Welcome to Multiverse News, your source for information about all your favorite fictional universes.
Marvel Studios appears to have found the leader of its new mutant team, as Deadline reported last week that Heartstopper and Warfare star Kit Connor has landed the role of Scott Summers, better known as Cyclops, in the future MCU X-Men film. Sources say Connor went through much the same process as Samara Weaving, who was attached as Emma Frost the week prior, meeting with Schreier and Marvel president Kevin Feige alongside a group of candidates who tested after the July 4th holiday before the studio settled on him. Neither Marvel nor Connor has confirmed the casting, and the film, written by Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The Bear co-creator Joanna Calo, still has no release date. Cyclops has been played on screen before by James Marsden and Tye Sheridan, with Marsden set to reprise the role in December’s Avengers: Doomsday.
Sony and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day crossed the one-billion-dollar mark overseas in just twelve days of release, making it the second-fastest film ever to reach that number abroad behind Avengers: Endgame. The Destin Daniel Cretton film now stands at $1.67 billion worldwide, split between $654.3 million domestically and $1.013 billion internationally, which makes it the twelfth highest-grossing movie of all time and only the sixteenth ever to clear a billion in foreign markets alone. Universal had a milestone of its own to celebrate, as Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey passed $1.1 billion worldwide to become the highest-grossing film of his career ahead of The Dark Knight Rises, while also becoming the biggest IMAX release ever with $289 million, and it still has China to open on Friday.
James Gunn spent part of a Threads session last week putting down one of the most persistent rumors surrounding Matt Reeves’ Batman trilogy, telling a fan who asked whether The Batman Part III was being filmed simultaneously with Part II simply, “I can deny.” The theory had gained steam over years of delays, most recently when a redesigned Part II logo appeared to work a Roman numeral III into the artwork, and it offered fans a tidy explanation for why the sequel has taken so long to arrive. In reality, Part II only began principal photography in London in June, and Warner Bros. has already pushed the film from October 2027 to February 18, 2028.
Sony and Nintendo’s live-action The Legend of Zelda has cast Australian actor Uli Latukefu as Ganondorf under a multi-picture deal, with Severance’s Dichen Lachman playing Impa and The Handmaid’s Tale’s Yvonne Strahovski reported as a queen character. The late Sam Neill also filmed an undisclosed role before his death on July 13, marking one of the final screen performances of his career.
Gareth Edwards has exited Universal and Amblin’s untitled Jurassic World Rebirth sequel over creative differences, with the studios now searching for a replacement; David Koepp’s script is finished and Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey are all still expected back for a 2027 shoot.
A24 released the full trailer for Primetime, the Lance Oppenheim drama that Robert Pattinson produces and stars in as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, in theaters September 25.
Lionsgate has confirmed that Michael 2 is targeting a production start toward the end of this year or in early 2027, with the sequel to this year’s Michael Jackson biopic aiming for a 2028 release.
Lionsgate is also developing a new Leprechaun film written by horror veterans Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, reviving a franchise that ran eight movies between 1993 and 2018.
Nicholas Hoult has been cast in season 2 of HBO’s Harry Potter series as Gilderoy Lockhart, a major character in The Chamber of Secrets that was portrayed by Kenneth Branagh in the 2002 film adaptation.
