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Netflix caused a stir about a month ago when they removed 2018’s The Grinch just a few weeks before Christmas. Now, maybe to make up for that cruel swipe, the streaming giant has added another animated effort starring Benedict Cumberbatch instead.
Namely, Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie, a spinoff of the hit DreamWorks franchise that you might’ve forgotten existed, let alone that it appears on the Doctor Strange actor’s filmography. The pic was added to the platform’s library on Friday, January 15th.
A spinoff of both the Madagascar movies and the TV series of the same name, 2014’s Penguins of Madagascar follows the ever-resourceful flightless birds – Skipper, Kowalski, Private and Rico – as they set off on a globetrotting adventure to foil the schemes of evil octopus Dave (John Malkovich). Cumberbatch co-stars as Classified, a wolf secret agent who works for an interspecies intelligence agency known as North Wind along with Ken Jeong’s seal Short Fuse and Peter Stormare’s polar bear Corporal.
Penguins unfortunately didn’t make as much money as the other Madagascar flicks, sitting as the lowest-grossing by some distance, even though it still earned a respectable $373 million worldwide. DreamWorks must’ve been disappointed with its performance, though, as another of their 2014 releases – Mr. Peabody and Sherman – also underperformed at the box office.
On the brighter side, it was critically well received, sporting a neat 73% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Penguins of Madagascar is fast and brightly colored enough to entertain small children, but too frantically silly to offer real filmgoing fun for the whole family,” reads the site’s Critics Consensus.
The spinoff isn’t as fondly recalled as the core Madagascar trilogy, but maybe now folks will rediscover it through Netflix. Especially if they’re looking for more Benedict Cumberbatch content to watch. And good news, fans, he’s not doing his American accent in this one!
It looks like Matt Damon is returning to the MCU. The Jason Bourne star previously had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok and now we’ve received word that he’s coming back for the movie’s sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder, also directed by Taika Waititi.
News.com.au has reported that Damon has been seen landing in Sydney, Australia this weekend along with his family. The actor, who arrived via a private plane, is said to be quarantining in a private facility ahead of filming on Thor 4. The outlet notes that fellow MCU stars Tessa Thompson, Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista are also in the middle of their own quarantines in a government hotel. Natalie Portman is known to have been in the country for months already.
While we knew to expect Jane Foster, Valkyrie and the Guardians of the Galaxy in Love and Thunder, Damon being involved with the film comes as a big surprise. News.com.au specifies that they don’t have any knowledge on who the star could be playing in the movie, so we’re left to wonder if he’s reprising his hilarious cameo part from Ragnarok.
When Chris Hemsworth’s God of Thunder returns to Asgard in that film, he finds his brother Loki impersonating Odin, watching a play telling a fictionalized version of Thor: The Dark World. In the play, Odin is played by Jurassic Park‘s Sam Neill, Thor is portrayed by Chris’ big brother Liam Hemsworth and the role of Loki is filled by Damon. This was a meta reference to Damon’s turn as Loki in Dogma.
Maybe Love and Thunder will see a fictionalized play based on Ragnarok being staged instead, with Damon back as Fake Loki and potentially Neill and Liam Hemsworth reprising their roles as Fake Odin and Fake Thor, too. Or maybe Tom Hiddleston’s trickster shapeshifts into Damon at one point? Or maybe he plays himself? Knowing Waititi’s tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, the possibilities are endless.
Also featuring Christian Bale as villain Gorr the God Butcher, Thor: Love and Thunder is on course to hit theaters in just over a year’s time on February 11th, 2022.