To 3D Or Not To 3D: Buy The Right Captain Marvel Ticket

To 3D Or Not To 3D: Buy The Right Captain Marvel Ticket

Nick Fury sent out a mysterious and desperate page in the end-credits scene of Avengers: Infinity War and at long last we get to meet the hero he called out to in the eleventh-hour with his retrofuturist pager. Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers is making her cinematic debut in Captain Marvel and getting us up to speed on her origin before she hopefully shows up to provide some support in Avengers: Endgame. And like all big screen superheroes, you can enjoy Captain Marvel in 3D.

If you want to know how Captain Marvel stacks up as a film, you can check out our official review. Here, we’re discussing whether you should put on a pair of 3D glasses to go along with your neon windbreaker, Nirvana t-shirt and LA Lights sneakers as you journey back to the 1990s for Captain Marvel. Can you reach out and pet Goose? Does Nick Fury’s eyeball come flying out of the screen? Read on to find out what ticket you should buy for Captain Marvel.

Superhero movies with all their special effects and action are particularly well-suited to a 3D presentation and that holds true for Marvel’s first female-led superhero movie. As you’ve seen from the trailers, Captain Marvel has all kinds of action, from hand-to-hand combat to car chases to dogfights to space battles and that all makes it a very good fit for a 3D presentation. The only reason this is not a “5” is because the film isn’t quite a brightly-colored feast as something like Thor: Ragnarok or an animated movie and it also has a fair amount that takes place on the ground that doesn’t beg for 3D.

Captain Marvel may be a great fit for 3D, but I don’t think this conversion was a huge priority for Marvel. That’s not to say that it’s bad, it’s just doesn’t take full advantage of the format. The lack of images coming off the screen in particular was noticeable and there were no real standout sequences in the film where the 3D really shined. The fact that the live-action film did so well with the brightness is admirable, but it feels like Marvel just gave Captain Marvel a light dusting of 3D magic versus really taking the time to really make it dazzle. But maybe that was the intent.

This is the element of Captain Marvel’s 3D presentation that I found the most lacking, at least from a frequency of use perspective. I don’t necessarily need objects, or in this case photon blasts, flying off the screen and into my lap, but I was expecting a bit more to take place in front of the screen than actually did. There were actually several instances where given the action that was taking place, I was anticipating a very noticeable use of this technology that would wow the senses but those moments passed without much 3D effect at all. Times when the environments and the action did stretch off the screen were done well, like during the third act and when Carol gets her powers, they just were few and far between compared to what I would expect for the material.

Many of the best uses of 3D, particularly in live-action, incorporate the technology to provide depth to the image, to make it feel as though you can walk through the screen to knuckle up a Skrull wearing an old lady suit along with Carol Danvers. Captain Marvel does this well, but it is not as pronounced as some of the very best uses of the technology. Marvel seemed to be going with a less-is-more approach. Focus is deep and crisp throughout, but the depth didn’t quite reach the levels that the best 3D films do. What the depth of the image did do though was to give a nice punch to the image, making it really pop no matter what was on screen. Simply put, it looked good.

Live-action movies often falter in this category compared to their animated counterparts but I can happily say that Captain Marvel succeeds with flying colors. The image was bright throughout and I never found myself squinting or struggling with the dimming effect of the 3D glasses. There are a few notable scenes in Captain Marvel, particularly in the beginning and the end that are definitely on the dark side but, having seen the film in both 2D and 3D, I can safely say that the dark scenes in the 3D version are no harder to distinguish. Your mileage may vary of course depending on what type of 3D screening you see and the theater and projector itself. For what it’s worth I saw this in a premium format and overall I was quite impressed with the brightness.

Here is where the light touch of the 3D in Captain Marvel was particularly apparent. When you take your glasses off and the image looks blurry, that means a lot of image manipulation is taking place. When I took my glasses off periodically throughout different scenes in Captain Marvel, the image looked relatively normal other than the color shift. That means that the 3D effect was fairly minor. Given what I saw, you could probably watch the 3D presentation without wearing the glasses and you wouldn’t have any trouble making out what is going on nor would you suffer from any eyestrain.

