In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Captain Marvel, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, The Fantastic Four, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Deadpool, Wolverine 3, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, LEGO Batman, The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?, Bloodshot, Harbinger and more…
Marvel kicked off the 2015 superhero season this past week as Avengers: Age of Ultron began rolling out in international markets, opening with $9.5 million on Wednesday and pushing its total by close of play on Thursday to $44.8 million, having claimed the top spot in each country where it’s showing. Here in the UK, the film outperformed both Iron Man 3 and The Avengers by 54% and 40% respectively with its opening on Thursday, and is expected to pull in anywhere between $160 and $200 million during its opening weekend.
Here’s an excerpt from Luke Owen’s ★★★★★ review:
“At the end of the day, any complaints aimed against Avengers: Age of Ultron are minor due to the fact the film is so awesomely fun. Every single action beat in the movie is breathtaking and will have all the hairs on the back of your neck standing to attention – the fight between Hulk and Iron Man is particularly exhilarating. Avengers: Age of Ultron is everything you could ask from a comic book movie and so much more. It’s action packed, it’s humorous and incredibly fun. This is why we have summer blockbuster movies, and few will come even close to Avengers: Age of Ultron this year. Brilliant from start to end, Avengers: Age of Ultron is absolutely awesome.”
For an alternative viewpoint, check out Rohan Morbey’s ★★ review here. Meanwhile, you can listen to the Flickering Myth Podcast review here, and we’ve also got photos and audio from the London press conference, premiere interviews with Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Paul Bettany (The Vision) and director Joss Whedon [see here], and a look at the life size LEGO Hulkbuster which was on display during the film’s London premiere [see here]. And of course you can also check out a selection of new TV spots, featurettes and clips here, here, here and here…
…Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans caused a bit of controversy on the press tour for Age of Ultron this week when they jokingly described Black Widow as a “slut” and a “whore”, prompting both stars to issue apologies…
…We already know that Joss Whedon is set to hand over the reins to The Avengers franchise for Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 and Part 2 to Captain America: The Winter Soldier helmers Anthony and Joe Russo, but if you were hoping Whedon might pick up another Phase Three project, then I’m afraid it looks like you may be out of luck, with the filmmaker stating during the Age of Ultron press conference that: “I don’t think I’ll ever get that far away from [Marvel]. I plan a rest – a longer rest – perhaps an eternal rest. I have no immediate plans…”
…Whedon also fielded a whole host of questions on various topics during the Avengers: Age of Ultron press tour this week, tackling topics such as Spider-Man’s upcoming debut in the MCU, the rumours of rights issues surrounded a solo Hulk movie and the prospect of a Planet Hulk adaptation, the “rivalry” between Marvel and DC, and which DC character he’d most like to tackle on the big screen. Oh, and he also spoke about Agent Coulson’s resurrection in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., saying that “As far as the fiction of the movies, Coulson is dead.” Read his full comments here…
…And Whedon also took a moment to address Edgar Wright’s original script for Marvel’s next offering Ant-Man, describing it as the best script the studio has ever had: “I don’t get it. I thought the script was not only the best script that Marvel had ever had, but the most Marvel script I’d read. I had no interest in Ant-Man. [Then] I read the script, and was like, Of course! This is so good! It reminded me of the books when I read them. Irreverent and funny and could make what was small large, and vice versa. I don’t know where things went wrong. But I was very sad. Because I thought, This is a no-brainer. This is Marvel getting it exactly right. Whatever dissonance that came, whatever it was, I don’t understand why it was bigger than a marriage that seemed so right. But I’m not going to say it was definitely all Marvel, or Edgar’s gone mad! I felt like they would complement each other by the ways that they were different. And, uh, somethin’ happened…”
…And in other Ant-Man news, Marvel followed up the recent trailer by debuting a motion poster featuring Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang, as well as the first clip, which sees Scott discovering the Ant-Man suit…
…Looking to next year’s Phase Three and Elizabeth Olsen has confirmed that she will reprise the role of Scarlet Witch in Captain America: Civil War, while it looks like Marvel and Sony may have narrowed their search for Peter Parker down to five actors, with reports this week suggesting that Timothee Chamalet (Interstellar), Nat Wolff (Paper Towns), Tom Holland (In the Heart of the Sea), Liam James (The Way Way Back) and Asa Butterfield (Hugo) are all in the frame to play the wall-crawler when he makes his first MCU appearance ahead of Sony’s solo movie in July 2017…
…And while we’re on the subject of Spidey, it has been confirmed that Jump Street and The LEGO Movie helmers Phil Lord and Chris Miller and writing and producing an animated Spider-Man movie, which is set to land on July 20th, 2018. Speaking at CinemaCon, Sony Chairman Tom Rothman stated that the animated feature will “co-exist” with the upcoming live-action reboot (and described it as “fucking awesome”), although the official press release said that the movie “will exist independently of the projects in the live-action Spider-Man universe…”
…Turning back to the MCU and James Gunn has debunked the report that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is going by the production title Guardians 3000, while Marvel has also given us our first look at the upcoming animated Guardians of the Galaxy series, releasing five shorts for the Disney XD series which introduces the five cosmic heroes; watch them here…
…Having been rumoured as in talks earlier in the month, Marvel has now officially confirmed that Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out) are set to write the script for the studio’s first female-led offering Captain Marvel. As yet, there’s no word on a potential star or director for the film, which is set to land on November 2nd 2018…
…On to the small screen, the first casting details for ABC’s planned Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff have surfaced, with Adrianne Palicki (Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird) and Nick Blood (Lance Hunter) in talks for lead roles in the project. Meanwhile, as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues its march to its season two finale, we’ve got a promo and poster for Tuesday’s upcoming episode ‘The Dirty Half Dozen’, and be sure to check out our review for the previous episode ‘The Frenemy of My Enemy’ here…
…Netflix has renewed Marvel’s Daredevil for a second season, which is set to arrive on the streaming service next year, albeit with a new showrunners in Doug Petrie (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Marco Ramirez (Sons of Anarchy). Meanwhile, Luke Owen caught up with Matt Murdock himself Charlie Cox this week to discuss the second season, the possibility of characters such as Elektra and Black Widow making appearances, and whether there’s been any talk of Daredevil joining The Avengers on the big screen [watch the interview here], and Cherokee Seebalack looked at the five best throwdons from the first season [see here]…
…Click below to continue on for The Fantastic Four, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Deadpool, Wolverine 3, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, LEGO Batman, The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?, Bloodshot, Harbinger and more…
