Exclusive: Giancarlo Esposito Joins Cynthia Erivo in Lionsgate's 'Karoshi'

Happy Thursday, folks!

But maybe not if you’re Marvel’s Kevin Feige or Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman.

Last night, there was a not-so-secret test screening of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. My source called it both “mid” and “meh,” and “not that bad, but not that good, either.” More concerningly, they said it featured weak character development and bad CGI, though the latter issue will certainly be addressed over the next month.

In general, Marvel doesn’t do public test screenings unless they’re worried — that was the case with Eternals, The Marvels, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Captain America: Brave New World.

While I initially heard that Marvel was high on First Steps internally, a separate industry source who has not seen the finished film himself has sounded the alarm in recent weeks that the film is “a mess” and “a huge problem movie,” which explains the test screening.

That said, it sounds like Ralph Ineson’s Galactus went over well with the crowd last night, which is encouraging, seeing as how Marvel has had a villain problem of late.

Still, I expect Jurassic World Rebirth and James Gunn’s Superman to ultimately outgross The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which probably should’ve opened in November.

I’m not going to outright spoil the entire post-credits sequence or its context, but I’m told Doctor Doom appears, and fully masked, too — for now.

In other comic book-related news, I reported on The Hot Mic earlier today that Laura Linney has joined the cast of HBO’s Lanterns. Her role in the DC project is being kept under wraps, but fans are already speculating that she could be playing Carol Ferris, the love interest of Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan.

Tonight, you’ll read about Giancarlo Esposito’s intriguing new Lionsgate movie, plus, there are also items about a shakeup at Lionsgate, Colin Trevorrow teaming up with Ryan Reynolds, Liev Schreiber’s new serial killer thriller, who will play Sam Bankman-Fried, a hot spec sale to Miramax, the first piece of casting on A24’s Elden Ring movie, and my thoughts on Netflix’s teaser for The Thursday Murder Club.

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