“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are joining the Avengers.

Earlier this week, we spoke to Destin Daniel Cretton, the director of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” who let slip that McKenna and Sommers left the production to work on “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.”

“Challengers” writer Justin Kuritzkes was brought in to write and re-write during production of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” but only wound up with a cursory “additional literary material” credit.

We caught up with McKenna and Sommers on Thursday, who confirmed that, yes, they are working on the new movies. And that was all that they could say.

“We’re happy to say we are involved with the Avengers. We can’t really say much more than that,” said Sommers. “We love working with Marvel and we have a relationship with the Russos, and it’s a pleasure. It’s a real pleasure.”

A representative for Marvel Studios had no comment.

In addition to all four of the Holland-led Spider-Man movies (including “Homecoming,” “Far From Home” and “No Way Home”), McKenna and Sommers also worked on “Ant-Man and the Wasp” for Marvel Studios, alongside Paul Rudd, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari. They are fundamental partners in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Before their time with Marvel, McKenna and Sommers were prolific writers on the sitcom “Community.”

“Avengers: Doomsday” brings “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo back into the Marvel fold. When it was first announced that the Russo brothers would be directing “Doomsday” and “Secret Wars,” Stephen McFeely — who worked closely with the Russos on their other Marvel projects — was revealed to be the writer.

Michael Waldron, who was instrumental in creating the “Loki” series and wrote “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” has also contributed to the screenplays for both “Avengers” movies.

“Doomsday” is out this Christmas and features many of Marvel’s biggest and brightest heroes, among them Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Ant-Man (Rudd), Captain America (Anthony Mackie), the Fantastic Four (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn), several X-Men (James Marsden, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Kelsey Grammer, Channing Tatum) and the Thunderbolts/New Avengers (Wyatt Russell, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman), along with many, many more, as they face off against Robert Downey, Jr’s Doctor Doom.

The second film, “Avengers: Secret Wars,” is set to follow next Christmas, although based on interviews at San Diego Comic-Con, they have not finished “Doomsday” and have not started shooting “Secret Wars.”

“Avengers: Doomsday” is in theaters on Dec. 18, 2026, and “Avengers: Secret Wars” is scheduled for Dec. 17, 2027.

Jean Lodge, the British actor who play Queen Guinevere in the 1954 King Arthur movie The Black Knight and who was the mother of Days of Our Lives and The Nanny star Charles Shaughnessy and soap opera director David Shaughnessy, died Wednesday, August 5. She was 99.

Her death was announced on Facebook by her granddaughter Amy Shaughnessy.

“Jean Margaret Shaughnessy (neé Lodge) left us today, one day after her 99th birthday,” Amy Shaughnessy wrote. “She passed, as she would say, ‘quite quietly’ and peacefully in her sleep.”

Lodge was married to Alfred Shaughnessy, the chief writer of the British 1970s hit series Upstairs, Downstairs, from 1948 until his death in 2005. Son David Shaughnessy has directed for Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, among other soaps, and is a voice actor with credits including Big Hero 6 and Star Wars Rebels.

Charles Shaughnessy is best known for his long-running roles of Shane Donovan on Days of Our Lives and Victor Cassadine on General Hospital, as well as for costarring with Fran Drescher on the 1993-1999 sitcom The Nanny.

From the late 1940s through the mid-1960s, Jean Lodge’s prolific career in British film and TV included, in addition to The Black Knight, the movies White Corridors, Brandy for the Parson, and, in 1961, The Hellfire Club opposite Peter Cushing. Lodge also appeared on stage in the West End in the 1950s.

Born Jean Margaret Lodge on August 4, 1927, in Hull, England, Lodge was, her granddaughter writes, “a beautiful, talented, complicated, passionate, emotional, energetic woman who was always on the move and full of life. The perfect hostess Jean enjoyed parties, friends, socializing, the theatre, feeding the ducks, museums, gardening, music, culture, long walks in nature, animals, painting (she was amazing!), cooking, art, traveling… the list goes on.”

The statement continues, “She loved her two sons, Charles and David, her daughters-in-law, Susie and Annie, and her five granddaughters, Amy, Jenny, Katie, Maddy, and Josie. She was blessed with two great-grandsons, Julian and Noa.

“An ever-present matriarch, her silliness, stubbornness, joyfulness, and her love for storytelling will continue on through her family. Us. Forever. We will miss her. We will carry her with us always. We love her all the world and then some.”

IKEA is very excited for Alexander Skarsgård’s sexy new “Wicker” film.

Based on “The Wicker Husband” by Ursula Wills-Jones, the film is the latest effort from “Save Yourselves!” writers/directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson. It stars Olivia Colman as a village outsider who asks the local basketmaker to make her a husband (with Peter Dinklage and Elizabeth Debicki also starring).

To make the film feel as real as possible, Fischer and Wilson decided against using CGI and made a real life suit to turn Skarsgård into the world’s sexiest strawman.

The pair discussed the process with TheWrap’s executive editor Adam Chitwood, explaining they worked with New Zealand-based Weta Workshop to design the suit and make-up for Skarsgård to wear, tailoring it to the actor’s facial expressions right down to a furrowed brow. Suffice it to say, the Internet lost its mind praising the film for how attractive the wicker man looks.

Now, Swedish furniture brand IKEA is, for lack of a better term, getting in on the action.

IKEA’s Australian Instagram account posted a photo of their handmade rattan bench with the description, “Made from husband material.” The caption added, “If you know, you know.” The bench retails for $199, which is a steal compared to what a full wicker husband must cost. Though, we won’t know for sure until we see the film when it hits theaters on Oct. 23.

Black Bear Pictures, the studio behind “Wicker,” also reposted the ad, saying, “It’s a WICKER world.”

In his review for TheWrap, Chase Hutchinson said, “Credit where credit is due to ‘Wicker,’ it’s not every day you get to see an Oscar-winning actress mount a Hollywood heartthrob made into a literal wicker man.”

“Wicker” winds up in theaters on Oct. 23.