…Marvel’s latest offering Ant-Man opened in China this past weekend, giving the studio its second best debut after Avengers: Age of Ultron with an impressive $43.2 million haul, which pushed the film to $454 million worldwide, and also propelled the Marvel Cinematic Universe beyond the $9 billion mark overall – the first franchise in history to reach that figure. Meanwhile, in other Ant-Man news, it has been reported that director Peyton Reed is in talks with Marvel to return to helm the 2018 sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp…
…Looking ahead to Phase Three, and Daniel Bruhl has spoken briefly about his role as Baron Zemo in Captain America: Civil War, revealing that he’ll be very different to his comic book counterpart: “He does not wear the mask. It’s loosely connected to this character [from the comics]. But that’s what I like about the Marvel guys, some of the characters and things they’re dealing with always reference to current events so my character is from a different area than you would think…”
…At the premiere of Jumpers for Goalposts, Tom Holland spoke about his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, revealing that he’s taken inspiration from both Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire and The Amazing Spider-Man’s Andrew Garfield: “They were so great, and such real and rich performances, there were obviously factors that I love and will try to recreate. But I think the most important thing of the moment is to make a film that’s obviously of the same character, but try to make a different, and new and exciting movie…”
…On the subject of Spidey’s past adventures, Spider-Man 3 star Topher Grace has spoken out in defense of the much-maligned Sam Raimi-helmed threequel: “I know the movie did well for Sony, but I also know a lot of people weren’t happy with it. I think Sam [Raimi] is so talented. I remember one time I was on ninth unit. (Laughs.) Ninth unit? It’s like he’s running a small country. This summer, there was a movie like that where people are just slamming a big studio movie. I would love to see anyone who’s slamming one of those movies try to fit in Sam Raimi’s position. He was like the president of a small country – by the way, it had the gross national income of a small country, too. I have huge respect for him. I think, on a whole, he did such a fantastic job [on that trilogy]…”
…Having spent the best part of the past year teasing a potential casting as Black Bolt in the Inhumans movie, Guardians of the Galaxy star Vin Diesel has now said that the studio will need to “woo” him with the project if they want him to sign on for a second Marvel role: “I don’t do too much ‘if it happens’. Do you know what I mean?… I don’t do too much ’if it happens,’ it’s more at what level it will happen… it’s not a matter of me wooing Marvel, it’s a matter of Marvel wooing me. And I love them, but I’m just saying, show me a dope script and show me a great director, all of which I know that Kevin Feige is capable of, because he dazzled me when he suggested Groot. That was, like, profound to me…”
…After dropping several teasers, Marvel finally gave us our first real look at its second Netflix series Jessica Jones this week, releasing a motion poster for the show [see here], followed by a first full trailer, which you can watch right here. All thirteen episodes of Jessica Jones will land on Netflix on November 20th, with a cast that includes Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad) as Jessica Jones, Mike Colter (The Following) as Luke Cage and David Tennant (Doctor Who) as Kilgrave / Purple Man…
…Over at ABC, we’ve got a promo for Tuesday’s upcoming episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., entitled ‘4,722 Hours’ [see here], along with a couple of promotional cast photos featuring Matthew Willig’s Inhuman villain Lash [see here]. And be sure to check out Danny Hale’s review of the previous episode ‘Devils You Know’, which you can read here…
…Kurtwood Smith (RoboCop, That ’70s Show) has signed on for a major recurring role in season two of Agent Carter, where he’ll play “Vernon Masters, a veteran of the War Department with a keen understanding of how to work the system.” The second season of the Hayley Atwell-headlined show is currently in production and is expected to premiere on ABC this coming January…
…On the animated Marvel front, Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors returns to Disney XD today with the all-new episode ‘Contest of Champions: Part Four’ and we have a clip which you can watch right here, as well as a clip from Guardians of the Galaxy’s ‘Undercover Angle’, which you can view here…
…Moving on to Fox’s X-Men movie universe and it was reported this week that Doug Liman has emerged as the studio’s favourite to succeed Rupert Wyatt as director on the Channing Tatum-headlined Gambit spinoff, although scheduling conflicts could arise should Liman move forward with Edge of Tomorrow 2 with Tom Cruise. Sure enough, Heroic Hollywood had its own take on the situation, claiming that Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) and Shane Black (Iron Man 3) are also in the frame. Regardless of who takes over, Fox will need to move like Quicksilver if it is to have any chance of meeting its planned October 2016 release date…
…Earlier this month Fox and Marvel Television announced two new X-Men-themed series in Hellfire and Legion, and producer Noah Hawley (Fargo) has been discussing the former, revealing how the deal with Marvel came about, what appealed about the character of Legion, and where it will fit within the X-Men universe: “It’s conceived more as a standalone. I don’t want to say too much more about it on that level, but certainly it’s not constructed as a back-door anything. It’s more just that there’s a story that I want to explore that has to fit into that larger universe, which is exciting… I do think that the show needs to stand on its own two feet. The people who care that it’s an X-Men title are going to know it’s an X-Men title. You’re looking for the largest possible and most diverse audience, so that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is the show itself.” You can read the rest of Hawley’s comments here…
…And finally, be sure to check out Tai Freligh’s review of Heroes Reborn’s fifth episode ‘The Lion’s Den’ here, along with a promo for Tuesday’s episode ‘July 13th – Part One’ over on our YouTube channel 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.
