In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Avengers Assemble, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man, The Sinister Six, Deadpool, Gambit, X-Men: Apocalypse, Fantastic Four 2, Deadpool 2, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel, Justice League Dark, Man of Steel 2, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, Constantine, Vixen, Supergirl, The Incredibles 2, Heroes Reborn and more…
We’ll kick things off this week with Captain America: Civil War, and Sebastian Stan has been speaking about his return as the Winter Soldier in the Phase Three-launching ensemble: ““[The] character had, in my opinion, an introduction in The Winter Soldier — I mean, it was just sort of like a preview of the guy, which we get so much more of in Civil War. And I’m grateful for that. But to see that response to that was awesome because it just made me think, “Wow, people really got behind the character,” and that’s what you’re hoping for, especially [laughs] given that I didn’t really have any lines to say or anything. Which probably made it for the better to be honest. They gave me a lot more dialogue, and I thought, ‘Oh my god, it was so much better when I didn’t have to say things!’ The look of the Winter Soldier is a very specific look. There was something very specific in how the guy looked and behaved and I felt like the more I stepped back and I just kind of let that do the work, the better it was gonna be. In a situation like that, you’re trying to guess where the guy’s at in his mind, and that certainly continues in the Civil War movie. You’re always trying to guess what side is he on or … because he can go both ways. That’s me being really lucky with a character like that where you can kind of … I mean they could write something for him tomorrow where he could be the worst assassin, the worst terrible villain, killer, whatever, or he could be this guy who is endearing, who is trying to rebuild his life so there’s a lot of places to go with the character and that’s exciting…”
…Having been linked to the film a couple of months ago, Rachel McAdams (True Detective) has now confirmed that she’s set to appear in Doctor Strange, although details of her role are yet to be revealed. McAdams joins a cast that so far includes Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) as Stephen Strange, Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer) as The Ancient One and Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) as Baron Mordo….
With Ant-Man sitting on $395 million worldwide, Marvel will be hoping the film can push towards the $500 million mark with its release in China on October 16th, and a new poster has arrived online, which you can see to your left…
…It looks like Iron Man star Terrence Howard is still bitter about his departure from the MCU, claiming that his exit cost him $100 million: “I called Robby and was like, ‘Look, man . . .’ Leaving messages with his assistants, called him at least 17 times that day and 21 the next and finally left a message saying, ‘Look, man, I need the help that I gave you’. Never heard from him. And guess who got the millions I was supposed to get? He got the whole franchise, so I’ve actually given him $100 million, which ends up being a $100 million loss for me from me trying to look after somebody, but, you know, to this day I would do the same thing. It’s just my nature…”
…With a little over a week to go until the return of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel and ABC has released a new poster and a batch of cast promotional photos, along with a batch of promotional images for the season three premiere episode ‘Laws of Nature’, which you can see here. Meanwhile, some first-look images have surfaced of Chloe Bennet’s Daisy Johnson in her new costume as Quake, along with some concept art…
…We’ve also had our first official look at Marvel’s second Netflix series Jessica Jones this week with the release of a batch of promotional images featuring Krysten Ritter as the title character alongside Rachel Taylor as Trish Walker, Carrie-Anne Moss as Harper, Mike Colter as Luke Cage and David Tennant as Kilgrave; check them out here…
…Marvel also kicked off production on its third Netflix series Luke Cage, officially confirming the castings of Alfre Woodard (Mariah Dillard), Mahershala Ali (Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes), Simone Missick (Misty Knight) and Theo Rossi (Shades) alongside Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple) and Frank Whaley (Detective Scarfe). And of course, with cameras rolling it wasn’t long before we saw the first set photos, which features Woodard and Ali’s villains…
…This week also brought some casting news for the second season of Daredevil, with Scott Glenn confirmed as returning to the role of stick, while new addition Jon Bernthal teased his role as Frank Castle by stepping out in a Punisher shirt, complete with the skull logo…
…On the Marvel animation front, we’ve got a clip from this Sunday’s season two finale of Avengers Assemble, entitled ‘Avengers World’, which sees Earth’s Mightiest Heroes going up against the Mad Titan Thanos [watch it here], while Marvel has also announced the release the soundtrack to the Guardians of the Galaxy animated series, titled ‘Cosmic Mix Vol. 1’; check out the tracklisting here…
…Having been mentioned as a possible contender for director’s chair on Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man reboot, Drew Goddard has revealed why he never got the job on the 2017 movie, which will instead be helmed by Jon Watts (Cop Car): ” I think that’s more a question for [Sony and Marvel], but here’s the good news,” states Goddard. “I’ve worked with Marvel a lot. The way that Marvel sort of works is they say, ‘Hey, do you have an idea for… Here’s the movies we’re thinking about making…’ They sort of tell you the world what they’re thinking of making, and they sort of put out there, if you have an idea for any of these, come talk to us. And I think, with Spider-Man, I didn’t really have an idea. Part of that might have just been because I had just written one. I spent a year working on Sinister Six, and I think I was like in a head space where I just didn’t… you know, it’s very hard to say, ‘Ok, now write a new movie.’ So, it never got that far. We never, it never got taken that far. They know how much respect I have for them. They’ve been very nice to me over the years, and I know sooner or later, we’re going to find the right project. It’s all about timing.”
