In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, A.K.A. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Deadpool, Suicide Squad, Green Lantern, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Lucifer and more…
The big news this week was the arrival of the third trailer for 2015’s first superhero offering, Avengers: Age of Ultron [which you can watch here], with Marvel counting down to its release with a short teaser [see here], along with a series of character posters featuring Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) [see them all here]. And that’s not all the Age of Ultron promotional material we’ve had either, as Entertainment Tonight debuted a behind-the-scenes preview [watch it here], a batch of promo art surfaced featuring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes alongside Ultron and The Vision [see here], and Hot Toys unveiled its 1/6th scale Hulkbuster collectible figure [see here]…
…Coinciding with the release of the trailer, Chris Evans took a moment to speak about Captain America’s role in Age of Ultron and his excitement over the film’s action scenes [see here], while director Joss Whedon discussed his crafting of the story for the sequel [see here], as well as offering up a few words about The Vision (who we glimpsed as the end of the new trailer) and the AI antagonist Ultron [see here]…
…It looks like we’ve got confirmation that Jeremy Renner will be returning to the role of Hawkeye once again this April when production gets underway on Captain America: Civil War this April, with Renner joining Age of Ultron co-stars Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) in addition to Sebastian Stan (The Winter Soldier), Frank Grillo (Crossbones), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) and Daniel Bruhl. Meanwhile, Renner was also asked about the possibility of Hawkeye heading up his own solo movie, responding that “those things are in the future…”
…Mark Millar, the writer behind the Civil War comic book series, shared a few thoughts on Marvel’s upcoming adaptation this week, and the impending introduction of Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: “They won’t have to change much, especially now they have Spider-Man. It’s funny though, people always keep saying to me that you can’t do Civil War without Spider-Man, but in the comics he’s only in 6 pages. What’s great about Spider-Man coming back, from someone who was baffled by the last two Spider-Man movies, is that this feels like Spider-Man coming home. It’s not like Marvel can do no wrong, I mean Thor: The Dark World wasn’t very good and Iron Man 2 wasn’t very good, they have their misfires. But Spider-Man is the holy grail for them. And all eyes are on them now…”
…If reports are to be believed, Sony has identified Drew Goddard as the man to write and direct the studio’s rebooted Spider-Man series, with rumours this week suggesting that he’s been brought in to pen The Spectacular Spider-Man for release in July 2017, having recently been attached to The Sinister Six spin-off movie. It’s claimed that the film will see Spider-Man already established that a “major part” of the story will see Spidey fighting Iron Man as an “audition” to join the Avengers, as well as the Sinister Six making an appearance in an effort to spin the villains off into their own movie at a later date. Listen to the thoughts of Luke Owen and Scott Davis on the reports in the latest Flickering Myth Podcast here…
…Having been one of the first names linked to the next incarnation of the wall-crawler, The Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien has denied reports highlighting him as a front-runner for the role, stating: “Professionally, I haven’t heard anything about it. I’ve only heard from, like, [rumors] online. It feels so weird to say. It’s so funny. My friends from New Jersey are calling me. They’re like, what are you not telling me, dude?! Spider-Man?! It makes me feel bad because I’m, like, disappointing a big chunk of fans across the nation. You can tell them that it’s not true. It’s never something I would want to get myself excited about, since I know I haven’t heard about it from a professional standpoint. I’ve always wanted to play Peter Parker, obviously. I feel like any actor my age, that’s, like, a big thing. And my name being tossed with Logan Lerman’s is the coolest thing ever, too. I just think that kid is fantastic. It’s really just, you know, I guess I’ll see if I even hear about it? But thank you, Internet, for giving me false hope…”
…With the Ant-Man trailer seeming to suggest a more serious tone than initially expected for Marvel’s second movie of 2015, actor Bobby Cannavale – who plays the character of Paxton – has spoken about the film, describing it as feeling “like a comedy” and comparing it to Guardians of the Galaxy: “It’s pretty funny. haven’t seen anything but it felt funny. It’s Paul, so I think they’re not hiring Paul Rudd to be The Winter Soldier. It’s going to have a sense of levity to it, like Guardians of the Galaxy. Guardians is a blue chips superhero movie but it’s a pretty funny film. They just got the right people. When I looked around and saw who I was surrounded by, Corey Stoll, actors I’ve seen for years in little movies that I really liked, it just felt like I belong here. That was a really cool experience because as big as that movie is, and as really as big a production as that was, the actual work in the scenes were really fun. It felt like we were on an indie film. Rudd’s one of my oldest friends so most of our scenes are together, me and Paul and Judy Greer. Both those actors are really good improvisers. Adam McKay and Paul did a big rewrite on that script, so the scenes themselves felt like an indie film. It really felt like a comedy that we were doing. I think that probably happened because Guardians of the Galaxy was such a success. So it didn’t feel like I was working on a really serious superhero movie. It didn’t feel like Thor or something…”
…With Phase Three’s Thor: Ragnarok in need of a director, Kenneth Branagh was asked if he had any interest in returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe during a promotional interview for the release of his new film Cinderella: “Yeah, I mean what I found was that I just enjoyed the process of working with those people and I loved the boys and the girl. The girls as well. It was great. So that was fun. But it was a long time and they were way too quick for me to get straight back into another single sort of story in terms of working on it at that time, so who knows. Who knows. It was a pleasurable experience and a film I’m very proud of and one I was very lucky to be able to make and did me a lot of good from which I learned an incredible amount, so I’m very grateful to them…”
…Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returned from its midseason break this past Tuesday with the eleventh episode of its second season, ‘Aftershocks’, but despite the big midseason finale cliffhanger and the new Inhuman plotline the show could only pull in a 1.6 rating, down .1 from its season two average. You can read our review of the episode here, and be sure to check out a promo, poster and images for this coming Tuesday’s episode ‘Who You Really Are’ (which features a guest appearance from Jaimie Alexander’s Lady Sif), as well as comments from Clark Gregg on the introduction of the Inhumans and his excitement for Avengers: Age of Ultron here…
…There’s a little over a month to go before Marvel’s first Netflix series lands, and this week has brought us some new images from Daredevil including shots of The Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofio), Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), Night Nurse (Rosario Dawson) and Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) [see here and here], as well as some details about the secondary villains in the show, including Melvin Potter (The Gladiator) and Leland Owsley (The Owl) which you can read about here…
…Looking further ahead of Marvel’s Netflix slate and Mike Colter has spoken about his upcoming role as Power Man in A.K.A. Jessica Jones and the subsequent Luke Cage series: “It’s geared towards an adult audience, which is something that will be different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe that you’ve seen before on the big screen. I’m excited about playing the character because I’ve read the comic books. They’re very detailed, gritty; the world they’ve written in the comic books is very clear. Marvel does a fantastic job about bringing human stories – because you’re telling big stories with a heart at the centre of it – and that’s what connects all of the characters to our audience members. Audience members have to feel connected with these characters, to make them relate to the character’s situations and that’s what you see with all of the Marvel characters… What I’m most excited about is touching on what makes him tick. It feels good to get a character that has such a story, background, and history. And when I look at the scripts, I’m really pleased with it because it’s a slow-burn; there’s nothing happening really fast that gets ahead of itself. I’m really with where they’re taking it and how they’re developing the characters, because it’s really cool. We have a more gritty, focused story on our heroes and characters that live in New York City, but it’s geared towards a more adult audience and I think that’s the thing about the series that will be different…”
…Click below to continue on for Wolverine, Deadpool, Suicide Squad, Green Lantern, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Lucifer and more…
