In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Deadpool, Wolverine, Deadpool vs. Wolverine, X-Men: Apocalypse, Legion, Captain America: Civil War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel, Justice League, Suicide Squad, Justice League Mortal, Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham, Teen Titans, Batman: Bad Blood, LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash and more…
The 2016 superhero season kicks off next week with the hotly-anticipated arrival of Deadpool (which has been granted a 15-certificate from the BBFC, for any of our younger UK readers who were worried they might miss out), and so naturally Fox’s marketing department has been working overtime. Among the promotional material flooding the internet this week, we have a Rob Liefeld poster, Valentine’s Day promo and batch of TV spots [see here], a UK trailer and IMAX featurette [see here], a Happy Year of the Monkey promo and more TV spots [see here], a ‘Heroes and Douchebags’ infographic [see here], a batch of character profiles [see here], a ‘Manchester United Dreams’ promo featuring the Merc with a Mouth alongside Wayne Rooney and his Man United team mates [see here], a new image of an unmasked Deadpool alongside Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) [see here], some humours LEGO-style “spoilers” [see here], and promotional images of Hot Toys’ Deadpool Cosbaby Bobble-Head [see here]…
..,.During an appearance on Live! with Kelly and Michael, Morena Baccarin spoke about shooting a “sex montage” with Ryan Reynolds for Deadpool, while Reynolds also discussed the “leaked” test footage, stating that the movie had the green light within 24 hours of it arriving online: “Deadpool has been the best and worst relationship I’ve ever been in. Eleven years, I’ve been trying to get this movie made. We had a script, we did that about six years ago, then we had a little bit of test footage for the movie. That test footage sat on a shelf at Fox for four years, then about a year and a half ago, somebody accidentally leaked it on the Internet….And it just went nuts. The people started writing and flooding Fox, begging and pleading for the Deadpool movie to get made. Within twenty-four hours, we had a green light. We were making it…”
…Hugh Jackman may be gearing up to call it a day as Wolverine following next year’s solo movie, but that hasn’t stopped Deadpool director Tim Miller from predicting a Deadpool vs. Wolverine movie: “Wolverine, man,” said Miller when asked who he’d like to see sharing the screen with the Merc with a Mouth. “I know it happens, kind of, in the comics, but it would be interesting to see what it is. I do believe in the future there will be a movie called Deadpool vs. Wolverine…”
…Assuming Jackman hang up the claws after Wolverine 3, Fox has a job on its hands to replace the actor, and writer-producer Simon Kinberg believes it could be an “impossible” task to recast the role: “I do think you would want to figure out how to tell more Wolverine stories. So either we would try to entice Hugh to come back and eat more chicken and work out for a few months, or we would have to figure out a creative way to move forward. Honestly, I can’t imagine anybody else playing the part, and there’s not too many characters I can say that for…”
…Olivia Munn took to social media this week to share a new image of her character Pyslocke from X-Men: Apocalypse, while we also got an picture of a theater standee for the mutant superhero sequel which sees Psylocke featured alongside Xavier (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Angel (Ben Hardy), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) and of course the eponymous villain Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac)…
…FX has announced three new additions who will be joining Rachel Keller (Fargo) in the X-Men TV series Legion, with Dan Stevens (The Guest) set to play the lead David Haller, with Aubrey Plaza (Dirty Grandpa) as David’s friend Lenny and Jean Smart (Fargo) as a therapist called Melanie…
…Turning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and this week has brought us some new promotional art from Captain America: Civil War [see here], while Paul Rudd has spoken about his return as Scott Lang in the Phase Three-launching threequel, as well as 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: “I know that when I signed up for it that there was always the potential that they’d do another one or it would tie in in some way, but specifically, I wasn’t aware and I’m still not totally aware of how that’s the case,” states Rudd. “We are doing a second one, so those meetings are starting to be scheduled and underway as far as what it’s going to be. We’ll start writing it soon…”
…With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 now in pre-production, it’s been revealed this week that James Gunn’s buddy Steve Agee (Super, The Belko Experiment) has nabbed a role in the Phase Three sequel, while Gunn has also revealed via a Twitter Q&A that Star-Lord’s father and the main villain(s) have also been cast, although he wasn’t giving away any specifics…
…Her involvement has been rumoured for months, and now director Taika Waititi has confirmed that Cate Blanchett (Carol) is set to appear in next year’s Thor: Ragnarok, while he has also teased a more intelligent version of the Hulk in the November 2017 release: “It’s interesting, because at the moment, there’s a big conversation that’s happening about how far to push that. Whether or not The Hulk should be [verbal/conscious]. So I think a lot of those decisions are larger group decisions, rather than anything to do with just me or the writer. They have a lot of stuff that they have to consider. But I do think that’s the best way to track it. I think we all want that. I think we all want to see that development and the evolution of that character. I also think you can do it in a fun way…”
…On the small screen side of the MCU, be sure to check out Amy Richau’s review of the fourth episode of Agent Carter ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ here, while ABC has released a promo and clip from Tuesday’s fifth episode ‘The Atomic Job’ [see here and here], along with a synopsis for the sixth episode ‘Life of the Party’ [see here]…
…ABC has also kicked off the promotion for the return of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. by releasing a synopsis for the season three midseason premiere ‘Bouncing Back’, which reads: “In the aftermath of his trip to Maveth, Coulson is more determined than ever to get to Gideon Malick and put an end to Hydra once and for all. Daisy and the team encounter more Inhumans who have powers like they’ve never seen before, but will they be friends or enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D…?”
…With Jessica Jones confirmed for a second season, Rachael Taylor has been discussing the possibility of exploring the Hellcat storyline for her character Trish Walker: “I try not to get ahead of myself and think about it too much, because it’s easy to get carried away and think about things. I already feel like I have more than my share, in a way, being on Netflix, being in the Marvel Universe, being in this show that has resonated so deeply with people. But of course, I mean, it would be amazing. … To take it that one step further is something that, yeah, I’d love to get my teeth stuck into whatever happens to the character. I think all of the characters have an alias in this series. They have an ‘also known as,’ or a shadow personality. I think for Trish, part of her shadow personality is that there’s a certain covetous part of her. I think she covets some of the things that Jessica has. I think there is an unholy ambition that sits just under the surface. She declares it in the show. Jessica says, ‘What else could you possibly want Trish?’ And Trish says, ‘Well, to save the world, of course.’ Which is kind of a very unusual thing for a character to say. I do think there’s a part of her that would love to make it right in the way that she thinks Jessica could make it right if she was just to overcome her dysfunctions and put down the bottle…”
…In other Netflix news, some set photos from Luke Cage have arrived online showing Mike Colter’s Power Man battling the police [see here], while Marvel has also debuted a new teaser image for the second season of Daredevil showing Matt Murdock’s broken glasses [see here]…
…Click below to continue on for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel, Justice League, Suicide Squad, Justice League Mortal, Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham, Teen Titans, Batman: Bad Blood, LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash and more…