The score here in many ways reflects the implementation of the film’s 3D and for me personally, this was a smooth presentation. Despite Carol Danvers pulling absurd g-forces at times, no barf bag is necessary for Captain Marvel. The crispness of the image resulted in no real eyestrain. That and the subtle nature of the 3D effect, even during the fight scenes where the camera was moving everywhere, meant that I didn’t feel any disorientation from the 3D. This is a subjective measurement but the 3D effect just isn’t intense enough here to give problems and I would wager that people who usually get nauseous with 3D might be fine with Captain Marvel.

This is a tough movie to judge because the 3D wasn’t bad; the 3D that was there was solid, there just wasn’t a lot of it. It won’t satiate the biggest lovers of 3D but it isn’t diminished by the format as some conversions are. I don’t think a 3D ticket is necessary for Captain Marvel in the way it was for the must see in 3D Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse or (I would argue) Alita: Battle Angel. If you do go to a 3D screening, especially in a premium format, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed because the image quality was top notch with a bright presentation and nice depth. Captain Marvel just isn’t a 3D movie, it’s a movie that happens to be in 3D.

Be sure to check out our full To 3D Or Not To 3D Archive.

New Mutants: What We Know So Far

New Mutants: What We Know So Far

The X-Men franchise is seriously expanding. It's true that we will no longer see any more Wolverine movies, but thanks to the success of Deadpool, 20th Century Fox has started developing big plans for the future of its flagship comic book series. A huge part of this equation is the New Mutants film that has been in development for a couple of years, and now that project is less than a year away from release. But what exactly is New Mutants? The answer to that question is what we're here to provide.

As we do with all major upcoming releases, the following What We Know So Far guide has been constructed as a means of collecting all of the information that is currently available about the New Mutants movie. When is it coming out? Who is directing it? Who are the main characters? We address all of those queries and more below, so read on... but first, give the teaser trailer a watch!

What Is The New Mutants Release Date?

While 2017 marked the first year that Marvel Studios had three comic book movies in theaters, 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise was trying not to lag too far behind. The studio announced plans to have their own trio of blockbusters in 2018 -- with the first on the docket being New Mutants, which had a release date of April 13, 2018. Unfortunately, two big scheduling changes in early 2018 lead to New Mutants getting pushing back twice by the studio by the time early April rolled around. First, the film was pushed to February 22, 2019. Then, a couple of months later, the horror-themed superhero film was delayed again, this time until August 2019. The 1990s-set X-Men: Dark Phoenix was also moved into 2019, meaning that the only X-movie fans will see in 2018 will be David Leitch's Deadpool 2.

While an August debut might seem a bit late to capture the attention of comic book movie fans, let's remember that Guardians of the Galaxy hits screens on August 1, 2014, and matching the success of that film would certainly be considered a big win for The New Mutants.

What Is The New Mutants Rating?

Unlike the other major comic book movie franchises, the X-Men titles are the first to really experiment when it comes to exploration of different ratings. Most of these films stick to PG-13 as a way of ensuring that teenage fans can buy tickets, but both Deadpool and Logan have proven that there is a whole lot of money to be made making these titles strictly for adults. Because of these successes, it's entirely suspected that 20th Century Fox will continue making R-rated superhero flicks for many years to come... but it doesn't look like The New Mutants will be one of them.

The MPAA doesn't actually hand down a movie's rating until the nearly-completed product is getting ready to arrive in theaters, but there hasn't been any indication that The New Mutants will be aiming for a restricted label. As we will get into later in this article, the film is expected to feature a few shocks and scares, but signs have been pointing to this blockbuster getting made with audiences 13 and older in mind.

Who Is The New Mutants Director?

Looking at the past work of director Josh Boone, you might not necessarily pin him as the director of the next great superhero blockbuster. After all, he made his directorial debut in 2012 with the romantic comedy Stuck In Love, and primarily found himself garnering a lot of attention for his 2014 hit cancer drama The Fault In Our Stars. It turns out, however, that Boone is actually a big-time comic book fan, and utilized that passion to land the New Mutants directing gig.

Josh Boone first became attached to the X-Men blockbuster when it was first announced back in May of 2015, and has been working towards getting it made ever since (with only his plans to adapt Stephen King's The Stand serving as a distraction). Now, however, he has cleared his schedule, and is using 2017 as his year to bring The New Mutants to life on the big screen.

Danielle Moonstar a.k.a. Mirage

It was revealed in November 2016 that the New Mutants movie would adapt one of the comic series' most notable arcs, The Demon Bear -- and from this we can glean that Danielle Moonstar will be the central character in the upcoming film. And while we don't yet know who will be playing the mutant heroine in Josh Boone's blockbuster, we can get a solid idea of what to expect from the movie in general by exploring Moonstar's role in the story.

