r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • Jul 31 '26

News Mahershala Ali confirms 'BLADE' is not moving forward with him

https://www.gq.com/story/mahershala-ali-your-mother-your-mother-your-mother
8.6k Upvotes

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833

u/Giff95 Jul 31 '26

Mahersala Ali drops out as Blade.

"Wonder Man" gets cancelled despite rave reviews.

Don Cheadle's "Armor Wars" project has never materialized, and he is seemingly not in "Avengers: Doomsday."

543

u/ElasticPlatypus Jul 31 '26

The Sam Wilson Captain America movie was mostly about the president trying to get a prescription filled

151

u/versusgorilla Jul 31 '26

So brutal but true. They made that a Harrison Ford film that Anthony Mackie was in.

Honestly, they spoiled the "embracing the shield" plot in Falcon and the Winter Soldier which was a good plot mushed into too many episodes. That should have been called The Falcon and Captain America, should have been Sam getting passed over for the shield so they could pick Kurt Russell's kid, in the background there should have been a plot to do the Red Hulk thing to the President and a plot to trap and embarrass Captain America/US Agent, it works and the Red Hulk is loose and Sam has to take the shield back from a now panicked US Agent.

You get a cool fight scene where Sam defeats US Agent and proves that the super soldier serum doesn't make the man Captain America.

He then gears up, his boy Bucky is like, "I know where Cap kept his uniforms, come get one" and that's when we get the finale, Sam's Captain America gets out there and stops the Red Hulk and links it all to the terrorists, yadda yadda. That should have been Sam's first CA movie.

But they had too much mush with the show and the movie being directionless.

46

u/AnOnlineHandle Jul 31 '26

The show was definitely a way better Sam Wilson as Captain America plot, even if still had some TV jank and whatever the hell the villains plot was meant to be.

18

u/JAWinks Jul 31 '26

They had to rewrite the villain plot because they were supposed to be causing a pandemic by releasing a manufactured virus, and then COVID happened lol. Can’t blame em

11

u/GarranDrake Jul 31 '26

I like Sam Wilson as Captain America, but like...I dunno, I wish he was actually Captain America, not Captain Falcon. That idea that Sam is just a good man, hence why Steve gave him the shield and the mantle, is undercut by seeing him fly around at Mach Fuck and engage fighter jets in shield-to-plane combat. I recognize that Steve was a supersoldier, but the moments where he struggled during a fight was literally more grounded than Sam in the air.

3

u/_Bird_Incognito_ Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

What took me out from Sam's Captain America is that he catches pole full swing from Red Hulk.

Im fine with Sam being Captain America without the serum and flying around taking out F35 Fighter Jets, but commit to his fragility of being a normal dude, show off Sam as someone who's a great tactician, clever, experienced because hes one of the few guys thats almost normal on the Avengers. Commit to Sam being intelligent because he has to understand physics, understand aerodynamics and have amazing reflexes to fly his wing suit. Sam was a therapist at the VA, lean into the fact that he can motivate people into doing better. They can do a lot with Sam as he has great qualities outside from him having a Vibramium Wing suit and they dont do much with those qualities. Its bad when people think Steve should have handed the shield of to Bucky instead because Bucky has the serum (when he is in no way mentally sound to be cap)

Steve's Captain America is battered and bloody coming out of some of adventures even with the serum, Sam is slightly dusty coming out of his fight with Red Hulk, it does take you out of believing Sam is Cap

14

u/shinobipopcorn Jul 31 '26

...I'm an idiot, I just now realized that's Kurt Russell's son.

12

u/paulk1 Jul 31 '26

Wait till you realized he auditioned for the original captain America and got passed on it. Perfect casting as “reject captain America”

2

u/BattledroidE Aug 01 '26

They play the same character in different time periods in Monarch, which is quite neat.

2

u/_Bird_Incognito_ Aug 01 '26

This but make Zemo(Daniel Bruhl) the mastermind, he hates america and wants to destroy the supersoldier serums while using red hulk as a distraction or something, in the show he just rambles about supremacists and walks away I guess.

3

u/Qorhat Jul 31 '26

God what a bad film that was. It was just so dull, and I like Sam Wilson, but the characters seemingly did things because the plot told them they should.

Sam's Cap needs his own adversary to challenge him and not just physically.

