Five years on to the month since Avengers: Endgame cemented the MCU‘s status as the biggest movie franchise of all time, the world of Marvel Studios finds itself in much different health. While Endgame brought home $3 billion worldwide, its most recent production The Marvels could barely scrape together $200 million at the box office. Clearly, something needs to be done.

Disney chief Bob Iger thinks he knows what that something is. As per the company’s quarterly earnings call (via Variety), Iger decreed that Marvel is “slowly going to decrease volume” over the next couple of years and he’s working to have the studio release “two TV series a year instead of what had become four” and “reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three.”

To recap, it looks like we’re heading for two movies and TV series a year. And, as you would expect, the fandom is reacting entirely calmly and is in total agreement about this. As Cyclops would say… NOT! On the one hand, many are firmly of the belief this is a cap Marvel should’ve had in place since the start of the Multiverse Saga, clearly feeling that the splurge of content we’ve had since 2021 is to blame for the steady decline in audience interest.

Others, meanwhile, are taking a more Magneto-like extremist viewpoint and think Iger should limit Marvel to a single movie a year!

Of course, not everyone’s going to love the idea of less MCU content. So some believe that Iger should really be focusing on quality, not quantity.

Elsewhere, we have those who haven’t kept up with the MCU at all and are stunned that four productions per calendar year is considered a strict limit. Oh honey, wait ’til you find out we had four movies and five TV shows in 2021!

Is Marvel Ant-Manning the MCU the right thing to do?

Naturally, every fan has their own opinion on the MCU’s shrinking strategy, but is it really a good thing or not? First of all, I think we have to accept that, at this point, quality is almost a non-factor. As everyone found out when they belatedly caught it on streaming, The Marvels is a completely solid slice of superhero entertainment and far from deserving of its status as Marvel’s lowest-grossing film. Clearly, audiences had just reached a zenith of exhaustion with the franchise by last November.

A long break has certainly helped, as all the signs are pointing to Deadpool & Wolverine winning a lot of drifted viewers back into the fold. That certainly suggests that “less is more” for the MCU, meaning the Iger Cap — not to be confused with the Feige Cap, which the Marvel prez wears on his head at all times — is surely a good thing.

That said, all those fans noting how this should’ve been in play all along are making a vital point. It is possible that, outside of “special” releases like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine, the audience just isn’t interested anymore. To test that theory, we’ll really have to see how more regular MCU fare like Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts perform in 2025. If they sink in a similar fashion to The Marvels, it might be time for Marvel to admit that viewers are just bored of the whole “shared universe” model altogether.

Who knows, maybe Ant-Manning the MCU will turn out to be a good thing. Or maybe, the franchise is just like the giant Paul Rudd skull in Deadpool 3; no amount of cuts can make a difference because the scythe has already been swung.

We have our new Fantastic Four, there’s no doubt about that, but what there is doubt about is how much Marvel is actually going to use the superhero quartet we thought were going to be all over the MCU following their introduction in July 2025’s The Fantastic Four.

Don’t take it as a sure thing just yet, but rumors — which gel with everything else we’ve heard about the film’s storyline, to be fair — are claiming that Avengers 5 (aka The Film Formerly Known as The Kang Dynasty) will not feature any of the fabulous foursome. That’s right: Don’t expect to see Pedro Pascal (Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Joseph Queen (Human Torch), or Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing) team up with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in the big Marvel event.

If you ask us, that’s a huge waste of potential given that Avengers 5 must match up to the cross-the-streams extravaganza that was Avengers: Infinity War. But, OK, we get it, Pedro and pals are very busy people. Thankfully, there’s a little thing called the multiverse at play, which could allow Marvel to introduce a whole other variant team of Fantastic Four heroes across both Avengers 5 and Secret Wars.

John Krasinski has already turned up as Earth-838’s Reed Richards, so we know it can be done. In that vein, why couldn’t varying squadrons of Marvel’s First Family assemble before the Avengers meet the actual motley crew? Let’s keep the fancast-to-reality trend going and bring in all the Fantastic Four possibilities as the Multiverse Saga builds to its (hopefully) stunning climax. Kevin Feige, if you’re looking for ideas, here are some free of charge — excepting a six-figure consultant’s fee, but we’ll discuss that later.

