In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Superman Lives, Gotham, Arrow, The Flash, Vixen, Supergirl, Batman: The Killing Joke, Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 2, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine 3, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Daredevil, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, Thunderbolts, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Avengers Assemble, Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors, Guardians of the Galaxy, Gods and Secrets and more…
We got another peek at Warner Bros.’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice this week with the release of some new stills featuring the likes of Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), Lois Lane (Amy Adams), Perry White (Laurence Fishburne), Alfred Pennyworth (Jeremy Irons) and Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) [see here, here and here], while some new rumours emerged regarding the possibility identities of the mystery characters played by Jena Malone and Callan Mulvey [see here], and DC All Access provided official breakdowns for the Comic-Con trailers for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad…
…Ben Affleck offered up a few words his version of The Dark Knight, describing it as “this older, more broken, kind of fucked up Batman”, while director Zack Snyder went into a little detail about Batman’s role in Batman v Superman: “We are playing [Batman] 45 or 46. He has been Batman for 20 years. All the history is there. He has lost those near and dear to him, and not necessarily from old age of disease… We want to assume that Batman has reached this point in his life and career as a superhero, and Superman represents a sort of philiophical change. He is a paradigm shift for Batman: ‘I’ve been fighting criminals all my life, trying to find justice, and now I am confronted with a concept that is transcendent to me.’ In the face of Superman, a man robbing a bank doesn’t matter. He’s having a crisis of conscience. ‘Am I really just a vigilante who stalks the alleys of Gotham?’ It is rich stuff that he deals with. Ben does an amazing job….”
…Snyder also spoke about the fledgling DC universe as it builds towards Justice League: “What we are doing is ground up all the way. It is one giant story. The first thing we had was the Justice League concept. The other movies, in a way, have to support that. That is our Wonder Woman, our Aquaman. They have their own creative concepts that supports them, but they do serve Justice League in the coming together of those heroes. I want all the other directors of the other films to be able to stretch their legs and do what they want, but at the same time there is a big interconnected universe. I have given everyone amazing access to our story, to me, and what we are doing. All the films have like minded conceptual jumping on points…”
…Despite persistent rumours of #MISDIRECTION linking Chris Pine to the role of Green Lantern, this week brought confirmation that the Star Trek Into Darkness star will play Diana’s (Gal Gadot) love-interest Steve Trevor in 2017’s Wonder Woman. Meanwhile, it’s also been revealed that the Amazon Princess’ solo movie will start shooting in London in the autumn, with production on Justice League then getting underway in the Spring…
…A huge batch of concept art from Tim Burton’s Superman Lives arrived online this week to promote the release of Jon Schnepp’s documentary The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? [read our review here], while Nicolas Cage briefly shared a few words of praise for Burton’s vision for the aborted project: “The only thing I’ll say about that — because that is such a lighting rod hot topic and if I say anything at all it just seems to snowball — but I will say that I had great belief in that movie and in what Tim Burton’s vision was going to be for that movie. I would’ve loved to have seen it, but I feel that in many ways, it was sort of a win/win because of the power of the imagination. I think people can actually see the movie in their minds now and imagine it and in many ways that might resonate more deeply than the finished project. Tim is the total artist, a pure artist with a real vision, and I’ve often said that he can create worlds and that’s exactly what he does. I saw some of the tests of different characters and costumes for Krypton and they were just so surreal and so magical and beautiful. He’s definitely one of my favorite filmmakers because of his originality, because of his vision…”
…Moving on to the small screen and its been reported this week that Drew Powell’s Butch Gilzean has been promoted to a series regular for the second season of Gotham, while David Mazouz has been speaking about Bruce Wayne’s journey in the new season: “Bruce’s discovery of that room in the season finale was a turning point. It’s going to touch everything in Bruce’s life. It’s going to turn the page to a different chapter in every imaginable way on his journey to becoming Batman. In season one, Bruce and Alfred were constantly butting heads, but in season two, because of the cave, they’re going to go through a really rough patch. But one they get through it, they’re going to really start to become a team. They’re really going to have the Batman/Alfred partnership that you know.” Read the rest of Mazouz’s comments here…
