You might have thought just about every aspect of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 phones had leaked at this point, but not so – the rumor mill keeps coming up with more information about these flagship devices ahead of their February 1 launch.
Today we’ve got another tidbit of information from well-known provider of leaks Ice Universe (opens in new tab) (via GSMArena (opens in new tab)), who has taken to Chinese social media platform Weibo to give us some details of the portrait video mode on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
The source says that the mode will be capable of shooting in a 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, with the phone offering relatively good thermal control so that the processing power required to capture clips in this mode doesn’t overheat the phone.
Resolution bump
We weren’t hugely impressed with the portrait video mode on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, especially compared with cinematic mode on the iPhone. In both cases, the subject of a video is kept in focus while the background gets blurred.
The current Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra can capture normal video at an 8K resolution at 24 frames per second, or at a 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. In portrait mode, that goes down to a 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second.
What’s not clear is whether or not the other two Galaxy S23 models are going to get portrait mode this time around. All will be revealed when Samsung’s next Unpacked launch event rolls around, and it’s only a couple of weeks away.
Analysis: a tale of two sensors
Based on the rumors we’ve heard so far, we’re expecting the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to come fitted with the new 200MP ISOCELL HP2 sensor that Samsung has revealed. The standard and Plus models, meanwhile, are rumored to be sticking to a 50MP main sensor.
That should mean that the Ultra model is the one to look at for the most substantial camera upgrades over last year’s models. So far we’ve heard that the night vision capabilities will be better, and we’ve seen sample shots for comparison purposes.
There has also been talk that Samsung is adding more modes on the software side, to go with improvements in the hardware. From a photo and video standpoint, you should be able to do more than ever with the upcoming Galaxy S23 handsets.
In fact there’s been so much buzz around this that we think the Galaxy S23 Ultra could be one of the best photo-taking phones of the year – and it might even have more to offer than whatever Apple is plotting with the cameras on the iPhone 15.
Twitter is yet to offer compensation to a majority of employees Elon Musk fired soon after his acquisition of Twitter in late October. It was reported that even those who got severance were not happy with what they received. In the latest development, media reports suggest that about 800 ex-employees are seeking damages for the compensation Musk promised. The Verge’s Alex Heath says that 800 laid off employees are seeking damages for the compensation that was promised but wasn’t given. He also notes that “Twitter is on the hook to pay the fees for these individual arbitration cases, which combined could total tens of millions of dollars.”
This is not the first time that reports of laid-off people using Twitter made rounds on the internet. In fact, the social media company is facing multiple cases, including for the way Musk handled the company after deal completion and many conference rooms at Twitter office being converted to bedrooms. Twitter has also been sued by the building owners for non-payment of rent where the company’s San Francisco office is located. Recently, its Singapore office was also vacated for non-payment of rent. Ex-employees told to drop lawsuit Earlier this week, Twitter secured a ruling that allowed the social media company to force several laid-off workers who sued the company over their termination to pursue their claims via individual arbitration rather than a class-action lawsuit.
Five former Twitter employees accused the company of failing to give adequate notice before laying them off after Musk’s acquisition. However, a court asked these ex-employees to pursue their claims individually, citing agreements they signed with the company. Twitter’s revenue is down Earlier this week, a senior executive reportedly informed the company employee that the company’s daily revenue on January 17 was 40% lower than the same day a year ago. Siddharth Rao, an engineering manager overseeing the engineers working on Twitter’s ad business, also said that over 500 of Twitter’s top advertisers have paused spending on Twitter since Musk took over in late October, reports The Information.
How to enable Android 13-themed icons on your phone
Meta has been fined again – this time for violating EU data protection regulations with its instant messaging platform WhatsApp. Ireland’s regulator has imposed a penalty of 5.5 million euros on the social media giant, according to multiple online reports. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) found the group acted “in breach of its obligations in relation to transparency,” the watchdog said, adding that the company relied on an incorrect legal basis “for its processing of personal data for the purposes of service improvement and security. The DPC has given the Facebook-parent company six months to comply. The Irish regulator also said that the recent fine was considerably less because of a 225 million euros fine imposed on WhatsApp for “breaches of this and other transparency obligations over the same period of time”.