Danielle Moonstar is a Native American mutant with a number of impressive mental powers -- including telepathy and psionic abilities -- but they manifested in a rather horrific way when she was a young girl. Specifically, she caught a psychic glimpse of her parents being killed by a demonic bear -- and then a few weeks later both her mom and dad disappeared. She was taken in by her magically-inclined grandfather, Black Eagle, and while she continued to have nightmares about the Demon Bear, they were kept at bay thanks to Black Eagle's spells.

These horrific dreams return to Moonstar during her tenure as a member of the New Mutants team, but rather than repressing them, she prepares to take on the evil ursine. Unfortunately for her, this horrific entity proves to be far more than she can face by herself, and she turns to her teammates to assist her in her battle.

It was only just about a week before the start of production on New Mutants that the film cast its star to play Danielle Moonstar, but at least they got it done under the wire. In early July 2017, it was reported that the comic book movie blockbuster had hired newcomer Blu Hunt to take on the key role in the 2018 flick. The film will actually be her big screen debut, though she does have some notable experience in that she plays a recurring role on the CW series The Originals.

Rahne Sinclair a.k.a. Wolfsbane

Thanks to Mystique and Beast in previous X-Men movies, fans have seen plenty of mutants who have the ability to physically transform on the big screen... but Wolfsbane's particular power is a tad more traditional than what we've seen. After all, she is basically a mutant lycanthrope -- able to either turn herself into a human/wolf hybrid or go full wolf-mode.

Like most of the New Mutants team, Wolfsbane a.k.a. Rahne Sinclair was created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, and her backstory involves a strictly religious upbringing in Scotland that was followed by horrific persecution. She was nearly burned at the stake, but was rescued and eventually adopted by Moira MacTaggert (who was played by Rose Byrne in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Apocalypse). Sadly, at this stage we don't know how much of this narrative will find its way into the New Mutants movie.

What we do know, however, is the identity of the actress who will be playing the first live-action version of Wolfsbane. It was reported all the way back in April 2016 that Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams was being considered for the part, and Josh Boone basically confirmed the casting himself in February 2017 by posting concept art of a part-wolf Williams. Considering that the writer/director has been discussing the horror elements of the movie he wants to make, hopefully we can expect some very cool transformation sequences.

Illyana Rasputin a.k.a. Magik

Actress Anya Taylor-Joy caught a lot of people's attention extremely fast thanks to her fantastic performance in the 2015 indie horror movie The Witch, and her star has only been rising ever since. She played the lead role in M. Night Shyamalan's 2017 hit Split -- and now she is confirmed to be a part of her second superhero franchise. It has been confirmed that Taylor-Joy will be playing Magik a.k.a. Illyana Rasputin in Josh Boone's New Mutants.

If that last name looks familiar (beyond the notorious Russian mystic), it's because Magik is actually the younger sister of Piotr Rasputin a.k.a. the metal-covered mutant Colossus. They grew up together in Russia, though Illyana was kidnapped and brought to the United States when she was only six years old. It was after her rescue that she was first brought to the X-Mansion - though she spent most of her adolescence in the Limbo dimension being trained in the ways of magic and combat.

It was after leaving the Limbo dimension that she returned to Earth and joined the New Mutants (she was 10 years older than when she left, but no time had passed since her departure). In addition to her learned skills, her mutant power allows her to teleport -- though what sets her apart from, say, Nightcrawler, is that she can teleport through both space and time, both future and past. It's not a power that's easily controlled, and significant screw-ups have occurred -- but that should just make for great story fodder in the New Mutants movie.

Bobby da Costa a.k.a. Sunspot

Most of the characters who will make up the titular team in The New Mutants will be making their live-action debut -- but Sunspot is the exception. Director Bryan Singer enlisted actor Adan Canto to play the part in X-Men: Days of Future Past, using him as one of last surviving mutants in a future that has been destroyed by the Sentinels. Of course, the timeline shift that occurred at the end of that movie means that he's technically not part of the canon anymore, which opens up the possibility to use him in Josh Boone's New Mutants.

