In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at The Batman, Nightwing, The LEGO Batman Movie, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Aquaman, Black Adam, Supergirl, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, Black Lightning, Vixen, Powerless, Logan, X-Men: Supernova, Deadpool 2, X-Men: The New Mutants, Gambit, Fantastic Four 2, Legion, Avengers: Infinity War, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Doctor Strange 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Captain Marvel, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Inhumans, Iron Fist and more…
We’ll start things off with the DC Extended Universe this week, and this week saw another twist in the saga of The Batman with Warner Bros. officially announced that Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) has signed on to replace Ben Affleck as director of the Dark Knight solo movie, after Reeves has previously broken off talks the previous week. “I have loved the Batman story since I was a child,” said Reeves. “He is such an iconic and compelling character, and one that resonates with me deeply. I am incredibly honored and excited to be working with Warner Bros. to bring an epic and emotional new take on the Caped Crusader to the big screen.” Following the announcement, Ben Affleck took to Twitter to welcome Reeves to the Batcave, and in the process shut down any rumours that he may have decided to give up the cape and cowl and quit the DCEU…
…The Batman isn’t the only Bat-related project to have found a director this week either, as it has been revealed that The LEGO Batman Movie helmer has signed on to bring Dick Grayson to the big screen with a live-action Nightwing film. Details are scarce at this point, but we do know that the project has been scripted by Bill Dubuque, who wrote the Ben Affleck-headlined The Accountant…
…In other Batman bits and pieces, LEGO has unveiled more of its upcoming tie-in sets for The LEGO Batman Movie [check them out here along with some new LEGO DC Super Hero Girls sets], and you may also want to check out a fan edit of the warehouse fight from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, set to the LEGO Batman theme [watch it here]…
…The release of Warner Bros.’ first DCEU offering of 2017 is just a few months away now, and the studio held some early test screenings for the Gal Gadot-headlined Wonder Woman this week. Now, those attending were under an NDA, but apparently someone decided to break this (or just make something up pretending they were there), so the following is unverified, but it’s claimed that the reaction was that Wonder Woman is “dark” but also “good, if not great”, and that Warner Bros. has managed to find “a good movie” from the “salvageable mess” of the early rough cuts. Sure enough, some (alleged) spoilers also surfaced, which we won’t go into here seeing as they give away the plot and potential cameos, but if you want to read our summary, you can find it here. You’ll also find another spoiler with an image of the main villain – said to be played by David Thewlis – in toy form, which you can find here. And less spoilery – as in not spoilery at all – are some new images and concept art, that we have for you here courtesy of the latest issue of Empire…
…Before he linked up with Marvel for The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Joss Whedon was attached to a Wonder Woman solo movie for several years, and he’s been reflecting on his time with the Amazon Princess this week: ““I worked really hard on that movie and it meant a lot [to me], but I don’t know if what I was trying to do would fit in with what [the studio’s] vision is. I had to take on the film that, well, nobody liked… We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that’s never gonna work…”
…Zack Snyder has responded to the intense speculation over the Justice League trailer by stating it will be with us “soon”, while incoming cinematographer Fabian Wagner (Game of Thrones) has said that he’s taken his inspiration from Larry Fong’s work on Batman v Superman with regards to the look of the DC team-up: “Last year I was fortunate enough to work with Zack Snyder on his new movie Justice League. I had always been a fan of his work and of his long time cinematographer Larry Fong. I tried to put my own stamp onto it but Larry’s dark and beautiful lighting was a huge source of inspiration. I had the best time working with all of those guys…”
…With Aquaman deep in pre-production ahead of filming this Spring, director James Wan has revealed that he’ll be reuniting with The Conjuring 2 cinematographer Don Burgess on the 2018 solo movie, while a potential new logline has also surfaced, which reads: “Aquaman will center on Aquaman as a reluctant ruler of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis who is caught between land dwellers that are always polluting the globe and his own people who are ready to invade the surface…”
