…We’re just a few days away now from the arrival of the third superhero movie of 2014 as Bryan Singer brings together the casts of the original X-Men trilogy and X-Men: First Class for the time-travelling mutant epic X-Men: Days of Future Past. Here’s what Flickering Myth’s Thomas Harris made of the hotly-anticipated sequel: “Returning director Bryan Singer throws all to the wall, and although not everything sticks, he succeeds in an unprecedented manner that by all accounts will please the fanboys and newcomers alike… Very possibly the strongest, most compelling X-Men film to date.” You can read Thomas’ spoiler-free ★★★★ review of X-Men: Days of Future Past here…
…Naturally there’s been a flood of promotional material for X-Men: Days of Future Past this week, including red carpet highlights from the UK premiere [see here], along with new ‘Power Piece’ featurettes for Professor X (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Storm (Halle Berry) and Blink (Fan Bingbing), an ‘Extinction’ featurette, and two clips that see Fassbender’s Magneto demonstrating his power and Wolverine’s (Hugh Jackman) first meeting with the young Charles Xavier; you can wade through them here, here, here and here…
…A few weeks back Hugh Jackman seemed to suggest that he’d be looking to hang up the claws after X-Men: Apocalypse and the third Wolverine movie, but judging from the latest comments from the star he might not be quite ready to call time on his signature role: “It’d be great to leave people wanting more, rather than the other way around. It’d also be great to make the decision rather than getting that phone call, ‘Now listen Hugh, I know you thought you were going to [keep going], and thank you so much for all you’ve done, but…’ I think it would be much better to be making that decision together… For me there has to be something new and some new direction, I suppose, for the character to go; not only for me, but for the audiences. And I feel that that’s been happening. Right now I don’t [want to let it go], and as long as it keeps going this direction I probably won’t (smiles). But I’ve made that promise to you, it’s not something I will stick around at and stay at if I feel it’s dropping off or if I don’t feel that urge to go and do it, because I know there’s 10 million actors out there who would kill themselves to play the part.” You can read more from Jackman about his future as Logan here, including whether he thinks Fox will choose to recast the role or reboot the character when he does finally call it a day…
…During a promotional interview for the X-Men X-Perience Global Tour, producer Lauren Shuler Donner has confirmed that Fox still has ambitions for Deadpool and X-Force, as well as confirming that Channing Tatum is set to play the cajun card-throwing mutant Gambit: ““Deadpool, Yes! X-Force is fascinating. We love X-Force, it allows us to be a little grittier. And also Gambit. [Gambit] is Channing, yes. He’s a rogue. He’s a rascal, just like Remy LeBeau. And he can handle the action, we know that. And he has a good heart. He’s a Southerner too! He’s not from New Orleans but he’s a Southerner and he knows that world.” According to reports, Tatum’s Gambit will
…Over the past year or so we’ve heard plenty of talk that Fox will look to try and replicate the success of Marvel Studios by crafting a shared Marvel universe featuring X-Men and the upcoming reboot of The Fantastic Four; however, writer-producer Simon Kinberg has now suggested that might not be the case after all, stating that: “Well, it’s complicated. Because none of the X-Men movies have acknowledged the notion of a sort of superhero team — the Fantastic Four. And the Fantastic Four acquire powers, so for them to live in a world where mutants are prevalent is kind of complicated, because you’re like, ‘Oh, you’re just a mutant.’ Like, ‘What’s so fantastic about you?’ No, it is, they live in discrete universes…”
…Things having been pretty quiet on the Marvel Cinematic Universe front recently, but of course we can always count on the big rumour sites to liven things up, and this past week was no exception, bringing word / speculation / guesswork suggesting that Zac Efron is being lined up for an unspecified role in the MCU, and apparently already has a script in hand. If there’s a shred of truth to this and the Neighbors star does have a script, you’d have to imagine the role in question to be either Doctor Strange (too young?) or Daredevil (too TV?), unless a) he’s in the frame for a supporting role in Ant-Man, or b) there’s a Marvel movie on the horizon that we’ve got absolutely no idea about. Or, for the cynics, there’s also the possibility of c) he’s hot right now off the back of Neighbors, so sticking the words ‘Zac Efron’ and ‘Marvel’ in a headline is going to attract plenty of interest…
…MCU fans do have something to look forward to this coming week with the second trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy set to arrive on Monday; to build anticipation, Marvel has released a 25-second tease of the second trailer for the cosmic superhero ensemble [watch it here], along with a new poster and trio of behind-the-scenes images [see here], while we’ve also got official character descriptions for Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (Vin Diesel), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), Yondu (Michael Rooker), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Korath (Djimon Hounsou), Rhomann Dey (John C. Reilly), Nova Prime (Glenn Close) and The Collector (Benicio del Toro), which you can read here…
