Right, where are we? This has gotten a bit confusing, so let’s get up to date.

Doctor Strange star Benedict Cumberbatch reportedly started pay negotiations for the movie’s sequel at the start of the summer, landing a £7.5 million payday for his efforts. Said negotiations happened to take place around the time of Gunn Gate, where director James Gunn was fired off Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 by Disney for old ‘bad taste joke’ tweets that were dug up online by the alt-right. Putting two and two together, there was then speculation that Doctor Strange 2 could slip into GOTG3‘s spring 2019 production start date while the movie floundered for a director to take on Gunn’s existing script.

Since then, Black Panther 2 has been officially confirmed, with Ryan Coogler back to direct, Spider-Man: Far From Home has been filming here in the UK and in Atlanta, and Scarlett Johansson has accepted $15 million for a solo Black Widow movie. But it appears that Doctor Strange 2 is indeed next on Marvel’s MCU slate.

Benedict Wong rocked up to Fan Expo Vancouver to chat about a little bit of everything over the weekend, confirming that he’s filmed something for Avengers 4, and also surprising everyone in this dimension and the many others he and the Master Of The Mystic Arts have known to visit by saying he hopes to start filming Doctor Strange 2 by the end of 2018.

This will probably give those of you who were incredulous that Marvel could sort out slotting Strange 2 into GOTG3‘s production date a bit of a headache, but perhaps this has been a matter of scheduling urgency with regards to actor availability. Or maybe Disney and Marvel were always planning for it to go down this way, and just didn’t want to confirm anything for as long as possible before Avengers 4 lands in April. There’s also a distinct possibility that Wong meant by the end of 2019, and not 2018. We certainly wouldn’t 100% rule that out.

Either way, there’s no confirmation on Doctor Strange 2 from Marvel yet, and it might still be a while unless Wong’s comments push the studio to finally reveal its plans.

Speculation, speculation, speculation! We’ll keep you up to date, of course.

“This is war”

Prepare to reenter the twisting sci-fi world of Counterpart, Justin Marks’ atmospheric parallel universe thriller. News arrived back in February that filming had begun in Berlin on season two of the Starz original, and now there are just weeks to wait until it arrives.

Counterpart season one was released as a boxet here in the UK only last month, so fans won’t have long to wait to find out what happens next in the twisting drama. Season two’s episodes will be available weekly on Amazon Prime channel Starz Play, in line with the US broadcast.

Counterpart is the story of Howard Silk (JK Simmons), a low-ranking official in the Berlin-based United Nations. Not to give too much away, Silk discovers a secret about his workplace that changes everything. Simmons is excellent in a peculiarly demanding role in this slow-build Cold War-influenced sci-fi.

Here’s the season two trailer. Spoilers ahead…

Counterpart season 2 will arrive in December 2018. Joining returning castmembers Simmons, Harry Lloyd and Olivia Williams will be veteran actor James Cromwell (LA Confidential, Babe), and Get Out‘s Betty Gabriel.

All episodes of season one are currently available for Starz Play subscribers to stream. Start your seven-day free trial here.

40 years after The Night HE Came Home and legendary serial killer Michael Myers returns to Haddonfield to terrify Laurie Strode once more, in this belated and reconned sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic.

And frankly after some of shaky sequels and reboots of seminal horror movies we’ve been subjected to over the last few decades Michael deserves a homecoming parade for this effective, uncynical sequel that works on multiple levels.

Halloween 2018 is respectful and progressive, chilling and inventive and frankly much better than many of us dared to expect.

So how do you reinvigorate a franchise done to death over four decades, and more so, one that’s spawned so many tropes, riffs and reinventions that it’s almost a subgenre of its own? In David Gordon Green’s redo, from a script he wrote with Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley the answer seems to be ‘embrace the original, but don’t be afraid of the new’.

