In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Blade, Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Luke Cage, X-Men: Apocalypse, Gambit, Fantastic Four, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel 2, Batman, Suicide Squad, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Vixen, Supergirl, Booster Gold, Heroes Reborn and more…
Marvel’s first Phase Three offering Captain America: Civil War wrapped production this week, after which a selection of promotional art arrived online, showing which characters will be joining Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man’s (Robert Downey Jr.) “teams” in the big superhero face-off. We’ll not spoil them, but you can take a look at the promo art yourself here, and click here to read Jeremy Renner’s comments on which side Hawkeye is on. And, if you’re one of the handful of people who still put any stock in Heroic Hollywood’s guesswork, you may be interested in their latest “rumour” suggesting that Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May will make her debut in Civil War ahead of 2017’s Spider-Man reboot…
…Having had to vacate the role of Malekith the Accursed from Thor: The Dark World due to scheduling conflicts, it looks like Mads Mikkelsen might finally be set to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the Hannibal star in talks for an as-yet-unrevealed villain in Doctor Strange. Should negotiations go smoothly, Mikkelsen would join the previously announced Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) as Stephen Strange, Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer) as The Ancient One and Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) as Baron Mordo.…
…Speaking at Wizard World Comic Con, Captain America: Civil War star Jeremy Renner has warned fans not to expect a crossover between The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy any time soon, stating that: “You’ll be eighty years old by then, and I won’t be Hawkeye anymore. I’ll be Dead Guy…”
…The Guardians will be returning in 2017 for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and director James Gunn has revealed that filming on the sequel to last year’s box office smash is set to get underway in February…
…Speaking of Guardians of the Galaxy, the latest animated short has arrived online ahead of next month’s Disney XD series, this time exploring the origin of Drax the Destroyer. You can watch the short here, and be sure to check out the previous episodes for Star-Lord, Groot and Rocket Raccoon if you haven’t seen them already…
…Marvel has been teasing the home entertainment release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, releasing an HD version of the Thanos post credit scene [see here], along with featurettes focussing on The Vision [see here], Ultron and the Maximoff twins [see here]…
…Along with the Avengers: Age of Ultron videos, Marvel has also officially released a clip from Ant-Man featuring the fight between Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). Take a look here…
…Rumour time now and according to unconfirmed reports Marvel is developing a new Blade movie, which is said to focus on the Daywalker’s daughter Fallon Grey, who is set to headline her own ‘All-New, All-Different’ comic book series. Wesley Snipes has claimed on a couple of occasions that he’s held talks with Marvel about a possible return as Blade, so perhaps the studio is looking to use him as a mentor figure to Fallon? Or, more likely, the rumour is complete speculation…
…Andrew Garfield has been speaking about Spider-Man this week, revealing that he was never in talks with Marvel about continuing in the role, as well as offering up a few words on the now aborted The Amazing Spider-Man 3: “I was actually starting to workshop ideas with Alex Kurtzman, who was going to be writing it. We thought to kind of start from the base level, the foundational level of where have we left Peter and where do we want to see him go and what’s logical. And how do we build upon where we left off with this deep, desperate moment with Gwen? So, yeah, we got to some pretty heavy places and I was really excited to kind of explore it and be involved on the ground level like that. But, anyway, it wasn’t meant to be. As I say, I’m just really excited that I get to watch..”
…Turning to the small screen and ABC has released a detailed synopsis for the third season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which offers up two new pieces of casting info, with Matthew Willig (Wild Card) set to play Lash and Juan Pablo Raba (Narcos) cast as a new Inhuman character called Joey. You can read the synopsis in full here…
…An alleged synopsis for Netflix’s third Marvel series Luke Cage arrived online this week, although given that it came from Heroic Hollywood, it’s probably not real: “Luke Cage is a former gang member who is framed for a crime. In prison, he volunteers for a medical experiment that goes awry, giving him super strength and bulletproof skin. Using his newfound powers, Cage escapes and becomes a hero for hire. His archenemy is Willy Stryker, a former childhood friend from Harlem. The two committed petty crimes together, and both fell for the same woman, Reva Connors, which led to their eventual falling out. It was Stryker who framed Cage for a drug deal that sent him to prison….”
…Following on from the announcement that filming has wrapped on Captain America: Civil War, Bryan Singer took to social media to announce that principal photography is also complete on another of 2016’s superhero offerings, the X-Men: Days of Future Past follow-up X-Men: Apocalypse…
…After Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) pulled out of contention, it seems that Fox has found its female lead for Gambit, with Lea Seydoux (Spectre) offered the role of Bella Donna Boudreaux alongside Channing Tatum’s Remy LeBeau. Gambit is set to start filming this October ahead of a release on October 6th 2016…
…As Fantastic Four fizzles out at the box office (with a global haul of $135 million to date), some concept art has arrived online featuring an early version of Planet Zero [see here], Max Landis has detailed his rejected pitch for a Fantastic Four trilogy [see here] and Flickering Myth’s Anghus Houvouras has posted an op-ed asking ‘Is Fantastic Four the Worst Blockbuster Ever?’ [see here], while Suicide Squad’s Margot Robbie has revealed she lost out on the role of Sue Storm to Kate Mara: “I didn’t really resonate with the script, and I haven’t seen the movie, so I don’t really know how it turned out different from the page. But I had a great meeting with the director [Josh Trank] and I really enjoyed that. I guess it’s part of the game: sometime you win some, sometimes you lose some…”
…Click below to continue on for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel 2, Batman, Suicide Squad, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Vixen, Supergirl, Booster Gold, Heroes Reborn and more…