The Driver team

Remember when we were all convinced that Adam Driver was going to be the MCU’s Reed Richards? That was wild. Well, it can still conceivably be made canon thanks to the multiverse. If we were to build a variant team around him, Adria Arjona would make a great Sue. She reliably gives her all to every project she’s in (see Andor) and she truly deserves another crack at the Marvel whip after Morbius. Meanwhile, Jay Lycurgo has already stormed the DC multiverse thanks to Titans and The Batman, so ticking the MCU off his to-do list as Johnny Storm only makes sense. Last but not least… Jack Black as the Thing. I mean, that says it all, right? The defense rests.

The Badgley team

Want another walk down memory lane? Forget Driver ⏤ at one point, the whole internet was certain that Penn Badgley, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, and Jason Segel had been officially cast as the Four, with Badgley and Comer as Reed and Sue, Keery as Johnny, and Segel as Ben Grimm. They did make for an intriguing ensemble, so it would be rather fun to see them suit up for a brief cameo in Secret Wars. Comer already has previous practice doing this in Disney movies after her Rise of Skywalker role. That said, it might be creepy to see Comer and Keery play siblings after being love interests in Free Guy.

The fans’ dream team

Fans have been salty about how John Krasinski‘s Reed was treated ever since Wanda turned him into spaghetti in Doctor Strange 2. Similarly, it was also a bit of a bummer that Marvel didn’t complete the dream team by having him share the screen with IRL wife Emily Blunt as Sue. There’s still time to put this right, though, before the Multiverse Saga calls it quits. As for who could be their cohorts, John Boyega was always a popular choice for Johnny, and Disney still owes him for doing Finn dirty. And Alan Ritchson would be a perfect Thing, assuming James Gunn doesn’t hoover him up as Batman first.

The near-misses team

If Secret Wars really does become a way for Marvel to apologize to all the actors it’s failed to cast over the years, then this lineup would make a lot of sense for a variant Fantastic Four. Jamie Dornan is the kind of actor whose name gets thrown around for various superhero roles, but he’s never taken one to date. Amanda Seyfried was almost Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy. Zac Efron was everyone’s top pick for Adam Warlock, and Seth Rogen feels like a Marvel cameo waiting to happen. So make it happen, Marvel!

The so-wild-it-just-might-work team

The exhilarating thing about the concept of Marvel introducing another Fantastic Four team for a scene in Secret Wars is that they can make some bizarre, yet winning, actor pairings. So how about Jason Sudeikis as Mr. F, Kevin Hart as The Thing, the internet’s boyfriend Jacob Elordi as Human Torch, and Ryan Reynolds’ other half Blake Lively as Sue. And, yes, in this imaginary scenario, Deadpool would get to meet this Sue variant and probably have a crush on her. It’s the Green Lantern reunion we’ve all been waiting for. You’re welcome.

The curveball team

On a similar theme, Marvel could ignore all your fan casts and hire whoever they like to play the FF for five seconds of screentime and watch everyone’s jaws drop. John Cho could be a brilliant yet completely unexpected Mr. Fantastic and Jessica Chastain definitely deserves another shot at a Marvel role after Dark Phoenix let her down. Liam Hemsworth is long overdue for a spot in the MCU after losing Thor to his brother and Peacemaker has proven that John Cena is a better actor than we realized.

The refreshing team

In a similar vein, it would be really refreshing to have a Fantastic Four made up of these four actors. Despite Marvel’s increasing interest in diversifying its cache of characters, the studio still went with a fully Caucasian cast for the FF reboot. It could always put that right by having a variant team made up of people of color ⏤ like, say, Dev Patel, Constance Wu, and Terry Crews, all of whom would be amazing additions to the franchise. And John David Washington would just be keeping things in the family after his dad becomes Kang (we can dream, can’t we?)

The internet-breaking team

The ultimate aim with any cameo in a Marvel movie is to grab our attention, right? In this case, Marvel should absolutely find a spot for these guys in Avengers 5 and 6, as social media might just spontaneously combust if it does. Imagine Bridgerton heartthrob Regé-Jean Page turning up as one of the Council of Reeds? Or X-Men alum Jennifer Lawrence randomly returning to the Marvel multiverse as Sue? Meanwhile, Outer Banks fave Rudy Pankow has a lot of feral supporters while the hilarity of casting the actual Rock Dwayne Johnson as the rock-based the Thing speaks for itself.