What Meta has to say “We strongly believe that the way the service operates is both technically and legally compliant. We disagree with the decision and we intend to appeal,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said. It is to be noted that Meta announced earlier this month that it would appeal the January 4 decision against two of its other apps Facebook and Instagram. It said that the company will appeal the substance of the decision and also plan to challenge the size of the fines imposed.
Facebook, Instagram fines In the beginning of this year, Ireland DPC fined Meta and asked to pay 390 million euros, 210 million euros for violating European Union privacy rules with Facebook’s practices and 180 million euros over similar violations with Instagram. A fine imposed on the company might potentially put parts of its ad business at risk. In 2018, both Facebook and Instagram released new terms of service that essentially allowed the company to process user data for target advertising. Complaints alleged that users were forced to accept the new guidelines, which is in violation of the privacy rules in the EU.
How to enable Android 13-themed icons on your phone
iQoo is set to launch the next smartphone in the Neo series, the Neo 7, on February 16, after it brought the Neo 6 last year. The iQoo Neo 7 series was introduced in China last year, including the Neo 7 and Neo 7 SE. The Indian variant of the iQoo Neo 7 is confirmed to come with the Mediatek Dimensity 8200 processor, which is based on the 4nm process node of TSMC. The Dimensity 8200 processor comes with high frame rate gaming, MTK hyper engine 6.0, AI processor, MTK Imagiq 7.0, MTK MiraVision 785 Display and faster performance. iQoo Neo7 to come with Dimensity 8200 in India This confirms that the iQoo Neo 7 launching in India would be different from the iQoo Neo 7 that retails in China as the Dimensity 9000+ chipset powers it. Also, confirming that the Indian variant of iQoo Neo 7 is the iQoo Neo 7 SE, which comes with the Dimensity 8200 processor in China. The company says that the Neo 7 will have the highest AnTuTu score in its price segment of more than 8,90,000. iQoo has also confirmed that the Neo 7 will come with a 6.78-inch Samsung E5 120Hz AMOLED display and 120W fast charging. Further, the company confirmed that the Neo 7 will come in two colours – black and blue. The smartphone could come with up to 512GB of internal storage and up to 12GB RAM. The iQoo Neo 7 would come with FunTouch OS based on Android 13. As for cameras, the iQoo Neo7 can be seen having a triple camera setup, which could include a 64MP primary camera, 2MP macro and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, the smartphone might come with a 16MP camera for selfies. We will have to wait for the prices until February 16, but the company has confirmed that the smartphone will be retailing through Amazon India and iQoo online store.
Fire Boltt, an Indian smartwatch brand, has announced its expansion into the South East Asia market. The brand has begun operations in Singapore and Vietnam as part of its aggressive international growth plans. The brand recently also ventured into the UAE market. To launch its operations in Singapore and Vietnam, Fire Boltt has partnered with SmartechSG Private Limited. The company plans to initially offer its top-selling smartwatches, including the Visionary, Invincible, Ring, and Talk 2, as well as watches from the Ninja Series, for sale on e-commerce platforms in both markets, with plans to expand into offline markets in the region gradually. Speaking about the announcement, Arnav Kishore, Founder & CEO at Fire-Boltt said, “International expansion has always been one of the priorities of Fire-Boltt, especially now with the start of home-grown production under “Make in India” initiative”. This is a proud moment for an Indian brand to be available in international markets to serve consumers across the globe. The kind of response we have received from our customers is overwhelming which helps us work even more aggressively toward innovation and fulfilling the needs of the consumers. We look forward to achieving bigger milestones in the near future” Adding to the excitement, Aayushi Kishore, Co-Founder, Fire-Boltt, said, “We are thrilled to announce our expansion into the South Asian market. We have handpicked our top-selling products like Visionary, Invincible, etc., in line with the research we carried out in these markets. We have also carried out changes to the display screen, language availability, marketing messaging & even packaging to be suitable for each of these markets. Going by the phenomenal response we have received so far; we are encouraged to expand further in the South East Asia and the APAC region. We are also working actively on consumer feedback for design principles from some of these markets to bring in the best for our customers in India and globally.” Commenting on the launch, SmartechSG Pvt Limited said, “We are proud to be chosen by Fire-Boltt to launch its South-East Asia operations. This global smartwatch brand gives customers excellent options of feature-rich smartwatches at unbeatable price points.”