Hailing from Brazil, Sunspot a.k.a. Roberto "Bobby" da Costa has the mutant ability to soak in solar power and redirect it. While he ordinarily looks like a normal person, when he is in his energized state his entire body turns into a non-reflective black color, allowing him to most efficiently absorb the sun's energy. Actor Henry Zaga, who recently earned attention for his part in the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, will be playing the part in The New Mutants, and the project will be his biggest to date. We're excited to see what he does with it.

Sam Guthrie a.k.a. Cannonball

As far as adapting mutant powers for the big screen, the introduction of Cannonball in New Mutants should be quite interesting. In the most basic terms, he has the power to fly at super speeds -- but what makes that possible is that he can release thermo-chemical energy from his skin, and basically turn the lower half of his body into a jet propulsion system. Because of this, he can fly around incredibly fast, create blast fields, and really just kick all kinds of ass.

So who will be playing the southern-fried, Kentucky-born mutant in New Mutants? For a long time it was suggested that the role could go to Nat Wolff, who previously worked with Josh Boone on The Fault in Our Stars, but that rumor hit the wastebasket in May 2017. Instead, it looks like Cannonball a.k.a. Sam Guthrie will be played by Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton. Can he pull off the accent? We'll find out soon enough!

Dr. Cecilia Reyes

Initially it was expected that Rosario Dawson would be playing the role of Dr. Cecilia Reyes in The New Mutants - the actress previously having a close relationship with comic book material through projects like the Marvel Netflix shows and the animated Wonder Woman movie. Scheduling conflicts forced her to drop out, however, leaving the production with a casting gap to fill. Fortunately, they landed on the talented Alice Braga to play the part.

As you would expect, Dr. Cecilia Reyes is a mutant herself, in addition to being a doctor, and was introduced to Marvel Comics in 1997. Her special ability is the creation of psioplasmic bio-fields... which basically means that she can generate an incredibly strong energy barrier around herself that can protect her from outside attack. It's worth noting that she doesn't really have a big connection with the New Mutants in the source material, but this would hardly be the first time details were fudged in an adaptation. Based on the trailer, it looks like she will be the primary caretaker for the titular characters as they adjust to their dangerous abilities.

Will John Wick Chapter 3 Beat Out Avengers: Endgame At The Box Office?

Will John Wick Chapter 3 Beat Out Avengers: Endgame At The Box Office?

We all knew that Avengers; Endgame was going to be the movie to beat at the box office this year, but somehow the film still surprised us. It set every opening weekend record there was to set when it debuted and it has remained at the top of the box office ever since. However, that spot can't last forever and it looks like Keanu Reeves may be the man to finally take down the Avengers, as John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum has a serious shot and taking the box office crown.

Avengers: Endgame finished last weekend with $63 million, a 57% drop over the previous week. That's about the same percentage drop that the film saw between its first and second week of release. If that pattern holds up and Endgame drops another 57% or more, then it will finish next weekend with around $27 million. This would put it well behind John Wick: Chapter 3, as the movie is currently tracking to do $30 million or more in its opening weekend.

John Wick: Chapter 3 looks like it will finish next weekend with something between $30 and $35 million, though Variety says some analysts are putting the number as high as $40 million. That's a solid number, to be sure, but it's a number that would have put the film in third place behind Detective Pikachu if it had come out last weekend. However, it looks like John Wick may have waited the perfect amount of time as Avengers: Endgame hysteria has now dropped to a somewhat manageable level.

Of course, there is always the possibility that these numbers won't end up looking quite the way that projections are suggesting. Detective Pikachu was, at one point, tracking for an opening weekend close to $100 million last weekend and ended up doing more like half that.

It's unclear if that happened because people just wren't as interested in the Pokemon movie or if Endgame really ate into the movie's box office more than expected. If the issue was the latter, we could potentially see John Wick underperform in the same way that Pikachu did.

If John Wick: Chapter 3 does perform as expected it will likely see a franchise best opening, as Chapter 2 opened to slightly more than $30 million.

In this day and age it's unusual for a single movie to hold the box office for even two weekends in a row, as every weekend has at least one major release looking for an audience. If Avengers: Endgame is somehow able to win the box office again next weekend it will become the first movie since Black Panther to do that four weekends in a row (Panther was actually able to win the box office for five weekends).

Of course, even if Avengers: Endgame doesn't win the box office, we can be fairly certain it's not done bringing in the box office. It will likely continue to bring in several million over the next several weekends. The movie is the second highest grossing movie of all time worldwide and third highest domestically. All of those records are still very possible for Endgame.

