In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine 3, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Gotham, Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Vixen, Justice League, Hellboy III, Heroes Reborn and more…
This week brought us our first peek at next year’s Captain America: Civil War, with some leaked images from the Disney D23 footage popping up online, featuring shots of Cap (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Crossbones (Frank Grillo), while Mark Ruffalo has revealed that The Hulk won’t be appearing in the Phase Three-launching film: “I thought that I would be in the film, but in the end they evidently believe that the reveal of what happened to the Hulk is something too big, and Marvel wants to use this information later. My character had been inserted in the script, but then it was taken away. Who knows, maybe Hulk will never return. However, they want to keep the revelation of what happened a secret, because it is something really big…”
…Civil War will mark the fifth appearance in Chris Evans’ six-film deal with Marvel, but the actor has confirmed that he’ll be back for both instalments of Avengers: Infinity War, and is keen to extend his time in the MCU beyond that: “Listen, if Marvel wants me they got me,” states Evans. “I’ve never had such a relationship where you have such—I mean look at my resume, I’m used to being on set being like, ‘Ah is this movie gonna be terrible?’ Marvel just can’t stop making great movies, they do it in their sleep. It’s wonderful directors and producers and actors and scripts, and it’s like a playground as an actor. It’s so mind-boggling that I was so tentative in the beginning to jump onboard. What an asshole I would be if I hadn’t done this. I mean can you imagine? Kicking myself—I’d never forgive myself…”
…Josh Brolin was asked this week if he’d be appearing in any of Marvel’s Phase Three films before Avengers: Infinity War, replying that: “I don’t know which one I’m in. That’s a Kevin Feige question. I know the trajectory of what they’re doing, but I don’t know exactly which one I’m in. I love going into a comic book store and a guy connecting me with Thanos, and seeing the incredible regressive awe that happens. Like you see them lose 30 years in can’t-breathe awe. That’s fun, and I have a lot of respect for those fans. I’m excited about doing it, I really am. I don’t have a favorite [character to fight] because it’s me against all of them. I think the entirety is what I’m most looking forward to. Each and every one. I’m bringing the wrath…”
…Ahead of its home entertainment release here in the UK next Monday, Marvel has dropped details of the special features and deleted scenes set to be included with Avengers: Age of Ultron, while we’ve also had a sneak peek at some of the bonus material thanks to a featurette entitled ‘Designing New Powers’ [see here], along with the film’s blooper reel [see here]
…Some alternate title logos for Marvel’s cinematic universe-launching Iron Man have arrived online courtesy of artist and VFX supervisor Fede Ponce, who also offered up a few words on the design process: “We go through a lot of iterations and concepts when designing. For this particular case, I had read the script and was able to grasp what the director wanted to talk about in this movie. The movie in essence is about redemption, about being broken and being re-born. So the main title had all those elements in it.” You can check out the alternate logos here…
…It has been revealed this week that Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has broken free of Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, and will now report directly to Disney’s Alan Horn after a restructuring that has freed Feige of having to deal with Perlmutter’s tight purse strings and overbearing micromanagement. However, Perlmutter remains in control of Marvel’s television output, so it will be interesting to see if this creates a divide between the big and small screen aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe…
…That brings us nicely onto Marvel’s TV output and the third Netflix series Luke Cage has been filling out its supporting cast this week. Rosario Dawson is confirmed as reprising her role from Daredevil (and Jessica Jones) as Claire Temple, while new additions include Mahershala Ali (House of Cards) as Cornell ‘Cottonmouth’ Stokes, Theo Rossi (Sons of Anarchy) as Shades and Simone Missick (Ray Donovan) as Misty Knight. The newcomers join Mike Colter (The Following) as Luke Cage and Alfre Woodard (Desperate Housewives) as Black Mariah…
…Luke Cage will be joined on Netflix next year by the second season of Daredevil, and it’s been announced this week that Stephen Rider (The Butler) will play Blake Tower, “a District Attorney for New York City who helps Charlie Cox’s Daredevil — a lawyer in his civilian identity as Matt Murdock — with information to help track down and capture criminals.” Meanwhile, Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) has posted a behind-the-scenes image to social media, teasing the impressive arsenal of weapons at The Punisher’s disposal…
…Over at ABC and the network gave us our first look at the third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. late this week with Clark Gregg (Director Phil Coulson) and Chloe Bennet (Daisy Johnson/Quake) introducing a special sneak peek preview [watch it here], while we also got a character featurette for Luke Mitchell’s Inhuman Lincoln Campbell, which reveals that he’ll be getting the codename Sparkplug [see here], and FuseFX has released a video showcasing their Emmy-nominated VFX work on season two [see here]…
…Hayley Atwell took to social media this week to announce that filming is underway on the second season of ABC’s Agent Carter, and Marvel soon debuted the first behind-the-scenes image, which reveals who’ll be taking over from Roger Dooley as the chief of the SSR…
…Marvel is set to premiere its latest animated offering Guardians of the Galaxy this evening on Disney XD, and you can take a look at a sneak peek from the first episode ‘Road to Knowhere’ here, while we’ve also got the final Origins short for Gamora, which you can watch here…
…Click below to continue on for Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine 3, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Gotham, Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Vixen, Justice League, Hellboy III, Heroes Reborn and more…