Cybercriminals have discovered a new way to potentially infect Android smartphones with malware by compromising WiFi routers in public places like cafes, airports, and hotels. Researchers from Kaspersky recently reported on the new domain name system (DNS) changer functionality used in the Roaming Mantis campaign. The Roaming Mantis campaign, first observed by Kaspersky in 2018, uses malicious Android package (APK) files to control infected Android devices and steal device information, as well as a phishing option for iOS devices and crypto-mining capabilities for PCs. The new DNS changer functionality directs the device connected to a compromised WiFi router to a server under the control of cybercriminals instead of a legitimate DNS server. On the malicious landing page, the potential victim is prompted to download malware that can control the device or steal credentials. Currently, the threat actor behind Roaming Mantis is exclusively targeting routers located in South Korea and manufactured by a popular South Korean network equipment vendor. However, Kaspersky researchers predict that the perpetrators may soon update the DNS changer function to target WiFi routers in other regions as well. In December 2022, Kaspersky observed 508 malicious APK downloads in South Korea. An investigation of malicious landing pages found that attackers are also targeting other regions using smishing instead of DNS changers. Smishing employs text messages to spread malicious links that direct the victim to a malicious site to download malware onto the device or steal user information via a phishing website. Japan topped the list of targeted countries with nearly 25,000 malicious APK downloads, followed by Austria and France. Germany, Turkey, Malaysia, and India were also targeted. According to Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) statistics in September-December 2022, the highest detection rate of the Wroba.o malware was in France (54.4%), Japan (12.1%), and the U.S. (10.1%). “When an infected smartphone connects to “healthy” routers in various public places like cafes, bars, libraries, hotels, shopping malls, airports, or even homes, Wroba.o malware can compromise these routers and affect other connected devices as well. The new DNS changer functionality can manage all device communications using the compromised WiFi router, such as redirecting to malicious hosts and disabling updates of security products. We believe that this discovery is highly critical for the cybersecurity of Android devices because it is capable of being widely spread in the targeted regions”, says Suguru Ishimaru, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky. In order to protect your internet connection from this infection, Kaspersky researchers recommend referring to your router’s user manual to verify that your DNS settings haven’t been tampered with or contact your ISP for support. It also recommends changing the default login and password for the admin web interface of the router and regularly updating your router’s firmware from the official source. Additionally, refrain from installing router firmware from third-party sources and avoid using the third-party repository.
ChatGPT has surprised masses with its ability to generate text based on input provided to it. Technology giants like Google and Microsoft are talking about it, and it seems that Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani is also mesmerised by the prowess of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 concluded on January 20, and soon after Adani wrote a LinkedIn post showering praise on AI chatbot and said that he was addicted to ChatGPT since he started using it.
Adani has ChatGPT ‘addiction’ Adani wrote that he observed the discussions at the WEF around advancements in AI or, “to be more precise, we should call it generative AI.” “It was the buzzword at this year’s event. The recent release of ChatGPT (I must admit to some addiction since I started using it) is a transformational moment in the democratisation of AI given its astounding capabilities as well as comical failures. But there can be no doubt that generative AI will have massive ramifications,” the chairman of the Adani Group said. Generative AI could be dangerous: Adani He recalled how, nearly five decades ago, the pioneering of chip design and large-scale chip production put the US ahead of the rest of the world and led to the rise of many partner countries and tech behemoths like Intel, Qualcomm, TSMC, etc. He said that chipmaking also paved the way for precision and guided weapons used in modern warfare “with more chips mounted than ever before.”
