…And so we come to the huge news regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Robert Downey Jr. reportedly set to sign a $40 million deal to reprise the role of Tony Stark / Iron Man for 2016’s Captain America 3, which is said to kick off an adaptation of the Civil War comic book storyline that will “drive the plots of sequels and new franchises for the next seven years”, the ramifications of which would ultimately factor in to both The Avengers 3 and The Avengers 4. The news / speculation goes to to suggest that Avengers: Age of Ultron could be Joss Whedon’s last outing, with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Cap 3 directors Anthony and Joe Russo potentially directing Avengers 3 and Avengers 4. As yet, there’s been no official confirmation from Marvel, but if Civil War is indeed on the horizon then it’s certainly an exciting time for Marvel fans. Be sure to read the thoughts of our writing team in The Flickering Myth Reaction, along with Gavin Logan’s op-ed Does Anyone Really Care About Iron Man 4?, which you can see here…
…Interplanetary Unusual Attacking Team – a.k.a. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy – made its way to China last weekend, setting an October record with an opening haul of $26.6 million, which has helped push the space opera beyond $700 million at the global box office. The James Gunn-directed ensemble is currently sitting on $705,232,731 and will likely overtake The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($708.9 million) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($714.1 million) this weekend, although it’s still got a lot of work to do if it is to catch X-Men: Days of Future Past on $746 million…
…This week has given us our first look at Michael Douglas as Hank Pym in the currently-in-production Phase Three launching Ant-Man [check out the set photos here], while Adam McKay (Anchorman) has spoken about his work rewriting the script from original director Edgar Wright: “[Paul Rudd] called me when Edgar Wright stepped away from the project and told me what was going on. I went and met with Marvel, and I was a little dubious just because I’m friends with Edgar and I didn’t know what the story was, and then when I kind of heard what happened, that Edgar had parted ways, and then I saw their materials, I was like, ‘God this is pretty cool’. Ultimately I didn’t want to jump in as a director, I had too many other projects going and it was too tight, but I thought, ‘You know what, I can rewrite this, and I can do a lot of good by rewriting it. I really thought we put some amazing stuff in there and built on an already strong script from Edgar Wright and sort of just enhanced some stuff. We added some new action beats. I grew up on Marvel Comics so the geek in me was in heaven that I got to add a giant action sequence to the movie; I was so excited. So we did, we added some cool new action… “There’s a lot that’s already in there from what Edgar did, there’s a lot of dialogue and character still in there. “We just shaped the whole thing, we just tried to streamline it, make it cleaner, make it a little bigger, a little more aggressive, make it funnier in places—we just basically did a rewrite. Edgar had a really good script. But we just had a blast, and Rudd was just so much fun to write with. I walked away saying, ‘Hey, you and I gotta write a script together…’”
…Various sites have been churning out their shortlists for the role of the Sorcerer Supereme in Marvel’s Doctor Strange movie this week, with Ewan McGregor (Star Wars) and Ryan Gosling (Drive) reportedly having met with Marvel Studios about the role, and Ethan Hawke (Sinister), Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar), Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: Episode VII), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Justin Theroux (The Leftovers), Colin Farrell (Total Recall) and Tom Hardy all said to be on in the frame. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves has also expressed his interest in the role during a promotional interview for John Wick, stating that: “You know, I just (cough) …I just recently started to hear about that. I didn’t grow up reading the character of Doctor Strange, but the past few days, the people have been telling me about the character, and I have to call my agent!” And if The Wrap is to be believed, Marvel may be giving some thought to Reeves, and hasn’t quite given up hope on Joaquin Phoenix (Inherent Vice)…
…On the small screen, Marvel took the opportunity to unveil its first Netflix series Daredevil at the New York Comic-Con on Saturday, building up to the panel with an updated logo and synopsis, along with a piece of exclusive concept art from Joe Quesada; as for the main event, the first official images of Charlie Cox as Daredevil / Matt Murdock were released online, while the panel itself included Cox alongside showrunner Steven S. DeKnight and co-stars Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk / Kingpin) and Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson), along with new cast additions Toby Moore (Wesley, Fisk’s right hand man), Ayelet Zurer (Vanessa, love interest to the Kingpin), Vondie Curtis-Hall (Ben Urich) and Bob Gunton (Leland Owlsley / The Owl). You can watch the NYCC Daredevil panel here, and click here for a description of the footage that was screened to those in attendance. And if you’re interested in the thoughts of our writing team to the first look at Daredevil in his early prototype suit, be sure to check out the Flickering Myth Reaction…
…Over at ABC and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. managed to put a halt to its ratings decline with Tuesday’s fourth episode ‘Face My Enemy’ enjoying a slight increase of 300,000 viewers over the previous week. This week’s episode ‘A Hen in the Wolf House’ sees the introduction of Bobbi Morse, a.k.a. Mockingbird, played by Adrianne Palici (G.I. Joe: Retaliation), and you can see a clip featuring Palicki here, along with a promo for the episode here. And if you’re keen for a peek further ahead, we’ve also got a batch of promo images from the sixth episode ‘A Fractured House’ here…
…With three weeks to go until its release, Disney has continued the promotional push for Big Hero 6 by releasing a new ‘Meet Fred’ clip from the animated Marvel Comics adaptation [see here], along with a character promo [see here], TV spot and viral character videos [see here]. Big Hero 6 hits North American cinemas on November 7th, while UK audiences have to wait until January…
…Turning to the X-Men franchise and ahead of its DVD and Blu-ray release, a new featurette for X-Men: Days of Future Past has arrived online, which delves into the VFX work on the Quicksilver sequence in the Pentagon…
…After Bryan Singer announced last week that casting was underway on X-Men: Apocalypse, we’ve had our first rumour for the role of the ancient mutant En Sabah Nur, with the in-demand Tom Hardy reportedly being eyed for the titular villain. Of course, he can’t do that and Suicide Squad (and Doctor Strange…). X-Men: Apocalypse is set for release May 19th, 2016 with James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) all reprising their roles…
…Elsewhere in the X-Men universe, Channing Tatum has spoken about his upcoming role as Gambit, and it seems he’s so confident of success for the Cajun card-thrower’s planned solo movie that he’s already talking sequels: “We’re finding a writer and sort of beating it out. I don’t want to give too much away, because we don’t know that much right now other than who Gambit is. e really do want to try our hardest to give something fresh. We’re obviously going to go to the saving the world superhero movies eventually, but maybe not for the first one. We want to introduce this character in a very different way. When you try to do something different, you never know right off the bat what that is. We’re feeling our way and really have to just prove that concept of that person…”
…If you’re near London and want to put your mutant powers to the test, you can head down to the O2 for Sky Studios’ interactive X-Men Experience, which is running through until November 16th. Included in the exhibition is a state-of-the-art augmented reality experience, along with original props and costumes from the film, including costumes for Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Quicksilver (Evan Peters) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender)…
…Following the Powers panel at the New York Comic-Con on Saturday, the first trailer arrived online for Sony Television and PlayStation Network’s upcoming adaptation of the Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming comic book series, which you can see here…
…And finally, with 40 (!) superhero movies on the horizon from Marvel Studios, 20th Century Fox, Sony and Warner Bros., it’s going to be virtually impossible to keep track of them all. Fortunately, a handy infographic has arrived online showing release dates for all of the upcoming films, and you can check it out – and bookmark it! – right 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.