Present day then, and Podcasters Dana and Aaron are investigating the legend of The Shape – the killer who offed five people back in 1978 and for the past 40 years has been housed in a maximum security prison, refusing to speak a single word. On the outside, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis, back on ferocious, furious form), now a grandmother with failed marriages and a lifetime of PTSD to show for her ordeal, lives in a secluded home estranged from her family and paranoid that one day her tormentor will return. And when he does she’s going to be ready.

It’s a smart way to establish Halloween’s retcon – all sequels including the thread which made Michael Laurie’s brother are erased (the sibling relationship was just something made up so people can feel better about themselves, a side character explains in one of the many organic-feeling call backs to the franchise as a whole).

Halloween pays its dues but it has also moved on from the original. Bodycount is vastly increased. Gore levels and imaginative kills are amped up to modern day horror norms. And gender and sexual politics have progressed too; young women don’t get offed for banging their boyfriends but one neat scene suggests even Myers hasn’t let the #MetToo movement pass him by either.

Indeed Halloween is a very carefully crafted love letter to the original which works just as well for the uninitiated, with crafty nods to sheets, washing lines and closets for old school fans and enough jumps and shocks for newbies.

If anything the script occasionally works too hard to tick all the boxes, with the film dragging somewhat during the second act in babysitter scenes that might have been necessary (the original title of the ‘78 film was The Babysitter Murders after all) but delay the inevitable anticipated meeting between Laurie and Michael. We’d be advocating cuts were it not for the fact that these scenes include one of the best new characters in the movie – hilarious little kid Julian (Jibrail Nantambu) who’s the only one who seems to know he’s in a horror movie.

Still, when we finally reach the climax, where the Strode women (including Judy Greer as Laurie’s daughter, and Andi Matichak as her granddaughter) meet their monster, the movie comes alive. Even in a stuffy critics screening the crowded couldn’t help but cheer at a sequence which will no doubt be one of the standout horror set pieces of the year.

With opening credits that are pure nostalgia, and a score by Carpenter himself with Cody Carpenter and Daniel A. Davies, Halloween 2018 elicits surges of emotion from the get go – joy, fear, elation, gratification and disgust. All the good stuff horror excels at. And with a cheeky post-credits… well, not scene but, perhaps beat (which it really isn’t worth staying for) the possibility for further Halloween outings surely isn’t dead.

Slashing through the mire of former cash-ins to create something old and new, smart and satisfying, this is how a long awaited sequel is done. Welcome home Michael.

Halloween is in UK cinemas on 19 October

The third season of Daredevil once again pits the eponymous hero Matt Murdock against Wilson Fisk, the self-styled Kingpin of crime. Matt, who barely survived death at the end of the Defenders mini-series, finds himself questioning his faith and his desire to live a normal life. Meanwhile, the Kingpin has made a deal to secure his own freedom.

We caught up with incoming showrunner Erik Oleson for a spoiler-free chat about the upcoming season.

So Erik, I was wondering if you could just tell us how you came to the project.

Oh, I’m a huge fan of the comics, and the show in fact. I met with Drew Goddard in season 1 and came very close to writing it, and I’ve been kicking myself that I didn’t ever since, so I was very excited to do season 3. I love the character of Matt Murdock – he’s got all these built-in contradictions, the lawyer who’s a vigilante, the faithful catholic who goes out and acts as if he’s god… It’s a dream come true to write my version of that.

And so you’re the third showrunner on Daredevil now and you had an extra challenge in that you had to also address some major events from Defenders, so I’m interested in how you approach that – what’s it like having to incorporate what’s come before while trying put your own stamp on it?

I wanted to treat season 3 in the spirit of the comics – like it was my own run of the comics, like Loeb and Sale’s Yellow, or Kevin Smith’s Guardian Devil. I wanted to put my own stamp on the show. Marvel had their ideas – they knew that Wilson Fisk would be back, and they’d cleared the rights for me to incorporate pieces of my favourite comics. Obviously at the end of Defenders a building falls on Matt so THAT had to be part of it. But from that, I wanted to make the show about something. Not just continuing the story, that’s not how I think and not what the great comic runs do.