To be clear, The Fantastic Four cast we do have is terrific, but there’s no harm in kicking up a storm by multiplying their number a few times, is there? It’s not called the Multiverse Saga for nothing, after all!

It sadly seems to be the way it always goes: there has to be some darkness hiding behind the laughter. That’s definitely true of Saturday Night Live, which has endured its fair share of controversies and scandals over its 50 years on screens.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy to befall an SNL cast-member has to be the shocking murder-suicide which saw a gifted and much-loved comedian and actor lose his life at the peak of his career and comic talents. Even over a quarter-century later, the star in question has never been forgotten and fans are left bereft imagining what else he might have achieved in his career if the awful events of May 28, 1998 never transpired.

Phil Hartman’s death, explained: Why did his wife shoot him and then herself?

The SNL cast-member in question is Phil Hartman. To paraphrase one of his most iconic characters, you may remember him from such roles as Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz on The Simpsons, as well as memorable supporting parts in 1990s family film favorites Jingle All The Way and Small Soldiers.

Hartman is best known in the comedy business, however, for his incredible eight-year stint on SNL, from 1986 to 1994. Hartman was immensely popular with his co-stars, so much so that they nicknamed him “The Glue,” due to his uncanny ability to hold any joke, scene, and the whole show together with his sharp talent and professionalism.

Unfortunately, in his private life, things were much more troubled. His wife, model/actress Brynn Omdahl, with whom he shared two children, suffered from drug and alcohol abuse issues and by the late 1990s their marriage had become strained due to Omdahl’s addictions and Hartman’s busy career keeping him away from home.

On the evening on May 27, Hartman and Omdahl got into a “heated” argument, after which the former went to bed. It’s known that Omdahl had gone out for drinks with a friend that night and had also taken the antidepressent Zoloft and some cocaine. Around 3am that night, Omdahl approached her sleeping husband and shot him three times with a .38 caliber handgun — one in between the eyes, once in the throat, and once in the chest.

Omdahl immediately drove to the house of Ron Douglas, a friend of the couple, and confessed what she had done, but he didn’t believe her until they returned to the Hartmans’ and saw the evidence for himself. The police were called, but while Douglas and the officers were escorting the Hartmans’ two young children — aged 6 and 9 — from the premises, Omdahl retreated into a bathroom and shot herself.

Many who knew the Hartmans were naturally shocked by the tragic turn of events. The woman Omdahl had been for drinks with that night even noted how she had been “in a good frame of mind” just hours prior. Those who had witnessed the couple together behind closed doors, however, spoke to how Omdahl had trouble controlling her temper. She once threatened to kill Hartman’s two ex-wives and, as Hartman’s lawyer told the LA Times in 1998, “Phil said he had to… restrain her at times.”

In a piece titled “The Man of a Thousand Voices,” published in the wake of his untimely death, Entertainment Weekly‘s Dan Snierson noted Hartman was “the last person you’d expect to read about in lurid headlines in your morning paper … a decidedly regular guy, beloved by everyone he worked with.”

The Simpsons immediately retired Hartman’s characters and has never recast them in the years since. SNL, meanwhile, aired a commemorative episode celebrating his countless contributions to the show on June 13, 1998. In 2014, Hartman was posthumously awarded a well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

There is so much we still don’t know about Deadpool & Wolverine, thanks to the trailers doing an exceptional job of holding back many of its secrets, but if there’s one thing that has been made abundantly clear it’s that there will be no end to the Easter eggs, cameos, and crossovers to the Marvel movies of yesteryear.

Mostly Fox’s original X-Men movies, of course, but with Jennifer Garner confirmed to return as Daredevil‘s Elektra the door is open for other Marvel legacy characters, as we might call them, to drop by too. One of the MCU fandom’s biggest pie-in-the-sky hopes? That Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man could be among them.

That might seem a bit too much for the already stacked threequel to add to its plate, but the latest snippet of fresh Deadpool 3 footage definitely opens the door to some form of crossover with the Sam Raimi Spider-Verse. See if you can spot the big clue in the promo below:

Did you spot it? Don’t feel bad if you didn’t as you need to flip the screen to do so. The menu written on the window of the diner Wade and Wolvie are shown sitting in, once flipped, reveals that the diner is called Joe’s and uses a very familiar font — it’s the same font used by Joe’s Pizza, the NYC pizza parlor Peter Parker memorably worked for in Spider-Man 2!

