…Despite losing out on top spot at the U.S. box office last weekend to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy blasted its takings beyond the $300 million mark worldwide, and by close of play on Thursday evening the Phase Two release was sitting on $334 million. This weekend will see it crossing the $200 million mark domestically, as well as the global haul of Captain America: The First Avenger, which pulled in $370.6 million back in 2011. Meanwhile, if you’ve seen the film (or don’t care about spoilers), Marvel has also dropped a batch of new images which includes the surprise post-credits cameo [see here], as well as the dancing Groot scene [watch it here]…
…It seems there’s no rest for James Gunn; fresh from the promotional campaign for Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s now hard at work on the sequel, and this week saw him taking a moment to discuss Peter Quill’s (Chris Pratt’s) parentage, as well as the chances of Thanos appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy 2: “There have been a lot of documents passed around about who Peter Quill’s father is between a select two or three of us. That’s been part of the plan since the beginning, that’s something I had to work out before we shot the screenplay. We wanted to make sure Yondu’s place in everything made sense and it does, so it’s all very specific stuff… It’s definitely not the character who it is in the comics, I’ll say that much. [Thanos] will show up if he helps our story and he will not show up at all if not. Thanos is not the most important thing in Guardians 2, that’s for damn sure. There’s the Guardians themselves and other threats the Guardians are going to be facing that are not Thanos… I think Thanos has been lonely for a long time. He can handle it. He’s used to his loneliness. He’s got some other kids out there. He’s got to look after them. Nebula’s probably the sweetest of them, which tells you what his kids are like..”
…In a week that saw Guardians star Vin Diesel teasing a possible role in an Inhumans movie, it has been reported that Marvel has decided to push ahead with a film revolving around Black Bolt and company. Apparently, Joe Robert Cole (Amber Lake) has delivered an Inhumans script which Marvel is impressed with, and the studio is now reportedly putting the project out to directors. So, if true, it looks like Inhumans could be joining Ant-Man, Captain America 3, Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 as part of the MCU’s Phase Three line-up…
…In other Phase Three news / rumour, Latino-Review is claiming that Ant-Man will feature a prologue scene that will see a young Hank Pym meeting up with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Arnim Zola (Toby Jones), along with a pre-Robert Redford Alexander Pierce, while Captain America 3 screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have addressed whether we can expect to see the MCU following the All-New Captain America storyline of the Falcon taking over as Cap, with Markus stating: “I think the movies can accommodate almost anything, if there’s a need. I think there is a much greater need to shake things up in the comics because that’s a narrative that’s been going on for 60 or 70 years, so you’re going to wind up having to do things to it. Ours has only been off the ground for five or so. So it’s not quite time to start changing things up yet…”
…With Luke Cage set to join the MCU as part of Marvel’s Netflix series, The Expendables 3 and Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews has once again expressed his interest in portraying Power Man: “I would love to do Luke Cage. I heard they finally green-lit that whole thing and I would love to do something like that. I have so many [favourite superheroes]. I have to go back to Luke Cage just because he was our Superman. There were no African-American superheroes out there. He was the first. He was the man. He was the one. The only example we could look at. I remember then seeing Falcon and a couple of others. Even in the D.C. Universe there was Cyborg. But Luke Cage was the original one where you said ‘This is me. This is my guy. This is the character.’ So he’s the equivalent to Superman for me. But I have plenty. Second to Luke Cage would probably be The Hulk. The Hulk was amazing…”
…Ahead of its November release Stateside, Disney has dropped a brief new TV spot for its animated Marvel movie Big Hero 6, which you can check out here. The film is directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (Bolt) and features the voice talents of Ryan Potter (Supah Ninjas) as Hiro Hamada, Scott Adsit (30 Rock) as Baymax, T.J. Miller (Transformers: Age of Extinction) as Fred, Jamie Chung (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) as Go Go Tomago, Genesis Rodriguez (The Last Stand) as Honey Lemon, Damon Wayans Jr. (The Other Guys) as Wasabi and Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) as Aunt Cass. Big Hero 6 opens in the U.S. on November 7th, but here in the UK we’ll have to wait until January 30th…
…Over at Sony and a short featurette from the Target exclusive Blu-ray Combo Pack of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has arrived online entitled ‘Setting Up The Sinister Six’, which you can watch here. The team of supervillains will of course take centre stage in Sony’s next superhero offering, which is set to arrive in November 2016 courtesy of director Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods), while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is out on DVD and Blu-ray in the States on August 19th and in the UK on September 1st…
…Sony Television’s upcoming PlayStation Network series Powers has added three new additions to its cast in Eddie Izzard (Hannibal) as Wolfe, Oleysa Rulin (High School Musical) as Calista and Noah Taylor (Edge of Tomorrow) as Johnny Royale (you can read descriptions of their characters here). The trio join the previously announced Susan Heyward (The Following) as Detective Deena Pilgrim, Max Fowler (The Killing) as Krispin Stockley and Adam Godley (Breaking Bad) as Captain Cross in the adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming’s comic book series, which is due to land on PSN in December…
…In one other piece of superhero – or rather supervillain – related news, Adam McKay and Will Ferrell have signed on to executive produce the animated comedy Henchmen, which is based on the new short film Henchmen: Ill Suited; here’s the official synopsis: “In a world of super-villains, evil schemes and global domination… someone has to take out the trash. Welcome to the world of Henchmen, third class. When a fresh-faced new recruit joins the Union of Evil, he is assigned to a motley crew of blue-collar workers led by fallen henchmen Hank. But when “The Kid” accidently steals the super villain’s ultimate weapon, Hank must break his “risk nothing” code to save the boy he’s befriended, even if it means becoming the one thing he has always hated…heroes…”
And finally, we’ve posted a few superhero-themed articles on Flickering Myth this week – be sure to check out Anghus Houvouras’ Is Disney Buying DC?, our Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Worst to Best, Anthony Stokes’ Why Marvel’s Diversity Problem Isn’t As Bad As We Pretend It Is, Thomas Roach’s Why An Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy Team-Up Would Be A Mess, Why A Standalone Hulk Film Won’t Happen Any Time Soon, Was Thanos Introduced Too Early In The Marvel Cinematic Universe?, Five Characters Who Could Be Star-Lord’s Father and Is Wonder Woman Impossible To Get Right?, along with Flickering Myth’s Ranking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe From Worst to Best.
