In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, The Punisher, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Inhumans, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The New Mutants, Deadpool 2, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Gambit, The Gifted, Venom, Justice League, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad 2, Gotham City Sirens, The Dark Knight, Supergirl, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, Project 13, Gotham, Titans, Hellboy, The Tick and more…
Marvel Studios begins the worldwide rollout of the next chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Ragnarok, this coming week, and Flickering Myth’s Luke Owen was lucky enough to catch a preview screening, stating that: “Director Taika Waititi has delivered easily the best Thor movie to date, and the best outing Hemsworth has had with the character since The Avengers.” You can read Luke’s full spoiler-free ★★★★ review here, and if you don’t mind spoilers and want to get the lowdown on the film’s post-credit scenes, you can also find a rundown of those here…
…Ahead of the press screenings, it was revealed that Thor: Ragnarok runs for 130 minutes and 21 seconds, making it the longest Thor movie to date. The film has also got off to a blistering start on Rotten Tomatoes, becoming the best-reviewed MCU movie to date at the time of writing, while Marvel has also unveiled some new promotional material with a clip of Hela destroying Mjolnir [watch it here] and Thor and Loki executing their ‘Get Help’ escape plan [see here]. Meanwhile, Karl Urban has suggested that it’s time to see a female Thor on the big screen, with Kevin Feige not ruling out the possibility, and it has also been revealed that we could have seen Jeff Goldblum making his MCU debut much earlier, having been offered a minor role in Captain America: The First Avenger…
…If you follow the rumour mill, you may recall a “scoop” from El Mayimbe which said that Avengers: Age of Ultron would finish with the Hulk going into space and subsequently leading to a Planet Hulk adaptation, before culminating with the World War Hulk storyline in Avengers 3. Well, Kevein Feige has been chatting about the rumour this week, revealing that while the original report was false, Age of Ultron was going to end with the Hulk in space: “You had the big scoop about us doing Planet Hulk. It turned out to be accurate [but] at the time, it was not accurate because we didn’t have any plans to do it and Joss Whedon was doing Age of Ultron at that time. The way it ends as you recall with Hulk in the Quinjet going off, right? We said, ‘Joss, we can’t do that because he’s not going into space and people are going to think we’re doing Planet Hulk because Umberto has some big hot scoop that we’re doing Planet Hulk, we can’t do it.’ He goes, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’ We said, ‘We don’t know.’ So, if you go back and look at that shot of the movie, he’s in the sky. It’s blue sky.” You can read the rest of Feige’s comments here, as he discusses how the Planet Hulk storyline came about for Thor: Ragnarok…
…Feige has also been talking about the 10th anniversary of the MCU in 2018, stating that: “I have fond memories in 1987 of Star Wars, the first ten years, ’78-’87. They made a logo, they had t-shirts, they did small stuff. That was during the dark ages of Star Wars, where there hadn’t been anything. Thankfully we’re not in the dark ages right now with the MCU, but I think there’ll be just acknowledgements of the ten years that have come before. There will be some merchandise released and some re-releases in home video. Primarily it is all leading up to the three movies in particular and obviously, Infinity War…”
…While we’re still waiting for the Avengers: Infinity War trailer, Marvel Studios has unveiled a new logo for the hotly-anticipated superhero blockbuster, while Josh Brolin has been chatting about his role as Thanos and working with directors Anthony and Joe Russo: “When playing a character like this, dude, it’s like there’s something—I don’t know any other way to put it, it really turned out to be one of the greatest experiences I’ve had. I’m still not done, but it’s been incredible to be able to work with the Russos, to be able to work with these guys. I had no idea. It’s just a different type of acting, but then when they showed me a little six-minute teaser of a scene that I had done, I was so blown away by how next-level this digital process is and how real it feels. I don’t know how I could be anything but happy.” You can read the rest of Brolin’s comments here, where he compares Infinity War to The Godfather…
…Responding to a question on Twitter about the future of the MCU, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has stated that Infinity War and its untitled sequel marks “the end of one long story and the beginning of another, and one of the films that will kickstart the new story will be Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3…”
…Before we get to Infinity War, there’s the small matter of February’s Black Panther movie, and Marvel has treated us to a new poster and trailer for the Ryan Coogler-directed solo film, which you can find here. Meanwhile, with the trailer giving us our first glimpse of Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger in his Golden Jaguar suit, Anghus Houvouras asks ‘Why Does Marvel Keep Using the Same Villain for Every Movie?” Read his op-ed here…
…Some new spy photos from Ant-Man and the Wasp have surfaced featuring Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang and Evangeline Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne suited up [see here], while we also have some rumoured details concerning the film’s plot and its place in the wider MCU timeline [see here]…
…In a few other bits and pieces from the big screen side of the MCU, it has been announced that Fast & Furious costume designer Sanja Milkovic Hays has signed on for Captain Marvel [read more here]; some Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 concept art of Stan Lee meeting the Watchers has arrived online [see here], as has promotional images of Stan Lee Pop! Vinyl figures from his cameos in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain America: The First Avenger [see here]; Kevin Feige has revealed that we almost got a different villain in the first Iron Man movie [read more here], David Fincher has criticised the MCU for making it challenging for directors to tell complex tales [see here], and Flickering Myth’s George Chrysostomou has penned a feature on five Marvel teams that deserve an MCU appearance [read it here]…
…Click below to continue on for The Punisher, Dardevil, Luke Cage, Inhumans, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The New Mutants, Deadpool 2, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Gambit, The Gifted, Venom, Justice League, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad 2, Gotham City Sirens, The Dark Knight, Supergirl, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, Project 13, Gotham, Titans, Hellboy, The Tick and more…