Some are doubting this is an actual reference to Spider-Man 2, however. For starters, this is clearly a roadside diner and not the same inner-city restaurant Joe’s Pizzas was in that film. Not to mention that Joe’s is the most common name for an eating establishment there is!

Having said that, this is Deadpool & Wolverine we’re talking about, a film whose every shot we’ve seen so far has been marinated in Marvel lore and winks to the audience. There’s little chance that the set designers simply accidentally stumbled on the same name and font as Joe’s Pizzas from Spider-Man 2.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that scene takes place in the Raimiverse and that Maguire is about to join Wade and Logan at their table. However, this subtle nod to the OG Sony trilogy reminds us that Maguire is out there somewhere in the Marvel multiverse. Which may just set the stage for an actual team-up with Jackman’s Wolverine in Avengers: Secret Wars, if you believe the rumors (which we desperately want to).

Deadpool & Wolverine will unveil which of the many theories we have are fact or fiction when it hits cinemas on July 26.

This is truly the wildest time to be a Star Wars fan. Not necessarily the best, but the wildest. While we wait for the saga to conquer cinema again, Disney Plus is doing an exemplary job of expanding the universe on the small screen with much reverence to the mythos. And then there’s LEGO Star Wars, just having a blast making memes and fandom in-jokes canon.

If that sounds like a disparaging comment, just know that it really, really is not. If you’ve not been watching Disney’s LEGO Star Wars specials over the past few years, you’ve been missing out, as they have uniformally been a blast. The Holiday Special, for example, was a time-travelling Avengers: Endgame-esque epic sequel to The Rise of Skywalker that gave us the gift of Poe Dameron in a Christmas jumper.

Yet somehow Disney, LEGO, and Lucasfilm are now topping even that with the upcoming LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, which genuinely could be the most truly off-the-wall insane slice of Star Wars media since the OG live-action Holiday Special. Everyone’s talking about the reveal of Darth Jar-Jar, but let’s not overlook the special’s other unexpected star. Say hello to Jedi Bob!

Who is Jedi Bob in Star Wars lore?

Just like Darth Jar-Jar, Jedi Bob is another creation of the Star Wars fandom that we never expected to ever make it into an official Lucasfilm production.

In the Rebuild the Galaxy teaser trailer, a Jedi who may be unfamiliar to viewers serves as the narrator, warning that space and time are falling apart and that “the building blocks of the galaxy are getting mixed up.” This is what causes the drastic changes to the timeline that result in Ewok bounty hunters and Naboo’s most notorious citizen becoming a Sith lord. But who is the Jedi at the heart of the story?

Jedi Bob originally debuted as an unidentified Jedi minifig that came with 2002’s LEGO Star Wars Republic gunship set. Star Wars fans being the massive nerds they are, they felt the little guy needed a name and the fandom came to refer to him as “Jedi Bob” or simply “Bob.” Hilariously, his name was ultimately made LEGO Star Wars canon in 2009’s LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary. Now, over 20 years on from his inauspicious beginnings, Jedi Bob has been made screen canon too, with actor/comedian Bobby Moynihan perfectly cast as his near-namesake.

Darth Jar-Jar, Jedi Bob… What’s next, a cameo from Glup Sh*tto?! We’ll find out when LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy premieres on Disney Plus come Sep. 13.

Let me make something very clear: Lauren Boebert is not as popular as she thinks she is. Not even within her own party. Because this is apparently open season for Republicans attempting to pick each other off — like some GOP version of The Hunger Games (the MAGA Games?) — Bobo has been dealt a low blow by one of her own team.

First Marjorie Taylor Greene foams at the mouth daily as she tries to oust Mike Johnson, now a fellow Republican is doing their best to besmirch the Colorado congresswoman’s reputation. Although, to be fair, that doesn’t take much, considering everything Boebert has done in the public eye of late. Bobo’s new arch-rival is Richard Holtorf, who just happens to be running against her in the Republican primary for Colorado’s fourth district.

Holtorf, the State House Minority Whip, decided to roast Boebert’s dress sense and appearance while speaking to 710KNUS radio (via Toronto Sun) on Thursday, May 2, decreeing that Lauren “needs to learn how to dress.”