…Over at The CW, executive producer Marc Guggenheim has been speaking about Arrow’s new villain for its fourth season, Damien Darhk: “Damien’s a different kind of villain than we’ve had on the show before. He’s not as centurion as Ra’s, he’s not as looney tune as Slade, he’s not as — and people will be surprised I use this word — but he’s not as noble as Malcolm Merlyn. He’s pure evil. We wanted someone who was truly, truly malevolent. We’ve never done that on the show before. All of our big bads always thought they were doing… the wrong thing for the right reason. This guy does the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. The other thing that we’re doing that’s different is in past seasons, you’ve had to wait ’til usually the mid-season finale to meet the big bad and have Oliver confront the big bad. We are coming out of the gate strong. We’re not waiting and actually, that itself has really energized the show and it infuses even the ‘villain of the week’ episodes with an epic-ness that they wouldn’t otherwise have.” You can check out a first look image of Neal McDonough as Damien Darhk here…
…In other news from The CW’s DC universe, Ryan Robbins (Falling Skies) has joined Arrow as Conklin, “a sadistic and ruthless member of Shadowspire who will be an adversary for Oliver (Stephen Amell) in the flashback sequences.”, a VFX featurette has arrived online showing the work that went into bringing Gorilla Grodd to the screen in the first season of The Flash [watch it here], while we’ve also had a new promotional image for the animated spinoff Vixen ahead of its premiere on CW Seed on August 25th [see here]…
…With production on the first season of CBS’ Supergirl resuming ahead of its premiere in October, a new batch of set photos have arrived online featuring Melissa Benoist in full costume as Kara Zor-El; check them out here…
…Great news for fans of Mark Hamill’s Joker, as it has been reported this week that he’s reprising his role as the Clown Prince of Crime for next year’s hotly-anticipated animated adaptation of Batman: The Killing Joke. As yet, there’s no word if he’ll be reuniting with Batman: The Animated Series costar Kevin Conroy, but Conroy has said that he’s hoping he gets the call: “Oh, God! Are you kidding me? I’d do it in a heartbeat. I love working with [Mark Hamill]. I couldn’t believe when they killed off The Joker. I would love to do it, and I hope that that happens…”
…Warner’s latest DC animated movie Justice League: Gods and Monsters was released this past week, and you can take a look at three clips here, as well as Ricky Church’s review of the film here…
…20th Century Fox unleashes the third and final superhero movie of the year this coming Friday as director Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot opens in cinemas around the globe. We’ve got some video interviews with Trank, writer-producer Simon Kinberg, producer Hutch Parker and stars Miles Teller (Reed Richards), Kate Mara (Susan Storm), Michael B. Jordan (Johnny Storm), Jamie Bell (Ben Grimm), Toby Kebbell (Victor Von Doom), Reg E. Cathey (Dr. Storm) and Tim Blake Nelson (Harvey Elder) [see here], while Fox has also released a first clip [see here], a new featurette [see here], three new TV spots [see here] and a character profile video for Mister Fantastic [see here]…
…During a promotional interview for Fantastic Four, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell have discussed what they’d like to see in the sequel, which is slated for release in June 2017. Jordan stated that he’d like to see the heroes go up against Namor, while Bell is keen on the Silver Surfer, as well as further exploring the characters: “You can’t get away from Silver Surfer. I know chronologically speaking that was the next villain in the previous franchise but I think Silver Surfer is cool looking. I’d like to see more of how the characters interact with each other famously from the comic. It would be appealing to me. This one very much is to get them to that point, to take them from people you don’t know, to transition into characters you can recognize. The job of the next film is taking it further and having the characters already established, seeing them interact in the very famous kind of way. Things between me and Johnny get very antagonistic. More of a blossoming love story between Reed and Sue. More of a family dynamic. Stuff like that would be great There’s a wealth of material and with a 90 minute run time of an origin story it’s very difficult to fit it all in…”
…Marvel legend Stan Lee has weighed in on the negative reaction from some fans towards Michael B. Jordan’s casting as Johnny Storm, stating that: “I thought it was a great idea. [People are] outraged not because of any personal prejudice. They’re outraged because they hate to see any change made on a series and characters they had gotten familiar with. In Spider-Man, when they got a new actor, that bothered them, even though it was a white actor. I don’t think it had to do with racial prejudice as much as they don’t like things changed. But I think they’re gonna get to love this character. So I’m not the least bit worried about it. I always tried to pepper these groups with as much racial diversity as possible because that’s the way the world is…”
…Click below to continue on for Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine 3, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Daredevil, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, Thunderbolts, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Avengers Assemble, Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors, Guardians of the Galaxy, Gods and Secrets and more…
