Hi friends, and welcome to Thanksgiving week! After a flurry of trailers the prior two weeks, things were quiet last week from Marvel Studios as things started to slow down heading into the holiday.

Likewise, things have slowed down at Friends From Work with the holiday approaching and Robby still away on vacation. It is likely to be another quiet week coming up, but things will start ramping up quickly in December with the guys refreshed and ready to start prepping for the final season of What If…? and Captain America: Brave New World, which is coming quicker than you think.

So make sure to take some time this week to give thanks, spend time with friends and family, and maybe even rewatch an MCU movie or two.

It's time for a quick stop over at…

THE WATERCOOLER

THIS WEEK IN THE MCU

• New standees for Captain America: Brave New World were spotted at theaters this weekend, and closer inspection revealed some new details about the film. Anthony Mackie joins Scarlett Johannson and Chris Hemsworth as MCU actors to add “Executive Producer” to their list of credits, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson (Game of Thrones) has been added to the cast, Laura Karpman (Ms. Marvel, The Marvels, What If…?) will be scoring her second MCU feature, and director Julius Onah also has a screenplay credit for the movie.

• Empire magazine released its 2025 preview issue with a few new tidbits about upcoming MCU projects. Director Julius Onah discussed the importance of the relationship between Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) in Captain America: Brave New World.

• Daredevil: Born Again star Charlie Cox spoke to the magazine about the relationship between the new incarnation and the original series on Netflix.

BEYOND THE MULTIVERSE

• Behind the 1-2 punch of Wicked and Gladiator II, the domestic box office surged to its third-best weekend of 2024, easily the best without a Disney or Marvel entry. With Moana 2 opening in just a few days, theaters should continue to reap the benefits. I saw Wicked last night and was blown away. 

TRUE BELIEVERS RUMOR OF THE WEEK

• A few weeks ago, Sony announced that Spider-Man 4, starring Tom Holland and Zendaya, would be released on July 24th, 2026. But since that announcement, rumors have swirled that filming may not start until August of 2025 (possibly due to Holland’s commitments to Avengers: Doomsday and the next Christopher Nolan movie). Now, the release date may also get pushed back to December of 2026. December ended up being a great release window for Spider-Man: No Way Home, so it stands to reason that this entry would also do well in that timeframe. Less certain is what another release date change would do to the currently untitled MCU movie scheduled for November 2026.

It was a light week of news, but before I go, I want to take a quick moment to thank you, the readers and listeners of Friends From Work. Without your support, none of this would be possible. It is a pleasure to interact with you each week, here, on Discord, and now on Bluesky (follow me @watercoolerffw.bsky.social). Have a great holiday, and stay safe!

- Greg