We are now less than 48 hours away from the first three episodes of Ironheart debuting on Disney+. Ironheart feels in many ways like a forgotten series, sandwiched between the critically acclaimed Thunderbolts* and Marvel’s biggest movie of the year The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

MCU fans will not want to miss this series. Put aside your pre-conceived opinions and low expectations, and show up Tuesday night ready to have fun. Full reactions will be available when the embargo lifts tomorrow evening, and complete reviews to coincide with Tuesday’s premiere. Kyle & Robby will have their full breakdown of the first three episodes ready to go when you’ve finished watching.

Before jumping into the news, don’t forget to order your new Friends From Work t-shirts and then jump over to our partners at Homage to check out their full inventory of Marvel merch.

Now…

THE WATERCOOLER

THIS WEEK IN THE MCU

• The blockbuster news of the week came late Friday, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter. According to reporter Borys Kit, Jon Bernthal will be reprising his role as Frank Castle, the Punisher, in next year’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. As Kit mentions, this would appear to indicate a more grounded story for the new Tom Holland film, after months and months of rumors about the project. There remains a lot we still don’t know- but we do know that Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Sadie Sink, and Liza Colon-Zayas will join Holland in the film.

• Marvel released the episode titles for Ironheart and confirmed last week that the episodes will indeed be released over just two weeks, with the final three episodes debuting on July 1st. Check back here tomorrow for my social media reactions, and on Tuesday, I will have a full review of the entire series.

• On Wednesday, Disney announced an untitled Marvel Studios movie to be released on December 15th, 2028. Marvel had previously already planted flags for new movies in February, May, and November of 2028. With the new date set in December, the November date will likely be removed from the calendar. In their write-up, Variety casually appeared to confirm that Jake Schreier (Thunderbolts*) will direct the next X-Men movie and mentioned Blade, Black Panther 3, and a sequel to The Fantastic Four: First Steps as movies in development that could potentially fill those untitled slots in 2028.

• In a Q&A at TV Line, reporter Matt Webb Mitovich delivered the unfortunate news that Marvel Studios appears to have quietly canceled their behind-the-scenes series Assembled, and no future episodes are planned at this time.

• Thunderbolts* is coming to digital and physical media next month, Disney announced. The movie will be available on digital on July 1st, and 4K steelbook on July 29th. Star Julia Louis-Dreyfus spoke exclusively to Entertainment Weekly to celebrate the announcement.

• Ironheart is the first Marvel Studios project to be set primarily in Chicago. Watch the above featurette to find out more about how the show brought the city to life.

BEYOND THE MULTIVERSE

• Hollywood is on the cusp of the biggest movie month of the year, and July’s first big blockbuster, Jurassic World Rebirth, released a new trailer last week. The movie will look to continue the recent string of critical mainstream titles, including Ballerina (76% RT score), How To Train Your Dragon (78%), 28 Years Later (89%), and Elio (84%).

TRUE BELIEVERS RUMOR OF THE WEEK

• According to various reports, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will release a new trailer on Wednesday, one month before the movie’s release date.

That’s a wrap on the news of the week. Don’t forget to tune in at 9 pm ET Tuesday on Disney+ to watch the first three episodes of Ironheart and then jump over to our Discord server to talk all about it. I will be back in two days with my full review and then again next Sunday with the next installment of TSP.

Have a great week,

-Greg