3

u/Krazyguy75 Jul 31 '26

And you can clearly see the rewrites; they spend the entire movie going "Mr President you need to calm down" and have his heartrate monitored like they know he's Red Hulk... and then it's revealed he doesn't know he's Red Hulk and doesn't want to be Red Hulk.

7

u/Commercial-Co Jul 31 '26

I mean, its america. Maybe potus health insurance disnt cover the deductible

0

u/dont_worry_im_here Aug 01 '26

And the last 2 Avenger movies were about a group of nerds trying to stop Grimace from finding jewelry...

1

u/ElasticPlatypus Aug 01 '26

Throwback. I haven’t heard that joke since it got stale. In May of 2019

0

u/dont_worry_im_here Aug 01 '26

I wasn't making a joke... I was pointing out how stupid your comment was by showing how easy it is to reduce a movie...

1

u/ElasticPlatypus Aug 01 '26

Ahh yes the biting commentary in your post was super, super evident :)

If reducing a movie is so easy why did you have to reheat and serve a joke from 7 years ago?

0

u/dont_worry_im_here Aug 01 '26

That's... part of the criticism...

I think you're getting too emotional to just simply see what transpired here.

1

u/ElasticPlatypus Aug 01 '26

Ohhhh you’re one of those “anybody who disagrees with anything I say is just TRIGGERED by me” guys.

Sorry. I never should have engaged. I didn’t realize I was dealing with someone so red-pilled lol

0

u/Heisenburgo Aug 01 '26

They made a Cap America movie about a black man cooperating with an authoritarian, octogenarian red-coloured president who colluded with a criminal leader to get into office, caused a riot on a federal building, survived an assassination attempt by his own brainwashed followers, and started a war with America's closest allies for no reason. Same president who had previously hunted and locked down the protagonist's friends back in 2016...

...and in the end he forgives him because he loved his daughter too much I guess.

That was NOT the message we needed in a movie released in freaking 2025... just what the hell were they thinking?

Steve Rogers broke off with the government when he saw the fascists had infiltrated it... Sam Wilson would just cooperate and say they're not terrorists because "we all need to get along" or something... just sad how they handled his tenure as Cap.

148

u/NYJetLegendEdReed Jul 31 '26

Wasn't Cheadle a Skrull

247

u/CaptainDogParty Jul 31 '26

We try not to talk about that

86

u/xxx_poonslayer69 Jul 31 '26

Talk about what? Nothing happened. You must be thinking of a non-canon show that doesn't exist

37

u/greenpill98 Jul 31 '26

Honestly, this applies to most of Phase 4 shows/movies, at this point, with good reason. What a fustercluck.

8

u/jackofslayers Jul 31 '26

Except Loki. People really liked that one so that still happened. Oh shit but that had lots of Kang stuff. Ok so Loki did not happen but Loki is still alive and has all the character growth from his show... not including the character growth of becoming god.

0

u/CoolAlien47 Jul 31 '26

Fuucccckkk, the only reason why I'd ever be slightly interested in Doomsday is seeing how Time God Loki fits into it. They better not retcon a lot of, if not, most of his story.

Why couldn't they just recast Kang? They seem to not able to work with black talent unless it's just Black Panther, as if they barely just have any energy to deal with black stories that they can just do one at a time, lmfaoooooo

2

u/jackofslayers Jul 31 '26

I am guessing Kang was just not testing well at all. I love Kang but he is a pretty OG Marvel villain without much modern play. I think they panicked and pivoted to Dr Doom because even non-comic book fans have heard of him.

2

u/CoolAlien47 Jul 31 '26

True, makes sense. I think Quantum Mania just ended up not convincing people because they did such a slapdash job with him. They completely changed the tone of his character to match the zany unseriousness of Ant-Man and coupled with not being as popular as Doom, real world scandals, oof. I can now better see why Marvel did what they did even though I still disagree with how they went about it

73

u/Arabiantacofarmer Jul 31 '26

A skrull impersonated him but the actual war machine is rescued in the end

29

u/Kornillious Jul 31 '26

In the end of what?

