Our weekly round up of all the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America 3, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Fantastic Four, Batman vs. Superman, Arrow, Gotham, Son of Batman, Batman Beyond, Teen Titans Go! and more…
Captain America: The Winter Soldier may have lost its place at the top of the box office charts, but the Chris Evans’ headlined solo sequel has helped reach a landmark for the Marvel Cinematic Universe this week; with the film crossing the $600 million mark around the globe, Marvel Studios’ blockbuster superhero franchise has now overtaken the James Bond series to become the second-highest grossing movie franchise of all time. With nine movies to date, the MCU has banked almost $6.3 billion globally, and will surely overtake the $7.709 billion record held by Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter franchise by the time that Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron have graced our screens…
…That brings us nicely to the hotly-anticipated Phase Two sequel and with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes reassembling for principal photography under director Joss Whedon at Shepperton Studios, both Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo have been having a little fun posting behind-the-scenes images on Twitter, while Lou Ferrigno has confirmed that he’ll be back to lend his voice to The Incredible Hulk, and Whedon himself has offered up a few words about the film, specifically expanding the cast of the follow up to his 2012 mega-blockbuster: “I fiercely dislike the idea of just throwing in more people for the sake of doing that, but last time I had all of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes versus one British character actor, and I needed more conflict… I’m having a blast with Ultron. He’s not a creature of logic – he’s a robot who’s genuinely disturbed. We’re finding out what makes him menacing and at the same time endearing and funny and strange and unexpected, and everything a robot never is…”
…In other Avengers sequel news, it’s been revealed that UK fans will get to see Age of Ultron a week earlier than our friends across the Pond, with the film set to land on these shores on April 24th 2015, as opposed to its North American date of May 1st 2015…
…Joss Whedon wasn’t the only person talking about Age of Ultron this past week, with Marvel chief Kevin Feige discussing not only the climactic Phase Two offering, but also Guardians of the Galaxy (in brief: Thanos has been cast), Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man, the yet-to-be-officially announced Doctor Strange being the doorway to the supernatural side of the Phase Two universe, and on Marvel’s decision not to back down from Batman vs. Superman with 2016’s Captain America 3. Read what he had to say here…
…Despite the fighting talk from Kevin Feige, Disney chief Alan Horn sounded less confident about the showdown between Captain America and the World’s Finest, with Horn quoted as stating ““we’ll see, we’re struggling with it” when asked whether the third Cap movie will stand its ground against Warner Bros.’ Man of Steel sequel…
…In other MCU news, two new images from Guardians of the Galaxy have been released this week, both of which give us another look at Chris Pratt (The LEGO Movie) as Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, both with and without his mask. Check them out here…
…As Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. edges towards its season finale (and renewal or the dreaded cancellation), ABC has dropped a promo and poster for Tuesday’s 20th episode ‘Nothing Personal’, which sees the return of J. August Richards’ Deathlok, as well as another guest appearance from Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill. Meanwhile, we’ve also got a batch of images from the penultimate episode of the season ‘Ragtag’, and of course, if you haven’t already be sure to take a look at Anghus Houvouras’ review of this week’s episode ‘The Only Light in the Darkness’, which you can read here…
…It doesn’t arrive in North American cinemas until this Friday, but Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has got off to a strong start internationally, with the Spidey sequel enjoying a solid opening last weekend with $47 million from 14 territories, including £9 million from the UK – the biggest debut of the year so far on these shores. By the time the film reaches the States (where it’s tracking a $95 million opening), it will have already opened in most markets, so by this time next weekend we should have a pretty good idea of whether it’s likely to put up a challenge to The Winter Soldier’s box office before it faces more superhero competition from X-Men: Days of Future Past. For those of you yet to have a chance to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 yet, you may want to check out a new clip and TV spot here, although you’ll probably want to avoid Marc Webb discussing a pretty major spoiler about the sequel…
…Sticking with Webb for a moment, and the director has teased the possibility of Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson making his debut in Sony’s rebooted Spider-Man universe in the next sequel, 2016’s The Amazing Spider-Man 3: “I like the idea very much of him coming up in the next film. It was more easy to accept a new Spider-Man than someone who could out do J.K. Simmons in that role. He is so iconic. That’s something we’ve really talked about. Obviously I love that character because he poses such an interesting dilemma for Spider-Man. The answer is I don’t know but I think you can expect to see him in the future…”
Continue on to the next page for X-Men: Days of Future Past, Deadpool, The Fantastic Four, Batman vs. Superman, Arrow, Gotham, Son of Batman, Batman Beyond and Teen Titans Go!…
