Our weekly round-up of the latest news and talking points from the world of screen superheroes, including Spider-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Gotham, The Flash, Constantine, Justice League: Throne of Atlantis and more…
Well, here we are, the final Week in Spandex before Christmas (Happy Holidays to all, by the way!), and despite taking a sinister turn with terror threats against moviegoers, the hack into Sony has delivered an early Christmas present to Marvel fans by giving us hope that Spider-Man may one day line up alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and company as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After leaked emails from a couple of weeks ago revealed Marvel’s approach for the character for Captain America: Civil War (not to mention the Russo brothers’ involvement with Avengers: Infinity War), this week has brought more information about Sony’s plans – or rather, complete lack of plans – for the wall-crawler (not to mention a rumour from a rather dubious source alleging that the two studios are set to reopen negotiations in the New Year)…
…So, the latest leaked emails from Sony give us some insight into how Spider-Man would have been used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Tony Stark recruiting him in Civil War (and giving him his suit), which would then have led to a rebooted, solo Spider-Man movie from Sony that wouldn’t continue the Civil War plot, but would exist in the same world, with superheroes split into two factions. From here, Spidey would return to the MCU for Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 and Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2, with a second solo movie then released in 2019. Meanwhile, another email from Jeff Robinov to Amy Pascal presented an 8-page outline of how Sony could reboot Spider-Man, potentially using the classic story arc Kraven’s Last Hunt as its inspiration, along with a wishlist of directors that included Brad Bird (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (Frozen), Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), Glenn Ficarra & John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love), James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), Don Hall & Chris Williams (Big Hero 6), Phil Lord & Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie), Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg (Kon-Tiki), Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World), Edgar Wright (The World’s End) and David Yates (Harry Potter)…
…If you were hoping to see Spider-Ham making an appearance in Sony’s Spider-Man franchise then I’m afraid you’re out of luck, as it has been revealed that Peter Porker is one of a number of Spidey-related characters “frozen” by Marvel, and unavailable to the studio. Marvel also rejected an approach from Sony to use the character of Bag-Man (a.k.a. Peter Parker with a paper bag on his head), while Sony didn’t want minor characters such as Mother Inferior, Agent 003 and The Black Abbot. They did however want Santa Claus Burglar, a burglar who made a solitary comic book appearance back in the 1980s, and was on a “disputed characters list” dating back to 2011. Meanwhile, another leaked email has surfaced from President of Marvel Entertainment Alan Fine, during which he rips into The Amazing Spider-Man 2, criticising the story from top to bottom and saying he felt like burning the script. Read it here…
…Moving on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Hot Toys has given us a look at its collectible Avengers: Age of Ultron figurines from Toy Soul 2014 (where a 3-metre tall Hulkbuster is on display) including the Iron Man Mark XLIII suit [see here and here], while director Joss Whedon has spoken in depth about the hotly-anticipated sequel, covering everything from introducing new characters such as The Vision (Paul Bettany), Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Ultron (James Spader), whether Quicksilver’s appearance in X-Men: Days of Future Past forced him to change his approach, and how the movie is bigger than its 2012 predecessor. Read Whedon’s comments here…
…Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have been spreading a little festive cheer this week, with YouTuber James Covenant editing together footage from the various Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to create a video of The Avengers and friends signing a medley of Christmas carols; check it out here, and stick around until the end to see Groot’s rendition of Jingle Bells…
…During a promotional interview for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Evangeline Lilly has shared some more praise for Ant-Man director Peyton Reed, who stepped in as a late replacement for fan favourite Edgar Wright: “He was a delight. He actually in some ways reminded me a bit of Peter [Jackson]. He had a fantastic sense of humour, was extremely immersed in the comic world all his life, is a big fan-boy but also extremely strong in his vision. He knew what he needed, and he knew if we had it or if we didn’t have it, and it’s such a huge luxury as an actor to know that your director really knows what he wants. He knows when he’s got it and he knows when to move on. I feel like we’re in really good hands…”
…As well as letting us know one person who definitely won’t be Star-Lord’s father in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, James Gunn has been speaking about the challenges of bringing the Guardians to the screen in this year’s space opera, and specifically the scene he found most difficult to write: “There’s pressure with Thanos because you’re setting up this gigantic character that, in one way, isn’t really a part of your movie,” states Gunn. “His presence doesn’t really serve being in Guardians, and having Thanos be in that scene was more helpful to the Marvel Universe than it was to Guardians of the Galaxy. I always wanted to have Thanos in there, but from a structural standpoint, you don’t need him. So that’s part of it, and then part of it is the fact that you’re setting up this incredibly powerful character, but you don’t want to belittle the actual antagonist of the film, which is Ronan. You don’t want him to seem like a big wussy. So how do you make that work?” Read on for the rest of Gunn’s comments here…
…Rodney Fuentebella, senior concept illustrator for Marvel Studios, has released some of his work for both Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, including alternative designs for Yondu (Michael Rooker), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie), which you can see right here…
…And on the subject of The Winter Soldier, Frank Grillo has been talking about his character Brock Rumlow, a.k.a. Crossbones, and how he could take on any of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including The Hulk: “He is not good and not bad, Crossbones. He’s just a guy who’s defending his ideology, and he’s a badass. He has no super powers. He’s a mercenary. Here’s the deal about Crossbones. The Hulk is just a big thug who comes at you. He comes out swinging. Crossbones is much smarter than that. Plus, he’s got weapons. The Hulk has no weapons. He’s an idiot. And he’s green. Crossbones doesn’t lose to people who are green. I’ll fight any of those guys. Any of them…”
…Shifting to the small screen and ahead of its January 5th premiere, a new poster has arrived online for ABC’s Hayley Atwell-headlined Agent Carter along with a batch of promo images from the two-hour premiere, Clark Gregg has seemingly teased a possible appearance from Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and a new image of Charlie Cox in prototype costume from Daredevil, which is set to land on Netflix in May…
…Click below to continue on to the second page for X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Gotham, The Flash, Justice League: Throne of Atlantis and more…
