Hello again, Friends! It is bitterly cold and snowy where I am today, and I think it’s that way across a wide swath of the country right now. So, I hope today’s newsletter finds you safe and warm wherever you are in the world.

Last week was the newsiest week around the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the calendar flipped to 2025. On the podcast, Kyle and Robby announced the nominees for the fourth annual Friendlee Awards, and FFW+ subscribers spent the week voting. Tomorrow, be sure to listen and find out the winners. Also, be on the lookout for the Captain America: Brave New World screen recap coming soon to the FFW YouTube channel.

Now, let’s break down everything that came out of the MCU last week, including a long-awaited trailer, some casting news, and tickets going on sale for next month’s Captain America: Brave New World. For that, we head over to…

THE WATERCOOLER

THIS WEEK IN THE MCU

• We have to start with that trailer for Daredevil: Born Again. It was a brutal, bone-crunching trailer that seemed designed to assure fans of the Netflix series that the new series will be just as violent and mature. The trailer provided first glimpses of Jon Bernthal as the Punisher, Wilson Bethel as Bullseye, and the return of Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson as Karen and Foggy, respectively.

• After the trailer's release, Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio spoke exclusively to Entertainment Weekly. D’Onofrio promised, "Anything on our show is, nine out of 10 times, leading to something that's even bigger and crazier.” Also, in case you missed it, Robby wrote an article about the Daredevil comics you should want to check out before the series premieres on March 4th. Read it all here.

Tickets went on sale Friday for Captain America: Brave New World, and a series of new trailers, featurettes, and posters debuted to celebrate. The final runtime for the movie was also revealed at one hour, fifty-eight minutes. With the movie now less than four weeks away, the full-court marketing press is on. Expect to see a lot of Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, and Danny Ramirez over the next month. I recommend this 20-minute interview with Mackie, Ramirez, and director Julius Onah conducted by Fandango.

• Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is now just ten days away. We learned the exact release schedule for the show last week. All ten episodes will air over just four weeks. The first two episodes come out on January 29th at 3 am ET/midnight PT. The following two weeks will see three episodes each, and the final two episodes will premiere on February 19th. The social media embargo for the show lifts on January 23rd, with full reviews embargoed until the first episodes hit Disney+.

• The latest issue of Empire Magazine interviewed the Russo Brothers about their 2025 film The Electric State and managed to slip in a couple of questions about why the pair decided to return to the MCU to direct Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. According to Anthony, “…what happened was, we ended up stumbling upon an idea that activated all of us. You couldn’t see it coming until it came, and once it came it was like, ‘Well, that’s a story we need to tell.’”

• Finally, a little bit of casting news. Deadline exclusively reported that Faran Tahir is returning to the MCU and joining the cast of the Vision series, which is expected to film later this year. He will be reprising his role as Ten Rings leader Raza, last seen (and presumed dead) in 2008’s Iron Man. He joins Paul Bettany, James Spader, and Todd Stashwick among the confirmed cast.

BEYOND THE MULTIVERSE

• A very quick update on Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse: according to Jharrel Jerome, the voice of Miles G. Morales, the cast has not yet started recording lines for the final film in the trilogy. The movie does seem close to being ready to release at this time.

TRUE BELIEVERS RUMOR OF THE WEEK

• Previously in this space, we have discussed rumors about several series’ in early production at Marvel Studios, including titles like Blonde Phantom, Hawkeye Season 2, Strange Academy, and Nova. According to insider Daniel Richtman, the first of those shows has finally been greenlit: Strange Academy. Right now, only Vision and the second season of Daredevil: Born Again are scheduled to film this year for Marvel Television, leaving open the possibility that this show could be next in line late this year or early in 2026. One pitch for this show was described to us as the MCU’s version of “Hogwarts,” the wizarding school from the Harry Potter series.

  Thanks to everyone for reading and listening over the past week and to all of my new followers on Bluesky. Stay tuned for much, much more from Friends From Work coming soon.

-Greg