In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Doctor Strange, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Cloak and Dagger, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Guardians of the Galaxy, Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister 6, Avengers: Ultron Revolution, X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine 3, Deadpool 2, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Aquaman, Justice League, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg, Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham, Batman: The Killing Joke, The Boys and more…
Next week will bring us a look at the final superhero movie if 2016, with Marvel set to unleash the first trailer for the second Phase Three outing Doctor Strange on Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, and to whet our appetites, Marvel also debuted a brand new official image of Benedict Cumberbatch as the Sorcerer Supreme. Director Scott Derrickson also took to social media to announce that filming has wrapped on the movie, but not before we got a few new set photos featuring Cumberbatch and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Baron Mordo) [see here], along with Mads Mikkelsen’s mysterious villain [see here]…
…The cast of Captain America: Civil War will also be appearing on Jimmy Kimmel this week ahead of the film’s release in just a few short weeks, and Marvel has stepped up the promotion this week with the release of a ‘prelude’ trailer and cast featurette [watch it here], a story featurette [watch it here], a TV spot featuring some new footage [watch it here] and a batch of promotional images featuring Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), The Vision (Paul Bettany), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp) [see here]. Meanwhile, we also got a look at a Civil War theater standee [see here], as well as Hot Toys’ 1/6th scale collectible figures for Ant-Man and Black Panther…
…This week brought talk of a possible Luke Cage crossover in Captain America: Civil War, with Alfre Woodard revealed as appearing in the cast of Civil War. Woodard is playing the villain Mariah Dillard in Luke Cage, however it seems she could be portraying a different character entirely in Civil War, with reports suggesting she will play a grieving mother whose son was killed during the climactic battle in Avengers: Age of Ultron…
…Sticking with Luke Cage for a moment and Jessica Jones star Mike Colter has spoken briefly about reprising the role of Power Man for Netflix’s next series, stating at Wizard World that: “I’m going to say Sweet Christmas a lot. He’s going to do a lot of badass stuff! Prepare for badassery. I think we show [his origin] in a really cool way. He wasn’t trying to be a superhero [in Jessica Jones]. The series [Luke Cage] is about him growing into that…”
…Marvel’s Kevin Feige confirmed this week that characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe will cross over with Sony’s Spider-Man reboot, stating that: “He is in the universe now, and the fun of the universe is that characters go back and forth.” Meanwhile, Sony also registered some domain names, giving us several possible titles for the 2017 movie in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Coming of Age, Spider-Man: Greatness Awaits, and Spider-Man: Suspended…
…We can now add another TV series to the upcoming Marvel slate, with the Disney-owned Freeform giving a straight-to-series order to Cloak and Dagger. Here’s the official synopsis: “This exciting new series is an adaptation of the beloved Marvel characters aimed squarely at young adults. This live-action interracial romance follows Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, two teenagers from very different backgrounds, who find themselves burdened and awakened to newly acquired superpowers while falling in love. Tandy can emit light daggers and Tyrone has the ability to engulf others in darkness. They quickly learn they are better together than apart—but their feelings for each other make their already complicated world even more challenging…”
…Be sure to check out Danny Hale’s review of this week’s episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season two, entitled ‘Spacetime, which you can read here, while we’ve also got a batch of images, a promo and a clip from Tuesday’s sixteenth episode ‘Paradise Lost’, along with some promotional images from the seventeenth episode ‘The Team’ which features the Secret Warriors fully assembled…
…On the Marvel animation front, Disney XD has released clips from this Sunday’s episodes of Guardians of the Galaxy ‘Asgard War Part One – Lightnin’ Strikes’ [watch it here], Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister 6 ‘Force of Nature’ [watch it here] and Avengers: Ultron Revolution ‘The Thunderbolts’ [watch it here]…
…20th Century Fox really stepped up its promotional push for X-Men: Apocalypse this week, with the studio releasing a ‘Four Horsemen’ featurette [see here] and posters [see here and here], along with twelve character posters featuring Professor X (James McAvoy), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Angel (Ben Hardy) and Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) [see here and here] and a new behind-the-scenes image of Storm [see here]. Meanwhile, the studio also announced that the Bryan Singer-directed film will be digitally remastered for an IMAX 3D release this May, while James McAvoy revealed that he’s keen to return as Professor X after his three-film contract expires with Apocalypse…
…With production set to get underway next month, it has been announced that Boyd Holbrook (Narcos) will play the main villain opposite Hugh Jackman in the as-yet-untitled Wolverine 3. Holbrook’s character is described as “a relentless, calculating and intense head of security for a global enterprise who is set against Jackman’s clawed Wolverine/Logan hero”, which certainly doesn’t sound like anyone from Old Man Logan…
…The Merc with a Mouth gave Fox another reason to celebrate this week as Deadpool climbed above X-Men: Days of Future Past to become the highest-grossing entry in the studio’s X-Men franchise, having banked $753.7 million by close of play on Thursday night. Meanwhile, if rumours are to be believed, Fox has now closed its deal for Ryan Reynolds to return for Deadpool 2, with the actor likely to have received a major pay rise following the stellar performance of the first movie…
…When I say “first movie”, I am of course ignoring Reynolds’ previous outing in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and that film’s director Gavin Hood has been shared a few thoughts on the first incarnation of Deadpool, and why he feels the new version has succeeded where Origins failed: “I think the character works so well now, because the character is allowed to be who the character really is, unencumbered by, you know, PG-13 requirements and a great deal of marketing debate… Deadpool is a motor mouth, foul mouth character, and it’s very difficult with these big movies to, when you have to work within certain parameters that are set by, by [studio heads]. You know, when he did the little cameo bit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it was exactly what we’ve been talking about. It was the studio attempting to plug in a few characters and test the waters. But now he gets to make his own movie and he did it with great courage and with the full force of his personality, so he deserves every success.” You can read the rest of Hood’s comments in full here…
…Click below to continue on for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Aquaman, Justice League, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg, Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham, Batman: The Killing Joke, The Boys and more…
