Disney+/Marvel Studios Moving Up Debut of Season Two of “Loki,” Featuring Rafael Casal

Posted on September 18, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Rafael Casal’s Loki debut is coming one day sooner…

The second season of Disney+/Marvel Studios’ Loki, featuring the 38-year-old part-Spanish and part-Cuban American actor, was originally set to debut on Friday, October 6, but the streamer is following a new rule out of its primetime playbook with Ahsoka and dropping episodes in primetime.

The new premiere date for Loki is October 5 at 6:00 pm PST and all subsequent episodes will drop on Thursday at 6:00 pm PST for the season.

In the new featurette, “The Amazing Loki,” stars Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino and Ke Huy Quan, along with EP Kevin R. Wright explore what it means to be Loki this season.

The second season picks up in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with Mobius, Hunter B-15 and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie, Judge Renslayer, Miss Minutes and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.

Loki season 2 also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Casal, Tara Strong, Kate Dickie, Liz Carr, Neil Ellice, Jonathan Majors and Owen Wilson.

Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Dan DeLeeuw and Kasra Farahani are the directors for the six-episode series. Eric Martin is the head writer.

Disney+ Releases New Trailer for Season Two of “Loki,” Featuring Rafael Casal’s New Character

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

It’s all about time for Rafael Casal.

Disney+ has released a new trailer for Loki Season 2, which will see the 38-year-old part-Spanish and part-Cuban American actor join the cast.

In the preview, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is being pulled through time and at one point Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie warns that “everything is turning to sh**.” Jonathan Majors makes an appearance as He Who Remains.

Loki Season 2 picks up in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with Mobius, Hunter B-15 and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie, Judge Renslayer, Miss Minutes and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.

Casal’s Loki season two character is reportedly named X-5. He’s a rogue agent of the Time Variance Authority who escaped in the ’70s to become a Hollywood star.

The series also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Tara Strong, Kate Dickie, Liz Carr, Neil Ellice, with Ke Huy Quan and Owen Wilson.

Eric Martin is the head writer of the Marvel Studio series with Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Dan Deleeuw, Kasra Farahani serving as directors.

Loki Season 2 is set to premiere on October 6 on Disney+.

Rafael Casal Lands Major Role in Second Season of Disney+’s Marvel Series “Loki”

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Rafael Casal is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe…

The 36-year-old part-Spanish and Cuban American actor will appear in a major role in the upcoming second season of Disney+’s Marvel series Loki.

A representative for Marvel declined to comment on the casting, but word of Casal’s addition started trickling out when a photo from the set of Season 2 leaked online.

It features Casal walking alongside Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson, who are back, reprising their roles as anti-hero Loki and Mobius, respectively.

Details about Casal’s character are being kept under wraps; online speculation includes a hypothesis that he could be playing Zaniac.

Following strong reviews and record viewing numbers for the original installment, Loki became the first Marvel series for Disney+ to get a second season.

Loki is set in a Marvel Cinematic Universe-adjacent world, in which the God of Mischief is a fish-out-of-water when he lands in trouble with the bureaucratic TVA (Time Variance Authority) after absconding with the Tesseract.

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are co-directing a majority of the episodes in the new season. Hiddleston and Michael Waldron, who wrote and served as showrunner in Season 1, executive produce. Eric Martin is penning all six episodes.

Casal, along with Daveed Diggs, co-wrote, produced and starred in the 2018 movie Blindspotting.

The two co-created and executive produce Starz’s Blindspotting series spinoff, which debuted earlier this year, with Casal as showrunner and reprising his role from the movie.

The series, which has been renewed for a second season, earned an Indie Spirit Award and Gotham Award nominations for Best New/Breakthrough series.

Casal’s acting credits also include Good Lord Bird, Bad Education and Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Cannavale to Appear in “Variety Studio: Actors on Actors” Series

Posted on April 2, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Bobby Cannavale is ready to talk shop…

Variety and PBS SoCal have announced the line-up for the fourth installment of their awards season series “Variety Studio: Actors on Actors,” with the 45-year-old half-Cuban American actor making the final cut.

Available to stream on Variety.com, the new “Actors on Actors” season will feature one-on-one discussions between this year’s Emmy contenders.