One of the things I wrote on the wall was our season’s controlling idea: “We can only be free when we confront our fears because our fears are what enslave us.” That became the guiding principle for everything every single character does in the season, they all have a fear that is fuelling their actions.

I wanted to relate it to the real world in some way, and this year the show’s about a tyrant who manipulates people against one another using their fears. But as well as reflecting this circumstance, I wanted the show to be a prescription for how to defeat that sort of person and how we can use the power of the free press and compassion to defeat those personalities who are pitting us all against one another in real life.

It’s interesting that you mention the free press, because I’ve seen the first few episodes I’m really interested in how you’re using Karen – as you probably know there’s no real precedent for her working as a journalist in the comics but now I see why you might have picked that thread up.

One of the things I wanted to do was really flesh out the supporting cast. I’m a big fan of TV shows with well-realised characters, things like The Sopranos, so the first thing I really wanted to do was fully understand Karen Page, and why she never finished the flirtations she started with Foggy, and Matt, and for that matter Frank Castle. I wanted to know who IS this person and what makes her tick? I could not be more proud of Deborah Ann Woll and how she nailed her storyline this season.

And speaking of supporting characters… you created a new character, Agent Ray Nadeem, for Jay Ali. Why did you decide to go that route rather than use an established Marvel figure?

So yeah, the character of Ray Nadeem is an FBI agent who is Wilson Fisk’s handler as he cuts a deal with the government to get out of prison. In many ways he’s the heart of the show, it’s a story about an honest man who is affected by his proximity to Fisk. I wanted to create a character where we really didn’t know what was going to happen next – there’s nothing about him that springs from the comics so anything can happen to and with him.

And another part was that honestly, I wanted to diversify the cast. And Jay Ali is a terrific British actor, he carries a huge amount of weight this season. I’m looking forward to seeing where the character goes.

One thing I’ve noticed about what I’ve seen is that the show seems like it’s become a lot more intense, but also a lot less graphic. Is that something you were consciously doing?

Oh, definitely. When I took over as showrunner there were some guiding directions I gave to everyone on the crew, and that’s to tell the story as if the audience is experiencing the story within the shoes of the character, rather than watching it. When you approach the story from the outside you’re not necessarily emotionally connected to everything that’s happening in the scene. I’m a huge fan of deep storytelling of emotional bond between great actors, and being inside their heads like that… it allows the audience to really feel as if they are Matt Murdock, or Karen Page, or Foggy Nelson.

So this this might be getting ahead a bit. But assuming you told the story you want to tell in season 3, would you be interested in coming back for season 4? Is that something you’ve thought about?

I’d love to. I can’t talk about it in any way, but I’d be very excited to.

Okay, so the other the other Marvel shows since Defenders have been exploring the idea of crossovers and guest stars from other shows. Without spoiling anything major, what’s your feeling about that opportunity?

I didn’t want to do crossovers. I wanted to get back to the core characters and re-focus the show. I love the other shows, but they have different tones and for the story that I wanted to tell it would’ve just been a distraction from the story I was doing.

And speaking of the other shows, Iron Fist was ten episodes and I believe Daredevil is the full thirteen again?

Yeah.

Was that a choice you made? Was it something given to you by Marvel?

The decision was made even before I joined the show, but I’m a real student of pacing and structure, and I was cognizant of the criticism some of the other shows had with regards to their pacing. I designed season 3 to keep that in mind. It has nothing people can call filler, put it that way. I use every inch of real estate that they gave me to tell a moving story and dig deeper into the characters. If I didn’t have 13 I wouldn’t have been able to do some of the really cool and forward-pushing material that we did.

Erik Oleson, thank you very much!

Daredevil season 3 premieres on Netflix on October 19th

The third season of Daredevil once again pits the eponymous hero Matt Murdock against Wilson Fisk, the self-styled Kingpin of crime. Matt, who barely survived death at the end of the Defenders mini-series, finds himself questioning his faith and his desire to live a normal life. Meanwhile, the Kingpin has made a deal to secure his own freedom.

We caught up with incoming showrunner Erik Oleson for a spoiler-free chat about the upcoming season.

