Punisher Joins Spider-Man: Brand New Day, X-Men Director Confirmed, Clayface Eyes an R-Rating

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It’s a big week for Marvel news! First up, Jon Bernthal has joined the cast of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, as his take on The Punisher makes the transition from Marvel Television to the big screen. He joins newcomer Sadie Sink, alongside Zendaya and Jacob Batalon who were also confirmed to be returning as MJ and Ned, respectively. Elsewhere, on Wednesday Disney announced that Marvel Studios is scheduled to release an untitled film slated for December 15, 2028, which if holds true, would be the studio’s fourth theatrical offering for that year. In Variety’s article on said possible fourth 2028 Marvel Studios film, the writer suggested that Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier has gone from being in talks, to officially tapped as the director for the upcoming X-Men film.

Fresh details on the recently cast Clayface film from DC Studios co-head James Gunn said the film would be R-rated during his appearance on the DC Studios Showcase Official Podcast. "It's just a great horror movie that is a great, smart, fun horror movie which is in a genre that I happen to love, which is body horror," he said; continuing with, "It's rated R… It's not anything now because the MPA has to watch it, but it's most likely rated R. It's pretty intense." In other DCU news, box office tracking for Superman via the National Research Group (NRG) has the film projected to open between $125 and $145 million domestically, with more conservative estimates ranging between $90 and $125 million. The fledgling DCU certainly seems to be living up to its Gods and Monsters thematic moniker.

It was a story of highs and lows at the box office this weekend, with the newcomers 28 Years Later and Pixar’s Elio unable to dethrone Dreamworks’ live action How To Train Your Dragon remake, which passed $358 million at the global box office in just two weeks. Although both new films bowed to the reigning champ, the narrative is far more devastating for Pixar and Elio; despite positive critical reviews, the celebrated animation studio’s latest feature struggled to muster even a meager $35 million globally; a record low and troubling sign concerning the performance, or lack thereof, for original films at Pixar. Danny Boyles’ legacy horror sequel 28 Years Later fared far better, debuting to $30 million both domestically and internationally, for a $60 million total haul

Marvel Comics has announced Spider-Man '94, a four issue limited comic run that will close the cliffhanger left by Spider-Man The Animated Series from its final episode in 1998. The series is written by long-time Spidey veteran and a writer on the original animated series, J.M. DeMatteis, with art by Jim Towe.

Russell Crowe is boarding at Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists’ Highlander in the Ramirez mentor role made famous by Sean Connery in the original 1986 movie. He joins Henry Cavill who is playing the lead role.

AMC has released a teaser trailer for season 3 of Walking Dead spin off Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and announced that the series will premiere on September 7.

James Bobin, director of The Muppets, is in talks to helm Netflix’s Dragon’s Lair, based on the classic 1980s arcade game, per The Hollywood Reporter. Ryan Reynolds, originally set to star, but no longer, is producing alongside Roy Lee, Trevor Engelson, and game creators Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and Jon Pomeroy.

Warner Bros. Pictures has released a new trailer for ‘Weapons’ written and directed by Zach Cregger which offers more eerie footage from the film.

It’s a big week for fans of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding franchise; Death Stranding 2: On the Beach releases this week on June 26, for the Playstation 5 exclusively. Kojima Productions also announced an animated feature film being written by Raised by Wolves‘ Aaron Guzikowski; this is in addition to the previously announced live action Death Stranding film adaptation in development.