Comparing generative AI with precision and guided weapons, Adani noted that “Generative AI holds the same potential and dangers, and the race is already on, with China outnumbering the US in the number of most-cited scientific papers on AI. This is a race that will quickly get as complex and as entangled as the ongoing silicon chip war.” He also pointed out that in 2021, Chinese researchers published twice as many academic papers on AI as their American counterparts. “Great Fracture” to help India, says Adani Adani said that he was surprised to read about massive layoffs by the “infallible” tech industry and economists’ warnings about the global recession in the third quarter of 2023. He also pointed out that the ongoing geo-economic fragmentation and weaponisation of economic policies that the world is witnessing could be helpful for India. “We are witnessing the Great Fracture (a term coined by the UN Secretary General) – the decoupling of China and the US, which has massive knock-on global consequences and will severely dilute economic globalisation,” he wrote in the LinkedIn post.
“All this means that conventional trade patterns will transform as the parts of the western world attempt to reduce their reliance on both Russia and China. Needless to say, this becomes an opportunity for India and other ASEAN countries to benefit from the diversification of supply chain risks that can be expected,” the businessman highlighted. It is to be noted that several companies, including Apple and Google, have been exploring other options than China to establish their manufacturing plants due to geopolitical tensions.
Google has rolled out a new update for its Voice platform on the the Play Store and the Apple App Store. The latest Google Voice update has removed a feature from the app on both Android and iOS. Smart Reply suggestions is a feature that the tech giant introduced to the Google Voice app in February 2022. The release notes for Google Voice on the Play Store and App Store confirm the removal: “Smart reply is no longer supported.” Google has not provided any specific explantation for removing the feature and it seems to be a server-side change. Google Voice Smart Reply: What is it This feature has the ability to judge the last received message and suggest users with up to three contextual replies. The pills that contained the replies used to appear above the “Type a message” field in the Google Voice app. With the Smart Reply feature, users were able to send messages immeadtiatly by tapping on these pills. Why Google may have removed the feature Google may consider Voice as an enterprise calling service first that’s aimed primarily towards businesses. In such a case, texting might not be a priority as the app has continued to lack RCS support. This might be the reason for the company to remove Smart Reply from the Google Voice app.
Smart Reply suggestions: Avialabilty Users can still access Smart Reply suggestions as part of notifications. However, this will primarily an Android capability. Google may see it as a system-level feature and may not implement it separately for each individual app. Users will still be able to access Smart Replies in Google Messages, Gmail and even Google Docs comments. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said in a staff memo that the company will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce. The layoffs will affect teams across the company including recruiting and corporate functions, as well as some engineering and products teams. Accpording to Bloomberg, Google has confirmed that these job cuts are global and will impact US employees immediately. Also Watch:
Facing issues while downloading apps from Google Play Store? Here are 5 things you can try
OnePlus is set to expand its next-generation flagship smartphone lineup in India. The Chinese smartphone maker unveiled the Oneplus 11 smartphone in its domestic market and now the company confirmed the phone’s India launch. The company is set to hold an event on February 7 to launch the OnePlus 11 5G smartphone for the Indian market. The Chinese variant of the OnePlus 11 supports 100W fast charging. To compare, last year’s OnePlus 10T offered 150W charging. Previous reports claimed that the global variant of the OnePlus 11 smartphone will offer 100W charging across all markets. Now, a new report claims that the company may release OnePlus 11 with different fast-charging variants for various markets. Different fast-charging support for OnePlus 11 According to a report by 9to5Google, a tipster named Max Jumbor has claimed that the global variant of the OnePlus 11 will ship with 100W fast charging. However, the US variant of the OnePlus 11 may be restricted to 80W charging. This is not new for OnePlus’ fast charging support in the US. The OnePlus 10 Pro was launched with 80W charging in most markets but was limited to 65W in the US. On the other hand, the OnePlus 10T offered 150W charging but was restricted to 125W in the US. The company has blamed the differences in the electrical systems of the US compared to other parts of the world.