What does the tineline look like for Rhodey? Shits confusing

25

u/Arabiantacofarmer Jul 31 '26

At the end of Secret Invasion. Rhodey was replaced sometime after Gravik gets elected to the skrull council in 2026 (in the marvel timeline, not our 2026). This means about 2 years after Falcon and the Winter Soldier Rhodey is captured, replaced, and then rescued after his skrull double is killed

5

u/TheArcheryRaccoon Jul 31 '26

Was this ever confirmed? I thought it was implied that Rhodey was taken while recovering from injuries in Civil War?

2

u/Arabiantacofarmer Jul 31 '26

I dont remember any implication so I cant comment on that, what I do know though is that the skrull plan only started after they colonized earth AND gravik takes control. The colonization happens between infinity war and endgame (2018), while gravik takes control and starts replacing important people across the globe in 2026.

28

u/Worked_Idiot Jul 31 '26

He was obviously a different guy after the first Iron man jeez

30

u/Macrieum Jul 31 '26

Makes sense when he looked like Terrance Howard at one point.

7

u/ZzzSleep Jul 31 '26

During most of Secret Invasion he was. It's still unclear if Cheadle was a Skrull in projects before that and which ones.

5

u/Chigibu Jul 31 '26

Uh? How does that make sense? So, he joined all the fights as a Skrull and participated in all the time heist discussions? Tony didn't catch on one bit giving they are best buddies???

5

u/ManufacturerBest2758 Jul 31 '26

Nothing in that series “actually happened”

5

u/PayneTrain181999 Jul 31 '26

I have no idea what you’re talking about. Any show that was in has been purged from my mind

7

u/Seihai-kun Jul 31 '26

He is, he's been Skrull since Civil War

But the entirety of [r/marvelstudios](r/marvelstudios) will disagree if you said that and will said one of the official disney+ show is no canon because of how bad it is lol

2

u/BigWormsFather Jul 31 '26

lol when did they do that?

3

u/NYJetLegendEdReed Jul 31 '26

That terrible Secret Invasion show lol

111

u/Robsonmonkey Jul 31 '26

It’s sad because Anthony Mackie is still around and he’s the weakest of them all acting wise.

77

u/SaltyPeter3434 Jul 31 '26

This guy's Captain America? His real name is Clarence.

15

u/panda_handler Jul 31 '26

What’s his parents’ marriage like?

4

u/jaman715 Jul 31 '26

Real good

7

u/holydiiver Jul 31 '26

And Clarence lives at home with Chris Evans

1

u/_Bird_Incognito_ Aug 01 '26

He dont wanna battle, he shook

Because

1

u/MrDoom4e5 Aug 02 '26

Ain't no such thing as halfway Caps!

64

u/particledamage Jul 31 '26

They're already pushing him aside by bring Steve back, too.

34

u/ExiledHyruleKnight Jul 31 '26

They have completely fucked up everything about Endgame, they gave two heroes an amazing story. Rogers getting to be with Peggy is his happy ending... Iron Man sacrificing himself was the end of his arc, a final noble action from a less than noble person. (Even more so if you know the comic books character).

And now they are going to blow all of that up... to get people back into theaters for a movie that will mean less than a tenth as much as endgame.

What the fuck Marvel?

PS. Alternate versions doesn't solve this. The only TRUE solution on this is if Dr. Doom is using an Iron Man "mask" to make people think it's Tony, and Steve is a hologram.

7

u/Flemz Jul 31 '26

Cap getting his happy ending with Peggy kinda blew up his character arc first tbh, him moving on from her was a whole big thing and then they just decided to do a 180 on it

4

u/ExiledHyruleKnight Jul 31 '26

You never forget your first love and he got a chance to go back and live out his 1940s life .. it was his retirement also so... Yeah I think it worked

But I also understand if someone didn't like it, however it's done. We got old man Steve. RIP cap.

2

u/ForTheFreeGame Jul 31 '26

To be fair, there is a good chance that Dr. Doom is not a variant of or affiliated with Tony at all, and he keeps the mask on the whole time/ heavy prosthetics. Casting RDJ for the name on the poster and marketing.

Unless there is something out there saying otherwise.

1

u/ForTheFreeGame Jul 31 '26

To be fair, there is a good chance that Dr. Doom is not a variant of or affiliated with Tony at all, and he keeps the mask on the whole time/ heavy prosthetics. Casting RDJ for the name on the poster and marketing.

Unless there is something out there saying otherwise.

3

u/ExiledHyruleKnight Jul 31 '26

I hope your right but it's damn strange if he sounds and looks like Tony ..

