Marvel Phase 4  has been announced at San Diego Comic Con and we are ecstatic! The next phase of the latest set of Marvel films introduces us to five new series on Disney’s upcoming streaming service, Disney+, a new Blade, as Mahershalah Ali has been cast in the role of the half-vampire superhero, sequels to Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Doctor Stranger, Guardians of The Galaxy, and Thor, movies based on The Eternals, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and the Fantastic Four, and mutants finally joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

The blerd in us is screaming at the above mentioned news as even more superheroes are coming to the screen. The Disney+ shows will feature shows based on Hawkeye, Captain America & Falcon, Loki, The Scarlet Witch & Vision (WandaVision), and What If? The latter will be animated and is based off the line of Marvel Comics of the same name showing what would happen if certain heroes or villains made other decisions in events, instead of what we originally saw play out.

The news of Mahershalah’s casting as Blade is genius. He has the look, build, and acting chops to be the vampire bad ass we grew to know and love in the late nineties and early 2000s. His inclusion with Doctor Strange shows Marvel is definitely including the supernatural and more magic in their roster. This is not Mahershalah’s first bout in the MCU, however, as he portrayed the crime lord, Cottonmouth in Netflix’s Luke Cage during its first season. In other casting news for Marvel, Natalie Portman has been cast as the female Thor! As you may recall, a couple of years ago in the comics Thor became unworthy to wield Mjolnir and Jane Foster (Natalie’s character, and Thor’s original love interest) was worthy and became the new Thor! This should all play out in Thor: Love & Thunder! Perhaps there will be a love triangle between he, Valkyrie, and Jane–if the former is not cast completely as a lesbian, but bisexual instead.

We are not surprised to hear that Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Doctor Stranger, Guardians of The Galaxy, and Thor are getting sequels. Each of these characters are now headliners in the MCU, especially with the retirement of Captain America (Steve Rogers) and the demise of Iron Man and Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame. Black Widow’s standalone film will be a prequel and The Eternals is a new film altogether that may explain Thanos’ origins and introduce us to characters like Mentor (Thanos’ father), Eros (Thanos’ brother), and Sersi. The latter two are know Avengers in the comics.

Perhaps the most anticipated news of the new phase is the mention of the Fantastic Four being introduced, along with the introduction of mutants. Retconning the Fantastic Four’s origins and adding them to the MCU should be easy. The mutants, however, are a different thing. Even if mutants are just now being discovered, how do we explain older mutants like Wolverine, Magneto, and Professor X sitting out the cataclysms the Avengers have protected the world from? All in all, we are so excited about the future of the MCU! What do you guys think? Sound off in the comments section below.

Jussie Smollett has not been in the limelight as of it late, as he has been gearing up for yet another legal battle with the ongoing criminal case against him in Chicago. He is now fighting the appointment of a special prosecutor.

via TMZ:

The actor’s legal team filed three motions Friday, obtained by TMZ, seeking to overturn the appointment of a special prosecutor … arguing it would expose Jussie to double jeopardy.

According to the docs, Jussie is trying to reverse the order issued last month by a Chicago judge, who faulted Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and laid the groundwork for Jussie possibly facing prosecution for allegedly faking the now infamous “attack.”

Jussie’s attorney, Tina Glandian, takes issue with the judge’s apparent conclusion Jussie is guilty of staging a hate crime. In the docs, Jussie’s legal team claims the Osundairo brothers attacked Jussie, got caught and then blamed him.

According to the docs, Jussie’s attorney is floating the idea Abel and Ola Osundairo were motivated by homophobia, and she cites text messages from Ola degrading another man as a “fruit.” His legal team is seeking grand jury testimony from the two brothers.

It’s another twist in the ongoing Smollett saga … as you know, the charges against Jussie were essentially dropped, even after the grand jury indicted him on 16 felony counts of lying to cops.

Jussie we will be glad when all of this is over, and we hope somehow you can reclaim your life and some semblance of a career.

Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and The White House may be working to release A$AP Rocky, but they still have no power over the sovereign nation of Sweden. Help seems to be on the way for the rapper who has been in incarcerated in the Scandanavian country since July 2nd, but it is not coming fast enough, as now Sweden deemed him a flight risk and will be detaining him for at least six more days. This all stems from a suspected assault during a street altercation.

via People

Following two weeks of detainment in a Swedish jail as prosecutors investigated his involvement in a street altercation, A$AP Rocky will now be spending another six days behind bars after being deemed a flight risk.

A hearing in Stockholm District Court on Friday morning granted prosecutors’ request for more time to investigate the alleged assault, PEOPLE confirms. The prosecutor now has until Thursday, July 25 to decide whether to charge the rapper or not.

“The Court decided that the artist will remain in custody until 25 July, because of the flight risk. This gives us time to complete the investigation,” prosecutor Daniel Suneson said in a statement.

“We have worked intensively with the investigation and need more time, until Thursday next week in order to complete the preliminary investigation. As long as the preliminary investigation is ongoing, I cannot give any further comments.”

Neither a rep for A$AP Rocky nor his lawyer immediately responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

On July 2, A$AP Rocky, né Rakim Mayers, was arrested in Stockholm following a street altercation for suspected assault, along with three others who were involved in the incident — “two of whom were suspected of serious abuse and one of the abuse of the normal degree,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release.

A$AP Rocky last appeared in Stockholm District Court with his previous attorney Henrik Olsson Lilja on July 5, and it was then that the judge ruled on the two-week investigation — though the possibility remained that he could be held for longer if prosecutors needed more time.

On July 9, a source close to the rapper told PEOPLE that the Swedish jail where A$AP Rocky was being held is “inhumane” and “horrific.”

“The conditions of the facility are horrific,” the source said. “Some of the inhumane conditions Rocky and his colleagues are facing at the Stockholm Detention Center include 24/7 solitary confinement, restriction of amenities for the most basic of human functions, access to palatable and life-sustaining food as well as unsanitary conditions.”

“Rocky is now being detained for an unknown period of time until they have a trial and he is having his legal and basic human rights ignored while being forced to live in inhumane conditions — all for acting in self-defense,” the source alleged.

We hate to hear A$AP Rocky is still incarcerated, and are praying for his speedy release and return home. He should not travel abroad for awhile–or at least nowhere in Northern Europe!