Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2, 2019) [ENDGAME SPOILERS ALLOWED!] (1 Viewer)

[Sean Bryan]

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, entertainment reporters publishing articles is not the same as a studio making an announcement.

 

[Carabimero]

As far as me being absolutely wrong, we'll only know that if a Dr. Strange sequel never comes out. Otherwise, I will be correct in that it was announced in the trades.

Has there been an official press release? No. But I never said there was. The point I was trying to make remains legit: the information in the public domain about the upcoming Dr. Strange movie should have been delayed till after ENDGAME.

I don't think Sony can be blamed for this one.

 

[Jake Lipson]

You're correct. Sony can't be blamed for Doctor Strange. They have nothing to do with Doctor Strange.

But the production pipeline exists. Unless Marvel wants to shut down everything they're doing and not make any movies for the next year, we're going to hear about projects that they have in development by the nature of contracts being signed and the trades doing their jobs. And if Marvel did shut down production on everything they were doing following Infinity War, then it would take a while to start up again and we wouldn't have films ready to be seen in 2020. No one wants the MCU to be gone that long, least of all Disney.

Also, anyone who believes the deaths from Infinity War will stick is kidding themselves. Putting aside the comic book sources, which I haven't read, there's just no way that Disney would snuff out the box office potential of all those characters who died. They like making money too much for that.

 

[TravisR]

Also, anyone who believes the deaths from Infinity War will stick is kidding themselves. Putting aside the comic book sources, which I haven't read, there's just no way that Disney would snuff out the box office potential of all those characters who died. They like making money too much for that.

Exactly. If more than 3 characters are still dead after Avengers 4, I'll be shocked. And if, say, Robert Downey or Chris Evans are done with these movies and Tony Stark or Steve Rogers die then a new character will become the new Iron Man or Captain America so everyone can keep making money from those characters.

 

[Sean Bryan]

As far as me being absolutely wrong, we'll only know that if a Dr. Strange sequel never comes out. Otherwise, I will be correct in that it was announced in the trades.

Has there been an official press release? No. But I never said there was.

Dude. You completely missed my point. Of course there will be a sequel to Doctor Strange. He is a cool newer character and there have been reports of Hiring’s for the start of work on the film. Reports, scooped by entertainment reporters. Not an announcement by Marvel.

I’m talking about their being an official announcement by Marvel, for which there has been none. And yes, you did say you were “pretty sure” there was. That was the whole point of this exchange. Your statement “It's hard to take certain deaths seriously, as we were told to take them, when they're announcing movies like Spidey and Strange.” implied that Spidey and Strange have been similarly “announced”. Jake correctly pointed out that Strange has not been announced and you replied that you were pretty sure it was. I further corrected you. That’s it. There’s no debate about where’re there will be a sequel.

Spidey obviously has been announced by Sony, has been discussed openly by Marvel, and is being marketed. There have been no “announcements” about Strange. There have been reports of leaked info. Entertainment trades doing their thing has nothing to do with what the studio would want fans to know at this time.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Also, anyone who believes the deaths from Infinity War will stick is kidding themselves. Putting aside the comic book sources, which I haven't read, there's just no way that Disney would snuff out the box office potential of all those characters who died. They like making money too much for that.

It's kind of like wondering whether Spock was going to be alive in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

And what made Star Trek III “work” was that a price was exacted. At least one that affected the characters in the moment. I expect a similar grocery bill at the end of “Endgame,” otherwise it’s all a cheat.

 

[Carabimero]

Dude. You completely missed my point. Of course there will be a sequel to Doctor Strange. He is a cool newer character and there have been reports of Hiring’s for the start of work on the film. Reports, scooped by entertainment reporters. Not an announcement by Marvel.

I’m talking about their being an official announcement by Marvel, for which there has been none. And yes, you did say you were “pretty sure” there was. That was the whole point of this exchange. Your statement “It's hard to take certain deaths seriously, as we were told to take them, when they're announcing movies like Spidey and Strange.” implied that Spidey and Strange have been similarly “announced”. Jake correctly pointed out that Strange has not been announced and you replied that you were pretty sure it was. I further corrected you. That’s it. There’s no debate about where’re there will be a sequel.