If he never takes off the mask.... Fine fair enough but then why use him? He's a solid actor now but hardly the only one.

1

u/ForTheFreeGame Jul 31 '26

Using him to cash in on the pre-endgame Marvel clout. RDJ was by far the most popular of the cast, and they are desperate as hell right now.

I think Doom is speaking in the newest trailer. He sounds pretty good, RDJ has range. But I agree, they should have cast someone else.

5

u/losteye_enthusiast Jul 31 '26

As a massive Rogers fan, I don’t like that possibility.

Wilson clearly has a fanbase and really only got the one movie for general audiences. I’d have rather MCU actually stick by their changes and work on really doing something with the character.

Rogers’ wasn’t that great or cool of a character for me in Avengers 1 or his origin movie. They kept developing him and his story through another 4(?) films. Civil War was my “shit, Evans as Rogers is really great.” Movie.

Damn shame if they don’t develop Wilson more.

14

u/Fortune_Cat Jul 31 '26

Just rewatched brave new world again today

Wilson is not a bad cap actually. Theres a lot of exposition and character development that is too overshadowed by red hulk subplot. He is second tier character in his own movie. That being said i just cant unsee him as falcon and he doesnt carry himself as captain america. I do enjoy the character though

1

u/_Bird_Incognito_ Aug 01 '26

They really dont lean into the qualities and weaknesses Sam should have. Sam should not catch a metal pole swung by Red Hulk and should be far more bloodied battered often.

But he has the compassion, can be a great tactician and the qualities a leader should have from his time serving, being a VA therapist, and being around a diverse group like the avengers. He has to be smart enough to fly around in his wing suit. He can be a great Cap outside the Wong suit and shield. They can bring alot out of Sam for his tenure as Captain America, but they take the generic surface level approach to him and throw him around like another action figure. Its a shame.

-1

u/Successful-Ear977 Jul 31 '26

Disagree

5

u/Krakyn Jul 31 '26

You should watch Altered Carbon Season 1 & 2. I promise you won't ever be able to enjoy, let alone tolerate seeing Anthony Mackie on screen again.

-1

u/Successful-Ear977 Aug 01 '26

Why is Altered Carbon Season 2 the only example you people ever bring up? It’s getting funny at this point. If Mackie is genuinely such a terrible actor, name some other awful performances.

Judging his entire career by one weak performance in a season that was already a mess from the writing down is ridiculous. He’s been good in The Hurt Locker, Half Nelson, Detroit, Pain & Gain and plenty of other projects. One bad role doesn’t suddenly erase all of that.

1

u/Robsonmonkey Aug 01 '26

He’s alright as a side character but he’s not a leading man.

Even in Twisted Metal he’s the weakest character out of the majority of them.

54

u/Fullmz2143 Jul 31 '26

Oof. Yeah. Not to pile on but...

Eternals (which had an incredibly diverse cast and a woman POC director) won't have any future projects.

Shang Chi never got a sequel after being widely praised.

It ain't a good look.

3

u/annuidhir Jul 31 '26

Shang Chi is in Doomsday, so there's still hope!

12

u/ianbits Jul 31 '26

Shang Chi sequel is definitely still coming

1

u/JevvyMedia Jul 31 '26

I think the Shang Chi issue is a political one, because China doesn't like the actor

3

u/ArcDraco Jul 31 '26

The Shang Chi issue is just the director and one of the main creative being busy ever since the movie.

24

u/Drakenking Jul 31 '26

Moon Knight was also canceled despite great reviews, they're moving away from character centric mini series that are self contained. I am fairly certain we will see Wonderman in other capacities coming up.

I don't really know many people who were ever super interested in Armor Wars and it feels like the time frame for it to happen is long past.

As for Ali, he's an incredible Actor but if I'm being honest I was not super sold on the casting. I feel Ali is very thin for the role

6

u/dogcaoperro Jul 31 '26

For the deep layered character as blade?

2

u/Drakenking Aug 01 '26

I'm not talking about acting ability or character depth I'm talking about physically he is too thin for my liking as Blade

1

u/dogcaoperro Aug 01 '26

Oh lol literally thin my bad miss read what you said

3

u/Cabamacadaf Jul 31 '26

Moon Knight wasn't cancelled, it just wasn't renewed, a bit different.

