In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Daredevil, Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Fantastic Four, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men vs. Fantastic Four, Wolverine, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Aquaman, Suicide Squad, Shazam, Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Gotham, Lucifer, Powers and more…
We’ll start this edition of The Week in Spandex off with 2015’s first – and easily most-anticipated – superhero movie of the year Avengers: Age of Ultron, and this week saw Marvel debuting a couple of new theatrical posters for the follow-up to 2012’s The Avengers, which confirmed that Anthony Mackie (Falcon) and Stellen Skarsgard (Erik Selvig) will both feature in the credits-bursting cast list, and Danny Elfman will also supply “additional music”. It’s also kicked off a series of new character posters which so far includes Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) [see here], The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) [see here], Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) [see here]. And that’s not all, as some promotional artwork of Iron Man and The Vision (Paul Bettany) has surfaced [see here], along with a look at Hot Toys’ 1/6th scale b Hulk collectible figurine [see here]…
…Joss Whedon has taken a moment this week to discuss the epic scope of Avengers: Age of Ultron and its “unhinged” climax: “Avengers: Age of Ultron got larger than the first film,” states Whedon. “I didn’t mean for it to get larger, but the climax that I pitched was completely unhinged and nobody said no, so that’s that… To me, adventure film is the best way to put it. Then science fiction, action, western, war, woman’s picture, horror movie … I’m not kidding; every single one of those things is in there.” Click here to read the rest of Joss’ (spoiler free) comments…
…Chris Hemsworth has also offered up a few details about the God of Thunder’s role in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which includes a few things that could be considered as minor spoilers. If you don’t want to know anything beyond what we’ve seen in the trailer, you might want to skip his comments at the bottom of the post here…
…When they weren’t busy making twats out of themselves on Twitter this week, Latino-Review claimed to have some insider knowledge on the deal between Marvel and Sony and who has creative control over Spider-Man, as well as guessing that the wall-crawler could make his MCU debut earlier than Captain America: Civil War by appearing in a post-credit scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron (something we speculated on weeks ago)…
…In other Spidey-related news, Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) has expressed an interest in taking on the role in the MCU, while Jeff Sneider of The Wrap has claimed that “Spider-Man’s not going to be white [in the MCU]. I’m 95% sure. Spider-Man’s going to be most likely black. But there’s a chance he could also be Latino. 95% sure, not white”. Oh, and Joss Whedon has spoken out in defence of Spider-Man 3, stating that “there’s some great stuff in that movie”…
…At the Oscars this past weekend, Benedict Cumberbatch dodged a question about whether Doctor Strange will have a British or American accent in the 2016 movie, offering up only a wry smile and shift of the eyes [see for yourself here]. For the record, my money is on ‘posh Englishman’…
…As Marvel’s marketing department focusses its attention on Age of Ultron, we’ve has a brief glimpse at some promotional artwork and merchandise for the studio’s other 2015 release Ant-Man, including posters, laptop and tablet skins, bed sheets, t-shirts and Funko POP! figures. Check them out here, along with a preview of the second issue of Marvel Comics’ two-part prequel series Ant-Man Prelude here…
…Ahead of its April premiere on Netflix, Marvel has stepped up the promotional for Daredevil this week, with a new poster and batch of images from the series, which includes some new shots of Charlie Cox’s Man Without Fear along with the likes of Night Nurse (Rosario Dawson), Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), Foggy Nelson (Eldon Henson) and The Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). Meanwhile, Cox, showrunner Steven S. DeKnight and Marvel Television’s Emma Fleischer have spoken about the show, its place within the MCU timeline, potential Easter eggs, and hopes for a second season; read their comments here…
…Agent Carter drew to a close this past Tuesday with the season finale ‘Valediction’ [read our review here], and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have been speaking about the chances of a second season, and whether it could delve into the early days of the Winter Soldier program: “It’s a little TBD on that. Because of what we know about Winter Soldier and that Hydra was working all along with S.H.I.E.L.D., it necessitates Peggy having a lot less information than the audience has, so I’m not sure how long we could keep that up—where every time Toby Jones smiles at her, we know something and she doesn’t. We don’t know exactly what Season 2 is yet, or if there is one, so I don’t have a great answer on how we would use him, if at all…”
…Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns for the second half of season two this coming Tuesday, and ABC and Marvel have upped the promotion for the midseason premiere ‘Aftershocks’ with a promo and batch of images [see here], a clip [see here], and a cast featurette and poster which teases what Raina has become following her Inhuman transformation [see here]…
…Moving on to Fox’s Marvel properties now and four new images have arrived online from The Fantastic Four reboot featuring Miles Teller (Reed Richards), Susan Storm (Kate Mara), Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) [see here], while Teller has been speaking about the trailer for the film and the mixed reaction it received from fans of Marvel’s First Family: “You can’t please all people sometimes. When you shoot a movie, especially when it’s with this movie and Josh Trank – he has a very specific tone whether it is Chronicle or [Fantastic Four], but as an actor you don’t really know what kind of movie it is until you see them cut it together. Now’s the first time we saw any footage, and I was excited, and I know for the most part it seems like that the consensus is good…”
…Director Josh Trank has also been speaking about the August release, including the controversy surrounding his Chronicle star Jordan as The Human Torch, the differences between the reboot and Fox’s first two Fantastic Four movies, and whether it will incorporate iconic elements of the comic book mythos: “There are surprises for everybody in the movie. We’ve had time to figure out every single iconic and subtle aspect of the Fantastic 4, and how it can organically belong to this film.” You can read the rest of Trank’s comments here…
…Looking ahead to next year’s Fox slate and having missed out on the role of Cyclops to Tye Sheridan, EastEnders actor Ben Hardy has been tipped to bag an “important” mystery role in X-Men: Apocalypse which may or may not be Angel, while frequent Bryan Singer collaborator John Ottman will reportedly score the film, having already served as composer on X2: X-Men United and X-Men: Days of Future Past…
…Prior to X-Men: Days of Future Past, there had been some talk from Hugh Jackman about potentially hanging up the claws and retiring from his role as Wolverine; however, we know he’ll be in the sequel to The Wolverine, he’s likely – but not confirmed – to be in X-Men: Apocalypse (hell, don’t be surprised if he’s in Deadpool, Gambit and The Fantastic Four too!), and it seems he now has no plans to step down as Logan: “Every time I play Wolverine I want to go further, physically and emotionally. I said to my wife, ‘The moral is that I should never stop playing Wolverine. I’ve got to find a way to keep playing him until I die.’ I know that someday they’ll recast the role with another actor…I’d be happy if the role was eventually recast. It would mean that it had become iconic…”
…There’s been mumblings that Fox is keen to bring The Fantastic Four and X-Men franchises together for its own shared Marvel universe, and X-Men star Shawn Ashmore has stated this week that “it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility… I want to see that take on it. I think it would be dope to see a little crossover between the X-Men, maybe some Fantastic Four, maybe Bobby flying around with The Fantastic Four one of these days. That would be cool, wouldn’t it?” Given the potential rights issues for Fox, it could just be wishful thinking on Ashmore’s part, especially as he goes on to say he’d like to share the screen with The Hulk, Spider-Man and Ghost Rider – read the rest of his comments here…
…Click below to continue on for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Aquaman, Suicide Squad, Shazam, Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Gotham, Lucifer, Powers and more…