OnePlus 11 5G: Expected specs (Indian variant) The Indian variant of the OnePlus 11 5G smartphone is likely to sport a 6.7-inch E4 AMOLED LTPO 3.0 screen that may support a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, a Quad HD+ resolution and Dolby Vision. This smartphone is expected to feature Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. For photography, the OnePlus 11 5G is likely to house a triple rear camera setup that may include — a 50MP primary camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS), a 48MP ultra-wide lens and a 32MP telephoto unit. The smartphone is rumoured to arrive with a 16MP front shooter for selfies and video calls. The upcoming phone may pack a 5000mAh battery unit that is likely to support 100W SuperVOOC wired fast charging. Apart from this, OnePlus may boot the OxygenOS 13 based on Android 13.
The Marvels will make Marvel Studios history when it lands in theaters. The Captain Marvel quasi-sequel marks the first all-female superhero team movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers being joined by Iman Vellani’s Ms Marvel and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau.
So, what can we expect from this groundbreaking Marvel Phase 5 movie? Below, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know about The Marvels. That includes the Marvel movie’s release date, cast, potential storylines, how it’ll impact the MCU, and more.
Full movie spoilers follow for Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Shang-Chi. We also cover major spoilers from Disney Plus shows WandaVision and Ms Marvel, plus potential spoilers for the Marvels. Turn back now if you haven’t seen them all.
The Marvels release date
The Marvels will be released in cinemas worldwide on July 28.
Initially, the forthcoming movie was slated for July 2022. However, its launch has been pushed back three times: first to November 2022, then February 2023, and finally July 2023.
Major spoilers follow for Ms Marvel, as well as potential spoilers for The Marvels.
Marvel hasn’t released a teaser for The Marvels yet. Those fortunate enough to attend D23 Expo 2022, though, were treated to a first-look at the upcoming movie.
According to Variety (opens in new tab), the film will pick up in the immediate aftermath of Ms Marvel’s ending and post-credits scene. As you’ll remember, Ms Marvel – aka Kamala Khan – unexpectedly traded places with Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel when the former’s bangle was activated by an unknown individual.
The footage shown doubled down on this surprising development. In it, Monica Rambeau is also seen swapping places with Ms Marvel, leading to all manner of slapstick, time-traveling, and confusing scenes playing out. It seems, then, that the trio will exchange places throughout The Marvels until they find out how to stop teleporting to each other’s locations.
It could be a while before the rest of us get to see The Marvels in action. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy 3, are set to arrive in theaters before it. Meanwhile, MCU TV shows Secret Invasion and Loki season 2 will debut on Disney Plus before then, too. We’re yet to see official trailers for Guardians 3 and Secret Invasion, while a Loki season 2 teaser is still to be released. So don’t expect any footage of The Marvels to be publicly available until April at the earliest.
The Marvels cast
Here’s the confirmed cast for The Marvels so far:
Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel
Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan
Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan
Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan
Zawe Ashton as TBA
Park Seo-joon as TBA
Larson and Parris reprise their roles from their previous MCU outings. Larson’s Captain Marvel was last seen in Avengers: Endgame (though she made brief cameos in post-credits scenes in Shang-Chi and Ms Marvel) while Parris’ Rambeau featured heavily in WandaVision, aka one of the best Disney Plus shows. Vellani, Shroff, Kapur, and Shaikh all return as their respective characters from Ms Marvel’s TV series.