He went on to make an extremely thinly veiled comparison between Boebert and sex workers he alleges to have seen hanging around the state capitol building.

“You know what I see about two blocks up from the state capitol? I see women dressed like Boebert. High heels, short skirt, low-cut blouse. And I won’t tell you what they’re doing but it’s nothing you can talk to your grandmother about.”

This appears to be Holtorf’s desperate attempt to gain some traction in the six-person race to replace retiring Rep. Ken Buck in the fourth district, which he is currently flagging in. Boebert recently switched to this district in an attempt to avoid growing liberal support in her old stomping grounds. However, the decision may well backfire, as her quarterly donation figures have immediately taken a significant hit, suggesting her new constituents may hold a similar low view of her to Holtorf.

But if all this is getting Bobo down she sure ain’t showing it. Then again, this is a woman who groped and vaped her way through a Beetlejuice performance, hit back at President Biden with a cringey joke after he perfectly roasted her at a White House dinner, and was heckled out of George Washington University by protesters just last week. The word “shame” doesn’t seem to exist in her dictionary.

Over in her hate-filled echo chamber, Boebert was last heard taking to X to declare her unsurprisingly hard stance against the U.S. accepting any Palestinian refugees. “Let me make something very clear,” the bespectacled bezoar began. “We shouldn’t be taking any refugees in from Gaza. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not next month or next year. The answer is NO!” Nice touch with the random capitalization there, Lauren. Boss Trump would be proud.

Trust Bobo to grind any flickering of empathy we might’ve felt for her amid Holtorf’s sexist and offensive criticism into the dirt with one of her xenophobic rants. Would we love it if she vanished from civilized society, never to be seen again? The answer is YES!

Superman returns… again! At long last, our first look at David Corenswet as DC’s newest Superman in DC’s new Superman movie, titled Superman, is finally here. And writer/director James Gunn has just two words to say to fans to prepare them for what should be a fresh franchise-defining event next July.

“Get ready,” Gunn summarized, in his caption to the epic promo image. The photo reveals Corenswet in his Supes suit for the first time. Presumably depicting Kal-El in his apartment, the background captures the skyline of Metropolis coming under threat from some kind of dangerous energy beam. What’s the betting that Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor is the one behind that?

David Corenswet’s Superman suit Easter eggs and references

So what does this epic image reveal about Corenswet’s Supes suit? Well, we already knew that the film’s Superman logo would be the angular Kingdom Come version, rather than the traditional S shield, so that’s something we were expecting. The weather-beaten nature of the suit is a surprise, though, as it reminds us that this isn’t an origins story as Clark Kent will already be Superman when the movie begins.

The collar is an interesting addition as well, as this was previously exclusive to the New 52 iteration of the character in the comics and proved to be divisive among DC fans. Something the New 52 also did that was controversial was remove the hero’s traditional red trunks, a decision that then echoed through subsequent on-screen Supes like Henry Cavill and Tyler Hoechlin.

However, this image confirms Gunn will be breaking this trend in Superman. This isn’t something I expected to admit today, but I have closely examined Superman’s crotch, and I can confirm that it is distinctly red (see above image). He’s definitely wearing them trunks.

All in all, this first-look image confirms that Superman will be a perfect blend of the old and the new, of innovation and tradition, which is surely the perfect recipe for any Man of Steel movie. Believe a man can fly all over again come July 11, 2025.

“This is a reminder to always check your surroundings. ‘Cause you hear these stories and you think ‘That will never happen to me’… It happened to me today.”

That’s the alarming opening to a video from TikTok influencer Gabrielle Moses in which she reveals that she had just experienced something terrifying, something that seems far-fetched and unlikely to happen in your everyday life — but which Gabrielle’s story makes abundantly clear certainly can.

Gabrielle was driving around, running some errands, when something peculiar occurred at a stoplight. A car in the lane next to hers was honking a lot in a bid to get her attention. Once she looked over, the driver pointed at the vehicle behind Gabrielle in her lane; a white U-Haul van with no front license plate.

Now alerted to the van’s presence, Gabrielle took a few turns in order to test if the other vehicle was following her, and sure enough it was. A quick Google told her the nearest police station wasn’t anywhere close, so an anxious Gabrielle decided to go to the busiest place nearby — a Costco.

