In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Spider-Man: Homecoming, Venom, Fantastic Four, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Defenders, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Inhumans, Avengers: Secret Wars, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Deadpool 2, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Batgirl, Batman, Batman & Robin, Batman vs. Two-Face, Shadowman, Gotham, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen and more…
…There’s less than three weeks to go before the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swings back into cinemas for the Marvel and Sony-produced reboot Spider-Man: Homecoming, and according to tracking estimates, the film is looking to debut with a domestic opening weekend in the region of $90 million to $108 million. That would surpass both Amazing Spider-Man movies ($62 million and $91.6 million) and Spider-Man 2 ($88 million), but put it below Spider-Man ($114.8 million) and Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million). And should it come in on the low end, it could also provide Robert Downey Jr. with his lowest MCU opening to date – a record currently held by the original Iron Man on $98.6 million…
…Sony and Marvel have certainly been pushing the film hard this week with plenty of new promotional material, including a 22-minute ‘A Fan’s Guide to Spider-Man: Homecoming’ [watch it here], a new banner, international poster and featurette on Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark [see here], a couple of new TV spots featuring Michael Keaton’s Vulture and Chris Evans’ Captain America [watch them here and here], a batch of stills and behind-the-scenes images [see here], some concept art [see here], and the release of the first track from Michael Giacchino’s score [listen to it here]. Meanwhile, Sony has also announced that a free VR experience will be released for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on June 30th, while Tom Holland has confirmed that he’s contracted to return for not one but two solo Spider-Man sequels with Sony and Marvel…
…With the Venom movie reportedly set to start shooting on September 1st, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has officially confirmed that it won’t be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, stating that: “For now, there is no plan for Venom in the MCU. It’s a Sony project…”
…Meanwhile, if you were hoping to see Fantastic Four joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we have some disappointing news for you as Kevin Feige has also revealed that it isn’t happening – at least, not for the time being: “[We have] no plans with the Fantastic Four right now. No discussions about it…”
…We can add another name to the enormous cast of Avengers: Infinity War, with Black Panther star Danai Gurira confirmed as reprising the role of Okoye for the superhero blockbuster. Meanwhile, the Russos also shared a mysterious set photo from the film [see here], while some new rumours emerged relating to Thanos and his Black Order [read our story here] and Chris Evans revealed why he was happy to extend his initial six-film deal to include the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4: “I had six films in my Marvel contract, so I could have said after the third Avengers I was done, but they wanted to make the third and fourth Avengers films as a two-parter,” said Evans. “They said they had so many other characters to fit in – Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Ant Man – and couldn’t get them all into one movie… It made sense. It’s going to wrap everything up…”
…Marvel released the first trailer for Black Panther last Friday, and it managed to rack up a whopping 89 million views in its first 24 hours. While that was shy of Thor: Ragnarok’s 136 million, it did manage to surpass Captain America: Civil War’s 61 million views, and the trailer also left star Lupita Nyong’o “geeking out” and “twerking” with excitement, according to the latest comments from the actress [read them here]. Meanwhile, we also got a look at some unused concept art for Captain America: Civil War featuring an alternative design for T’Challa’s costume; take a look here…
…Nathan Fillion has been discussing his deleted Simon Williams cameo from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, suggesting that he’s open to a return as Wonder Man at some point in the future, while James Gunn has seemingly teased the possible introduction of Quasar in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, as well as revealing that he’s had a story idea which would mean he’d have to change the canon established in the first Guardians movie…
…Having previously ruled out an R-rated Marvel movie, Kevin Feige has now backtracked on his comments somewhat, saying that it is a possibility at some point in the future: “[We’re] not currently planning [R-rated movies], no, but it’s not out of the question. When I started at Marvel 17 years ago, the Blade franchise was doing very well. A lot of people didn’t even know it was based on a Marvel character, because at the time, they sort of hid the fact that it was a Marvel character. So, not out of the question, but not something we’re working on right now…”
…Feige also addressed the “Marvel vs. DC war”, downplaying any rivalry between the two studios and revealing that he’s rooting for the DCEU to succeed: “There’s not really a rivalry. The rivalry is much more amongst the press, I think. Geoff Johns is a very good friend of mine. We grew up together in the business and recently celebrated Richard Donner, who we both used to work for. So, I applaud all the success he’s had. I really just look at it as a fan. When the movies perform well and are well received, it’s good for us – which is why I’m always rooting for them. The success of Wonder Woman is wonderful. It makes us incredibly happy. Finally, we can put to rest the falsehood that audiences don’t want to see female characters. We never believed that was true. There were a run of movies that just weren’t very good 10-15 years ago that caused that reputation. I’m glad that Wonder Woman has blown that away…”
…Sticking with Marvel and DC for a moment, and filmmaker John Landis has had some critical words for the MCU this week, whilst offering praise to DC’s Wonder Woman: “I’m just… truthfully, I’m bored shitless with the Marvel Universe now. All the superhero movies tend to be interchangeable, you always have these mass destruction of cities and huge computer-generated extravaganzas to the point where you could take a reel from any of the Marvel superhero movies and put it any of the others and nobody would notice. They’re very well-made, it’s just they’re the same thing over and over again. But, I don’t know, people are showing up. One of the reasons Wonder Woman has been received so well by the critics is that it doesn’t destroy cities! (laughs) Even the superhero stuff is on a very human scale, it’s the gods! We’re not seeing skyscrapers tumbling! (laughs).”
…Turning to the small screen and while it seems unlikely The Defenders and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be sharing the screen any time soon, cast members from both series have teamed up this week for a special photoshoot, which features Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Finn Jones (Iron Fist), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson), Marvel’s Head of Television Jeph Loeb, Chloe Bennet (Quake) and Mike Colter (Luke Cage); check it out here…
…Visual effects studio CoSA has released a VFX breakdown video for the fourth season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which gives fans of the show a look at how Ghost Rider, the Framework and the LMDs were brought to life on screen; watch it here…
…Lost and The 100 star Henry Ian Cusick has revealed that he’s set to appear in ABC and IMAX’s upcoming Marvel series Inhumans, offering up a few details on his character, who appears to be an original creation for the show: “I play a geneticist and his name is Dr. Evan Declan and he’s human. I think that says quite a lot already, if you know the comics, you know where the Inhumans are coming from, so that’s pretty much my character…”
…The fourth season of Disney XD’s rebranded Avengers Assemble animated series gets underway today under the title of Avengers: Secret Wars, and you can watch the trailer here; meanwhile, Disney XD also debuted a brief teaser trailer for its other new animated show Marvel’s Spider-Man, and you can watch that here…
…Before we move on from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we’ve had a look at some upcoming MCU action figures and collectibles this week, with Hasbro unveiling its Marvel Legends figures featuring the Netflix versions of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Punisher and Elektra [see here], and Beast Kingdom revealing its Hulk vs. Hulkbuster Egg Attack figures from Avengers: Age of Ultron [see here]…
…Click below to continue on for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Deadpool 2, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Batgirl, Batman, Batman & Robin, Batman vs. Two-Face, Shadowman, Gotham, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen and more…
