Kevin Feige Unveils MCU's Phase 5 and 6 Plans

►Welcome to the Multiverse Saga. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige made a triumphant return to Comic-Con Saturday and got a hero’s welcome. The executive announced a pair of Avengers movies and revealed the official title for the next saga he’s been building. The Infinity Saga, which concluded with Avengers: Endgame, helped make Marvel the biggest brand in Hollywood. The new batch of projects fall under the title the Multiverse Saga. The story. 

—The game didn't end. Regarding those two new Avengers films, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will arrive May 2, 2025 with Avengers: Secret Wars hitting Nov. 7, 2025.The story. 

—"Chad is no longer with us physically, but his passion, his genius, his pride, his culture, and the impact he made on this industry will be felt forever." Marvel took the Comic-Con crowd back to Wakanda on Saturday, for an emotional look at the upcoming sequel to Black Panther, the first time the public has gotten a glimpse at the anticipated film. The trailer. 

—"I’m sorry. Some stories have an end. It doesn’t mean everybody dies." James Gunn has confirmed that the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie is the end of the story for his group of Guardians characters. “This is the end of that story,” said Gunn at Comic-Con to disappointed groans from the Hall H crowd. The story. 

—The people's superhero. Dwayne Johnson made quite an entrance to Comic-Con’s Saturday, with ear-splitting thunder, smoke, and flashes filling Hall H. From the blackness emerged a costume-clad Johnson, who appeared to float into the air above the stage. The team behind DC's Black Adam then showed off new footage from the film. The story. 

—"We are ready to take that ride with them for another season." FX has used its time at Comic-Con to thrill fans with news that Sons of Anarchy offshoot Mayans M.C. will return for a fifth season. That the announcement came Sunday at the confab was no surprise given that the show’s predecessor series frequently announced similar news to close out SDCC. Co-creator and exec producer Elgin James has also inked a new overall deal with Disney’s 20th TV, which producers the drama series. The story. 

—"In less than two weeks, everyone is going to get to see what we made." The Sandman is finally making it to the screen, and Neil Gaiman can’t wait for that moment to arrive. Gaiman joined the Netflix series’ cast, including Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Jenna Coleman and Kirby Howell-Baptiste, for a Hall H panel Saturday at SDCC. The team debuted a number of clips and the full trailer. The story. 

More from Comic-Con...

—Star Trek: Picard Comic-Con teaser shows Next Generation crew back in character

—Interview With the Vampire: AMC releases full trailer for Anne Rice series

—Shazam! Fury of the Gods trailer buzzes Comic-Con

—House of the Dragon at Comic-Con: Team talks surprises, living up to Game of Thrones

—Batwheels rolls out first teaser at Comic-Con

—Zack Snyder to guest star on Teen Titans Go!

'Nope' Scares Up $44M Opening

►Solid start. Jordan Peele’s newest film, Nope, easily topped the domestic box office in its opening with an estimated $44m from 3,785 theaters, according to Universal’s weekend estimates.

While that is certainly a solid start, the sci-fi horror adventure pic came in well behind the huge $71m bow of Peele’s Us in spring 2019. Either way, Nope still scored the biggest launch for an original studio screenplay since Us after besting the $41m debut Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which was released in late July 2019.

THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Nope had been tracking for a domestic debut in the $50m range heading into the weekend.

Elsewhere, Marvel's Thor: Love and Thunder held at No. 2 domestically with $22.1m from 4,370 theaters as it all but crossed the $600m mark globally in its third weekend. The box office report. 

—Milestone achieved. Universal’s Jurassic World: Dominion made another $2.6m in China this weekend. After nearly six weeks in cinemas, the film has earned $152.8m, the best of any U.S. title in China this year — although there have been conspicuously few of them. In a suprise move, Paramount’s comedy-adventure The Lost City, starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, has also locked up a release for Friday. The China box office report. 

Keke Palmer Fires Back at Comparison to Zendaya Over Colorism

►"I’m an incomparable talent." Keke Palmer doesn’t appear to appreciate the recent social media conversation comparing her career to that of Zendaya. A viral weekend tweet drew attention for claiming that a perceived difference in mainstream popularity between Palmer, who currently stars in Jordan Peele’s Nope, and Zendaya is "one of the clearest examples of how colorism plays out in Hollywood." On Sunday, Palmer tweeted, "A great example of colorism is to believe I can be compared to anyone." The story. 

—"It was emotional." Constance Wu, who recently revealed that a 2019 Twitter backlash led her to attempt suicide, tells THR's nicest man Chris Gardner that she found a friendly shoulder in The Terminal List co-star Chris Pratt: "Talk about someone who really understood what I was going through." The story.