Freaking out by now, Gabrielle lingered in Costco in the hopes that the van driver would get bored and leave her alone. At least 35 minutes later, however, the van was still there, circling the parking lot and clearly trying to locate Gabrielle’s car. Filming the evidence, she finally called 911 and the dispatcher offered to send officers out to investigate. By this time, though, Gabrielle had lost sight of the van and it appeared to have driven away.

Going by Gabrielle’s follow-up videos, she didn’t see the van or its driver again, but her story serves as a valuable list of do’s and don’t’s in case anyone else finds themselves in this situation. As many pointed out, Gabrielle really should’ve called the cops straight away once she got to Costco. In an follow-up, however, she admits that initially she thought she might’ve been imagining or worrying too much about the situation.

Many commenters also encouraged Gabrielle to get her car checked over, in case the van driver had AirTagged it while she was inside Costco. Unfortunately the police were slow in checking up on her, but at the great advice of a friend, Gabrielle went to the fire department instead so they could help her out. Luckily, they didn’t see anything.

What’s more, it also helps that Gabrielle drives a Tesla, so any footage of anyone that gets too close to the car is recorded. Again, this didn’t reveal anything sinister in the Costco parking lot, but Gabrielle stated that she was planning to take her car to a mechanic the next day to give it one final check-over.

As an ultimate, and very intelligent, precaution, Gabrielle explained that she wasn’t going to spend the night at her apartment, having a friend pick her up so the car would remain there. Another precaution Gabrielle could’ve taken was pointed out in the comments: “NEVER TURN ON THE LIGHTS IN YOUR APARTMENT WHEN YOU 1ST GET HOME. If you’re ever followed they’ll watch to know which place is yours.”

While a god-send of a gadget for those looking for lost luggage, Apple AirTags have sadly become irrevocably related to more nefarious purposes too. As per ITV News in April 2024, incidents of GPS tracking in stalking cases have risen 317% over the past five years, thanks to the leaps forward in technology. In this case, Gabrielle is thankfully safe, but her final warning is one that everyone should bear in mind: “Ladies, watch your back and know how to protect yourself.”

The Royal Family has as many secrets and skeletons in its palatial-sized closets as any soap opera dynasty, and that’s particularly true of anything concerning brothers Prince William and Prince Harry, who’ve effectively been the protagonists of the world’s most popular soap for the past 30 years.

The two brothers have suffered a shocking falling out, their fair share of controversial “storylines,” and they even have a secret sister. Royal rumor addicts may also be aware of the age-old scuttlebutt that has surrounded the birth of Harry, and whether King Charles is his biological father after all. This is something that the Duke of Sussex himself has addressed, revealing an eye-opening truth about his childhood in the process.

So who is James Hewitt, the man that the world — and Prince Harry himself — believed was his “real” dad?

Princess Diana and James Hewitt had an affair in the 1980s

It’s a matter of public knowledge that the then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage was not exactly a love match, with both husband and wife embarking on extramarital affairs. Charles infamously had a relationship with now-Queen Camilla while Diana is known to have had a romance with military officer Major James Hewitt for a period of years across the 1980s.

Hewitt first met the Princess of Wales when he was with the Household Cavalry and had been assigned to help Diana with riding lessons, as she was afraid of horses — not a particularly fashionable trait to have among the equestrian-obsessed Royal Family. The pair went on to have a passionate affair for five years, something which became well known to the public in the 1990s due to a series of tell-all books, including Princess in Love, for which Hewitt was the primary source.

So happy were the lovers that their affair only ended when Hewitt was shipped off overseas, being promoted to the commander of a tank squadron stationed in Saudi Arabia. “Diana felt betrayed: he had chosen his career over her. At first, she did everything she could to prevent him from going, even threatening to speak to his commanding officer,” wrote Diana’s bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, in his book, Diana: Closely Guarded Secret. “When James refused to give up his career, Diana let the affair wane.”

The fact that Hewitt had the same red hair as Harry, not to mention a reputation as a party-going playboy, very much like Harry during his twenties, has long spawned much speculation that the second son was the result of Diana’s tryst with Hewitt and not her marriage with Charles. Shockingly, Harry has admitted that he himself was under this impression for the longest time — until he discovered the truth.

