Hello again, friends! How is it possible that Thanksgiving is only 10 days away? Where has the year gone? It’s been a relatively quiet year for Marvel Studios (at least in terms of the sheer number of projects) but an extremely successful one on three different fronts. X-Men ‘97 was a triumph for Marvel Animation, Deadpool & Wolverine restored the MCU to box office greatness, and Agatha All Along was a surprise hit for Marvel Television.

On that note, Deadpool & Wolverine debuted on Disney+ last week, as well as the behind-the-scenes documentary Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Deadpool & Wolverine. Marvel also premiered Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Agatha All Along exclusively on their YouTube channel on Thursday.

At Friends From Work, Kyle and Robby managed to squeeze in two podcasts last week before Robby headed off to vacation. First, they broke down the devastating finale of The Penguin exclusively on FFW+, and then on the main feed, they watched and reacted to all of the exciting trailers released over the last couple of weeks.

FFW+ members can expect the next installment of MCU Comics Corner this week. I will also be publishing the next installment of Backordered, where I break down all the comics I have been reading. And [saturday morning cartoons] will continue to roll along, starting season 3 of Spider-Man: The Animated Series this weekend.

Now over to…

THE WATERCOOLER

THIS WEEK IN THE MCU

• Last week, we mentioned two new trailers were expected to be released imminently, and we were correct on both counts. First up, the final season of What If…? In addition to the trailer, Marvel also revealed this crazy list of confirmed cast members: Hayley Atwell, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Mark Ruffalo, Teyonah Parris, Kathryn Hahn, Kumail Nanjiani, Samuel L. Jackson, Seth Green, Laurence Fishburne, Dominique Thorne, Simu Liu, Hailee Steinfeld, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Devery Jacobs, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Tessa Thompson, Dominic Cooper, James D’Arcy, Josh Brolin, Oscar Isaac, Wyatt Russell, Walton Goggins, Clark Gregg, Emily VanCamp, Meng’er Zhang, Taika Waititi, Rachel House, Kat Dennings, Alison Sealy-Smith, Ross Marquand, Gene Farber, Hamish Parkinson, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, David Kaye, America Ferrera, and Natasha Lyonne playing an original character named “Byrdie”. These last eight episodes will drop daily starting on December 22nd.

• A series of press kits prepared by Disney provided additional casting and synopses for several additional 2025 MCU projects. The cast for Marvel Zombies includes Awkwafina, David Harbour, Simu Liu, Elizabeth Olsen, Randall Park, Florence Pugh, Hailee Steinfeld, Dominique Thorne, Iman Vellani, and Todd Williams. The four-part spin-off of the season 1 What If…? zombie episode will premiere in October, tentatively on October 3rd.

• The cast for Eyes of Wakanda includes Winnie Harlow, Steve Toussaint, Anika Noni Rose, Patricia Belcher, Larry Herron, Adam Gold, Lynn Whitfield, Jacques Colimon, Jona Xiao, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Gary Anthony Williams, Zeke Alton, and Cress Williams as “The Lion.” The synopsis for the show is:

The four-episode show premieres on August 6th, 2025.

• Ironheart (June 24th, 2025) also received a new synopsis.

• Brad Winderbaum was on the Phase Hero podcast last week and revealed that Wonder Man (December 2025) will have eight episodes rather than the previously speculated 10.

• Finally, the first synopsis for The Fantastic Four: First Steps:

• During a “Today Show” interview to promote Gladiator II, Denzel Washington dropped a bombshell when he said that Ryan Coogler is writing him a role in Black Panther 3.

• Anthony Mackie and Giancarlo Esposito were among the actors from Captain America: Brave New World who were in Los Angeles last week for additional reshoots on the movie. The pickups were reportedly to last about two weeks.

BEYOND THE MULTIVERSE

• The other trailer we mentioned last week as likely to release was this one and what a trailer it was. Tom Cruise returns for the eigth and final (?) installment in a nearly 30-year old franchise. Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Angela Bassett return while Nick Offerman joins the cast for Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning. The movie is set to be released on May 23rd, 2025.

TRUE BELIEVERS RUMOR OF THE WEEK

• My Cosmic Circus is reporting that the working title for the fourth Spider-Man movie is “Blue Oasis.” Other rumors started circulating at the end of the week that the movie will not start shooting as early as hoped and possibly not until very late 2025 or even early 2026. If that is the case, it would put its current July 2026 release date in serious jeopardy.

Before wrapping things up this week, I wanted to make you aware that The Watercooler is going to begin migrating away from Twitter in favor Bluesky, a very similar app with a lot less toxicity. You can follow me here and I’m going to attempt to be much more active with the account there than I was previously on the bird app. So give me a follow if you want and let me know what you think.

See y’all right back here next week.

-Greg