—"I know the truth." Kate Moss has opened up about why she chose to testify in ex-boyfriend Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard. Opening up in an interview with BBC radio show Desert Island Discs, Moss was asked about defending both Depp and fashion designer John Galliano, who was found guilty of making racist and antisemitic comments in a Paris court in 2011. The story. 

—You little ripper! Margot Robbie is making an appearance in the series finale of long-running Australian soap Neighbours. The official Twitter account for the show revealed the news ahead of its series finale, which will air later this week. The show wrapped filming in June after 37 years on the air. Early in her career, Robbie portrayed teen Donna on Neighbours from 2008-11. The story.

—It's official. The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in the U.K. Although Ukraine won this year’s contest, due to the ongoing conflict following Russia’s invasion the show’s organizers have now confirmed what had long been mooted: that the competition will be hosted by the runners-up, the U.K. The story.

NFL+ Enters Sports Streaming Wars

►"An important day in the history of the National Football League." The NFL is launching a streaming offering called NFL+, hoping to entice fans to subscribe with features built around smartphones and tablets. The first game available on NFL+ will be the Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 4. The service will have two subscription tiers, a base tier for $4.99 per month ($39.99 per year) and the premium tier will cost $9.99 per month ($79.99 per year). The story. 

—Worked out well last time. Noah Baumbach’s Netflix film White Noise will be the opening movie of the 2022 Venice International Film Festival. It will mark Baumbach’s return to the Lido three years after his Marriage Story premiered in Venice, en route to picking up six Oscar nominations and one win. White Noise stars Marriage Story lead Adam Driver as a professor in the mid-West going through a very dramatic year. The story. 

—"Had to sneak my way in here." Dave Chappelle was the unannounced opener for the Chris Rock-Kevin Hart double bill at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. During his 22-minute opening set, he joked about the surreal quality of getting attacked while onstage at the Hollywood Bowl in early May and yelled at his bodyguards for "wearing dress shoes on the job." The story.

—"I’m leaving. Don’t fuck with me." Kid Cudi stormed off the stage during his headlining set at Rolling Loud Miami on Friday after being hit numerous times by objects thrown from the crowd. The rapper, who was a last-minute replacement for Kanye West, was early into his late-night performance when he stopped the show after being hit in the face by what appeared to be a water bottle. The story. 

—"Hold up, hold up, hold up." Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello had a run-in with security during the rock band’s concert at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Saturday. As seen in a fan-captured video, midway through the group’s closing song “Killing in the Name,” the iconic guitarist was accidentally knocked over by a security guard sprinting toward an unruly fan who snuck onto the stage. The story.

Bob Rafelson 1933-2022 

►True maverick. Bob Rafelson, the writer, director and producer who set the tone for the swinging, psychedelic 1960s with The Monkees, then was a pioneer in one of the most influential eras in the history of independent film with involvement in the classics Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider, The Last Picture Show and more, has died. He was 89. The obituary. 

In other news...

—Don Lee returns for Korean action sequel The Roundup: No Way Out

—Former L.A. Laker Slava Medvedenko auctions NBA title rings for Ukraine

—A hair-raising prospect: Eyebrow transplants all the rage in Hollywood

—Bachelor spinoff star Emily Ferguson marries NHL’s William Karlsson

—Kevin Rooney, Emmy-winning writer, comedian who worked with Jay Leno and Dennis Miller, dies at 71

What else we're reading...

—Lucas Shaw writes that despite some recent good news at the box office, the problems persist and Hollywood has a supply chain problem [Bloomberg]

—Increasingly hard to escape the feeling that Elon Musk is a total loser: "Elon Musk’s friendship with Sergey Brin ruptured by alleged affair" [WSJ]

—Why is everyone suddenly wearing hot pink? Marguerite Ward writes that it's all about Barbiecore, the summer's hottest trend [Insider]

—Salamishah Tillet reflects on the 30th anniversary of Boomerang, and how the film was really all about Robin Givens' Jacqueline Broyer [NYT]

—Simon Abrams has a great interview with Shinji Higuchi, the Japanese master of kaiju films [Vulture]

Today...  

...in 1980, Warner Bros. unveiled the Harold Ramis-directed, R-rated comedy Caddyshack in theaters. Widely considered one of the funniest sports movies ever made, Caddyshack made nearly $40m at the box office and spawned a poorly received sequel in 1988. The original review.

Today's birthdays: James Lafferty (37), David Denman (49), Miriam Shor (51), D.B. Woodside (53), Matt LeBlanc (55), Darren Star (61), Illeana Douglas (57), Meg Donnelly (22), Shantel VanSanten (37), Jay R. Ferguson (48), Iman (67), Katherine Kelly Lang (61), Andrew Lewis Caldwell (33), Yvonne Sciò (53), Bryan Cogman (43), Lenny Platt (38), Ayumi Tanida (47), Allan Loeb (53), Peter Suschitzky (81)