Spidey obviously has been announced by Sony, has been discussed openly by Marvel, and is being marketed. There have been no “announcements” about Strange. There have been reports of leaked info. Entertainment trades doing their thing has nothing to do with what the studio would want fans to know at this time.

I'm trying to make a point about ENDGAME being spoiled, and you're quibbling about your interpretation of the word "announced." Whether it's been announced officially or not (and I never said it was announced officially) doesn't matter. There is no longer any suspense about the fate of Dr. Strange.

That was my point. You're the one who chose to kick up a dust storm and make it about something else.

This is the number one thing that bugs me about message boards: Person One tries to make a point. Person Two hijacks the point by splitting hairs about something else entirely that has nothing to do with the validity of The Point.

The suspense about whether Strange lives or not has been spoiled. Period.

If you'd like to present evidence supporting the belief that the fate of Dr. Strange hasn't been spoiled, then we can have a worthwhile conversation. But if you want to quibble about what the word "announced" means, you're on your own.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I don't think there was ever any suspense about the fate of Doctor Strange, or anyone else who died in the snap. Comic books kill off characters who then get resurrected all the time. Even I know that and I don't read comic books. If you want to know who comes back and how, there's a comic book about that which they may or may not follow. If you don't want to read it, that's fine, but it's still there. This is an adaptation of an existing work.

And then there's the financial side of it. Like I said, Disney was never going to allow the box office potential of all those dead characters to go to waste, especially since most of the characters who have been killed are ones whose actors have multiple films left on their contracts.

To me, the cliffhanger of Infinity War was much more about how the Avengers will go about fixing Thanos' victory, rather than if it will happen.

What you're asking for -- a situation where absolutely no information comes out about upcoming projects -- is simply impossible unless Marvel wanted to shut down all of their production operations for a year in between the release of Infinity War and Endgame. It was never going to happen.

Kevin Feige knows this. He knew, as did everyone working on Infinity War, that Sony was going to stick to a July release date for Far From Home, and he knew that that would mean they'd need to promote it prior to April 26. He knew that if he made a deal with Scott Derrickson to direct Doctor Strange 2, the trades would report it, which they did. There is a distinction between Marvel announcing a release date and the trades announcing a deal for a project, but Feige knew the trades would do their job and report news -- which, after all, is their job.

I've said before and I'll say again: If Marvel wanted to prevent any news of any kind from leaking out in between Infinity War and Endgame, they should have gone with a shorter gap of time between the releases of those films (like, say, when The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions opened in May and November 2003, respectively.) They did not do this, and it's fine for them not to have done it, but it's simply unrealistic to expect the rest of the industry to pretend for a year that there aren't MCU films being written and getting ready for production.

 

[Carabimero]

I don't think there was ever any suspense about the fate of Doctor Strange, or anyone else who died in the snap.

I disagree. The show runners told us they were "treating these deaths seriously." I'm into willing suspension of disbelief. But even if you throw all that out, there was always the chance Cumberbatch couldn't or didn't want to do another Strange movie and so his death in Infinity War was real.

I choose not to be jaded. I choose to have fun with this incredible franchise as long as I can. And in the case of Strange and Spidey, my fun was spoiled.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I for one believed it to be entirely plausible that the highly in-demand Benedict Cumberbatch was unwilling or unable to commit to a massive contract with Marvel, and that his character would not be on a ten year ride. I also found it possible that he could have indeed signed to be around for a long period of time. But it was entirely believable to me that someone of his stature was willing to do the role on more limited terms than a lesser known actor.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Like I said above, the solution to avoid leaks would be to release the films closer together than a year. It wouldn't be an issue in terms of spoilers for Sony to put Spidey in July if Endgame had come out prior to Sony's marketing needing to begin.

