…Moving on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe now and this week has brought conflicting reports as to when we’ll see the first trailer for Marvel’s Phase Three launching Captain America: Civil War, with Russian theater chain Cinema Park claiming that it will be attached to Spectre from this coming Friday, November 6th, and Collider stating that we’ll actually have to wait until Star Wars: The Force Awakens in December. In the meantime, check out this image of some Civil War merchandise, which gives us another peek at Cap’s new scalemail armor…
…Mark Ruffalo confirmed his casting as The Incredible Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok this week, as well as describing the God of Thunder’s third solo movie as “a buddy picture”: “I didn’t really know that much about it, but I think it’s going to be a buddy picture with Thor and Bruce Banner. There’s no doubt, everyone wants us to fight at one point… I know that it’s about [the Norse legends of] Ragnarok, or the end times in the Marvel universe as it pertains to Thor — which seems to be quite the theme these days in movies.” The film, which is being directed by Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows), is set to start shooting in Queensland, Australia in June 2016 ahead of its November 3rd, 2017 release…
…Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 kicked off its casting this week, with Pom Klementieff (Oldboy) signing on for a “key role”, which is reportedly the character of Mantis. However, it seems Marvel and director James Gunn have missed out on their first choice for the new villain, with Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar) said to have passed on the role…
…Marvel’s Ant-Man celebrated a box office milestone this week as its Chinese release helped to propel the film to $500 million worldwide, making the ninth Marvel Studios movie to reach that figure, and its seventh consecutive release. Meanwhile, Hot Toys gave us a look at its 1/6th scale collectible figurine for Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang, which features some incredible detail; check it out here…
…As Marvel and Sony prepare to relaunch Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War and the 2017 reboot, original Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi has revealed that he’d love to return to the world of the wall-crawler: “I messed up on [Spider-Man 3]. I think they’re so complete now, Marvel. They probably don’t need me anymore. But if they needed me? I’d love to [return]. It’s great to be wanted…”
…On the small screen side of the MCU, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. explored Agent Jemma Simmons’ time on the mysterious alien planet this past week with ‘4,722 Hours’, and you can read Danny Hale’s review of the episode here; meanwhile, check out some promo images for this Tuesday’s ‘Among Us Hide…’ here, along with a sneak peek promo here…
…This week brought us a new motion poster for Jessica Jones featuring David Tennant’s Kilgrave, a.k.a. the Purple Man, as well as a promo image featuring Krysten Ritter’s hero staring down the villain, and a rumour that Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock will make a guest appearance in the series, which hits Netflix on November 20th…
…A few weeks back an unsubstantiated rumour emerged suggesting that Marvel were considering pulling the plug on Iron Fist, and while it was pretty much dismissed out of hand, another rumour has surfaced this week claiming that Marvel is now considering swapping out the Netflix series for The Punisher, which would see Jon Bernthal reprising his role from Daredevil season 2. The report claims that a Punisher show would be much cheaper than Iron Fist, and more marketable, while executives are said to be very pleased by Bernthal’s performance as the character. I’d recommend taking it with a pinch of salt for the time being, but it does seem like a Punisher series would be a no brainer for Netflix…
…Briefly moving on to 20th Century Fox’s Marvel properties and it has been announced this week that the studio has signed a deal to bring Deadpool and Wolverine 3 to IMAX screens, while Andre Tricoteux has been discussing his role as Colossus in the Merc with a Mouth’s solo movie, revealing that we’ll be seeing an interpretation of Piotr Rasputin which is much more faithful to the comic books than Daniel Cudmore’s portrayal in previous X-Men movies: “The Colossus you’re going to see in Deadpool is very true to the original character in the comic book. [Director] Tim Miller had a really clear vision, and the Deadpool people had a really clear vision of what they wanted. They wanted Colossus to be very traditional to the original story. I think you’re going to get to see more of who Colossus is. Like I said, we kept him really traditional to the comic book. So yes, I think people will get a better sense of who he is. But I think there’s still a lot more to be told about him. Colossus has been around in the comics since the ’70s, so I mean, I think you could do your own movie on him. Yeah, you’re going to get to see a little bit more of who he is and kind of his outlook on the world….”
…Having already added Michael Madsen to its ranks, it has now been announced that Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Big Bang Theory) is set to join the PlayStation Network adaptation of Powers for its second season. Wheaton is set to play n “exciting, mysterious and powerful” new character who is soon to be introduced to the comic book series…
…Be sure to check out Tai Freligh’s review of Heroes Reborn episode six ‘Game Over’ here, and check back soon for his review of episode seven ‘June 13th – Part One. Meanwhile, you can also check out a preview of this coming week’s ‘June 13th – Part Two’ over on our YouTube channel here…
…And finally, it has been announced that Li Bingbing (Resident Evil: Retribution, Transformers: Age of Extinction) is set to star in Realm, a Chinese superhero movie based on an original idea from Stan Lee. What a kick it has been to create our first Chinese female superhero, and an empowering one at that,” said the Marvel legend as part of the official announcement. “It has been such a fun experience bringing to life an international woman character, and the ability to do so has been different from anything we’ve ever done! I am thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.
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.