…Goddard then went on to share a few thoughts on Sony’s planned Sinister Six movie, and whether he’d still be interested in bringing it to the big screen: “It’s not happening right now, but Hollywood is very volatile so you never know. On the off-chance we actually get to make it one day I want to keep it sort of quiet, but it was the epic Spider-Man movie of my dreams. Yeah, no, look, I loved it. We were deep in pre-production when the Sony hack happened and it was sad to see everything go down. But welcome to Hollywood…”
…After the failure of Fantastic Four, Fox’s plans for its Marvel movies hit another snag this week with director Rupert Wyatt (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) exiting the Channing Tatum-headlined Gambit movie after the studio decided to push production back to March of next year. Fox is currently looking to secure another director, but it remains to be seen whether the film can meet its October 2016 release date…
…Writer-producer Simon Kinberg was busy this week discussing all things Fox/Marvel, including the chances of Deadpool and Gambit crossing over with the main X-Men franchise: “There will be interplay between different characters in different movies. The idea is that we’ve sort of reset the timeline after X-Men: Days Of Future Past in some ways, and if not erased, certainly allowed for change from X1, 2, 3, everything from Days of Future Past forward, 1973, everything we set now becomes canon. So the Gambit movie, the Deadpool movie, will exist in a world that acknowledges whatever happened in Days Of Future Past and moving forward. Doesn’t mean they’ll always interact with those characters, obviously, it’s not like every movie has all the characters, but they all have to exist within the same rules…”
…Kinberg then moved on to X-Men: Apocalypse, sharing a few words on the bright and colourful “cosmic” look of Oscar Isaac’s villain: “I feel like we have been, the X-Men franchise, has been growing a little bit more into science fiction. I think Days of Future Past with time travel and the Sentinels took us into a slightly broader, more science fiction world than the films had occupied in the past. We felt like the movies were ready for something that was slightly more, let’s say, cosmic. Once we made the decision for Apocalypse to be the villain at the center of the movie, we wanted to be true to the comics, which are sort of, like you, say, not costume, but it’s not just a guy in a helmet. It is more cosmic…”
…It looks like the poor performance of Fantastic Four may not have quite put the brakes on the sequel, with Kinberg stating that: “I’m really focused on the next one. I do believe there is a great Fantastic Four movie that we’ve made with that cast. So I’m gonna figure out what that is. We’re figuring out what that movie would be. I’d like [the sequel] to happen. I was obviously disappointed [by the reception to the reboot]. I was most disappointed that fans didn’t like it. I care more about them than I do anyone else. But I haven’t done a full deep dive on it. Do I think it was unfairly treated? I don’t know.” So, the sequel is still a possibility, although you have to wonder whether Fox would want Kate Mara back as Sue Storm after the actress made fun of the film’s box office takings…
…Meanwhile, it seems Fox could be counting its chickens before they’ve hatched once again, with Kinberg revealing that there’s been discussions about a sequel to February’s Deadpool: “I have seen a rough cut of Deadpool and it’s fantastic. It’s a really good movie. It delivers on the promise of the trailer. We certainly are talking about the sequel. But yeah, [Fox is] feeling good about it, we’re all feeling really proud of it, so hopefully before it comes out we will be well into the process of figuring out a sequel.” Asked whether Cable could feature in Deadpool 2, Kinberg responded: “It’s certainly come up because he’s such a big character in the world. And it’s a character that I’ve always wanted to do in one form or another, we talked about Cable actually in Days of Future Past at one point. But yeah we’re in such the early stages of sequel talk it would be genuinely premature for me to say whether or not he was gonna be in it…”
…Click below to continue on for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel, Justice League Dark, Man of Steel 2, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, Constantine, Vixen, Supergirl, The Incredibles 2, Heroes Reborn and more…
