San Diego Comic Con is always a hotbed of news, and day one brought a ton of Marvel news – keep reading to see what the House of Ideas was up to on July 20th.
-Yesterday at SDCC Marvel piled on a heavy list of new series coming this fall at it’s Marvel’s “Next Big Thing” panel. Among the other pap, we learned that Ed Piskor (“Hip Hop Family Tree,” “American Splendor: Our Movie Year”) will be writing and drawing “X-Men Grand Design” a new book which takes a look at the legacy (get it) of the X-family throughout the decades. Each of the 6 issues will condense an entire decade worth of X-Men history, no small feat but one Piskor is no doubt up for given his experience condensing Hip-Hop history in “Hip-Hop Family Tree.” “X-Men Grand Design” will debut this fall as part of Marvel’s Legacy initiative.
-Among the other ‘Next Big Thing’ announcements was news that newly signed Marvel exclusive writer Donny Cates (“God Country,” “Babyteeth”) will be the new writer of “Thanos” starting with issue #11. He will be working with his frequent collaborator artist Geoff Shaw (“Buzzkill,” “The Paybacks”) on the book. We also learned more about the previously announced Doctor Strange series Cates will be writing with artist Gabriel Walta (“Vision,” “Magneto”) from the panel, like the fact that Loki is the new sorcerer supreme in the book.
-In addition to that news, the panel also reminded everyone that the first issue of the sequel to the Kaare Andrews (“Renato Jones: The One %,” “Spider-Man: Reign”) series “Iron Fist: The Living Weapon” was available right now (yes RIGHT now) on Comixology. The six-part miniseries, titled “Immortal Iron Fists,” is a part of a new line of digital-first titles Marvel will be releasing through Comixology. The series will be written by Andrews, who wrote and drew the first series in 2014, with art by Afu Chan (“Halogen,” “Spera”). Future titles for the digital-first line have yet to be announced.
-Award winning young adult novelist Jason Reynolds (“When I Was the Greatest,” “As Brave as You”) has been announced as the writer for a new Miles Morales Spider-Man YA novel coming out August 1. The book called “Miles Morales: Spider-Man” will explore Miles relationship with his private school teachers, casual racism, his family’s criminal background and a dastardly plot that endangers his school scholarship, his neighborhood, and his friends.
– Hulu unexpectedly announced yesterday that their Runaways series, based on the Marvel comic of the same name, will be debuting earlier than previously stated. Originally the series was set for a 2018 release date but will now be debuting November 21. This will work out nicely with the previously announced “Runaways” comic reboot debuting which hits shelves just a few months on September 13 prior to the show’s debut.
-Saïd Taghmaoui (Lost, American Hustle) has been cast as the X-Men villain Amal Farouk aka the Shadow King in the upcoming season 2 of the FX show Legion. Although the Shadow King appears in various forms over the course of the first season, taking over Jemaine Clement’s (Flight of the Concords, What We Do in the Shadows) character Oliver Bird at the end of the season, we never actually meet Farouk himself just apparitions of the character. This won’t be Taghmaoui’s first time playing a comic book adaption, he previously played Sameer in Wonder Woman. Season 2 of Legion has been set for release in 2018.
-And hey while we are on the subject of Legion, showrunner Noah Hawley (Bones, Fargo) let slip during their SDCC panel that he is working on a Doctor Doom film at FOX studios. Sources say that Hawley is aiming to direct the film and that’s about all the information that’s come out so far, but if FOX’s previous two Fantastic Four franchises are any indication this film will no doubt win Oscars, Golden Globes and Teen Choice awards galore come award season and totally revolutionize the superhero genre like some sort of superhero Citizen Kane.
-Progress on FOX’s Gambit film has been slow going for some time now; however, star Channing Tatum (Magic Mike, 21 Jump Street) confirmed yesterday that he is still attached to star as everyone’s favorite Cajun mutant and that he is already working on the film. This is good news for the film after director Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Jumper) left the project earlier this year due to a lack of “personal connection” to the character. No official release date has been set for the film but shooting is expected to begin in 2019.
