WIRE Buzz: Ms. Marvel series taps directors; Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; The Suicide Squad

The team behind the Ms. Marvel television show continues to "embiggen."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming Disney+ series has already tapped four directors to come on board and direct episodes of the show: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life), Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (for the documentary shorts Saving Face and A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness), and Meera Menon (The Walking Dead, Titans).

Bisha K. Ali (Sex Education) serves as head writer on the project, which centers on Kamala Khan, a young New Jersey teen who gains the Inhuman ability to alter her size and shape and takes on the mantle of Ms. Marvel, a title previously held by Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel) herself in the comics.

Since the debut of her solo series back in 2014, the young Pakistani-American hero has become not only the first Muslim Marvel superhero to have her own comic title, but also the first one to get her own TV show. And while there hasn't been much news about whether the fan-favorite character will be making her way to the larger MCU in any of the upcoming films — more specifically Captain Marvel 2 — Marvel President Kevin Feige has mentioned that all the upcoming Marvel TV series will be better integrated into the larger universe as they're being produced by Marvel Studios.

Kamala Khan was created by Marvel editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, writer G. Willow Wilson, and artists Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie. She has appeared in different animated Marvel series and video games over the years. She currently stars as the lead playable character in the new Avengers game.

Ms. Marvel is set to premiere in 2021. 

Next, the amazing adventure continues! Michael Chabon has confirmed that progress has been made on the small-screen adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the author and former Picard showrunner said that he and his wife and creative partner Ayelet Waldman are in “a writers room of two” making headway on the scripts for the upcoming series based on his novel of the same name.

“The current status is that my wife, Ayelet Waldman, and I, right now, we are at work,” Chabon told the media outlet. “She's done a draft of the pilot script and I'm now doing my draft of that script, and she's moved on to do a first draft of the second episode.”

The current plan for the series, which has been picked up by Showtime, is to initially have “two eight-episode seasons,” with an option to go further, if “everyone enjoys the show.” Which means that additional seasons past the initial two would serve as a sequel to the original 2000 novel.

“I've had a lot of thoughts over the years about writing a sequel, maybe a novel, and you know, never quite brought myself to that point of doing that,” Chabon said. “So, this would be a way to do that. That might be really fun.”

Paying homage to America’s Golden Age of comics, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay follows the careers of two Jewish cousins and comic book creators: artist Joe Kavalier, a Czechoslovakian immigrant who escaped Nazi-occupied Europe, and writer Sammy Clay, a Brooklyn native.

Chabon and Waldon will both serve as executive producers and showrunners for the series, with Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman also on board to produce. 

Chabon explained that they’re hoping “to have a season ready by the end of this year,” so that they can start production in 2021. 

Even after some behind-the-scenes footage on The Suicide Squad was unveiled at DC FanDome, we still don’t know a whole lot about James Gunn’s forthcoming film. Well, we know the featured cast, sure. And we know Jon Cena plays “a douch-ey Captain America,” yes. But beyond that, things are still being kept pretty under wraps in terms of story and how it connects to David Ayer’s 2016 Suicide Squad.

Well, today we now know that if the film sticks to Gunn's vision, it should get a hard-R rating, at least according to one of its stars.

Although Joel Kinnaman still makes sure not to reveal too much about The Suicide Squad’s story (because of course he doesn't) in today's interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he does let it be known that the script is “insane,” “funny,” and that the “movie is going to be a f**king monster.” So, a James Gunn film, in other words.

“That movie is going to be insane. The script is so funny. Every page of that script was funny, and every page made me laugh,” said Kinnaman, who plays Rick Flag (reprising his role from the 2016 film), adding that it’s "heavily R-rated."

Whether or not the film will end up being rated R is ultimately up to the ratings board and Warner Bros. But based on the success of the Deadpool films and Logan (and let’s not forget Zack Snyder's Watchmen and Gunn’s own Super), there’s certainly more than enough of a precedent for adult-skewing superhero films. 

The monster that is The Suicide Squad is set to tear its way into theaters Aug. 6, 2021.