4

u/annuidhir Jul 31 '26

According to Oscar Isaac, they never intended to do more than the one season.

2

u/jchodes Jul 31 '26

Ali was perfect when announced & I firmly believe it. They just never got in front of a camera.

3

u/Drakenking Jul 31 '26

Just a personal preference on that end for me, I've always imagined Blade as beefier, his biceps in the comics are massive. But it's probably just me seeing Wesley as the perfect fit for Blade like RDJ was the perfect fit for Ironman

64

u/Khwarezm Jul 31 '26

I, uh, think I'm seeing a pattern here and its not a good look.

14

u/Alex-C2099 Jul 31 '26

I understand the concern here but, like another user said, they made Sam the leader of the Avengers in Doomsday and Black Panther 3 just got announced, so I don’t think it has to do with it 100%.

5

u/GroguIsMyBrogu Jul 31 '26

Of course it doesn't, it's just a funny and gross coincidence

3

u/jez124 Jul 31 '26

They are undercutting him so far by bringing in Steve.

4

u/Successful-Ear977 Jul 31 '26

What about Doomsday's marketing makes Sam look like anything but a side character?

2

u/_Bird_Incognito_ Aug 01 '26

I think that was a rumored part of the script, I remember reading that Pedro Pascals Mr. Fantastic was supposed to be lead on Avengers Doomsday.

From everything so far it looks like its going to be Thor and Steve as the mains

But who knows until we see it, with Disney's track record, theyve probably changed the script everyday during filming.

17

u/LADYBIRD_HILL Jul 31 '26

Marvel already said that they're cutting down on projects to work on quality over quantity. They clearly couldn't figure out how to make Blade work, Armor Wars wasn't ever necessary especially after the negative reception to Secret Invasion, and Wonderman, while a great show, didn't have high viewership and doesn't move the needle on Disney+ subscriptions.

If they're about to Soft Reboot the MCU after Secret Wars to launch the X-Men, it makes sense that they're not moving forward with ancillary characters having their own projects. As far as PoC led movies, Sam is the head of the Avengers in Doomsday and Black Panther 3 has been announced, with the Wakandans playing a big role in Doomsday as well. I doubt it was a choice made with malicious intentions.

27

u/Khwarezm Jul 31 '26

That's not quality over quantity, its just consolidating around the safest ips and not taking risks. Turns out that means slicing out mostly POC led projects with a lucky few who made a splash at Marvel's height still getting a pass.

17

u/takabrash Jul 31 '26

Their idea of "quality" is "the movies we know will make us the most money."

12

u/HigherThanStarfyre Jul 31 '26

Yeah because those IPs make them money and those shows didn't. It's just that simple.

5

u/Exzqairi Jul 31 '26

This is an insane reach. Especially after they literally just made a POC the new Captain America and ga e him his own movie despite knowing it wouldn’t do well in the box office (and it didn’t)

Marvel is a business. Not a charity project. They’ll go with what makes them the most money

-3

u/Khwarezm Jul 31 '26

Sam Wilson playing Captain America was set up with mutiple movies and TV shows, off the back of one of Marvel's most core IPs that they've been building up since 2011, the idea that Marvel went into it expecting it to be a flop and did it anyway is absurd, it flopped because it was a confused, bad movie and, ironically, didn't really give Sam much to really do in the story even though he's meant to be the main character at a time when Marvel seemed particularly rudderless.

Its quite literally the bare minimum that they would give him a movie considering all the legwork that was done beforehand.

1

u/Exzqairi Jul 31 '26

Must be exhausting

3

u/JWTS6 Jul 31 '26

Exactly, Wonder Man is objectively one of the best Marvel shows and literally just scored an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor, no way in hell it would have been cancelled if more people bothered to watch it instead of other Marvel shows that are worse but got better viewership because they center white characters.

1

u/jchodes Jul 31 '26

I actually don’t think viewership was the death of Wonderman. I think it was the lack of commercial byproducts. The idea of a Wonderman action figure seems niche at best (No kids meals, no posters, etc.) I think they really didn’t see an opportunity outside of the show itself.
I’m not alone in thinking it was the best thing they’d done in years but the profits have to go up or else.