Jackson, who has regularly appeared in the MCU as ex-SHIELD director Nick Fury, will also show up. He’ll finally star in his own standalone project – Secret Invasion – later this year, but Fury will also appear in some 2023 Marvel movies. Jackson previously confirmed Fury will appear in Quantumania and The Marvels, though it’s unclear how these three productions will be linked (if at all).
Potential spoilers follow for The Marvels’ cast of characters.
According to prominent MCU leaker CanWeGetSomeToast (opens in new tab), Monica Rambeau will get her superhero name – Photon, the same as in the comics – in The Marvels. Kamala Khan will reportedly give her that name after Monica describes her powers to her fellow heroes. Meanwhile, Brazilian outlet Chippu (opens in new tab), which has previous form for revealing MCU details ahead of time, Photon will also get her comics-accurate costume.
Zawe Ashton (Fresh Meat, Velvet Buzzsaw) has apparently been cast as the film’s primary villain. Marvel insider DanielRPK (via Lugar Nenhum (opens in new tab)) has claimed Ashton is playing a Kree general called Dar-Benn. In the comics, Dar-Benn is a male Kree general who becomes co-emperor of the Kree Empire. It’s unclear if Ashton’s Dar-Benn will hold a similar position in The Marvels, but the character’s gender has clearly been altered for the MCU’s version.
Park Seo-joon (Parasite) is supposedly playing the ruler of a planet where everyone sings (per CanWeGetSomeToast (opens in new tab)). No name has been revealed, but he will play a pretty big role in the film’s plot (more on this later).
Meanwhile, Abraham Popoola (Andor) is reportedly playing someone called Dag (via his Independent Talent agents page (opens in new tab)) and Ffion Jolly (Mission: Impossible Fallout) has been cast in an undisclosed role (per her Spotlight casting page (opens in new tab)). Marvel is yet to add this duo to its official cast list, so we’ll hold off on doing the same until we get confirmation.
Lastly, could we see cameos from Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos and Jude Law’s Yon Rogg? The former is a possibility, especially if events in Secret Invasion tie into The Marvels. We’d be surprised if Law’s Yon Rogg features, though, after his heavy beating from Captain Marvel in her 2019 solo flick.
The Marvels plot
Potential story spoilers follow.
No official story synopsis has been released, but we have some vague ideas about where the plot will go, based on the D23 2022 footage and MCU insiders’ information.
As we discussed earlier, The Marvels will center on the film’s three superheroes and why they keep swapping places each time they use their powers.
The 2019 Captain Marvel movie revealed that Carol Danvers acquired her abilities upon exposure to the Tesseract, aka the Space Stone, via a Kree-designed light-speed engine device. Meanwhile, Monica Rambeau’s DNA was inadvertently rewritten by the Mind Stone – via the Hex that Wanda Maximoff created in WandaVision – which gave her superpowers. Finally, Kamala Khan’s abilities are derived from her grandmother’s bracelet. Oh, and the fact that she possesses the X gene, which makes her one of the MCU’s first mutants.
Given the trio’s powers are derived from objects that helped to create and shape the universe, it seems their abilities are connected – and that the source of their powers is the reason they keep trading places. Interestingly, MCU leakers in The Watcher (opens in new tab) and CanWeGetSomeToast (opens in new tab) suggest they’ll be able to combine their powers once they work out how to stabilize themselves.
What’s all of this got to do with musical-inspired planets and the Kree, then?
Let’s start with the planet that Park Seo-joon’s character rules over. According to DanielRPK (per The Marvels Updates Twitter fan account (opens in new tab)), CanWeGetSomeToast (opens in new tab), and CineStealth (opens in new tab), parts of The Marvels will be musical-themed. That means you should expect lots of singing, dancing, and potentially humorous moments.
