…Moving on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Avengers: Age of Ultron has now climbed to fifth in the list of the highest-grossing movies of all time, having pulled in $1.351 billion to date. That leaves it trailing the year’s biggest earner Furious 7 in fourth with $1.510 billion, as well as its predecessor The Avengers, which pulled in $1.518 billion back in 2012 to sit in third place…
…Marvel also stepped up promotion for Ant-Man this week by releasing a teaser for its six-minute IMAX preview attached to Jurassic World, as well as a three new Avengers-themed posters and a trio of TV spots offering up more footage from next month’s franchise-launcher [see here, here and here]…
…A slightly-revamped logo arrived online this week for Captain America: Civil War, while Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) shared a new piece of promo artwork asking fans to choose ‘whose side are you on?’ and Mark Ruffalo has suggested that we might see The Hulk alongside his fellow Avengers: “I don’t know [if I’m in Civil War]. I heard a rumor about that the other day. I haven’t seen a script, nobody’s told me, and I don’t have dates. But I can only hope so! I was talking to Robert Downey Jr. the other day, and he said, ‘Ruffalo! I heard you’re coming out here,’ and I said, ‘OK! I’ll be there…'”
…It’s been revealed this week that Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) is set to play Baron Mordo in 2016’s Doctor Strange movie, albeit a Baron Mordo who may not be a straight-up villain, and is likely to be “an amalgamation of characters culled from Doctor Strange‘s mythology.” Ejiofor will star alongside Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) as the Sorcerer Supreme and Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer) as the Ancient One…
…In some huge news from the Netflix side of the MCU, it’s been announced this week that The Punisher is joining season two of Daredevil, with The Walking Dead and Fury star Jon Bernthal set to take on the role of Frank Castle. “Jon Bernthal brings an unmatched intensity to every role he takes on, with a potent blend of power, motivation and vulnerability that will connect with audiences,” said Marvel’s Head of Television Jeph Loeb. “Castle’s appearance will bring dramatic changes to the world of Matt Murdock and nothing will be the same.” You can take a look at the bullet-riddled logo for Daredevil season 2 here…
…In other Netflix news, it seems that A.K.A. Jessica Jones has dropped the A.K.A. from its title, with Netflix updating its page for the upcoming show with the title Marvel’s Jessica Jones…
…Ghost Rider is set to make a guest appearance in tomorrow’s episode of Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., and you can check out a preview of the episode ‘Spirit of vengeance’ right here…
…Over at 20th Century Fox and the studio has given us another peek at the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot by debuting a new TV spot for the Josh Trank-directed film, as well as another promotional image featuring Miles Teller (Reed Richards), Kate Mara (Susan Storm) and Michael B. Jordan (Johnny Storm)…
…Bryan Singer has been active on social media again this week, posting a set photo teasing a slow-motion action sequence for Quicksilver (Evan Peters) from the currently-in-production X-Men: Apocalypse…
…As he prepares to hang up the claws following the third Wolverine solo movie, Hugh Jackman has hinted at a possible cameo alongside Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson in February’s Deadpool, as well as sharing a few words in his impending X-Men retirement: “Weirdly, I’m really excited about shooting it. I feel great enthusiasm, I suppose it’s denial — like the football player who announces their retirement before their last season — and so I’m really looking forward to it. But, I know it’s not over yet! I still got a lot of 4 o’clock mornings and a hell of a lot of egg white omelettes and steamed chicken to have, and all of that. I feel very blessed that I loved playing this part, the last Wolverine and that last X-Men [Days of Future Past] were maybe two of the best and I feel like, hopefully, we’ll do it again with this last one…”
…Ron Perlman took to Twitter this week to encourage fans to help out in lobbying for Hellboy 3, as well as speaking in detail about Guillermo del Toro’s plans for the story, and his hopes of one day closing out the trilogy: “I really feel like we have an obligation to finish this. We asked the patience of an awful lot of very devoted fans. We’re clearly not the biggest blockbuster financially that ever came down the pipe with other comic book movies, but I think all that’s bullshit. I think we asked fans to come along on a journey with us and there was a promise made that we would complete the journey. The reason why I go about this is that I feel like we’re obligated to. I don’t care how much the movie costs. If it costs $600, let’s finish the fucking story and then movie on. It doesn’t have to cost a gazillion dollars. It’d be nice if it was as epic as what Guillermo has in mind and that would take some resources but the fans have shown this amazing devotion and passion and intensity…”
…Heroes Reborn continues to add Heroes alumni to its cast, with Cristine Rose set to return as Angela Petrelli alongside fellow Heroes veterans Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman), Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Dr. Mohinder Suresh) and Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah Sanders),
…And finally, we’ve got a couple of superhero-movie themed op-eds on Flickering Myth this week – check out Neil Calloway’s ‘Why World Peace Will Be Bad For the Comic Book Movie’ here, Samuel Brace’s ‘4 Characters Marvel’s Cinematic Universe Has to Introduce’ here, and Anghus Houvouras’ ‘Just Add Batman: The Key Ingredient to the DC Cinematic Universe’ 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.