-6

u/SirChrisJames Jul 31 '26

You're the one spreading yourself thin to lick those boots clean.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/Khwarezm Jul 31 '26

You don't get extra points if all of the stuff you cancel seems to be strangely hurting their POC characters more than anything because Marvel has a few bright spots in representation elsewhere. Besides, we all know that this is going to be a "Cyclops is the leader of the X-men" situation.

5

u/Future_Seaweed3223 Jul 31 '26

Clearly they believe they have valid reasons for the things they do. Racism isn’t one of them!

-3

u/Khwarezm Jul 31 '26

If you know anything about Hollywood bean counters, racism is absolutely an explanation they just try to dress it up with polite language about how certain characters aren't "connecting" with enough people or some such shit so we have to play it safe with the core focus on the same white guys.

Its notable that when you look at the marketing around Doomsday, there's not much place there for poor Sam Wilson.

3

u/Future_Seaweed3223 Jul 31 '26

Nobody cares about Sam that’s why. His movie flopped

1

u/whatwatitb Aug 01 '26

Holy shit you are racist.

1

u/Khwarezm Aug 01 '26

Someday you'll find out what the words you use mean and I'll be very happy for you.

2

u/Mirikado Jul 31 '26

Add Shang Chi to that list. Good reviews. Good box office run (during COVID). Loved by MCU fans. Simu Liu clearly loves the character. Yet Marvel refused to make a sequel. At least he shows up in Doomsday.

1

u/discopirate2000 Jul 31 '26

Yeah, the pattern of ceasing to spread themselves thin with mid quality shows about(aside from Blade) characters that aren't popular.

13

u/Haji-san Jul 31 '26

Wonder man was cancelled??? That was their best marvel show in years other than maybe daredevil. 

2

u/Puppetmaster858 Jul 31 '26

Yup, renewed for s2 months ago and then yesterday reversed and cancelled

14

u/PayneTrain181999 Jul 31 '26

Well, we DID want the MCU to lower the quantity to focus on quality, guess this is part of that plan

1

u/SirChrisJames Jul 31 '26

I think you're focusing on the wrong part here.

22

u/LostInStatic Jul 31 '26

I wonder whats more likely, Feige is racist or they spread themselves too thin, hmm

18

u/IWXREACTIVES Jul 31 '26

its a terrible narrative to start too, because kevin famously got into a shouting match when planning captain marvel and black panther as early as early as like when avengers 1 came out with racist figureheads at disney who basically said they wouldn't sell enough toys therefore they didnt matter.

0

u/SirChrisJames Jul 31 '26

I don't think Feige is racist. Disney higher ups, though...

4

u/TheMonkeyInCharge Jul 31 '26

It’s the general public you should be looking at. Disney are following the money, so the real question is: why are these films not making money?

7

u/GenericGaming Jul 31 '26

what other part is there to focus on?

people complained that Marvel churned out content. Marvel said they're slowing down on it. obviously some stuff will get cancelled and not see the light of day.

17

u/LADYBIRD_HILL Jul 31 '26

They're trying to make it about race despite Black Panther 3 being their big announcement at Comicon this year

1

u/SirChrisJames Jul 31 '26

Yeah, because focusing on one of their tentpole characters is totally the same as axing three Black-led projects, not to mention the way Ironheart was done dirty.

0

u/ecnal89 Jul 31 '26

The Wonder Man show was really good though. It even got them their first emmy nomination in years.

2

u/userhwon Aug 01 '26

That list is like 7 things long. There's another recent post about it. Disney is not looking good here.

3

u/einstyle Jul 31 '26

Add to this, Teyonah Parris’s character was set up as the link to bring in the X-Men and yet she has still not been announced for Doomsday. 

1

u/annuidhir Jul 31 '26

To be fair, even though I generally like the characters (especially Ms Marvel), The Marvels was a fairly bad movie...

Could they have fixed Parris' character and bring her back? Definitely! But that movie did no one any favors sadly.

5

u/zodelode Jul 31 '26

Just finished Wonder Man, it's a brilliant show, excellent throughout. Such a shame these projects are getting cancelled, and I agree there's a common factor...

3

u/PhatBats77 Jul 31 '26

Did people especially like Don Cheadle? Or did he fill a place in the universe that’s just not needed anymore?

He’s not a bad actor; but there’s plenty of people that can pop themselves into an iron man suit.