Aladdin Director Guy Ritchie Responds To The Genie Backlash

Aladdin Director Guy Ritchie Responds To The Genie Backlash

Aladdin is one of Disney's most popular animated features, so anticipation and curiosity were at a high when the first looks at the new live-action adaptation began to arrive. However, the first responses to Will Smith's Genie weren't all that excited. There was a general feeling that he actually looked pretty terrible.

Guy Ritchie, the director of the new Aladdin, appears to have been mostly surprised by the reaction, simply because the sort of instant feedback that the internet provides wasn't something he was used to. According to Ritchie...

There was a Sonic The Hedgehog / Genie frog. Everything is under such critical scrutiny. I came up in an era where there was no internet. It’s a new thing that I’m trying to get a handle on.

I feel like the comparison between the Genie and the recent Sonic the Hedgehog trailer is a bit rough. The Genie may have had some issues, but he was no Sonic. People may have not loved Genie, but the Sega mascot's look in the new movie got such backlash the producers are now promising to make changes.

Guy Ritchie is no stranger to making movies in the age of the internet but he's never made a movie quite like Aladdin. It's a movie with a built in fan base that's very invested and is going to be very vocal about its opinions. It's a far cry from the stylized English gangster movies that Ritchie is still best known for.

And the audience was far from kind. "Nightmare fuel" and other such phrases were used to describe what the big blue Genie version of Will Smith looked like. Big movies like this rely on the buzz that the marketing creates but that plan only works if the buzz is positive, and in this case it wasn't.

However, as the new Aladdin continued it's promotion. Attitudes seemed to soften a bit. While the big blue Genie still isn't looked at in the best light, we know that the Genie won't have that look the entire time and other aspects of the movie were looking good enough that the questionable CGI might be easy to overlook.

In addition, as is frequently the case. Not all the CGI was even finished when the first trailer hit, which meant that as those effects were finished up, the Genie himself began to look better. Guy Ritchie tells Empire than now even some of those who were the harshest critics of the Genie are walking back their comments...

It even came with apologies from the cynics who were so adamant initially. I’ve never seen apologies in that world. I thought, ‘Oh well, great, we’re back to where I’d hoped we’d be’.

The History Of The Color Changing Genie

It does seem like the new Aladdin can't catch a break in the Genie department. The first look we ever got of Will Smith in costume he wasn't blue at all. He was just Will Smith in a Genie costume, and that set people off because of the way it seemed to be changing the source material. Then, when we finally got Will Smith in action in his first trailer, he was blue, and everybody freaked out again.

It seems that the plan for the film is that the Genie will spend a significant amount of time looking human in the new film rather than blue. This way the character can blend in with the rest of the players and interact with them rather than spending the entire movie locked in the lamp. It also helps the budget for the movie stay down.

If you haven't had a good look at what the Genie, and the movie as a whole, looks like now, check out the trailer below.

It makes a lot of sense to include a lot of Will Smith, blue or not. Robin Williams worked for scale when he recorded his voice for the original Aladdin and I'm guessing Will Smith did not. If you're paying him millions of dollars, you'll want to get everything out hf him that you can.

The earliest reactions from the few who have seen the new Aladdin have actually been pretty positive, and while the blue Genie might not work, it seems like the rest of the movie works well enough to make up for that.

The Aladdin Remake Was Always Going To Have Problems

The deck was always stacked against the Genie. The casting of Will Smith seemed designed to attempt to prevent any Robin Williams comparisons before they started, and yet, such a thing is ultimately impossible. Williams' Genie is one of the most iconic characters in the history of animation. His casting in the role played a huge part in the fact that most animated films are now cast with big Hollywood stars.

It's a difficult balancing act. As with any remake, there are elements that fans love from the original that they'll want to see translated into live-action, or re-done with modern effects or whatever new thing the remake is trying to bring to the table. Some will be disappointed if they don't get a new and improved version of whatever their favorite bit was.

Unfortunately, it has to be said that, so far, the movie looks very much like a "shot-for-shot" remake of the animated version. In fact, only Will Smith's Genie looks to be a significant change from the original animated classic. While bringing back all the old songs and adding a couple new ones certainly makes sense, I'm certainly hopeful that there's more hiding in this movie that is different compared to what we've seen so far.

