Argo, Milk, Titanic, Legally Blonde, The First Wives Club, and Sleepless in Seattle, and TV roles that include playing Jack Bristow on Alias, Dr. Martin Stein/Firestorm on DC Comics’ Legends of Tomorrow and Admiral Halsey on The Orville, was named as an officer of the Order of Canada. The same ranking was given to Rich Little, the Canadian-born impressionist and voice actor best known for being able to mimic the voices of former U.S. presidents and Hollywood stars like Jimmy Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Jack Nicholson.

Each year, Canadians are named to the Order of Canada ranks in recognition of their achievements. The latest appointments include Martin Katz, who produced David Cronenberg films like Spider, A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis, and Maps to the Stars, which earned Julianne Moore the best actress Palme d’Or in Cannes, being named as a member of the Order of Canada.

And NHL star Sidney Crosby was made an officer of the Order of Canada.

Box office


Actress Maggie Thrett has passed away. Maggie will best be known to Star Trek fans for playing one of the brides in the Star Trek episode Mudd’s Women.
Thrett also starred as a flower child alongside Yvette Mimieux, Christopher Jones, and Judy Pace in the sex revenge romp Three in the Attic (1968), a box office hit for indie distributor AIP.

Born Diane Pine, she was born on November eighteenth 1946 in New York CIty aND attended the High School for the Performing Arts in Manhattan and as a model appeared on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar.

In 1964, she recorded the single “Your Love Is Mine” with the B-side “Lucky Girl,” then had a minor hit a year later with the song “Soupy,” produced by Bob Crewe, best known for his work with The Four Seasons.

Crewe advised her to change her name to Maggie Thrett because “he thought it sounded British and more with it for the time,” she told author Tom Lisanti for his 2017 book, Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies.

Thrett signed with Universal Pictures and in 1966 appeared in the sci-fi film Dimension 5 and as a surfing assassin named Wipeout in the secret agent comedy Out of Sight. The year also saw her show up on television on Run for Your Life, The Wild Wild West and Star Trek.

She went on to appear in other films including The Devil’s Brigade (1968) and Cover Me Babe (1970) and on such TV shows as Cimarron Strip, The Most Deadly Game, I Dream of Jeannie, McCloud and Run, Joe, Run.

Thrett quit acting in 1974 and worked for years as a telephone operator at a hospital.

She was married to Canadian actor Donnelly Rhodes — they met on Run, Joe, Run — from 1975 until their 1977 divorce. She had no children.

Survivors include her brothers, Richard, John, Larry and Robert; nieces Trudy, Kelsey, Hayley, Samantha, Courtney, Tracey and Dianne; and nephew Chris.

Thrett died Sunday of complications from an infection at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, family members told The Hollywood Reporter. SHe was 76 years old.

British actor Stephen Greif, who appeared in such series as the BBC’s Blake’s 7, Citizen Smith and EastEnders as well as Netflix’s The Crown, has died. His representatives announced the news in a Twitter post. No cause of death was revealed. He was 78.

Greif’s long career spanned theater, television and film. Born in Hertfordshire, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to become a member of the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic and Southbank, the UK Press Association reported.

Starring on stage throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Greif segued to television and landed the role of space commander Travis in sci-fi adventure series Blake’s 7. The show ran from 1978-1981 and also starred Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating and Sally Knyvette.

Greif’s credits also included such other series as Citizen Smith, Tales of the Unexpected, Doctors, Coronation Street, The Bill and EastEnders. He also appeared in an episode of ABC’s Hart to Hart and in ABC mini-series The Last Days of Pompeii. More recently, he appeared in TNT limited series The Alienist and in Season 4 of The Crown, he portrayed Speaker of the House Sir Bernard Weatherill.

Feature credits included 2015’s The Woman in Gold, 2005’s Casanova and The Upside of Anger and 2004’s Spartan.

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