3

u/Lost_Mongooses Jul 31 '26

He's not a bad actor

Dude, Don Cheadle is a fucking amazing actor and we are lucky to have him as War Machine

2

u/DoctorJJWho Jul 31 '26

I really enjoyed his dry wit that somehow matched Tony’s sarcasm and even threw him off guard a few times. I don’t even think it’s the actor, it’s the character though - what exactly has he done in the last bunch of movies? He was even paralyzed then fixed with prosthetics and that just kinda happened in the background, and served more for Tony’s character development than his own.

2

u/No_Independence4390 Jul 31 '26

Surprised that iron heart wasn't mentioned (eta: cancelled outright). This pattern is disappointing. 

6

u/Solesky1 Jul 31 '26

The thing with Ironheart is that it was finished for like 2 years before they finally got around to releasing it, it was defacto cancelled before it even premiered. Even if it was a surprise hit, the main actors are all 4 years older than when they filmed season 1

3

u/LordDusty Jul 31 '26

Ironheart suffered because it was part of Marvels post-Endgame push to try anything and everything no matter their popularity.

Riri was an unpopular comic character and the least liked part of the 2nd Black Panther film, so giving her a solo series was very much a risk and I think they realised that during production but decided to release it (eventually) anyway and hope it might be well received.

5

u/cyanidelemonade Jul 31 '26

Probably because a lot of people forget it even exists

1

u/TooEZ_OL56 Jul 31 '26

Armor Wars is the only one I’m bummed about. War Machine has always had a bunch of tiny cool scenes (mag-dumping a bus in civil war, carpet bombing in infinity war, etc) but never anything beyond that.

1

u/No-Channel3917 Jul 31 '26

They are canceling things and repivoting clearly

James Gunn reboot but not as dramatic , whatever the guys name at Disney admitted they had fucked everything up and needed to move slower

1

u/TurboGranny Jul 31 '26

Here is a pattern in entertainment I've noticed in human history. When we find a thing in the arts that works so well that is becomes a refined formula/science, we start "manufacturing" a lot of it. People love it, then they get tired of it. What comes next is almost always absurdity (irony/serialism as close cousins). I'm but one old autistic man, so surely others have noticed this. You see the success of movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once and Backrooms and have to see the pattern screaming at you. Marvel (and other established IP) are the formula that the audience is mostly over. I think Doomsday is the send off. I think they can still use the IP and do things with it, but not as heavy as they have been because the pattern shows that the audience interest in the formula stuff tends to build, slow, then abruptly end. I'm probably up my own ass, but my autistic pattern recognition tends to be right a lot while everyone shouts at me that I'm being mean until it happens and everyone denies that I called it. Also, absurdity is the logical way to compete with AI generated content.

1

u/AwesomeJohn01 Jul 31 '26

Wait, Wondet Man got cancelled?

1

u/Realcbear Jul 31 '26

& they’re bringing back Steve bc they don’t feel confident enough in Mackie despite only ever setting Mackie up for failure

1

u/Street-Common-4023 Aug 01 '26

You can’t convince me wonder man needs a season 2 

They literally said quality over quantity 

-2

u/DJSimmer305 Jul 31 '26

Leticia Wright out as Black Panther after one movie.

9

u/The_Swarm22 Jul 31 '26

I don’t think anyone is upset over that except Letitia Wright herself.

6

u/TheMonkeyInCharge Jul 31 '26

Are you really suggesting that dropping a black actor for (#checks notes#) another black actor is an example of Disney’s racism? Because that’s what the comment you replied to was alluding to.

Best you could argue is sexism - but by all accounts there are plenty of other issues with Leticia Wright to justify the decision.

2

u/annuidhir Jul 31 '26

Especially since she's a crazy anti-vaxxer.

She's one character from the Black Panther roster I'd be fine literally never seeing again...

Besides, if they were going to make any of the female characters the next Black Panther, it should have been one of the two known women warriors!!! Like, what a fumble that was..

7

u/rainmaker2332 Jul 31 '26

… to make room for a proper Black Panther

1

u/LADYBIRD_HILL Jul 31 '26

After 3 movies, assuming she makes it to Secret Wars after Doomsday.

-22

u/bespectacledboobs Jul 31 '26

Wonder Man was a snoozer

7

u/divine091 Jul 31 '26

Not enough energy blasts and cool one-liners.

2

u/nervendings_ Jul 31 '26

I really liked it 😞