…Unlike Warner Bros., Fox chose not to release its Comic-Con footage for X-Men: Apocalypse despite it leaking online, but they did release the logo for the film, as well as the first official images, which includes shots of newcomers Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Jubilee (Lana Condor), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smith-McPhee) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) [see here and here], while Oscar Isaac and Olivia Munn both offered up a few words about their respective characters [see here]. The reaction towards Isaac’s Apocalypse was mixed at best, prompting Flickering Myth’s Luke Owen to come to his defense with an op-ed entitled ‘Oscar Isaac Doesn’t Look Like Apocalypse – And It Doesn’t Matter’ [see here]…
…In other X-Men news, Bryan Singer has teased a more classic look for the X-Men costumes in Apocalypse, as well as confirming that Josh Helman will reprise his role as William Stryker from X-Men: Days of Future Past, while Jennifer Lawrence has hinted that she’s open to reprising the role of Mystique once her contract runs out after the 2016 release: “I told Fox not to not ask me [if I’d come back]. I ” kind of want to bait them with a text and then when they call me, I go, ‘Don’t call me!’ and then hang up. I don’t know. I love doing these movies. I want them to ask me, and then I’m just going to see how I feel in the moment when they ask. It might not make a lot of sense to a lot of people, but I feel like I’ll know when they ask. If I get a pit in my stomach and feel like I’m going to throw up, I’ll say no. And if I don’t, I’ll ask how much they want to pay me…”
…During a press interview at Comic-Con, Deadpool stars Ed Skrein (Game of Thrones) and Gina Carano (Fast & Furious 6) offered some insight into their villainous characters Ajax and Angel Dust and their ties to the Weapon X program in the upcoming X-Men spinoff, and you can read their comments here. Meanwhile, Ryan Reynolds also expressed his interest in reprising the role of Deadpool for the proposed X-Force movie (which seems to have fallen on the back burner at Fox): “I always see Deadpool running against the grain for everything he does. He can’t possibly conform to any sort of leadership role. He always has to be the wild card. So you’d have to have someone like Cable running point on a team like X-Force. I’d love for that to be a next step that we take…”
…As with the stars of the DC universe, Fox’s various Marvel superheroes all teamed up for a special Comic-Con photoshoot, which featured Jamie Bell (The Thing), Miles Teller (Mister Fantastic), Michael B. Jordan (Johnny Storm), Kate Mara (Sue Storm), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Oscar Isaac (Apocalypse), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Olivia Munn (Psylocke), James McAvoy (Professor X), Evan Peters (Quicksilver), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and Channing Tatum (Gambit). Take a look at the photo here…
…Turning to the DC Movie Universe now and following its debut at Comic-Con, a glorious 2K resolution version of the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer has arrived online, which you can watch here, while we also got an condensed IMAX version of the trailer [see here] and a new image of Ben Affleck’s Batman in his alternative desert Batsuit. Meanwhile, the folks at CinemaSins turned their attention to the trailer for their latest video ‘Everything Wrong With the Batman v Superman Comic-Con Trailer’ [see here], a fan edit popped up online which merges Bruce Wayne’s scenes into the Battle of Metropolis showdown between Superman (Henry Cavill) and General Zod (Michael Shannon) from Man of Steel [watch it here], and Flickering Myth’s Anghus Houvouras posted an op-ed entitled ‘R.I.P. Robin: No Room For The Boy Wonder in Batman v Superman’, which you can read here…
…Faced with a never-ending stream of videos featuring the leaked trailer, Warner Bros. relented this week and officially released the Comic-Con footage for the supervillain ensemble Suicide Squad, which you can watch (again) right here. Speaking about the decision, the studio’s President of Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution Sue Kroll said: “Warner Bros. Pictures and our anti-piracy team have worked tirelessly over the last 48 hours to contain the Suicide Squad footage that was pirated from Hall H on Saturday. We have been unable to achieve that goal. Today we will release the same footage that has been illegally circulating on the web, in the form it was created and high quality with which it was intended to be enjoyed. We regret this decision as it was our intention to keep the footage as a unique experience for the Comic Con crowd, but we cannot continue to allow the film to be represented by the poor quality of the pirated footage stolen from our presentation.
