March 9, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Disney+/Marvel Studios(LOS ANGELES) — Anthony Mackie has been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Solider, but before he played Sam Wilson/Falcon, he logged acclaimed supporting performances in Oscar-winning films like 8 Mile and The Hurt Locker. 

That’s why Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige tells Variety of Mackie, “We just offered him the role…he did not audition. That’s only happened a handful of times at Marvel.”

For the record, even Robert Downey Jr. had to screen test before 2008’s Iron Man.

“Mackie has this amazing presence, whether he’s on screen for six seconds or six hours,” Feige adds. “In [Avengers:] Endgame, it was closer to six seconds.”

With Falcon and The Winter Soldier now coming to Disney+, Mackie’s character can finally –pardon the pun — spread his wings.

“What’s so great about the move to Disney+ long form is that we get to see much more of these characters,” Feige tells the trade.  “All along we’ve been asking, ‘Where did he grow up? Who is his family?’ We want to know more about this guy being thrown into this situation and handling it spectacularly well considering he’s just a man.”

“That’s what the show is about,” he adds. “This man, this Black man in particular, in the Marvel version of the world outside our window.”

The series, which debuts on March 19, shows Sam Wilson coming to terms with taking up the mantel and shield of Captain America, as seen in the closing moments of Endgame.

“What does it really mean for somebody to step into those shoes? And not just somebody, but a Black man in the present day?” Feige asked. “That’s what [we] didn’t want to shy away from.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

March 9, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Bennet, Cameron, Parault — Saty + Pratha/Adria Vaidila/Marcus V. Richardson(LOS ANGELES) — The CW has found its Powerpuff Girls.

ABC Audio has confirmed that the live-action version of the hit cartoon about the pint-sized superheroes has cast Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. veterans Chloe Bennet and Dove Cameron, as well as Jagged Little Pill stage actress and recording artist Yanna Perault. 

Bennet, Cameron, and Perault will play grown-up versions of, respectively, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup in the forthcoming CW series. 

Based on Craig McCracken’s hit Cartoon Network animated show, the three Utonium Sisters got their start as lab-created super-girls. But according to a description from the network, the show, co-produced by Juno Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, paints the heroes as “disillusioned twenty-somethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting.”

Bennet’s Blossom was a “spunky, conscientious, Little-Miss-Perfect child who holds several advanced degrees,” but in the new show, her, “repressed kiddie-superhero trauma has left her feeling anxious and reclusive, and she aims to become a leader again.”

Former Disney star Cameron — who played one of Bennet’s enemies on S.H.I.E.L.D. — is Bubbles, the blue-skirted sweetheart of the trio. “She still sparkles as an adult,” the network notes, “but her charming exterior belies an unexpected toughness and wit. She’s initially more interested in recapturing her fame than saving the world.”

Perrault’s character was the brunette butt-kicker of the group in her crime-fighting days. Now, “more sensitive than her tough exterior suggests, Buttercup has spent her adulthood trying to shed her Powerpuff Girl identity and live an anonymous life,” says the network.

There’s no release date yet for the series.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

March 9, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for BAFTA LA(LONDON) — Piers Morgan is leaving his job as co-host of Good Morning Britain, the British television network ITV confirmed Tuesday.

“Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain,” the network said in a statement. “ITV has accepted this decision and has nothing further to add.”

Morgan’s comments following Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey have sparked outrage. In some of his most controversial comments, he dismissed Meghan’s claims about her own mental health, declaring in part, “I don’t believe a word she says, Meghan Markle. I wouldn’t believe her if she read me a weather report.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Morgan stormed off the set of the morning show after weatherman Alex Beresford called him out for his “diabolical” tirades against Harry and Meghan.

The longtime TV host joined Good Morning Britain in 2015.

By Carson Blackwelder
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

March 9, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

John Stillwell – WPA Pool/Getty Images(LONDON) — Queen Elizabeth II issued a statement Tuesday in response to Prince Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, making it clear any fallout from the interview will be handled privately, as a family.

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement released on behalf of the queen. “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”

“Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members,” the statement read, referring to Harry and Meghan’s nearly 2-year-old son, a great-grandson of the queen.

Harry and Meghan, who are expecting their second child, appeared to take great pains in their interview with Winfrey to praise the queen, even as they revealed Meghan’s serious mental health struggles as a royal, made allegations of racism within the royal family, and claimed they were cut off financially and denied security protection.

After asserting that conversations were had with Harry ahead of Archie’s birth about “how dark” his skin might be, Harry later made clear to Winfrey that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were not involved in the alleged conversations about Archie’s race.

By Katie Kindelan
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

March 9, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

HBO Max/Warner Bros. Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — Although the so-called Snyder Cut of Justice League doesn’t debut on HBO Max until March 18, some HBO Max users who clicked on the new Tom and Jerry live-action film Monday got a chance to see some of anticipated superhero film.

However, Warner Bros. and HBO Max were on the case quickly, the studio tells The Verge. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League was temporarily available on HBO Max and the error was addressed within minutes,” noted a rep. 

The website says that if Tom and Jerry fans timed it just right, they could have seen just about an hour of the newly-revamped Justice League, which clocks in at four hours and two minutes long.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is the director’s original vision for the film, complete with a new soundtrack, enhanced special effects — and minus the contentious and fan-flamed additions director Joss Whedon added when he replaced Sndyer following the latter’s exit due to a family tragedy.

Rumors that Snyder’s version of the film still existed after the lackluster performance of Whedon’s in 2017 led to a viral fan campaign for Warner Bros. to release it. The studio eventually invested a reported $40 million to allow Snyder to make his original vision a reality. 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.