Marvel Studios has a long history of taking its most iconic comic book runs and adapting them into something new for the big screen. It’s like a cover version of a classic track that somehow turns the original on its head, or an old photograph repurposed as 21st-century art. Thor: Ragnarok borrowed heavily from the graphic novel Planet Hulk, a comic book that originally didn’t feature the son of Odin at all (though his close associate Beta Ray Bill does make an appearance), while the double header Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame movies are loosely based on the Infinity Gauntlet print run from 1991.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the classic 1984 Secret Wars series has long been mooted as source material for a future Marvel Cinematic Universe episode. Infinity War and Endgame directors and current Marvel absentees the Russo brothers have regularly namechecked the saga as the kind of major movie moment that might one day tempt them back to the superhero genre. This was the original grand climactic comic book event, debuting a year before DC popped up with Crisis on Infinite Earths. And with Marvel requiring just such a high-impact crowning moment to round off the current Phase 4 (which officially kicks off with the delayed Black Widow later this year), it would be a surprise if we don’t start to see some elements of the storyline come into the picture – studio supremo Kevin Feige even hinted as much at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Might Marvel combine a Secret Wars storyline with the alternate universe concept that was teased in the recent Spider-Man: Far from Home episode, and looks set to be fully realised in the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? That’s the premise of this report from We Got This Covered, which insists the studio wants Ben Affleck to reprise his two-decades-old role as Daredevil, with Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine and a new actor playing a younger version of Iron Man/Tony Stark from another dimension.
We’ll file this one in a box marked “rumour mill” for the time being. But such a concept does make a certain sort of sense when looking at the issues Marvel faces in navigating its way through the next decade of post-Endgame episodes. The basis of Secret Wars is that an all-powerful being known as the Beyonder decides to bring together the Earth’s best known heroes and villains for one almighty smackdown on a new planet known as Battleworld, which he has conveniently stocked with outrageous tech and weaponry designed to make the fight even more interesting. Not only would a Secret Wars movie offer up the chance to introduce the X-Men and the Fantastic Four to the MCU for the first time (following Marvel-owner Disney’s recent purchase of 20th Century Fox), but the studio could invite actors such as Affleck back into the fold by suggesting they represent versions of superheroes from alternate universes (explaining away in a foggy instant why Matt Murdock no longer looks like Charlie Cox).
Some of these heroes might end up continuing in the MCU – Marvel certainly needs a new Tony Stark at some point – while others might be making short-lived cameos. Just as the original Secret Wars comic inspired gazillions of sales of tie-in Mattel toys because it finally brought all the world’s favourite Marvel costumed titans together for the first time in one comic, a film version based on this concept would surely zoom to box office glory. The studio could even play on the random nature of the Beyonder’s battle picks to bring back big-name actors such as Ian McKellen (Magneto) or Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier). Or it could even restore Wesley Snipes as Blade. The nature of the Secret Wars concept is that all options are open.
That, in itself, is a concept that seems alien to Feige and his team, who have built their comic book movie universe on the comfortingly immovable premise that each superhero is played by a single actor up until the point they are written out of the script. And yet Marvel has already begun to push the boundaries of this essential rule by bringing Robert Downey Jr back as Iron Man (not to mention Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff) in the upcoming Black Widow.
Even if that movie is a prequel, there is a sense that the MCU is finally prepared to shake things up a little and fully explore the full, nutty depth and breath of the comic books it is adapted from. The cosmic portals of potential have suddenly been opened, and it only remains to be seen into what madness they now lead us.