…Following their Hall H appearances, the casts of Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad paired up for a DC Movie Universe photoshoot, which inlcuded Henry Cavill (Superman), Holly Hunter (Senator Finch), Jeremy Irons (Alfred Pennyworth), Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Ben Affleck (Batman) and director Zack Snyder, while the Suicide Squad section includes Adam Beach (Slipknot), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Killer Croc), Jay Hernandez (El Diablo), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flagg), Karen Fukuhara (Katana), Will Smith (Deadshot), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Cara Delevingne (Enchantress) and director David Ayer. Check the image out here…
…Although he was absent from Warner’s Comic-Con presentation (despite some concept art for his character), Ezra Miller has been speaking about his role as The Flash, as well as singing the praises of the TV show: “Barry Allen is the hero of the Silver Age, who follows a lot of really interesting discoveries in physics. It’s like, where he comes from, we’ve figured out the event horizon was there, and then he was the character that was created through our mythos machine of comic books to break that event horizon so we could explore in fantasy. I think that’s an interesting idea – and also what the fuck does that do to someone?“ I think [the TV series is] awesome! Come on, we’re The Flash! It’s parallel universes! Grant Gustin is The Flash and I’m The Flash – don’t you see? It’s the Event Horizon, we crossed it baby! Grant and I are chilling. We’re gonna have a race – it’s gonna be dope! Like Jay Garrick and Barry Allen back in the day…”
…This week brought us a brand new look at Nicolas Cage as he would have appeared as the Man of Steel in Tim Burton’s aborted 90s effort Superman Lives, thanks to the official Twitter account for the documentary The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?. Take a look at the images Cage’s Kal-El right here…
…Inspired by The Death of Superman Lives, Purberry Productions are looking to produce a documentary exploring another of Warner’s abandoned DC projects in George Miller’s Justice League Mortal, and you can take a look at three posters for the potential film featuring Superman, Batman and Green Lantern here…
…Moving on to the small screen now and showrunner Bruno Heller has been speaking about expanding the roster of Batman characters for the second season of Gotham: “We thought long and hard about [new villains]. There’s so many characters that don’t have an origin story, so it’s not just a question of going back to an origin story, but its who fits in this realistic world? They have to have both feet on the ground. So they have to fit in stylistically. But we found the Mr. Freeze story be quite emotional. That’s one we’re going to look at. Hugo Strange is another interesting character we’re going to look at, as is the Calendar Man. And Azrael is another character that we’re starting at very early stage for. And Tigress as well…”
…Gotham has added one new character to its cast this week, with The Goldbergs’ Natalie Alyn Lind set to play Bruce Wayne’s new love-interest Silver St. Cloud, who is described as “an ethereal beauty with the pristine manners of a Gotham debutante. Add in the fact that she lost her parents at a young age, and it’s understandable why she and Bruce end up drawn to each other. And as Bruce’s friend — and love interest — Silver introduces Bruce to her uncle Theo Galavan [James Frain], who just so happens to be a billionaire philanthropist who’s running for Mayor. Needless to say, Bruce finds a father figure in Theo, but as for Silver, well, she’s described as having a heart beating with dark intent. In other words, she’s probably not someone Bruce wants to fall for…”
…The CW’s The Flash has also added a couple of new characters today, with Michael Ironside (Total Recall, Smallville) set to play Lewis Snart, the father of Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) and Lisa Snart/Golden Glider (Peyton List), and some new set photos emerging which shows that former WWE star Edge (a.k.a. Adam Copeland) is shooting scenes as a villainous Atom-Smasher. You can see the set photos here, which also includes a few shots of the citizens of Central City celebrating ‘Flash Day’…
…The Flash’s sister show Arrow has also fleshed out its cast with a couple of new villains for season four, with Echo Kellum (Ben and Kate) set to play Curtis Holt / Mr. Terrific, and Alexander Calvert (Bates Motel) nabbing the role of Anarky…
…NBC’s Constantine might be dead, but we may not have seen the last of Matt Ryan’s supernatural detective as Arrow producer Wendy Mericle has revealed that there’s been talks with DC about Ryan’s John Constantine guest-starring in the fourth season of The CW show: “We really want to do it. It’s something we’ve been talking to DC about and it’s just a question of some political things, but also the actor’s schedule. We’re trying to work it out, but we don’t know 100 percent if it’s going to happen. [We’re] really optimistic and we would love to have him…”
…Over at CBS and as Supergirl gears up for its October premiere this week has brought us some new promotional cast photos featuring Melissa Benoist (Whiplash) as Kara Zor-El alongside Mechad Brooks (Necessary Roughness) as Jimmy Olsen, Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) as Cat Grant, Chyler Leigh (Grey’s Anatomy) as Alex Danvers and Jeremy Jordan (The Last Five Years) as Winslow Schott…
…On the DC animated front and ahead of its home-entertainment release later this month, we’ve got an exclusive interview with Justice League: Gods and Monsters director Sam Liu, writer Alan Burnett and voice actors Paget Brewster (Lois Lane) and Tamara Taylor (Wonder Woman), which you can read here…
…At the San Diego Comic-Con, Warner Bros. announced three new animated movies in Justice League vs. Titans, Batman: The Killing Joke and Batman: Bad Blood, and this week has brought us some casting news on the latter, with Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter) set to voice Batwoman, Gaius Charles (Grey’s Anatomy) as Batwing and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) as Lucius Fox. The trio will join ason O’Mara (Batman), Stuart Allen (Robin), Sean Maher (Nightwing) and Morena Baccarin (Talia al Ghul) in the follow up to Son of Batman and Batman vs. Robin…
…Will Arnett’s Dark Knight has also found his sidekick for The LEGO Batman Movie, with Michael Cera (Superbad) set to lend his voice to Robin in the 2017 spinoff to The LEGO Movie…
…And finally, Flickering Myth TV has posted a couple of superhero-related video features this week: ‘The DC Movie-verse: Everything We Know So Far (For Sure)’ [watch it here] and ‘The Big Debate: DC or Marvel – Who’s Doing Movies Better? [watch it here].
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.
