In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Spider-Man: Homecoming, Venom, Avengers: Infinity War, Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man, Captain Britain, Blade, Inhumans, The Defenders, Deadpool 2, X-Men: The New Mutants, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 2, Justice League, The Batman, Superman: Red Son, Batgirl, Gotham City Sirens, Arrow, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen and more…
We’re just a few days away from the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Flickering Myth’s Matt Spencer-Skeen was lucky enough to catch the film this past week. His verdict? “Marvel Studios have taken all the best parts of what they are known for, and brought together a perfect cast with a script that is full of energy, wit and peril to make for the best Spider-Man movie to date.” You can read Matt’s full, spoiler-free ★★★★★ review here and check out a couple of clips from the movie here, along with two new posters here…
…Homecoming star Tom Holland has been extremely busy on the promotional trail this week, during which – deep breath – he confirmed that Peter Parker has been retconned into Iron Man 2 [see here], has revealed that he wants to see fresh villains in the Spidey sequels [see here], is hoping to see Miles Morales introduced into the MCU [see here], wouldn’t mind an adaptation of The Clone Saga [see here] or a team-up with Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man [see here], and also teased the potential return of Marvel One-Shots [see here]. Meanwhile, his co-stars have also been at it, with Laura Harrier stating that she is hoping to see her character Liz Allan become Firestar [see here], Michael Mando talking about his surprise villain character [see here], and Marissa Tomei saying she would be “all for” a solo Aunt May movie [see here], while director Jon Watts also revealed that he originally envisioned Nick Fury as Spidey’s mentor rather than Tony Stark [see here]…
…Spider-Man: Homecoming producers Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal confirmed this week that Jon Watts will be asked to return to direct the 2019 sequel to Homecoming, while Feige also spoke about why it is the perfect movie to launch Phase Four of the MCU: “So much happens in [the 3rd and 4th Avengers movies], as you can imagine, and so much is affected by it that we felt what better person to hold your hand and lead you into the next incarnation of the MCU, in a grounded, realistic manner, than Peter Parker? So, coming out two months after Untitled Avengers, [that’s what] much of what the next Spider-Man film will be about. It was purposefully done like this. Like how the events of Captain America: Civil War impacted Peter as he was dropped off by Tony and expected to go back to continue his sophomore year, how the hell are the events of Infinity War and Untitled [Avengers] going to affect him as he, yes, goes back to his junior year..?”
…The (frankly tiresome) saga regarding the canonical status of Sony’s SpiderVerse spinoffs dragged on again this week, with Kevin Feige dismissing Pascal’s previous comments that they’d be part of the MCU by saying that existed separately, and Pascal muddying the waters once again with her latest comments that the spinoffs exist in the “same reality” as Homecoming, but you won’t see any mention in the rest of the MCU: “First, there is Spider-Man happily in the place where he’s supposed to be which is in the Marvel Universe. I think everything comes from that. This is the signpost, the tentpole, the signature, and the other movies that Sony’s going to make, in their relationship to this Spider-Man, take place in this world. Although you’re not going to see them in the Marvel Universe, it’s in the same reality…”
…Speaking of the SpiderVerse spinoffs, Tom Holland said he would jump at the chance to appear alongside Tom Hardy’s Venom if the opportunity came up, although Feige once again reiterated that it was Sony’s movie, and would have nothing to do with the MCU. Meanwhile, Gotham star Cameron Monaghan also expressed his interest in portraying the film’s villain Carnage…
…In other Spidey news, Disney XD UK announced that the wall-crawler will be taking over the channel this July with a Homecoming special, every episode of Ultimate Spider-Man, and the world premiere of Marvel’s new Spider-Man Origins shorts, while Marvel legend Stan Lee expressed his disppointment over the web-slinger’s treatment in the 1970s series The Amazing Spider-Man: “The Spider-Man TV series I was very unhappy with because very often, people will take a novel, let’s say, and bring it to the screen … and they will leave out the one element, the one quality that made the novel a bestseller. With Spider-Man, I felt the people who did the live-action series left out the very elements that made the comic book popular … They left out the humor. They left out the human interest and personality and playing up characterizations and personal problems…”
