…It’s been another pretty quiet week for the DC Cinematic Universe, although we did get a textless version of the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice cover from Entertainment Weekly featuring Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), while El Mayimbe’s latest attempt at a scoop saw him claiming that the Amazon Princess will fight Doomsday in the film. Seems like a bit of a no brainer that Doomsday will fight the heroes if he is in the film, but that’s Heroic Hollywood for you…
…During a promotional interview for his latest film The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the Man of Steel Henry Cavill had a few words for critics of Warner’s approach to its DC slate, stating that: “There’s a big plan in place at WB for the whole DC franchise. So, all of this stuff ties in. They’re not thinking from movie to movie, they’re thinking from a big tent pole type thing and each story has its own story, which is attached to the major issue. Yeah, there’s a big plan…”
…In a couple of other bits and pieces from the DC movie universe, 2017’s Wonder Woman movie has nabbed itself an Oscar-winning VFX supervisor in Bill Westenhofer (The Golden Compass, Life of Pi), while Jared Leto posted a possible Killing Joke tease for Suicide Squad on Instagram, and FMTV broke down the trailer for the supervillain ensemble in an excerpt from the latest Flickering Myth Movie Show…
…Big news this week for fans of NBC’s cancelled DC series Constantine, as Matt Ryan is set to reprise the role of the supernatural detective for a guest appearance in the fourth season of Arrow! “We are thrilled to have Matt Ryan reprise the role of John Constantine on an upcoming episode of Arrow,” said executive producer Marc Guggenheim. “Matt is an incredibly talented actor and his portrayal of this beloved character was always something we admired. The introduction of magic and mysticism on the show this season has provided a truly organic opportunity for us to bring John Constantine to Arrow and the CW’s DC Universe. It will be a well-deserved tip of the hat to all the Constantine fans who were so incredibly supportive of that series.” Meanwhile, Guggenheim also revealed that Constantine could appear in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and that his appearance will play an important role in Sara Lance’s (Caity Lotz) return as the White Canary…
…As well as adding Constantine to its roster, Arrow has been fleshing out its guest stars for the fourth season, with Elysia Rotaru (iZombie) set to play a love interest for Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen in flashbacks, while Rutina Wesley (Hannibal) will appear as police officer (and minor DC character) Liza Warner and Parker Young (Enlisted) will play Alex Davis, a new love interest for Thea Queen (Willa Holland). Meanwhile, we also got our first look at Team Arrow’s new base of operations, the Arrow Bunker [check it out here]…
…We got our first look at Teddy Sears as Jay Garrick – a.k.a. Earth 2’s Flash – this week thanks to a new promotional image for season two The Flash, which sees Jay alongside Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) in a homage to The Flash #123, the comic book issue which served as the introduction to the concept of Earth 2…
…Before the return of Arrow and The Flash, The CW has the animated DC spinoff Vixen set to premiere on CW Seed on August 25th, and this week brought us a new promotional image which you can see here…
…CBS added another couple of DC villains to the cast of Supergirl this week, with the immensely-named Justice Leak (Powers) set to play Hellgrammit and Brit Morgan (True Blood) signing on as Leslie Willis, a.k.a. Livewire – “a confident, abrasive and funny shock-jock who works for CatCo Media, the conglomerate owned by Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart). When an accident makes her as dangerous and shocking as her words, Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) must stop her.” Meanwhile, it’s also been revealed that a further three DC characters will feature in the first season in General Sam Lane, Red Tornado and Non – General Zod’s sidekick from Superman: The Movie and Superman II…
…During the Television Critics Assocation summer press event, CBS chairman Nina Tassler explained why the network made the decision to air Supergirl in direct competition with fellow DC series Gotham on Monday nights: “I think that they’re different audiences. I think Supergirl has a much bigger, broader audience. It’s more family entertainment. And they look different, they feel different…”
…Speaking of Gotham, it’s been announced this week that Leo Fitzpatrick (The Wire) has signed on for a recurring bad guy role in the Batman prequel series and will play the original character Joe Pike, the leader of a notorious gang of arsonists known as the Pike Brothers. Meanwhile, three new featurettes have arrived online which explore the aftermath of season one for Barbara Kean and Oswald Cobblepot, as well as Bruce and Alfred’s discovery of the cave beneath Wayne Manor…
…Warner Bros. has announced this week that it’s looking to extend its DC TV output with a pilot for a half hour comedy series entitled Powerless, which is described as The Office with superheroes, takes place at “one of the worst insurance companies in America — with the twist being that it also takes place in the universe of DC Comics. The show is about the reality of working life for a normal, powerless person in a world of superheroes and villains…”
…On the DC animation front, this week brought us the first clip from the all-ages Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem, along with a new clip and a new image of The Trickster (voiced by Mark Hamill) from LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Attack of the Legion of Doom!, and the announcement that Zach Galifianakis will voice The Joker in The LEGO Movie spinoff The LEGO Batman Movie, where he’ll appear alongside Will Arnett as Batman and Michael Cera as Robin…
…With the premiere of Heroes Reborn fast approaching, NBC has released an online six-part prequel series which helps to bridge the gap between the upcoming event series and the original Heroes [watch it here], while creator Tim Kring has revealed the reason that we won’t be seeing the return of Hayden Panettiere’s Claire Bennet: “In the real world of the story, [Claire] died a year prior to our story starting. That gets into some of the mythology that’s attached to the original show. The story was really the thing that dictated who would come back. The show was always designed to be very elastic in its premise. I always saw it as a show that could repopulate itself. I wanted to make it something that was easy for brand new viewers to watch. For them, caring about new characters is just as important as having former cast in the show…”
…And finally, this week has brought us the first poster and trailer for the Russian superhero movie Guardians, which has the following synopsis: “During the Cold War, a secret organization “Patriot” has created a squad of superheroes, which included participants from various Soviet republics. For years, the heroes had to hide their identity, but in hard times, they again take the case.” Take a look at the poster and trailer 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.