At the same time, if all you're really doing is making the same movie over again, then why bother. The original is a classic because everybody has already seen it, and they can watch it again on DVD anytime they want.

I'll be entering the new Aladdin the way I do most movies these days, with cautious optimism. I want every movie I see to be good and Aladdin is one of those movies that I loved as a kid, and I want any remake to be good as well. If the new movie brings something actually new to the story that can make it worthwhile in its own right, that would fantastic.

The new Aladdin hits theaters Friday.

Captain Marvel Just Passed Two More Movies On The List Of Highest-Grossing Films

Captain Marvel Just Passed Two More Movies On The List Of Highest-Grossing Films

This has been an eventful week across the board, so it's understandable that Captain Marvel slipped under-the-radar with her own quietly impressive news.

There's all this talk about the Game of Thrones finale, but also John Wick 3 topping Avengers: Endgame in its opening weekend, with Endgame topping Avatar at the domestic box office. Endgame is well on its way to taking the all-time worldwide title from Avatar, but it's not there yet.

Avengers: Endgame is up at #2 on the list of highest-grossing films of all time, just behind Avatar. But down at #22 is Captain Marvel, which came out in March and has been getting some extra box office juice from the release of Endgame not quite two months later.

Captain Marvel didn't make huge money this week, and in fact it didn't even crack the top 10 at the May 17-19 domestic box office. But from last Sunday to today, its domestic total jumped $2 million, and that's not counting the money it's still making overseas. All told, the past week or so has been enough to push Captain Marvel's worldwide gross above two competitors:

22. Captain Marvel (2019): $1,125,411,720

23. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011): $1,123,794,079

24. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003): $1,120,237,002

Those numbers aren't adjusted for inflation, so we're not talking about total tickets sold here, just the overall dollar amount. It's kind of shocking to me that Michael Bay's third Transformers movie was even that high on the list. Captain Marvel topping the final Lord of the Rings movie is a bit surprising to me, but we have had some ticket price hikes in the past 16 years.

You know who is next on the list above Captain Marvel? I don't think Carol Danvers can top her fellow superheroes, but here they are:

20. Captain America: Civil War (2016): $1,153,304,495

21. Aquaman (2018) $1,147,761,807

Yeah, I suspect Captain Marvel will be sticking with No. 22 for a while, and possibly pushed down along with some others after 2019 closes out. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker wants a place in the top 20, at the very least, and Toy Story 4, The Lion King, and Frozen 2 will be making plays as well.

Check out the current list of highest-grossing movies, per Box Office Mojo. (I'm never going to get over Minions cracking the top 20, but there it is at No. 19. It topped Carol, Cap, and Arthur Curry.)

The list is packed with superhero and Star Wars movies, and we have more to come this year. On the MCU front, we still have Spider-Man: Far From Home in July. Disney's Toy Story 4 opens in June with Frozen 2 in November. Then Star Wars Episode IX ends the Skywalker Saga in December. Keep up with all of the 2019 release dates with our handy guide.

Terminator: Dark Fate's Sarah Connor Is A 'Bad Grandma With A Shotgun,’ According To James Cameron

Terminator: Dark Fate's Sarah Connor Is A 'Bad Grandma With A Shotgun,’ According To James Cameron

There are plenty of reasons to bring back a character as memorable and important as Sarah Connor is to the Terminator franchise. Among the typical reasons of bringing original franchise fans back under the tent, as well as erasing the series of the franchise’s more questionable follow-ups, there’s one in particular that appealed to series creator James Cameron when he sat down to help craft what we’ve come to know recently as Terminator: Dark Fate.

For him, Sarah Connor not only represents the good old days of his franchise’s vision, she’s also a counterpart to some male actors who have been given the chance she has now to become what he calls a, “bad grandma with a shotgun.” Cameron explained this in the following remarks from a recent interview:

Sure, there are lots of female empowerment characters -- you've got Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman and Black Widow. There's quite a list. How many of them are over 40? Not too many. Gets to be a very short list. Talking about action empowered, action females. There are all these dewy young things. How many of them are over 60? Big fat zero. And now you start looking back through history and how many female action hero prototypical characters that were over 60. Lots of guys. Lots of midlife crisis guys -- you know, Bruce Wilis, Liam Neeson, Clint Eastwood, they're still packing guns into their 80s. How many ladies? Not too many. So I thought, 'This is worth doing, this is a great thing to do.'