So Erik, I was wondering if you could just tell us how you came to the project.

Oh, I’m a huge fan of the comics, and the show in fact. I met with Drew Goddard in season 1 and came very close to writing it, and I’ve been kicking myself that I didn’t ever since, so I was very excited to do season 3. I love the character of Matt Murdock – he’s got all these built-in contradictions, the lawyer who’s a vigilante, the faithful catholic who goes out and acts as if he’s god… It’s a dream come true to write my version of that.

And so you’re the third showrunner on Daredevil now and you had an extra challenge in that you had to also address some major events from Defenders, so I’m interested in how you approach that – what’s it like having to incorporate what’s come before while trying put your own stamp on it?

I wanted to treat season 3 in the spirit of the comics – like it was my own run of the comics, like Loeb and Sale’s Yellow, or Kevin Smith’s Guardian Devil. I wanted to put my own stamp on the show. Marvel had their ideas – they knew that Wilson Fisk would be back, and they’d cleared the rights for me to incorporate pieces of my favourite comics. Obviously at the end of Defenders a building falls on Matt so THAT had to be part of it. But from that, I wanted to make the show about something. Not just continuing the story, that’s not how I think and not what the great comic runs do.

One of the things I wrote on the wall was our season’s controlling idea: “We can only be free when we confront our fears because our fears are what enslave us.” That became the guiding principle for everything every single character does in the season, they all have a fear that is fuelling their actions.

I wanted to relate it to the real world in some way, and this year the show’s about a tyrant who manipulates people against one another using their fears. But as well as reflecting this circumstance, I wanted the show to be a prescription for how to defeat that sort of person and how we can use the power of the free press and compassion to defeat those personalities who are pitting us all against one another in real life.

It’s interesting that you mention the free press, because I’ve seen the first few episodes I’m really interested in how you’re using Karen – as you probably know there’s no real precedent for her working as a journalist in the comics but now I see why you might have picked that thread up.

One of the things I wanted to do was really flesh out the supporting cast. I’m a big fan of TV shows with well-realised characters, things like The Sopranos, so the first thing I really wanted to do was fully understand Karen Page, and why she never finished the flirtations she started with Foggy, and Matt, and for that matter Frank Castle. I wanted to know who IS this person and what makes her tick? I could not be more proud of Deborah Ann Woll and how she nailed her storyline this season.

And speaking of supporting characters… you created a new character, Agent Ray Nadeem, for Jay Ali. Why did you decide to go that route rather than use an established Marvel figure?

So yeah, the character of Ray Nadeem is an FBI agent who is Wilson Fisk’s handler as he cuts a deal with the government to get out of prison. In many ways he’s the heart of the show, it’s a story about an honest man who is affected by his proximity to Fisk. I wanted to create a character where we really didn’t know what was going to happen next – there’s nothing about him that springs from the comics so anything can happen to and with him.

And another part was that honestly, I wanted to diversify the cast. And Jay Ali is a terrific British actor, he carries a huge amount of weight this season. I’m looking forward to seeing where the character goes.

One thing I’ve noticed about what I’ve seen is that the show seems like it’s become a lot more intense, but also a lot less graphic. Is that something you were consciously doing?

Oh, definitely. When I took over as showrunner there were some guiding directions I gave to everyone on the crew, and that’s to tell the story as if the audience is experiencing the story within the shoes of the character, rather than watching it. When you approach the story from the outside you’re not necessarily emotionally connected to everything that’s happening in the scene. I’m a huge fan of deep storytelling of emotional bond between great actors, and being inside their heads like that… it allows the audience to really feel as if they are Matt Murdock, or Karen Page, or Foggy Nelson.

So this this might be getting ahead a bit. But assuming you told the story you want to tell in season 3, would you be interested in coming back for season 4? Is that something you’ve thought about?

I’d love to. I can’t talk about it in any way, but I’d be very excited to.

Okay, so the other the other Marvel shows since Defenders have been exploring the idea of crossovers and guest stars from other shows. Without spoiling anything major, what’s your feeling about that opportunity?

