News Of The Week: DC Casts Hawkman, Marvel Finds Its Ms. Marvel & 'Lion King 2'

Hollywood was on temporary pause but productions are gearing back up, release dates continue to be tweaked in preparation for theaters reopening, and things are slowly starting to return to normal – or at least, our temporary new normal. Entertainment news has once again begun to drop with regularity. In case you missed it, here’s all the best news and tidbits from the last week.

Let’s hop to it.

Gorgeous Chadwick Boseman Tribute Mural Unveiled At Downtown Disney

Tributes and memorials meant to honor the legacy of actor Chadwick Boseman keep pouring in more than a month after his death. One of the most moving was unveiled recently at Downtown Disney in Disneyland: a mural by artist Nikkolas Smith depicting Boseman in his most memorable role as King T’Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther, doing the Wakanda salute with a child in a hospital gown. Along with the mural, Smith is also making the print of the mural available to buy on his site with portions of the proceeds going to benefit Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and St. Jude.

Sienna Miller Said Chadwick Boseman Reduced His ’21 Bridges’ Pay To Raise Hers

In other news that underscores what an impact Boseman had both on and off-screen, 21 Bridges co-star Sienna Miller opened up about Boseman’s advocacy on her behalf. When initially offered the role of Frankie Burns in the film, Miller was reluctant to accept as she’d been working nonstop and wanted a break to spend more time with her family. The allure of working with Boseman was a strong pull, but Miller said that the pay had to be worth her while and fair for her to sign on. Without hesitation, Boseman donated part of his salary in order to make sure she was compensated as she should be, saying it was what she should be paid and what she was worth. Just another example of Boseman’s integrity.

Tom Hanks Paid For Part Of ‘Forrest Gump’ Out Of His Own Pocket

For many people, 1994’s Forrest Gump is a classic. But that doesn’t mean the production was easy or untroubled. Tom Hanks recently revealed that when Paramount declined to increase the budget for production, he and director Robert Zemeckis put up their own cash to pay for the expensive mid-movie scene of Forrest on his cross-country run. There was also another unspecified scene for which the studio would not cover insurance so Hanks and Zemeckis covered the insurance again out of their own pockets. In the end, however, their gamble paid off, with Hanks bringing home an estimated $65 million from the film’s success.

Yara Shahidi To Play Tinker Bell In Disney’s Live-Action ‘Peter Pan And Wendy’

Disney live-action Peter Pan and Wendy has been one of the more under-the-radar Disney movies in development. Two months after the news of Jude Law playing Captain Hook, however, comes more casting news: Black-ish and Grown-ish star Yara Shahidi will be playing Peter Pan’s feisty fairy companion, Tinker Bell. Along with Law, the cast previously included relative newcomers Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson in the titular roles, respectively. Shahidi’s casting marks the first time a woman of color has played Tink, and it’s the biggest role to date for a young actress whose star has been on the rise in recent years thanks to her prodigious talent and charisma on screen.

‘The Invisible Man’ Star Aldis Hodge To Play Hawkman In DC’s ‘Black Adam’

Other big casting news from the past week comes from the world of Warner Bros. and its DCEU. Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam is in full pre-production swing and another major piece of the Justice Society of America has been assembled. The Invisible Man star Aldis Hodge has been tapped to play superhero Carter Hall/Hawkman. Johnson himself called Hodge to give him the news and Hodge’s comical reaction to finding out he was being offered the role is truly on the all-time list of great anecdotes. Hodge is a great actor who’s been on the verge of a breakout career for the last few years and this role will certainly be it. He joins the cast that includes Johnson as Black Adam and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before‘s Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher.

Disney Developing A Live-Action ‘Lion King’ Sequel With Barry Jenkins

In news that feels surprising and yet somehow inevitable, it was announced that Disney has greenlit a sequel to 2019’s live-action The Lion King. Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk director Barry Jenkins has been tapped to direct the sequel, which will be penned by previous screenwriter Jeff Nathanson. Jenkins may initially seem a surprising choice for the role, considering his filmography is full of sensitive character studies and intimate portrayals of relationships. Yet, the story will reportedly take a The Godfather: Part II approach of moving the story forward while also exploring the backstory of Mufasa and his relationship with Scar, a theme that Jenkins can excel at, lending depth to characters and story that felt somewhat light the first time around.

And in my favorite news of the week…

Marvel Casts Newcomer As Fan-Favorite Character Kamala Khan, A.K.A. Ms. Marvel

After an exhaustive search, Marvel has finally found its actress to play Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel in its Ms. Marvel Disney+ series. The studio has cast newcomer Iman Vellani as Kamala, a character that Marvel head Kevin Feige has already said Marvel plans to use in future MCU movies after her streaming series debut. Vellani has no prior professional acting experience, but that may very well work to her advantage: Kamala Khan is a young teenage girl from New Jersey, nerdy, enthusiastic, and a diamond in the rough when it comes to being a superhero. As the first Pakistani-American superhero and the first Muslim character to headline their own series for Marvel, the character has had an enormously important cultural impact. As such, Marvel indicated they were fine with taking their time in casting the role in order to get it right, even if that meant casting an unknown. Whatever they saw in Vellani was clearly the intangible quality they wanted for the plucky, quirky Kamala.

Last but not least, check out our Quick Hits column that rounds up all the bits and bobs of news that don’t quite make the cut for a full article but are still interesting updates: