..Shifting to the DC Extended Universe and as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s release draws closer, we got a new poster and extended synopsis for the DC ensemble, along with a look at more merchandise from LEGO [see here], Mystery Minis [see here], and Hot Toys [see here]. A couple of the cast members have also been discussing the film, with Jesse Eisenberg stating that Lex Luthor’s hair loss scene is “the greatest scene that I’ve ever gotten to take part in” and Henry Cavill revealing that he doesn’t think Batman v Superman will address any issues people had with Man of Steel: “The reception of my first Superman movie, from what I’ve read, was fairly mixed. Everyone I’ve spoken to enjoyed the movie. [But] if you’re going to meet a stranger in the street, they’re not going to badmouth you to your face. There’s no intentional move, I don’t think, in Batman v Superman to address any issues that people had with Man of Steel. It’s just a continuation of that storyline and they continue to develop that world and introduce new characters…”
…UPDATE: Zack Snyder has now released a new TV spot for Batman v Superman, which sees Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight posing an ominous question for Superman: “Tell me, do you bleed..?” Check it out here…
…Warner Bros. come in for criticism from some fans for Gal Gadot’s casting as Wonder Woman, and director Zack Snyder has been discussing why the Israeli actress got the part of the Amazon Princess: “We tested a bunch of actresses, as you can imagine. But the thing with Gal is that she’s strong, she’s beautiful, and she’s a kind person, which is interesting, but fierce at the same time. It’s that combination of being fierce but kind at the same time that we were looking for. She can get serious, but she’s amazingly fun to be around. And by the way, she really held her own with Ben in the screen test. Ben was like, ‘Whoa, that girl is something else!’ That was a good sign, because Ben is very tough in the scene, and he’s big and commanding. Anytime that you’re doing a test like that and you’re looking at the other person, you’re thinking, ‘Okay, that’s good stuff.’ That was part of the process, and over time as we got to know Gal, we found out how amazing she is…”
…Snyder also provided a brief update on the two-part Justice League movie, stating that: “We’re working on Justice League right now. In a weird way, Justice League is the next step for these characters to form a bigger team. Maybe there’s a bigger enemy to fight…”
…Moving on to Suicide Squad and while we await the new trailer, Margot Robbie has spoken about her role as the fan favourite villain Harley Quinn: “Harley is creepy, violent, crazy — all of the things that I aspire to be. No. It’s the fun of living vicariously through someone who is doing things that I would never do in real life.” Robbie also touched upon reuniting with her Focus co-star Will Smith, who plays Deadshot: “I enjoyed working with Will so, so much that I was overjoyed when I heard that we would be working together again. I actually texted him when I heard he was in negotiations to be in Suicide Squad and kept peer-pressuring him, ‘You’d better be taking this movie!’ He obviously signed on for his own reasons, but I was so incredibly happy that we got to do Round Two. He’s awesome on set and awesome off set. He’s just a really, really good person…”
…He may have starred in the most acclaimed superhero movie trilogy of all time, but it seems that Christian Bale has only ever watched one other comic book movie, with the former Batman stating this week that: “We achieved everything we wanted to achieve with [The Dark Knight Trilogy]. Christopher Nolan only ever wanted to make three. We did that. I’m done. That’s it. In fact, let me tell you a secret: I’ve never seen a single other superhero film except for Christopher Reeve’s Superman when I was a kid. I saw mine! I’m going to go see mine. I don’t watch them anymore. But my kids aren’t even interested. They don’t even want to see it. They’ve never seen them, and they don’t really care. And I love that. I love that…”
…Supergirl returned to the small screen this past Monday for the second half of its first season, and you can read Martin Carr’s review of ‘Blood Bonds’ here, as well as watching a recap of the season so far here. Meanwhile, you can also take a look at some promo images for Monday’s upcoming episode ‘Childish Things’ featuring a first look at Toyman here, along with a batch of stills from the following week’s episode ‘Strange Visitor From Another Planet’ – which introduces the White Martians – here…
…As we await the return of Gotham to Fox, executive producer Danny Cannon has shared a set photo featuring Paul Reubens (a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman) reprising his Batman Returns role as The Penguin’s father alongside Robin Lord Taylor’s Oswald [see here], while the Gotham TV Podcast spoke to Drew Powell, a.k.a. Butch Gilzean [listen to the interview here]…
…A set photo from The Flash arrived online this week, which seemingly revealed that Robbie Amell will be back as Firestorm this season, before executive producer Andrew Kreisberg clarified that he’s actually playing the Earth-2 version Deathstorm: “We are beyond excited to have Robbie back on The Flash. You can’t keep a good Firestorm down. Only this time, he’s back with a twist, a deadly Earth-Two version of our beloved Ronnie in the form of Deathstorm.” Meanwhile, it’s also been announced that Arrow’s David Ramsey (Diggle) and Audrey Marie Anderson (Lyla) will be heading to Central City for a crossover in the fifteenth episode, where they’ll help Barry (Grant Gustin) take on the escaped King Shark…
…A few spoilery set photos also arrived online from Arrow last night, which reveal the fate of Emily Bett Rickards’ Felicity Smoak [check them out here], and a new featurette also arrived online looking at the best stunts of season four so far [watch it here]. Meanwhile, DC announced that John Barrowman is writing a twelve-part digital comic book series entitled Arrow: Dark Archer, which takes place in between the third and fourth seasons of the show, as well as exploring Malcolm Merlyn’s origin prior to his confrontations with Oliver Queen…
…Along with the news that Firefly’s Jewel Staite has signed on for a guest role, The CW ramped up its promotion for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow this week with a series of character promos focussing on Hawkman, Hawkgirl, White Canary and Firestorm…
…This probably won’t come as much of a surprise given the lack of movement this past year, but TNT has officially confirmed that it has pulled the plug on its planned live-action Teen Titans pilot Titans from Akiva Goldsman (Batman Forever, Batman & Robin) and Marc Haimes (The Last Word), with network chief Kevin Reilly stating that: “Akiva Goldsman is a talented guy, but the script just wasn’t there. There is an unbelievable glut of superhero things in the market right now and if you have a really good one, clearly people are up for it. But I just don’t think that there’s a need for one that, for me, at least on paper didn’t seem to be screaming to get made…”
…Titans might be off the table, but we may still get a new DC television series this year, with NBC announcing that it has placed a pilot order for Powerless, a “workplace sitcom” from Ben Queen (A to Z) which is “set in the DC Comics universe that’s full of superheroes, villains and people just like us. It’s described as an office comedy about the exceedingly average employees at an insurance company and their quest to find their own power…”
… And finally, Heroes Reborn returned to the small screen on Thursday, and you can take a look at a promo for the eleventh episode ‘Send in the Clones’ here, along with Tai Freligh’s review here, and we’ve also got a promo for this coming Thursday’s penultimate episode ‘Company Woman’ 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.
