13.6 Million Likes?! Sure, if you are Jason Stratham on TikTok. And it’s the first video on a brand new account. The only video on the account so far. And you are dancing while you divulge your stats.
Looking at the comments, however, nearly 70,000 of them, a large number are asking “is this real”. Deep-fakes are most definitely real. Several accounts used Tom Cruise Deep-fake video to try to spoof an official TikTok account for the star. And a few stray clips of Brad Pit at a script reading spawned a series of fake accounts trying to look like Brad’s personal “rogue” account.
But, wait, there’s also Billie Eilish who started a “secret” personal account in November 2020 and posted some fascinatingly bizarre ukulele footage, apparently just for kicks, as she surely has no need for more publicity. The account was so unique and, well, strange, that it was hard to imagine that it could be fake.
Sure enough, yesterday what appears to be an outtake from her recent music video with some hilarious captions and stickers popped up on the, mostly dormant, account and has since gone viral. All of which pretty much cements the “it’s definitely real” theory.
As for Jason Statham? We are going to go out on a limb here and say that he is following Billie Eilish’s lead and this is a real account. The fact that there is a single video with a full body dance clip of what absolutely appears to be the star is a tip-off. Secondly if this is his head deep-faked onto someone else’s body, that’s a pretty perfect body double.
Also, the original sound mix seems to indicate that there was method that went the extra mile.
What’s your take? Send us comments or your detective results and let us know if you think this is real, like we do, or if this is just some amazing wizardry at a next level of deep-fake-ness, which thousands of comment writers on TikTok seem to believe…
In addition to Statham, he is joined by a slew of actors including: Alex Ferns, Holt McCallany, Scott Eastwood, Jeffrey Donovan, Laz Alonso, Josh Hartnett, Niamh Algar, Raúl Castillo, Post Malone, Lyne Renee, Anthony Molinari, Deobia Oparei, Tadhg Murphy, Babs Olusanmokun, Darrell D’Silva, Chris Reilly, Matthew Illesley, Rebecca Calder, Jason Wong, Alessandro Babalola, Cameron Jack, Montana Manning, Rocci Williams, Josh Cowdery, and Eve Macklin.
Two new Marvel heroes have been brought to the big and small screens that may be quite new to many people. The first is the titular character in the Disney+ series Moon Knight, starring Oscar Isaac, which is set in the main Marvel Cinematic Universe. The other is Morbius, an unlucky vampiric doctor, played by Jared Leto, who is the newest villain-turned-good-ish guy in the Sony Spider-Man Universe to get a film, after Venom.
These are stories featuring violent male anti-heroes – who are also characters fairly unknown to the general public. When the first Venom was released, The Hollywood Reporter noted: “The MCU makes it easy to be a Marvel fan without having ever read the source material”.
Morbius has not fared so well, bringing in the lowest box office numbers compared to its Spider-Man counterparts. Critics suggest that this might be due to the character’s “relative obscurity”. On the other hand, Moon Knight has garnered good reviews.
Like it or not, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is expanding and there are a whole host of new heroes making their way from the more obscure corners of the comic universe onto the screen. Here are five such characters who will be headlining new films and TV series as part of numerous forthcoming Marvel projects, from Disney’s Marvel Studios, and Sony.
1. Ms Marvel
The world’s first female, teen, Muslim superhero, Ms Marvel received a lot of praise when she made her debut in 2013 in a Captain marvel comic. Critics praised the character as a positive representation of a young Pakistani American woman who is also Muslim. This outing was so successful, the teen got her own comic the following year. She will also officially be joining Marvel’s Cinematic Universe in June 2022 with her own series on Disney+. https://www.youtube.com/embed/m9EX0f6V11Y?wmode=transparent&start=0
The series revolves around a young woman called Kamala Khan, who is a is a huge fan of superheroes. When she mysteriously gets powers, Khan is inspired by Captain Marvel to become a hero herself. Ms Marvel will be appearing alongside Captain Marvel and Photon in the 2023 film The Marvels.