Prince Harry grew up suspecting James Hewitt was his “real” father

In Harry’s own memoir, Spare, Harry addressed the rumors of his parentage for the first time. Unsurprisingly, he made clear that he had heard about Hewitt potentially being his father his whole life. Perhaps surprisingly, though, the Duke admitted that he strongly suspected they were true, and only came to understand why that couldn’t be the case a decade ago.

“I spent years questioning and believing if it was true. It was only later I learned they met after I was born,” Harry wrote, clarifying that he belatedly discovered the timeline of his mother’s relationship with Hewitt in 2014.

It’s true; all the evidence points to Diana and Hewitt not meeting until 1986, while Harry was born two years earlier in 1984. As for his red hair, Diana always maintained that this was simply a trait inherited from her side of the family rather than the Windsors, dubbing him her “little Spencer.”

While Harry himself was not aware of the timeline, he firmly believes that the many tabloid reporters that furthered rumors he was Hewitt’s child were fully comprised of the facts. “They were hurtful, mean and cruel. I was always left questioning the motives behind the stories,” he shared. “Were the newspapers keen to put doubt into the minds of the public so I might be ousted from the royal family?”

Charles joked that he was not Harry’s “real father”

All that said, Harry comes clean in Spare that the current King had a curious reaction to all the speculation that Harry was not his. According to the Duke, Charles once joked about the rumors, at the height of the interest around them in the early 2000s.

“Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father? Maybe your real father is in Broadmoor, darling boy!” Charles told his son.

Harry admits in his book that he did not find the joke funny and was shocked that his father would utter such “a remarkably unfunny joke, given the rumor circulating just then that my actual father was one of Mummy’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt.”

Chalk that up as another of the King’s countless personality quirks.

It’s been a little rough over the past few years, but the MCU is about to treat its fans very well over the next 12 months or so. First, we have the world of the X-Men colliding with the Marvel Studios multiverse in Deadpool & Wolverine and then summer 2025 delivers the long-awaited Fantastic Four reboot. But, wait, there may be a disappointing catch to the First Family’s MCU debut.

Aside from the brilliant casting of Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby et al as Reed Richards and company, The Fantastic Four is so exciting because it drops the characters into the wider Marvel cinematic sandbox for the first time ever, after 20 years of underwhelming solo films. Just in time to have some kind of presence in the two Avengers movies that will conclude the Multiverse Saga.

That’s why the latest rumors to do with The Movie Formerly Known As The Kang Dynasty are so crushing. Self-proclaimed scoopers Murphy’s Multiverse and Daniel RPK are reporting that the studio’s plans for Avengers 5 do not involve the Fantastic Four. As you may have already heard, the cast is supposedly coming together for the film, which currently has no director attached, but Marvel allegedly isn’t bothering to give Pascal and his co-stars a call for this one.

This is immensely crushing for multiple reasons. The Infinity Saga had a knack for having its new additions partner up with other heroes practically as soon as they were introduced — think Black Panther and Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War — but the Multiverse Saga has been much slower on its feet in this department. With The Fantastic Four coming out less than a year ahead of Avengers 5, the timing seemed perfect for Mr. Fantastic and friends to play a role in the movie, but — if we’re to believe the scuttlebutt — this isn’t the case.

And if this is the case then Avengers 5 is immediately falling short of Avengers: Infinity War, which so adeptly assembled the various heroes of the Infinity Saga to set the stage for an epic finale in Endgame. If Avengers 5 isn’t going to do the same then it’s arguably failing in its job to be as big an event as the Multiverse Saga deserves. Sure, it’s easy to speculate that the Fantastic Four are simply being held back until Avengers 6 AKA Secret Wars, but that movie has enough on its plate as it is. There’s a risk that Avengers 5 could be severely underpopulated while Avengers 6 becomes dangerously overpopulated.

Plus, on a very simple, primal level, we just want to see the Fantastic Four and Avengers engage in that classic superhero staple — having a fight before they realize they are on the same side. Give us stretchy daddy Reed versus Spidey or Human Torch battling Captain Marvel already. Please don’t make us wait until 2027.

Kevin Feige usually isn’t one to blab too much about his own movies — in fact, he’s usually more tight-lipped than Nick Fury — but he’s being uncharacteristically chatty about his concerns and worries for Deadpool & Wolverine. Which either means that the Marvel Studios prez is so sure he’s got a winner on his hands it doesn’t matter what he says or he’s publicly washing his hands of the film already.