Much like the return of James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Terminator franchise in Terminator: Dark Fate, bringing back Linda Hamilton’s female bad ass from the original two films signals the return of the original team that made The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day so memorable. But in addition, Hamilton can now claim herself as a role model in the same vein as Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson, and Clint Eastwood before her, as Sarah Connor’s return is key to the story that James Cameron helped set out to tell in Terminator: Dark Fate.

This information from James Cameron, who serves as not only a producer but a writer on Terminator: Dark Fate, came from a now-pulled interview that he’d done with Flicks and the City. And in that same interview, in-between mentioning how this new film would be a continuation of John Connor’s story from Terminator 2, Cameron continued to lay down just why Sarah Connor’s inclusion in this latest film, alongside co-stars Mackenzie Davis’ Grace and Natalia Reyes’ Dani, is so important.

As it turns out, in his eyes, Sarah Connor is part of a trinity of the following archetypes he wanted to use in the film’s story:

In the Greek mythology, you have the three female archetypes -- there's the virgin, the mother, and the grandmother. Well, in our society, we discount the grandmother. But in ancient societies, the grandmother was the keeper of wisdom, the judge, the keeper of the values, sometimes the witch, the sorceress, the seer of the future. ... So this is a powerful archetypal figure. You put that together with a known great kickass action hero I think you've got something special and something you haven't seen before. ... She's bad grandma with a shotgun, and you'd better watch your ass.

Information such as this starts to help decode just what Terminator: Dark Fate may be about, as Linda Hamilton is squarely cast in the role of “grandmother” Sarah Connor, bringing new light to a Greek archetype that gets overlooked quite often. Which means that newcomers Grace and Dani are probably the “Mother” and the “Virgin” respectively, as Grace looks to come from an embattled future in order to protect Dani, a virgin in the sense that this is her first foray into the world of Skynet’s covert war against humanity.

How these respective roles will play out, and whether or not Sarah Connor will survive her return to the party in Terminator: Dark Fate are both up in the air. But if James Cameron keeps giving interviews such as this one, we’ll probably get just enough clues to start asking some specific questions pertaining to that very subject.

Terminator: Dark Fate will be released into theaters on November 1, so let the self-ass watching commence!

How Avengers: Endgame’s Writers See Their Future With Marvel

How Avengers: Endgame’s Writers See Their Future With Marvel

In the last 11 years, few filmmakers have had as big an effect on the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Initially the duo were hired by Marvel Studios to write the script for Captain America: The First Avenger, but not only did they go on to pen the entire Captain America trilogy, but they also developed both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame with directors Joe and Anthony Russo (not to mention they also created the Agent Carter television show). That’s an impressive track record all by itself – but fans will be excited to know that they still feel they have more to contribute to the franchise.

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for the latest episode of our HeroBlend podcast, and in addition to doing a deep dive into Avengers: Endgame, I also asked them about their current relationship with Marvel Studios. As you would expect following the release of one of the biggest movies of all time, the two sides are currently on excellent terms, and Markus made it sound like the door is open for them to potentially collaborate on another movie for the franchise at some point in the future:

We're all great friends. We are not at the moment on a Marvel job, but that's not to say that we wouldn't take another one when the right opportunity came up. We can't write a bigger movie. We can't raise the stakes. We can't do better at the box office. So, you know, if and when we come back it will be for probably one character in a small situation, and re-expand from there. But I don't know who that is.

So while as of right now it looks like Phase Four may be the first era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe not to feature a film scripted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, that might not necessarily continue to be the case. The two writers aren’t working on a project for the franchise right now, but given the right inspiration it sounds like they’d be happy to jump right back into the action.

But what could that potential project be? Given the legacy of Marvel Comics it’s actually hard to make a specific guess – and it’s an even greater challenge now that the merger between the Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox has been completed. Now the two writers could not only potentially take on any of the classic Avengers characters, but Fantastic Four and all of the X-Men are now up for grabs as well. We’ll just have to wait for them to find the story that they want to tell.

This was just one of the subjects that I had the chance to talk about with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and you can actually listen to the full interview now as part of the latest episode of HeroBlend:

Is there a specific character that you’d like to see Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely take on in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Hit the comments section below with all of your thoughts, feelings, and ideas, and be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for a lot more of our Avengers: Endgame coverage!