Along with Cannavale, who stars in HBO’s Vinyl, this year’s conversations, which will be printed in the June 7 issue of Variety, will also include Aziz Ansari (“Master of None”), Rachel Bloom (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones”), Jamie Lee Curtis (“Scream Queens”), Kirsten Dunst (“Fargo”), Jay Duplass (“Transparent”), Billy Eichner (“Difficult People”), Sam Heughan (“Outlander”), Tom Hiddleston (“The Night Manager”), Felicity Huffman (“American Crime”), Lady Gaga (“American Horror Story”), Jennifer Lopez (“Shades of Blue”), Rob Lowe (“Grinder”), Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot”), Thomas Middleditch (“Silicon Valley”), Aaron Paul (“The Path”), Sarah Paulson (“American Crime Story”), Krysten Ritter (“Jessica Jones”), Tracee Ellis Ross (“Black-ish”), Patrick Stewart (“Blunt Talk”), John Travolta (“American Crime Story”), Courtney B. Vance (“American Crime Story”) and Kerry Washington (“Confirmation”).

“Variety is thrilled to cover the best actors on television in this season’s ‘Actors on Actors’ for PBS stations,” said Variety‘s executive TV editor Debra Birnbaum in a statement. “This season’s lineup includes actors from some of the top new television programs and showcases the wide diversity of roles for actors on broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.”

PBS SoCal will premiere the segment in two episodes, one on June 12 and the other on June 19.

“Through their craft, the actors interviewed on ‘Actors on Actors’ effortlessly spark our imaginations and take us to new places,” said PBS SoCal president and CEO Andy Russell in a statement. “Through this partnership with Variety we are pleased to enhance the experience of fans of great television – providing them greater insight into the people who bring them their favorite dramas, comedies and more.”

Ortiz to Star in Legendary’s “Kong: Skull Island”

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

John Ortiz is going bananas for his latest role…

The 47-year-old Puerto Rican actor, director and producer has joined the cast of Legendary’s Kong: Skull Island.

Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the story is about a man (Tom Hiddleston) who travels to the mythical island and home of the king of the apes. A team of explorers ventures inside what they find to be a treacherous island. The story is said to honor the King Kong lore but in a different time period.

Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson and John Goodman also star in the project, which is expected to go before the cameras this fall.

No word on the character Ortiz will play.

Ortiz co-starred on Rake and just wrapped a role in Zach Braff’s remake of Going In Style.

He’ll next be seen in Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs and Disney’s The Finest Hours.

Mars’ Super Bowl Halftime Performance Features Three of Shazam’s Most Searched Moments

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Shazam! Bruno Mars’ halftime performance at the Super Bowl continues to help break records…

Not only did the 28-year-old part-Puerto Rican singer’s performance with the Red Hot Chili Peppers register a record 115.3 million viewers and earn a huge response on the Twittersphere, but it was one of the moments during the big game that nabbed the most Shazams.

The music search app beat its own Super Bowl record with more than 700,000 uses — more than double the count of last year’s game that featured Beyonce and Destiny’s Child as its halftime performers.

Despite all the music-related ads that aired throughout the broadcast, more than half of the Shazams occurred during Mars’ halftime performance. The top searched moment of the entire game was when the Red Hot Chili Peppers emerged shirtless and rocked the stage with on the band’s hit song”Give It Away,” followed by Mars’ first solo hit, “Just The Way You Are,” with which he closed the halftime show, along with a ton of fireworks.

Coming in third in Shazam’s statistics was Chevrolet’s “Life” ad, a sentimental spot that featured the song “Don’t Leave” by Ane Brun.

Fourth place belongs to Jaguar‘s “Rendezvous” ad, with appearances by Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Strong and using an epic action-film score.

Rounding out the top five was Mars’ “Runaway Baby” performance, which pulls from Barry Strong‘s 1960 hit “Money (That’s What I Want).”

Following Chevrolet and Jaguar in the top Shazamed Super Bowl ads were Bud Light‘s “Cool Twist,” Bank of America‘s ad which debuted the new single “Invisible” by U2, and Budweiser‘s moving military homecoming, “A Hero’s Welcome.”

Gutierrez Finds His “The Crow” Lead in Luke Evans

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

It appears that F. Javier Gutierrez has found his Crow…

Despite his hectic schedule, Luke Evans could soon be cast in the 39-year-old Spanish filmmaker’s reboot of The Crow franchise.

The Welsh actor was the original choice, but he was just cast as the lead in Dracula Year Zero, serves as the villain in Fast & Furious 6 and is portraying Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Evans seemed unavailable because of production on Dracula and promotion on The Hobbit.

After looking at Tom Hiddleston and Alexander Skarsgard, Gutierrez and the film’s producers have decided to push the start date to early next year to accommodate Evans’ schedule and ultimately secure the actor.

Producers and Evans are currently in negotiations with a deal expected soon.

The role of The Crow was originated by Brandon Lee, who died tragically during production on the 1994 Alex Proyas-directed revenge story based on the James O’Barr comic book series.

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