I didn’t want to do crossovers. I wanted to get back to the core characters and re-focus the show. I love the other shows, but they have different tones and for the story that I wanted to tell it would’ve just been a distraction from the story I was doing.

And speaking of the other shows, Iron Fist was ten episodes and I believe Daredevil is the full thirteen again?

Yeah.

Was that a choice you made? Was it something given to you by Marvel?

The decision was made even before I joined the show, but I’m a real student of pacing and structure, and I was cognizant of the criticism some of the other shows had with regards to their pacing. I designed season 3 to keep that in mind. It has nothing people can call filler, put it that way. I use every inch of real estate that they gave me to tell a moving story and dig deeper into the characters. If I didn’t have 13 I wouldn’t have been able to do some of the really cool and forward-pushing material that we did.

Erik Oleson, thank you very much!

Daredevil season 3 premieres on Netflix on October 19th

The third season of Daredevil once again pits the eponymous hero Matt Murdock against Wilson Fisk, the self-styled Kingpin of crime. Matt, who barely survived death at the end of the Defenders mini-series, finds himself questioning his faith and his desire to live a normal life. Meanwhile, the Kingpin has made a deal to secure his own freedom.

We caught up with incoming showrunner Erik Oleson for a spoiler-free chat about the upcoming season.

So Erik, I was wondering if you could just tell us how you came to the project.

Oh, I’m a huge fan of the comics, and the show in fact. I met with Drew Goddard in season 1 and came very close to writing it, and I’ve been kicking myself that I didn’t ever since, so I was very excited to do season 3. I love the character of Matt Murdock – he’s got all these built-in contradictions, the lawyer who’s a vigilante, the faithful catholic who goes out and acts as if he’s god… It’s a dream come true to write my version of that.

And so you’re the third showrunner on Daredevil now and you had an extra challenge in that you had to also address some major events from Defenders, so I’m interested in how you approach that – what’s it like having to incorporate what’s come before while trying put your own stamp on it?

I wanted to treat season 3 in the spirit of the comics – like it was my own run of the comics, like Loeb and Sale’s Yellow, or Kevin Smith’s Guardian Devil. I wanted to put my own stamp on the show. Marvel had their ideas – they knew that Wilson Fisk would be back, and they’d cleared the rights for me to incorporate pieces of my favourite comics. Obviously at the end of Defenders a building falls on Matt so THAT had to be part of it. But from that, I wanted to make the show about something. Not just continuing the story, that’s not how I think and not what the great comic runs do.

One of the things I wrote on the wall was our season’s controlling idea: “We can only be free when we confront our fears because our fears are what enslave us.” That became the guiding principle for everything every single character does in the season, they all have a fear that is fuelling their actions.

I wanted to relate it to the real world in some way, and this year the show’s about a tyrant who manipulates people against one another using their fears. But as well as reflecting this circumstance, I wanted the show to be a prescription for how to defeat that sort of person and how we can use the power of the free press and compassion to defeat those personalities who are pitting us all against one another in real life.

It’s interesting that you mention the free press, because I’ve seen the first few episodes I’m really interested in how you’re using Karen – as you probably know there’s no real precedent for her working as a journalist in the comics but now I see why you might have picked that thread up.

One of the things I wanted to do was really flesh out the supporting cast. I’m a big fan of TV shows with well-realised characters, things like The Sopranos, so the first thing I really wanted to do was fully understand Karen Page, and why she never finished the flirtations she started with Foggy, and Matt, and for that matter Frank Castle. I wanted to know who IS this person and what makes her tick? I could not be more proud of Deborah Ann Woll and how she nailed her storyline this season.

And speaking of supporting characters… you created a new character, Agent Ray Nadeem, for Jay Ali. Why did you decide to go that route rather than use an established Marvel figure?

