Our weekly round-up of all the latest superhero news and talking points, including Gotham, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Flash, Arrow, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America 3, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Daredevil, The Defenders, Avengers Assemble, Big Hero 6, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Fantastic Four, Powers and more….
FOX got the new small screen superhero TV season underway this past Monday with the premiere of the hotly-anticipated Batman prequel series Gotham, which enjoyed strong ratings, pulling a 3.2 rating with adults aged 18-49, and 8.2 million viewers from its highly competitive time slot. The pilot episode seemed to have a lot of admirers, although Flickering Myth’s Anthony Stokes and Anghus Houvouras were both unimpressed – check out their reviews here and here. And looking ahead, we’ve got three promos for the second episode entitled ‘Selina Kyle’, which you can see here and here, along with a batch of images from episode 3 ‘Balloonman’ here and a synopsis for episode 4 ‘Arkham’ here…
…In other Gotham news, showrunner Bruno Heller has spoken about the introduction of iconic villains from Batman’s Rogues Gallery, specifically The Dark Knight’s arch-enemy the Joker: “There are certain villains that can and do precede Batman. There are others that don’t, and we’ll play with that. Generally speaking, we won’t go to the full theatrical, spandex costume aspect of the villains – the fully-fledged villains – because it’s almost not consistent with this world. The Joker didn’t think of his shtick all by himself. There must have been someone before who The Joker saw and thought, ‘Oh, that’s a good shtick. I could work with that and make it better.’ It’s the same with Batman. There must have been other vigilantes before him who didn’t pull off such a good act. We’ll play around with those ideas in Gotham… We’re going to wait and get the show up and running [before we meet the real Joker]. We want to get the story right and we want to be tonally right – and then we’ll start thinking about how to bring him in. We will certainly try to surprise people, and maybe even trick people. It’s one of those expectations that everyone will be waiting for, so you can’t just present the guy with a big smile and start telling the story. Not that that would be dull, but that’s one of those opportunities to really start playing with this…”
…Over at The CW and filming has got underway on the big two-part crossover between Arrow and its upcoming sister show The Flash, which is set for the eighth episode of the shows’ respective seasons. Stephen Amell announced the start of production by posting an image teasing the team-up, with a few set photos soon arriving online showing Amell’s Arrow going up against Grant Gustin’s Flash in a battle between the two DC heroes; meanwhile, The CW also dropped official descriptions for episode 2 of both shows, along with character portraits for The Flash cast members Grant Gustin (Barry Allen), Candice Patton (Iris West), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow), Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon), Tom Cavanagh (Harrison Wells), Jesse L. Martin (Detective West) and Rick Gosnett (Eddie Thawne)…
…Turning to the DC Cinematic Universe it seems we may have had our first look at Wayne Manor as it will appear in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, with a selection of set photos and video arriving online showing the crew shooting around the abandoned Ransom Gills House in Detroit; meanwhile Man of Steel star Harry Lennix has spoken about the film (which will see him reprising the role of General Swanwick), stating that fans of Frank Miller’s seminal graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns will be “well pleased” by the 2016 DC ensemble: “Anybody who’s a fan of the ’86 graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, I think will be well pleased by [Batman v Superman]. This is a historic event. Clearly, Zack Snyder is on the cutting edge of directing movies of this scope and scale. I think you can depend on the acting — you’ve got Amy Adams, of course. You’ve got Henry Cavill. I don’t think there are any surprises with regard to that. What will happen remains to be seen. I’d probably wind up in a box some place [if I said any more]…”
…Over in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy has surpassed the $312.4 million haul of Iron Man 2 to become Marvel’s fourth biggest domestic release; the film is currently sitting on $315.4 million in the States, just trailing the $318.4 million of the original Iron Man, while its worldwide haul has now reached $634 million, meaning it will soon overtake Thor: The Dark World ($644 million) to become Marvel’s fourth biggest hit worldwide…
…We’ve heard talk that Hawkeye could link up with Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers in Captain America 3, and Jeremy Renner has seemingly confirmed the archer’s involvement with the 2016 sequel this week, stating that: “I’m happy to do the ensemble. I’m not scratching or clawing for a solo mvoie by any means. I think [Hawkeye] is a utility guy that can bounce around into other people’s universes a little bit, especially like Cap 3.” Of course, before then Hawkeye and Cap will share the screen with the rest of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Joss Whedon’s big sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron, which arrives in cinemas in May…
…Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returned to the small screen this past Tuesday with its season 2 premiere ‘Shadows’, but it seems that the success of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy has done little to restore some fans’ faith in the show, with the premiere pulling in a mediocre 2.1 rating with adults aged 18-49, and 5.98 million viewers. That’s a huge drop from last year’s series premiere, which drew 12.12 million viewers and a 4.7 rating. Be sure to check out Anghus Houvouras’ review of the season 2 premiere episode here, while we’ve also got a promo for episode 2 ‘Heavy is the Head’ which you can see here, along with images from episode 3 ‘Making Friends and Influencing People’ here. Oh, and we’ve also had our first look at Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse / Mockingbird, who will be introduced next month as the head of Hydra security…
…ABC’s Marvel One-Shot spin-off Agent Carter has added another name to its expanding roster, with Boardwalk Empire star Shea Whigham set to play Roger Dooley, head of the Strategic Scientific Reserve, the precursor to S.H.I.E.L.D.. Whigham joins fellow Marvel newcomers Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse) as Agent Daniel Sousa, Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill) as Agent Jack Thompson and James D’Arcy (Let’s Be Cops) as Jarvis, while Hayley Atwell reprises the role of World War II heroine Peggy Carter…
…With Marvel set to give us our first look at Daredevil at the New York Comic Con next month, Marvel’s Head of Television Jeph Loeb has been speaking about the upcoming Netflix series and how it will play into the wider world of The Defenders: “When I watched The Avengers, which is really one of my favorite movies, during the scene when the sky opens up, the Chitauri are coming and there’s a giant battle over by Grand Central Station, even in the theater I was thinking, ‘In the true Marvel Universe if you go about ten blocks over and an avenue down, there’s a place called Hell’s Kitchen and in that world are characters like Daredevil and Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, and those characters are not going to be involved in an inter-warfare-universe-colliding incident.’ That’s what the Avengers do and they do it really, really well and those movies are incredible. We wanted to have an opportunity to be able to tell stories about our street-level heroes and how that they could possibly interact in the world of Marvel without it feeling like it’s completely detached and by the same token feeling like it’s part of that world. And it’s very much how it is in the comics, which is that Daredevil — yes, one could argue that at some point he’s been an Avenger but hey, you know, the reality is that so has everybody else [laughs]. The idea is that this is the world of people who are there to protect the neighborhood and if you believe in the neighborhood the way you believe in the planet then the emotional context is just strong…”
Click below to continue onto the next page for Avengers Assemble, Big Hero 6, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Fantastic Four, Powers and more…
