In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Doctor Strange, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers 4, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Blade, Iron Fist, The Punisher, The Defenders, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Ghost Rider, Avengers: Secret Wars, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell, Logan, X-Men: Apocalypse, Legion, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Arrow, Gotham, Krypton, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, Incognito and more….
With a little over a week to go until the UK release of Doctor Strange, Marvel has been releasing more promotional material for the Phase Three origin story, including a new promotional image of Benedict Cumberbatch as the Sorcerer Supreme [see here], a pair of backlight posters and a rather psychedelic still [see here], and a new TV spot and featurette entitled ‘Universes Within’ [watch them here]. Flickering Myth’s Emma Withington was lucky enough to be invited to preview 15 minutes of footage at an IMAX event, and you can read her report here (with minor spoilers), while the first box office tracking reports also surfaced, suggesting that the film is looking at a domestic opening weekend of between $55 million and $75 million, although that’s likely to increase based upon word of mouth…
…Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige spoke briefly about Avengers: Infinity War and the Untitled Avengers this week, stating that: “There’s a reason we have publicly called the first one Infinity War and the second one Untitled, because the movies we were developing were not — certainly there’s a connection, there are with all our movies — but it’s not a first part and a second part. It’s a whole movie and a whole story, and then a whole movie and a whole story. That’s about all I can say. It’s certainly inspired by everything that has come before and everything that is hinted at before. We will be intercutting a lot of stories in [Infinity War] in a lot of different locales, as it sort of is in the Avengers movies as well; who is facing off against who. In this movie, it’s going to be fun to mix that up. One of the things that’s great about the Infinity Gauntlet is everybody tried to go up against Thanos whether they were god-like powers or not, because that’s what Avengers do. The fun about those two movies that we’re doing essentially at the same time is everybody’s there…”
…Not everyone will be there in Infinity War, as Evangeline Lilly has revealed that Hope Van Dyne won’t be turning up as The Wasp until the fourth Avengers movie, with the actress revealing that: “There’s an Avengers series coming out, its a two-parter. The Wasp won’t be in the first part, she’ll be in the second part, because they really want to preserve that reveal for Ant-Man And The Wasp…”
…Following Ant-Man and the Wasp, Marvel will be releasing its first female-led superhero movie in Captain Marvel, and as well as confirming that it will “absolutely” be an origin story, Kevin Feige has discussed the search for a director and the introduction of Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers into the MCU: “With all of our movies, we want them to be different, we want them to find the new voices. I think the fun thing is we’re meeting so many great directors that we’ll bring one of them onto Captain Marvel, but we have future things to come [for the others]. We’re trying to get a little more of the story set before we bring a filmmaker on so we can talk about the story with the filmmaker before we bring them on. What is one of the coolest things about it is she will be by far the most powerful character we’ve ever introduced in the movie. ‘How do you find those limitations? How do you find those vulnerabilities?’ is something that is sort of at the crux of the story that we’re putting together. She has — as you know from the comics — an interesting story, and I think we have a very cool and unique way of telling that story. I don’t think it’s leaked yet exactly what we’re doing with her movie or how we’re doing it, but it will be cool. She will prove to be a very important character in our universe for all the movies…”
…There’s been a lot of demand from fans for a Black Widow movie, and while it’s yet to hit Marvel’s slate, Scarlett Johansson has revealed that she has regular discussions with the studio about that very possibility: “I talk to them about it often. It would have to fit in the idea of where they want to go. I’m invested in that character. Marvel is greatly invested in that character. If I did it, I’d have to do it while. I still actually wanted to wear a skin-tight catsuit. I don’t know how much longer that’s going to be. I would like for it to happen under the right circumstances. I think there’s a lot of opportunity to mine that story line. She’s got a really rich origins story. There’s a lot of places you can go — you can bring it back to Russia. You could explore the Widow program. There’s all kinds of stuff that you could do with it. You could really uncover the identity of who this person is, where she comes from and where she’s part of.” Johansson went on to discuss the possibilities for the storyline, and you can read the rest of her comments here…
…We saw a low-res version of this a few months back, but illustrator Andy Park has officially released a piece of concept art from Captain America: Civil War featuring a comic-accurate design for Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo; check it out here…
…With Marvel and Sony relaunching the Spider-Man franchise next year with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sony boss Tom Rothman has confirmed that the studio is looking to move forward with its plans for Spidey spinoffs: “We’re working on a lot of that stuff. There’s a concerted effort, so I think there will be real news as opposed to speculated news before too long. We wrapped filming the new Spider-Man about a week ago. There’s a little pick-up shooting being done now but [it’s] pretty much done. It’s fantastic… we’re really excited about it…”
…During New York Comic Con, Underworld star Kate Beckinsale revealed that they’d contacted Marvel with regards to a potential crossover featuring Selene and Blade, only for Marvel to reject the idea as they have plans for the Daywalker. Well, Kevin Feige confirmed that is the case, although it seems there’s no rush to introduce Blade into the MCU: “They did ask a long time ago and I think our answer was, ‘No, we’ll do something with Blade at some point.’ That’s still the answer. We still think he’s a great character. He’s a really fun character. We think [Doctor Strange] going into a different side of the universe would have the potential to have him pop up, but between the movies, the Netflix shows, the ABC shows there are so many opportunities for the character to pop up as you’re now seeing with Ghost Rider on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that rather than team up with another studio on that character let’s do something on our own. What that is? Where that will be? We’ll see. There is nothing imminent to my knowledge…”
…Marvel Television held its annual panel at the New York Comic Con this past Saturday, during which we got a brand new trailer for the next Netflix series Iron Fist [watch it here], as well as confirmation that Deborah Ann Woll will reprise her role as Karen Page alongside Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle in The Punisher series, and the news that Signourney Weaver will join Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, Mike Colter’s Luke Cage and Finn Jones’ Iron Fist as the main villain in The Defenders…
…The Complete First Season of Daredevil hit DVD and Blu-ray here in the UK earlier this month, and now Marvel has announced the North American home entertainment release for November 8th [you can order the box-set via Amazon US or Amazon UK]. Meanwhile, Flickering Myth’s Samuel Brace posted an op-ed entitled ‘Luke Cage: Things That Worked and Things That Didn’t’, which you can read here…
…Click below to continue on for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Ghost Rider, Avengers: Secret Wars, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell, Logan, X-Men: Apocalypse, Legion, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Arrow, Gotham, Krypton, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, Incognito and more…