Following the cinema release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, this will be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first horror themed TV show. Featuring the somewhat prosaically named Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night ran for four years in the 1970s, following a relaxation on censorship of horror comics, which allowed for the creation of Marvel’s vampire characters Blade and Morbius in the first half of the decade.
Kraven is the orphaned son of Russian aristocrats with a penchant for hunting big game. While hunting in Africa, he ends up drinking a potion that gives him superhuman strength, speed and the instincts of a jungle cat. Bored of hunting animals he sets his sights on larger prey, Spider-Man.
Kraven first appeared in comics as Spider-Man’s foe in 1964. The maniacal hunter will be the third villain to lead a live-action Spider-Verse film. However, unlike Venom and Morbius before him, Kraven is not known in the comics for performing good deeds, so it will be an interesting challenge for Marvel to make an anti-hero of the artistocrat.
Kraven rarely appears without Spider-Man in the comics so Sony have set themselves a challenge to flesh out the hunter in a film where his nemesis doesn’t appear. Kraven will be played by Aaron-Taylor Johnson, who is no stranger to a tight suit, having previously played the low-rent superhero Kick Ass in two films.
5. Silk
The first Spider-Man Sony universe TV show will feature Cindy Moon, a female student bitten by the same radioactive spider that gave Spider-Man his abilities. However, unlike Peter Parker who was left to swing around New York and discover his new powers, Moon was kidnapped and held in a bunker for 13 years.
With Sony’s films only apparently allowing for Spider-Man to be shown or discussed in their end credit scenes, it will be interesting to see how Silk deals with the heroine’s creation without any mention of Spidey – unless given permission by Disney to do so. There has been speculation that Sony may revive Andrew Garfield’s incarnation of the character in the future, so time will tell how Silk proceeds.
Ghost Rider just celebrated its 50th anniversary. As a way to commemorate the date, Marvel Comics released a brand new on-going series from Benjamin Percy (responsible for works including Wolverine and X-Force) and artist Cory Smith (who has worked on Captain Marvel and Conan the Barbarian comics). The first installment of there series is now available for purchase as of February 23, 2022.
The date also coincides closely with the 15th anniversary and 10th anniversary of the theatrical releases of Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance both played by actor Nicolas Cage.
The first page insert of the comic teases “When innocent blood is spilled, a spirit of vengeance is born and JOHNNY BLAZE finds himself transformed!” An official trailer previewing the comic was also released for readers that includes plenty of violence, twisted demons and raring flames:
There have been rumors that the main character, Johnny Blaze, would make his MCU debut in the upcoming sequel of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Time will tell, as it is slated for a theatrical release in May 2022.
Looking at the cast alone, is likely to turn out to be a must watch. With the writers and directors behind “Anchorman” and “Step Brothers” the film can’t not turn out to be hilarious!
The premise is a trending theme: doom and hopeless dystopian futures; this time there is a comet that will collide with Earth. Two astronomers (Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo Di Caprio) discover the problem, but the twist is, no one actually believes the news. Sound familiar? Just ask the Climate deniers and antivaxxers out there…
The impressive cast boasts a gaggle of untra-high-profile names including: Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Ron Perlman, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Cate Blanchett, and Tyler Perry.
The comedy will have a theatrical release on December 10th and quickly be available to stream on Netflix starting on December 24th ( as a little Christmas eve gift for the rest of us, apparently).
Trickster god Loki, show dedicated to the brother of Thor
Spinoff series from Marvel out today is Loki, which will premiere on, where else, Disney+ , originally slated to start June 11, 2021 is is now available with a new episode coming each Wednesday. The only way to watch Loki on Disney, currently, is via subscription. In the new trailer below Tom Hiddleston appears as the title character and the clip reveals just a bit more about his new role.
Taking place in a Marvel-esque alternative universe, with a shadow of Umbrella Academy attitude we see Loki approached by Mobius, embodied by the inimitable Owen Wilson, the upshot helps to put right the timeline that was disturbed via the Tesseract influence from The Infinity Saga
Loki takes the Marvel universe into yet another version of alternative directions, and yet it manages to feel fully believable within its own invented genre.