…During a promotional interview for Godzilla, Elizabeth Olsen has spoken about her character Scarlet Witch in the currently-in-production Avengers: Age of Ultron, stating that: “My character is incredible and absolutely out of her mind. [She’s] incredibly passionate and thinks she’s in control more than she actually is. She’s stubborn and an epic woman who has not been created by a human yet. So it’s really fun to be a part of that and try and honour fans… I’m laughing all the time. The crazy thing is that it’s like, ‘I’m throwing sh*t with my hands, that’s cuckoo!’ But it’s also like, ‘We’re saving lives. And it’s very serious.’ There’s always that reminder that it’s very serious…”
…Meanwhile, Mark Ruffalo has also offered up a few words on his return as the Hulk in the Joss Whedon-directed sequel: “It’s been pretty wild [getting those dots back on my face for Hulk]. The technology is really advanced, so we can do a lot more with the Hulk performance in particular than we could last time around. So I’m really excited about the stuff we’re doing right now with him and I feel like he’s got some really nice nuance stuff; kind of his own little arc(s?). The [Bruce] Banner stuff is great. Joss Whedon topped himself. It’s such a great, beautifully written script and really exciting and fun…”
…On the small screen, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired its season finale this past Tuesday [read Anghus Houvouras’ review here], and with the second season confirmed alongside Agent Carter, ABC and Marvel have started building towards the arrival of the Hayley Atwell-headlined series by releasing the official logo for the Marvel One-Shot spin-off, while Atwell herself has revealed that the period series is set for eight episodes, as well as discussing the attraction of returning to the character of Peggy Carter for the show [read her comments here]. Meanwhile, Flickering Myth’s Matt Spencer-Skeen has put together an op-ed entitled ‘Five Characters We’d Like to See in Marvel’s Agent Carter TV Series’, which you can read here…
…Of course, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter aren’t the only Marvel TV shows on the horizon, and with the first of Netflix’s five Defenders miniseries set to begin production this July, Joe Quesada has spoken about Daredevil, and how the Netflix approach of releasing the entire series at once has informed their plans for the Man Without Fear: “We’re going into the show trying to create something that’s incredibly exciting, incredibly engaging, and will give our fans something that they love, something that’s unexpected, something that’s going to keep them coming back for more. That’s really, ultimately, the goal of this: How do we produce a Daredevil TV show on Netflix, that’s going to be viewed the way that people view content on Netflix, in a way that’s going to be compelling, feels unique, while bringing something that is not only true to the character, but providing something unexpected as well? One of the advantages is really from the planning stage — obviously it’s much easier to work with a smaller number of episodes than it is with a larger number of episodes. We can sit there and look at 13 episodes and plan it out as a very large movie. It makes seeing the bigger picture a little bit easier.” Read more from Quesada here…
…Guardians of the Galaxy isn’t the only Marvel-related trailer we’ll be getting next week, with Thursday set to bring us the first teaser for Disney’s animated feature Big Hero 6. The film features the voice talents of T.J. Miller (Transformers: Age of Extinction), Jamie Chung (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) and Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) and tells the story of “brilliant robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada, who finds himself in the grips of a criminal plot that threatens to destroy the fast-paced, high-tech city of San Fransokyo. With the help of his closest companion—a robot named Baymax—Hiro joins forces with a reluctant team of first-time crime fighters on a mission to save their city.” The film itself is due for release in the States on November 7th…
…With Godzilla stomping into cinemas this weekend and X-Men: Days of Future Past incoming, Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 looks set to begin its fall down the box office charts, with the Marc Webb-directed sequel expected to finish up the weekend with around $600 million across the globe. That’s still some $150 million short of its predecessor, and while the film is performing strongly in several international markets (including China, where Godzilla doesn’t open until next month), it’s looking likely that it’s going to end up as the lowest-grossing instalment of the Spider-Man franchise, although it may have a chance of overtaking Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s $700 million…
…And finally, NBC has unveiled a new synopsis for the upcoming Heroes reboot Heroes Reborn, although in all honesty doesn’t really give anything away about the revived series: “The saga behind the 2006 breakout series Heroes will continue as creator Tim Kring returns to the fold and develops new layers to his original superhero concept. This highly anticipated 13-episode miniseries will reconnect with the basic elements of the show’s first season where ordinary people were waking up to the fact that they had extraordinary abilities. This series will be preceded by a new digital series that will introduce audiences to the new characters and storylines that will take the Heroes phenomenon to new places.”
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