This is what happens when Marvel is a unit of Disney, which also has other films from other studios jockeying for prime release dates. Endgame was always slotted to come a year after Infinity War, and I don't know whether or not that could have been shuffled because Disney has obligations to other divisions (Ralph and Mary Poppins this past holiday season for example.) I also realize that they had to put Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel in between. But back when it was decided to do (essentially) a two-part Avengers film, before all of the scheduling was worked out, they could have made a different call as far as how much time was separating the two films on the release calendar.

They didn't. So, by not doing that, they accepted that this sort of thing would happen. It's how the industry works.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'm trying to make a point about ENDGAME being spoiled, and you're quibbling about your interpretation of the word "announced." Whether it's been announced officially or not (and I never said it was announced officially) doesn't matter. There is no longer any suspense about the fate of Dr. Strange.

I think the key point Sean's trying to make is one of responsibility: If Disney/Marvel had put out a press release announcing the Doctor Strange sequel, they would be responsible for spoiling Endgame.

But Disney/Marvel is not responsible if the terms of Scott Derrickson's deal leaked to the trades, and they reported on it. They surely knew that that was a probability, but these movies also take a long time to ramp up so they couldn't afford to wait until Endgame came out to start locking down assets for the future of the MCU.

Otherwise, there would have been a 2-3 year dry spell in the Marvel pipeline, which would be problematic in terms of creative momentum and disastrous for Disney's bottom line.

 

[Carabimero]

I've worked in the entertainment industry thirty years. I understand all these things.

My entire beef started when the discussion became about whether there had been an official announcement or not. I never said there was. Usually things are leaked way before they become official. That's how it works.

My position is, given the extraordinary circumstances of INFINITY WAR and END GAME, and the ten-year buildup, I would like to have seen some extraordinary measures taken to keep the STRANGE deal quiet. It can be done. I've seen it done. But the collective will has to be there to do it.

 

[TonyD]

This is about as ridiculous a topic of conversation as can be.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My position is, given the extraordinary circumstances of INFINITY WAR and END GAME, and the ten-year buildup, I would like to have seen some extraordinary measures taken to keep the STRANGE deal quiet. It can be done. I've seen it done. But the collective will has to be there to do it.

Someone talked, because they wanted to make themselves seem bigger in a quiet moment. I don't think anyone on Disney's side has any incentive to do so. I don't think Derrickson would have done it himself. I wouldn't be utterly shocked if it was revealed that the leak was from Derrickson's agency. They would probably have the most to gain for this news coming out early, since they could say to prospective clients, "Hey, look at this big deal we just got, don't you want to sign with us?"

 

[Sean Bryan]

I think the key point Sean's trying to make is one of responsibility: If Disney/Marvel had put out a press release announcing the Doctor Strange sequel, they would be responsible for spoiling Endgame.

But Disney/Marvel is not responsible if the terms of Scott Derrickson's deal leaked to the trades, and they reported on it. They surely knew that that was a probability, but these movies also take a long time to ramp up so they couldn't afford to wait until Endgame came out to start locking down assets for the future of the MCU.

Otherwise, there would have been a 2-3 year dry spell in the Marvel pipeline, which would be problematic in terms of creative momentum and disastrous for Disney's bottom line.

Thank you Adam. That’s the point I tried to make but apparently it just went overhead.

 

[Carabimero]

This is about as ridiculous a topic of conversation as can be.

I don't think it's a ridiculous conversation at all. There isn't one point that has been made by anyone that's ridiculous. They're all good points. I just don't think the point anybody is trying to make is the same point. That doesn't mean they're ridiculous. Or even useless. On the contrary, I'm hoping this exchange has taught me what NOT to do in a post next time to start these dominoes falling.

 

[Jake Lipson]

In order to get this thread back to Spider-Man....

What forced personal connection to Peter Parker will Mysterio have in this film? It seems like Peter is incapable of coming up against a villain in one of these movies who he's not in some way related to (either by blood or by association with that person) when he's not in the mask.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Maybe, for once, they’ll avoid that approach. It sure would be refreshing.