The first sneak peak trailer for Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” has dropped welcoming the next epic Superhero movie. The film is based on the comics of the same name that follow a group of eclectic god-like beings from another planet, an immortal race that have been on Earth living secretly for thousands of years. The heroes team up in order to protect humanity from a new threat, one of mankind’s oldest enemy, The Deviants.
Massive amounts of eyeballs watched the “Eternals” trailer, 77 million global views within the first 24 hours, which reportedly now marks the highest numbers for a Disney movie during the past 14 months.
The Academy Award winning director of “Nomadland” Chloe Zhao will direct and also co-wrote the screenplay for the upcoming movie.
The new team of Super Hereoes as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) will be the third Phase 4 movie and will boase major star power including: Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Gemma Chan, Kit Harington, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Barry Keoghan and Brian Tyree Henry
Check out the official first-look trailer for Marvel Studios’ “Eternals”:
Building to a climax? A tough road but Black Widow still has potential to be worth the wait…
A year since the first potential release window and various delays, and after a launch postponement from May to July, finally this new trailer is released, and is designed, it would appear, to keep the anticipation, suspense and interest in the future blockbuster in waiting.
Since this has to be the real and bonafide date we can confirm it here: “Black Widow” will hit theaters and Disney+ on July 9th, 2021.
“Black Widow is directed by Cate Shortland and was written by Eric Pearson from a story conceived by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson. Starring, as is well known, Scarlett Johansson, reprising Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, along with Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, and Rachel Weisz.
Set sometime after the Captain America: Civil War epoch, which had Natasha on the run from the government and dealing with her personal spy history, and the many personal changes since she became an Avenger.
Natasha’s voiceover sets the stage as the trailer begins, while flashbacks to previous movies are cross-cut beneath — and the focus on her secrets and mysterious past are intoned:
“You don’t know everything about me, I’ve lived a lot of lives,” she says. “Before I was an Avenger. Before I got this family. I made mistakes choosing between what the world wants you to be, and who you are.”
Dialog from new “Black Widow” Trailer
Synopsis: “In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.”
Above Suspicion will open in US cinemas and on-demand on May 14. A UK release date is not yet confirmed.
During the 2021 Disney+ Winter TCA Press Conference, the panel unloaded some major content coming to the streaming platform this spring. Just coming this March, there will be no shortage of content to choose from; a handful of new TV shows and movies, a Premiere Access movie debut and a season finale.
Kicking off the month, on March 5, “Raya and the Last Dragon” the theatrical release/Premier Access animated movie inspired by Southeast Asian folklore. The movie will not be available under the base tier for Disney+ subscribers as there will be an additional charge for access for those subscribers.
Rest assured, there are also many more on the way, with a preview, below, of free-with-subscription new TV shows and movies coming soon.
Next up are for all those Superhero fans, particularly the Avengers , we can look forward to the upcoming “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “Marvel Studios: Legends” and (crying) the season finale of “WandaVision”.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – March 19:
The new series will premiere March 19, 2021 a spinoff starring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan as their reprised roles of The Falcon and Bucky Barnes. The show will follow the events from “Avengers: Endgame”.
Marvel Studios: Legends – March 12:
The series will feature different characters in the Marvel Universe and debut on March 12, 2021.
“WandaVision” fans, no need to fret, aside from Wanda and Vision kicking off the first episode of “Legends” there will also be more content with Wanda, Vision and Agnes a week after the finale (March 5th with “Assembled: The Making of WandaVision” showcasing behind-the-scenes on the inspiration and challenges of the show.
Mighty Ducks: Game Changer – March 26:
Also dropping at the end of March, the moving picking up on the iconic blast from the past movie “Mighty Ducks”. Emilio Estevez is back as Coach Gordon Bombay to lead a whole new group of skaters in “Game Changers”.
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Much to look forward to in May and June 2021
Other exciting streaming titles that Disney+ recently dropped include premiere dates coming later in the spring including “StarWars: The Bad Batch” coming May 4th and Marvel Studio’ “Loki” staring June 11.