So yeah, the character of Ray Nadeem is an FBI agent who is Wilson Fisk’s handler as he cuts a deal with the government to get out of prison. In many ways he’s the heart of the show, it’s a story about an honest man who is affected by his proximity to Fisk. I wanted to create a character where we really didn’t know what was going to happen next – there’s nothing about him that springs from the comics so anything can happen to and with him.

And another part was that honestly, I wanted to diversify the cast. And Jay Ali is a terrific British actor, he carries a huge amount of weight this season. I’m looking forward to seeing where the character goes.

One thing I’ve noticed about what I’ve seen is that the show seems like it’s become a lot more intense, but also a lot less graphic. Is that something you were consciously doing?

Oh, definitely. When I took over as showrunner there were some guiding directions I gave to everyone on the crew, and that’s to tell the story as if the audience is experiencing the story within the shoes of the character, rather than watching it. When you approach the story from the outside you’re not necessarily emotionally connected to everything that’s happening in the scene. I’m a huge fan of deep storytelling of emotional bond between great actors, and being inside their heads like that… it allows the audience to really feel as if they are Matt Murdock, or Karen Page, or Foggy Nelson.

So this this might be getting ahead a bit. But assuming you told the story you want to tell in season 3, would you be interested in coming back for season 4? Is that something you’ve thought about?

I’d love to. I can’t talk about it in any way, but I’d be very excited to.

Okay, so the other the other Marvel shows since Defenders have been exploring the idea of crossovers and guest stars from other shows. Without spoiling anything major, what’s your feeling about that opportunity?

I didn’t want to do crossovers. I wanted to get back to the core characters and re-focus the show. I love the other shows, but they have different tones and for the story that I wanted to tell it would’ve just been a distraction from the story I was doing.

And speaking of the other shows, Iron Fist was ten episodes and I believe Daredevil is the full thirteen again?

Yeah.

Was that a choice you made? Was it something given to you by Marvel?

The decision was made even before I joined the show, but I’m a real student of pacing and structure, and I was cognizant of the criticism some of the other shows had with regards to their pacing. I designed season 3 to keep that in mind. It has nothing people can call filler, put it that way. I use every inch of real estate that they gave me to tell a moving story and dig deeper into the characters. If I didn’t have 13 I wouldn’t have been able to do some of the really cool and forward-pushing material that we did.

Erik Oleson, thank you very much!

Daredevil season 3 premieres on Netflix on October 19th

Iron Fist has lost his chi. Netflix and Marvel have come to mutual decision to end the streaming series after two seasons.

Apparently a much-improved second season was not enough for Marvel and Netflix to order a third season and the story of Danny Rand could end here, depending on what the character’s involvement in any potential future Defenders series might be.

Marvel and Netflix delivered the following joint statement to Deadline:

“Marvel’s Iron Fist will not return for a third season on Netflix. Everyone at Marvel Television and Netflix is proud of the series and grateful for all of the hard work from our incredible cast, crew and showrunners. We’re thankful to the fans who have watched these two seasons, and for the partnership we’ve shared on this series. While the series on Netflix has ended, the immortal Iron Fist will live on.”

At some point one of the Marvel Netflix shows was going to become the first one to get cancelled or negotiate its own end. Iron Fist, as undoubtedly the weakest of its peers, would have been a good bet to be the first to get the Stormbreaker of cancellation. Still, this is unexpected to say the least. Not only was season two of the show a lot better than the first, but it ended on a pretty massive cliffhanger. Now it’s unclear what’s next for Danny Rand and Colleen Wing.

There is also the fact that Danny Rand as Iron Fist hasn’t just been confined to the series Iron Fist. As part of Netflix’s Marvel crimefighting team, The Defenders, Danny Rand has appeared in the team up series, and Luke Cage season 2. Netflix and Marvel did not confirm whether Danny Rand will continue to pop up in the other Defenders series though the statement “the immortal Iron Fist will live on” certainly looms large.

It’s also worth pointing out that Marvel is in the process of extricating itself from streaming services like Netflix as it prepares content for the upcoming Disney streaming service.

The next entry into Marvel’s Netflix streaming universe, Daredevil season 3, arrives on 19th October.