The reason for them going to this world? Captain Marvel is apparently married to Park Seo-joon’s character, albeit for diplomatic reasons. Maybe she agreed to marry him to prevent some sort of disaster on her universe-spanning travels. Thankfully, CineStealth has claimed The Marvels won’t be “overly comedic” in tone and finds a better comedy-drama balance than the maligned Thor: Love and Thunder. Let’s hope they’re right.
As for the Kree, Captain Marvel has a complicated history with them. For years, Carol Danvers thought she was a member of the Kree empire – she was taken to their home world after her Tesseract-related accident on Earth – and was part of their armed forces. That’s until she was captured by Talos’ splinter group of Skrulls, who jogged her memory and helped Carol rediscover her true identity.
Now, Captain Marvel is an enemy of the Kree, which puts Zawe Ashton’s Dar-Benn in direct opposition with her, as well as anyone working with Captain Marvel. It’s unclear why Dar-Benn is after her or the others, but maybe it’s got something to do with Ms Marvel’s bracelet, which appears to be alien technology. We know this because the Clandestine – the villains in Ms Marvel’s TV show – wanted to use the object to expand the Noor dimension and take over Earth. The bracelet was originally found by Kamala’s grandmother in 1940s India, too, where it took up residence in a Kree-looking underground location.
If Ms Marvel’s bracelet is of Kree design, that’ll explain why Dar-Benn is after it, particularly if the latter possesses a similar bracelet. Again, thanks to Ms Marvel’s Disney Plus series, we know there are two bangles, but the location of the second hasn’t been disclosed yet. Our money’s on Dar-Benn owning that one, meaning she only needs Kamala’s to complete the set and carry out some nefarious Kree plan.
As for other subplots that The Marvels needs to address, one of the most pressing is the forthcoming reunion between Carol and Monica.
Monica hasn’t seen Carol since she left in the 1990s – remember, this is when Captain Marvel’s solo movie took place. Maria Rambeau, who was Carol’s best friend, has since died of cancer, and Carol didn’t return for her funeral or to check up on Monica. Expect Monica to be extremely frosty towards Carol until they clear the air.
Elsewhere, events depicted in Secret Invasion could impact what goes down in The Marvels. Currently Secret Invasion is set to be released before The Marvels – it’s supposed to arrive in Q1 2023 – so Fury’s role in The Marvels might be predetermined by what he goes through in Secret Invasion. Could a long overdue reunion with Captain Marvel be on the cards? It’d be a pretty emotional one, if so.
The Marvels: how will it set up future MCU films and TV shows?
Much depends on how The Marvels’ plot plays out, but we have a few sneaking suspicions about what it could lay the foundations for.
First up is Ms Marvel season 2. There’s been plenty of speculation online that a sequel season is in early development. If we’re going to see more of Vellani as Khan/her superhero alias before Avengers 5 and 6 arrive, it’s likely to be on the small screen rather than the big one.
Speaking of Avengers 5 and 6, aka The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, The Marvels could play a major role in setting up events in these films – especially the former.
Marvel fans already know that Kang is the MCU’s next big supervillain. The time-traveling genius – read more about him in our Kang the Conqueror explained article – will be the primary antagonist in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. That film’s trailers have already teased him acquiring some important alien tech of his own.
Some fans seem to think that the giant, circular rings we see at certain points in Quantumania’s trailers – read our Quantumania trailer breakdown article for more – are Kang’s versions of the titular Ten Rings we’ve previously seen in Shang-Chi. If Kang is collecting all manner of alien tech-based weaponry as he plots his route to dominion over the Marvel multiverse, he’s sure to come after Ms Marvel’s bangle, too. If he does, expect Captain Marvel and Photon (as well as Ms Marvel) to stand in his way.
Depending on how The Marvels and The Kang Dynasty play out, we’d expect to see Carol, Monica, and Kamala in Secret Wars, too. We’d be surprised if any of them pop up in other announced Phase 5 projects, so the next time we’ll see them (outside of starring or cameoing in Ms Marvel season 2 ) is likely to be Avengers 5 and 6.