But first, is Marvel’s original Guardian Devil making a shocking transfer from the Distinguished Competition?

Ben Affleck reportedly in talks to return to the Marvel multiverse, but as Daredevil or someone new?

His ex-wife Jennifer Garner — who he met on set of 2003’s Daredevil — may be back in Deadpool 3, but so far there’s been no real indication that Ben Affleck could make a multiversal cameo in the same film. That said, new rumors are claiming that he’s in talks with Marvel Studios for some top-secret upcoming project. The expectation would be that he’s back as Matt Murdock, perhaps for some Secret Wars crossover, but additional info purports that it’s definitely not a DD-related project.

Whatever the truth, the hearts of DC fans everywhere might be breaking that he’s returning to Marvel, dooming his final Batman appearance to come in the tasteless IP soup that was The Flash (I said what I said).

Kevin Feige admits he tried to destroy ‘Deadpool 3’ but he mercifully didn’t succeed

Is Kevin Feige OK? Can Iman Vellani or somebody send him a quick check-in text? I’m only asking because he’s being shockingly open about how he almost derailed Deadpool & Wolverine before it could begin. In an eye-opening interview with Empire, Feige admitted that he turned down Ryan Reynolds’ first pitch for the threequel. “I thought it needed to be more than just playing the hits,” he explained. Does that mean that DP3 won’t just be playing the hits or that he ultimately came around to the idea? Honestly, by the look of the trailers, it might be the latter.

As if that wasn’t enough, Feige also admitted that he originally told Hugh Jackman to turn down the movie. Kevin, do you actually want your franchise to succeed? Has the Multiverse Saga just been one long Springtime for Hitler act of self-sabotage? Come to think of it, that would make a lot of sense.

Sam Wilson’s new Captain America suit is unveiled, and now disappointment reigns

We hoped it wasn’t true, but the leaked concept art and set photos weren’t lying. A new promo image for Captain America: Brave New World confirms that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson will be getting a brand, although not so brave, new suit in his upcoming cinematic return. The problem is Marvel fans loved his old one just fine and are miffed that it’s been mothballed after about five minutes of screentime in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier finale. Especially as it’s a bare-faced attempt to recapture the look of Steve Rogers’ Captain America 2 costume. Let Sam be his own hero, Marvel! We all know how much Mackie likes being left alone, after all…

Hugh Jackman, do you never rest? The ever-busy movie and theater star hasn’t even released his grand return to the Marvel blockbuster business in Deadpool & Wolverine yet and he’s already landed his next major role, playing a truly legendary character. What’s more, it’s a role that, if we squint a bit, may just help us deduce who could take over from him in the part of Logan.

In an unexpected career move, Jackman has signed up to star in The Death of Robin Hood, a bleaker-than-usual reimagining of the heroic archer from English folklore. Directed by Michael Sarnoski (A Quiet Place: Day One) and co-starring Killing Eve icon Jodie Comer, Jackman’s Robin will be a darker take on the character, as he’ll be “grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder.” 

So even after he sheathes his adamantium claws once more, Jackman will be hopping over to another larger-than-life hero. But who could fill in for him as Wolverine, as the MCU invariably introduces a rebooted version native to Earth-19999? One of the most popular fan suggestions, one that’s taken on such life that many believe it to be fact, is Taron Egerton. Here’s how Jackman just made that possibility even more probable.

Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton now share one role, so could they share another?

Egerton has been inadvertently circling the role of Wolverine ever since he co-starred opposite Jackman in 2016’s Eddie the Eagle and the world realized that the Kingsman star actually looks more like the comic book Wolverine than Hugh does, what with his relatively short stature. The poor man has been having to deny the rumors in every single interview he’s ever done since. Or at least until Daniel Radcliffe started getting the same treatment.

Now, though, Jackman is threatening to kick the conspiracy off again with his new Robin Hood role. If you’re thinking that Hollywood only just did a Robin Hood movie, that’s because they did — it came out in 2018 and starred Taron Egerton in the lead. After working together in Eddie the Eagle and both playing Robin Hood, it seems Jackman and Egerton’s careers are cosmically intertwined, which only makes the prospect of the latter becoming Logan that much more likely. Somewhere out there in the multiverse, the Watcher is watching the timelines coalesce.

What if… Taron Egerton one day becomes Wolverine? That’s definitely a question worth pondering.