…20th Century Fox has announced that Hugh Jackman’s X-Men swansong Logan will receive its home-entertainment release on May 23rd in North America and July 10th in the UK, and – as promised by James Mangold – it will include a black-and-white ‘Logan Noir‘ edition of the acclaimed solo movie. Meanwhile, Liev Schreiber has revealed that he was initially invited to reprise his X-Men Origins: Wolverine role as Sabretooth, but it didn’t pan out: “There was an invitation early on from Hugh [Jackman] and [director James Mangold] and I would have loved to work on it. It was very difficult given Ray Donovan’s schedule, and I think they went a different direction as well with story…”
…Rumour time now and it seems that the First Class-era cast may be about to expand with another original member of the X-Men for 2018’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Three audition tapes surfaced this past week, one of which was for the character of ‘Marie’ – prompting speculation that we may get to see a new actress taking on the role of Marie D’Ancanto, a.k.a. Rogue. That being said, the other two audition tapes used placeholder names, so it’s entirely possible that ‘Marie’ could be a different character entirely…
…Turning to the DC Extended Universe now and the marketing for next month’s Wonder Woman has really stepped up a gear this week; we’ve had a new poster and trailer [see here], several extended TV spots / trailers offering up snippets of new footage [watch them here and here], a first clip featuring Gal Gadot’s Diana protecting Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor during an alley fight [watch it here], and a some new images and behind-the-scenes stills [see here and here]. Meanwhile, it’s been reported that the film will have a running time of 141 minutes – that’s 10 minutes shorter than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2 minutes shorter than Man of Steel, and 18 minutes longer than Suicide Squad – while an early reaction to the movie described it as “exciting and entertaining in every way. Great SFX and characters. Here’s a summer blockbuster as good as Captain America…”
…Warner Bros. officially kicked off production on next year’s Aquaman this week in Australia, with James Wan making the announcement on Twitter, and the studio following it up with the release of the official logo, as well as news that young actor Otis Dhanji has been cast as a 13-year-old Arthur Curry. Meanwhile, Jason Momoa also discussed his role as the King of Atlantis, stating that: “We’ve never really seen anything from this guy before, so it’s fun to have a level playing field. There aren’t like four Aquamans before me. I get to set the tone for it. The guy was never really accepted on land, and he was never really accepted in Atlantis. He’s a half-breed. But he’s the best of both worlds. He just doesn’t know how to handle his powers. So it’s kind of a coming of age for a young man to a man, or a man to a king. He’s lost a lot of things and he’s got to cope. He’s an outsider…”
…This week has given us our first look – well, sort of – at Steppenwolf, the big bad of Justice League, albeit in LEGO form with the arrival of a promotional image for the DC Super Heroes tie-in sets for November’s hotly anticipated superhero blockbuster. Check out the promotional images here…
…King Arthur: Legend of the Sword director Guy Ritchie has revealed that he was keen to direct Suicide Squad 2, but it sounds like his commitment to Aladdin has put him out of the running: “I quite fancy doing Suicide Squad 2, because I thought I could do a good job with it. I can’t do it because I’m doing something else. But I’ve felt I could really do something with that…”
…The Batman director Matt Reeves has been talking about the Dark Knight’s upcoming solo movie, sharing his love of the character and comparing Bruce Wayne to Caesar from War for the Planet of the Apes: “It’s a strange thing to be involved in the two franchises which were the two that I was connected to most as a child. I just was obsessed with Batman when I was a kid. What I find so interesting about him as a character is that, as far a superhero goes, he’s not superhuman, he is a person. And he is a tortured soul who is grappling with his past and trying to find a way to be in a world that has a lot that’s wrong with it and trying to find a way to reconcile all of that … That is a really powerful character, in the same way that Caesar is such a powerful character….”
…A new fan-made trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice arrived online this week, with this one reimagining the superhero blockbuster as a buddy cop movie a la Lethal Weapon; take a look here…
…The DC Twitter detectives have been back on the case this week, leading to speculation that Josh Gad could be set to play The Penguin in the DCEU. The reason? Well, he followed Geoff Johns and Jon Berg of DC Films, and he tweeted out an image of Oswald Cobblepot. It may well be nothing, but with The Batman, Gotham City Sirens, Nightwing and Batgirl all on the horizon, there’s plenty of opportunity to bring The Penguin into the fold…
…Turning to the small screen now and you can read Martin Carr’s review of this week’s episode of Supergirl ‘Alex’ here, and be sure to check out a trailer, promo and images for the twentieth episode ‘City of Lost Children’ [see here and here], as well as the official synopsis for the season two finale ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’, which features the return of Superman, and the introduction of General Zod [see here]…
…Supergirl executive producer Andrew Kreisberg has been discussing the guest appearances from the two Kryptonian nemeses Superman and Zod in the finale: ““I don’t really want to say too much about Zod. How and why it happens is a fun surprise. As far as his costume is concerned, we took a page out of the older, Nazi uniform that he used to wear, which was very cool. That name instantly means something to fans of Superman and Supergirl. It’s a bit of a cameo surprise in the episode. [Superman] is incredibly crucial [to the finale]. I love Tyler in the part — he’s so good. It’s a bit of a different interpretation of Superman than you’ve seen. In our show, Superman has been [a superhero] for a decade, and he’s pretty comfortable with being Superman. A lot of interpretations are of him getting his start, at the beginning. For us, he’s so comfortable in the role, but the show is called Supergirl, so our Superman is here in service of Supergirl. He’s her family. He’s her conscience. He’s her mentor. There’s also some very cool scenes between the two of them…”
…Savitar’s identity was uncovered in this week’s episode of The Flash, ‘I Know Who You Are’, and you can read Jessie Robertson’s review here, while we also have trailer, promo and images for Tuesday’s twenty-first episode ‘Cause and Effect’ [see here and here], a synopsis for the season finale ‘Finish Line’ [see here], and a poster featuring Barry Allen and Wally West [see here]…
…Jessie has also reviewed this Wednesday’s episode of Arrow ‘Underneath’, and you may also want to take a look at a trailer, promo and images for the twenty-first episode ‘Honor Thy Fathers’ [see here and here], as well as a synopsis for the season finale ‘Lian Yu’ [see here]. And, if you were hoping to see more of John Barrowman’s Malcolm Merlyn in the sixth season, you may be disappointed to hear that the actor has ruled out an appearance in next year’s Arrowverse shows…
…And finally, you can read Martin’s review of this past Monday’s sixteenth episode of Gotham season three ‘These Delicate and Dark Obsessions’ here, while we also have a promo for this coming Monday’s ‘The Primal Riddle’ [watch it here], a batch of images for the next week’s ‘Light the Wick’ [see here], and a synopsis for the nineteenth episode ‘All Will Be Judged’ [see 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.
