Disney recycles Chris Evans and ‘Tangled’

Hey, Popculturology readers. Welcome to the Friday edition of the newsletter. Lots of stuff to cover this week. (Let’s see if you can guess which star of a critically acclaimed FX “comedy” is playing a Hutt in a new Star Wars movie.)

Our Target was already out of Christmas lights last weekend. Good luck capturing your Clark Griswold moment if you haven’t already been to the store.

“Missed the war, did you?”

Through three episodes, I’m digging what Skeleton Crew is doing. The kids on this show are fun. Jude Law is a welcome addition to the Star Wars universe. And I love that the show is organically unfolding its central mystery instead of playing some kind of mystery box game like we got in JJ Abrams’ movies.

I’m fascinated by the idea that At Attin is this lost planet that was hidden away at some point during the High Republic. This conceit creates a real sense of history in Star Wars — history that the At Attin kids have no idea occurred. Here we are in the years after the Empire’s fall, and we have a group of characters who are unaware of not just the number of planets in the galaxy but also what’s happened to them. (Sorry, Alderaan.)

• The Great Works explained: If you were wondering what the Great Works mentioned by Kh’yym (voiced by Arrested Development and Search Party’s Alia Shawkat) were, io9’s James Whitbrook took a stab at answering that question. (io9)

“The reckoning is here”

I want Dune: Prophecy to be more engaging. I really do. There are some great bits — Travis Fimmel channeling some real Tom Hardy energy, for example — but the show has yet to elevate itself to the level of the Dune films.

And with only two episodes left, I’m not sure it has the time do reach those heights.

NEWS, NOTES & TRAILERS

I’ll bet you didn’t have your money on a Chris Evans/Rapunzel pairing for this edition of Popculturology, huh? It felt appropriate to put the two together based on the news this week that Disney was both bringing back Evans for Avengers: Doomsday and working on a live-action remake of Tangled.

Can Chris Evans still do this all day?

Avengers: Endgame was supposed to be the end of Evans’ MCU tenure. Captain America got his big “worthy” moment, had that dance with Peggy Carter and handed his shield off to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson.

But now Evans is reportedly returning to the MCU. He’s the second big name coming back for Avengers: Doomsday, with Robert Downey Jr. officially playing Doctor Doom in that movie and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Unlike Downey playing Doom (who may be a Tony Stark variant, we’re not sure yet), the report about Evans’ return doesn’t say who he’ll be playing in Doomsday. There are plenty of options, thanks to *waves hand* the multiverse. He could be the aged version of Steve Rogers who we saw at the end of Endgame. There’s never been confirmation that that character died. He could be playing a Steve Rogers from another universe — maybe even a version of Captain America who was secretly a Hydra plant. (Rogers’ whispering “Hail Hydra” would be quite the moment.) Or maybe he’s playing a completely different character, a move that would be even more confusing now that Evans reprised his role of Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine.

I’m not surprised that Evans has returned. Disney has been absolutely clear about what it wants the next two Avengers movies to be, bringing Joe Russo and Anthony Russo back to direct them. The duo worked with Evans more than anyone else in the MCU, directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War before moving on to Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.

Like with Downey playing Doom, I want to believe there’s a real creative reason for Evans joining Doomsday. Maybe Disney desperately wants to recapture that Infinity War/Endgame magic, but I hope Kevin Feige and the Russo brothers have a better reason than that. (TheWrap)

• “The movies just aren’t good”: It appears that Kraven the Hunter is the final blow for Sony’s “Whoops, No Spider-Man!” cinematic universe. (TheWrap)

Disney gets Tangled up in another live-action remake

Chris Evans isn’t the only early 2010s bit of nostalgia that Disney is bringing back. The studio has begun work on a ... ugh ... live-action remake of Tangled.

Deadline broke the news on Wednesday that Disney is in talks with The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey to helm the film.

I know I’m not the only one railing against these live-action remakes, but these blatant cash grabs are becoming more and more absurd. If Disney wants to remake a movie that’s fifty years old and has some out-of-date themes and characters, fine. At least there’s a tiny reason there where we can all pretend a remake had some benefit.

But Tangled? The animated film that came out in 2010 and helped launch the second Disney renaissance? What’s the benefit to remaking that one? To eliminate the idea that the worst thing that can happen to a woman is that her blond hair turns brown?

Soulless stuff, folks. If you want to keep telling stories with Rapunzel and Eugene, make an animated sequel. (Deadline)