Rumor: Marvel Studios Developing ‘Midnight Sons’ Film, Doctor Strange “Unlikely” To Appear On Team Roster
According to the latest whispers on the magical winds, Marvel Studios may soon be looking to put a mystical spin on their box office hopes with the summoning of a full-blown cinematic outing for the Midnight Sons team.
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News of the MCU’s creepy-crawly plans were first raised to the public on February 13th when noted scooper MyTimeToShineHello took to their personal Twitter account and divulged, “A Midnight Sons movie IS happening”.
These rumor-dripped flames of Hellfire would be further fanned a little over a week later when, on February 21st, fellow scooper Daniel ‘DanielRPK’ Richtman not only offered his own confirmation that the film was in development – as well as a pair of details regarding its current creative direction.
Per Richtman, as originally posted to his Patreon account before being eventually relayed to the public courtesy of numerous outlets including the MCU-centric Twitter news accounts Cosmic Marvel and Doctor Strange Updates, Marvel’s current plans for the Midnight Sons film will see its roster composed of “characters that weren’t a part of the Avengers.”
As such, added the scooper, the man responsible for the team’s very existence in the original comics, Doctor Strange, is currently “unlikely” to stand alongside them in their silver screen debut.
A designation used by a number of occult-centric team-ups throughout Marvel Comics, the titular group first made their debut in 1992’s Ghost Rider Vol. 3 #31, its roster – Ghost Riders Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch, Morbius, Blade, Sam Buchanan, Frank Drake, Louise Hastings, Hannibal King, and Victoria Montesi, all of whom were chosen based on their having previously encountered their target – assembled by Doctor Strange to stand in defense of Earth against the evil forces of the demon Lilith.
Following their eventual defeat of Lilith and her partner, the demon Zarathos, this original incarnation of the Midnight Sons would more or less cease operation, most of its members either going on to other adventures across the 616 or being left to fall to the wayside of Marvel history.
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However, the moniker would soon be taken up by a new group of spooky supers in Marvel Zombies 4 Vol. 1.
Led by Morbius, this particular team – composed of the Living Vampire himself, Jack ‘Werewolf by Night’ Russell, Jennifer Kale, and Damion Hellstrom – was temporarily brought together in service of stopping the 616 from being overrun by the multiverse-hopping Marvel Zombies and the spread of their Hunger Virus.
Roughly ten years later, the name Midnight Sons would be used once again, this time by a team of heroes assembled by Doctor Strange in service of stopping Mephisto from corrupting the many citizens and tourists of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Led by Ghost Rider, members Blade, Doctor Voodoo, Elsa Bloodstone, Iron Fist, Johnny Blaze, Man-Thing, Moon Knight, and Wong – as well as the Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly, who finds himself in the fold thanks to simply living in the affected area – the team is ultimately not only successful in booting the devil back to Hell (literally), but also helping Blaze establish himself upon the underworld’s throne as its more benevolent, less-invasion-prone ruler.
Further, in honor of the release of the recent Marvel’s Midnight Suns video game, a fourth iteration of the team was assembled in 2022.
This time consisting of Blade, Magik, Nico Minoru, Spirit Rider, and Wolverine, this group was formed with the intention of helping Strange Academy student Zoe Laveau prevent an impending magical apocalypse.
As of writing, it is unknown which heroes Marvel Studios is considering for an appearance in the team-up film.
However, given their membership in either of the comic book incarnations of the team and their previous – and in the case of the Daywalker, upcoming – appearances in the MCU, odds are good that Blade, Moon Knight, Elsa Bloodstone (for those unaware, she was the female protagonist of the Werewolf by Night special), Jack Russell, and Wong will end up on the live-action Midnight Sons’ roster.
While both Iron Fist and Nico Minoru have appeared in the MCU at large – the former in Netflix’s Defenders line and the latter in Hulu’s Runaway adaptation – in light of the fact that Marvel has chosen to largely memory-hole both heroes’ respective series, it’s unlikely they’ll be tapped for full membership status.
(Sadly for all three of his fans – and more specifically this article’s author – Ben Reilly’s chances of making the cut are less-than-zero.)
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