…As production on Avengers: Infinity War shifts to Atlanta, a series of set photos have arrived online this week, which includes images of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Wong (Benedict Wong) [see here] as well as a glimpse of Iron Man’s upgraded armor [see here]. Meanwhile, Kevin Feige has also revealed that Spider-Man’s role in Infinity War will be “about on par” with his appearance in Captain America: Civil War, while he also confirmed that Avengers 4 will mark the “final chapter” for certain characters, although he refused to be drawn into which characters this might be: “We have another two years of hard work to even finish these movies, and they [the actors] have a lot of hard work to do, so thats all we’re thinking about, is completing those and delivering on the promise of those. Where it goes beyond that, we’ll see…”
…Thor: Ragnarok will presumably have a big presence (and a new trailer?) at the San Diego Comic-Con International later this month, but in the meantime we’ve had a look at a couple of new pieces of concept art featuring Thor, Loki, Odin, The Hulk and Valkyrie [see here], along with promotional images for Hasbro’s upcoming tie-in toys and Marvel Legends action figures [see those here and here]. Meanwhile, you may also want to check out the 8-Bit Cinema trailer for the Marvel threequel, which you can watch here…
…Out on the press tour for his new film Baby Driver, Edgar Wright spoke about his split from Marvel on 2015’s Ant-Man movie due to creative differences, and revealed that he’s yet to watch so much as the trailer for the film: “I haven’t seen it and I haven’t even seen the trailer. It would kind of like be asking me, ‘Do you want to watch your ex-girlfriend have sex?’ Like, ‘No, I’m good.’ The closest I came to it was that somebody sitting near me on a flight was watching it. And when I saw that the person sitting next to me was going to watch the movie, I thought, hmm, maybe I’m going to do some work on my laptop.” You can read the rest of Wright’s comments – and his praise for Paul Rudd in Captain America: Civil War – here…
…If you were hoping that Marvel might drop any Phase Four details at Comic-Con later this month, you’ll be disappointed to hear that the studio is likely to remain tight-lipped on its future plans until after Infinity War and its sequel: “I hope [the news comes] after that. I think there will be certain elements that start to come about, not the least of which is the already announced release date of the next Spider-Man film. But other than that we’re going to keep it very close to the vest because this is really about focusing on the unprecedented conclusion to a 22-movie overarching narrative…”
…In a couple of other bits and pieces from the Kevin Feige Show, the producer has revealed that Marvel has had some discussions about potentially introducing Captain Britain into the MCU, while he also suggested it “would be fun” to do something with Blade at some point in the future: “We think it would be cool. Someday. My tenure at Marvel started 17 years ago, and there were two things that sort of launched the modern era. One was X-Men, which was the first thing that people said, ‘Oh, there’s life here.’ But a few years before that, there was Blade. A character nobody had heard of at all, had only appeared in a few issues of Tomb of Dracula or something, turned into a big franchise. That was always a great lesson for me, where you go, ‘It doesn’t matter how well known the character is, it matters how cool the movie is.’ Which, many years later, would be the reason we do Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange. I think Blade is a legacy character now, and I think it would be fun to do something with him one day…”
…Turning to the small screen now and ABC and IMAX unveiled the first trailer for Marvel’s Inhumans this week and – well – it went down about as well as that first cast photo from a few weeks back. You can read the universally-unimpressed thoughts of our writing team in the latest Flickering Myth Reaction here, while you may also want to check out a quad poster featuring Atillan [see here] and the official one-sheet featuring Black Bolt, Medusa and Maximus [see here]…
…In other Marvel TV news, Netflix has released an extremely brief new promo for The Defenders ahead of its panel at the San Diego Comic-Con International later this month; check it out here…
…Click below to continue on for Deadpool 2, X-Men: The New Mutants, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 2, Justice League, The Batman, Superman: Red Son, Batgirl, Gotham City Sirens, Arrow, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen and more…