…With Dwayne Johnson set to take on the role of Black Adam for 2019’s Shazam and the recently-announced solo spinoff, The Rock has been chatting about the character, and why he sees him as a hero rather than a villain: “Yes, of course, Black Adam – in the mythology – is a villain. Or he can be considered an antihero. Or, to some, he’s a hero. To some who have a black heart, like me [chuckles]. Again, I love the backstory that he started off as a slave and he was held down. I think that kind of backstory – about a man who’s held down and he rises up out of that to become greater and then dealing with the conflict and pain of losing his family – it’s dark. But it also adds to the gravity and adds to the weight of the story… And it means to me, uh, he’s a hero…”
…Mon-El found himself up against a love rival for Kara’s affections this week in the thirteenth episode of Supergirl season two, ‘Mr & Mrs. Mxyzptlk’, and you can read Martin Carr’s review of the episode here, while we also have a trailer, clip and promotional images for Monday’s fourteenth episode ‘Homecoming’, which sees the return of Dean Cain’s Jeremiah Danvers [see here and here]…
…Team Flash headed to Earth-2 this week for ‘Attack on Gorilla City’, and you can find Jessie Robertson’s review of the episode here; the two-part story concludes as Grodd and company head to Earth-1 this Tuesday with ‘Attack on Central City’, and The CW has released a trailer, promo, poster and images for the episode [see here and here], along with a synopsis for the following week’s ‘Into the Speed Force’ [see here]…
…The Legends’ quest for the Spear of Destiny took them to King Arthur’s Camelot in Tuesday’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow; read Jessie’s review of ‘Camelot/3000’ here, and take a look at a trailer and promo for this coming Tuesday’s episode ‘Land of the Lost’ here, as well as a synopsis for the following week’s ‘Moonshot’ here…
…And be sure to read Jessie’s review of this week’s fourteenth episode of Arrow season five ‘The Sin-Eater’ here, while we’ve also got a trailer, promo and images for this coming Wednesday’s ‘Fighting Fire with Fire’ [see here and here] and a synopsis for the following week’s sixteenth episode ‘Checkmate’ [see here]…
…Although the heroes of Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl joined forces last year to battle the Dominators in the ‘Invasion’ story arc, aside from the inclusion of Melissa Benoist’s Girl of Steel, it was really a four-way crossover across three shows. Well, that won’t be the case this next season, as executive producer Andrew Kreisberg has revealed: “Next year, we’re hoping to do a true four-way crossover… The thing that we didn’t really plan on — because we weren’t aware that we were going to switch Supergirl from CBS to CW and it was really going to be part of it — that was the one show that didn’t have built-in shut-down days, so all the other ones did,” Kreisberg continued. “Melissa [Benoist] ended up being heavily in Flash and then in Arrow, so Supergirl was the one we needed to shut down the most and it was the one that we didn’t have any opportunity to. Now that we’ve gotten the early pickup and we’ve started designing the seasons, we’re building in those dark days, and actually more dark days on Supergirl than the other shows, to make it a little easier…”
…A five-way crossover could potentially be on the cards at some point should Greg Berlanti’s latest DC pilot Black Lightning get picked up, and this week it has been announced that Cress Williams (Hart of Dixie) has secured the title role of Jefferson Pierce. The potential series follows Pierce, a man who hung up the suit and his secret identity years ago, but with a daughter hellbent on justice and a star student being recruited by a local gang, he’ll be pulled back into the fight as the wanted vigilante and DC legend Black Lightning…
…The first two seasons of CW Seed’s Vixen animated series are coming to Blu-ray, Digital HD and Download this March, complete with an extra fifteen minutes of content seamlessly edited into the episodes to create one cohesive narrative as Vixen: The Movie. You can check out the cover art, synopsis and special features here…
…Be sure to read Rachel Bellwoar’s review of this week’s episode of Powerless ‘Emily Dates a Henchman’ here, and we’ve got a batch of images for this coming Thursday’s fifth episode ‘Cold Season’, which you can find here…
…Click below to continue on for Logan, X-Men: Supernova, Deadpool 2, X-Men: The New Mutants, Gambit, Fantastic Four 2, Legion, Avengers: Infinity War, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Doctor Strange 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Captain Marvel, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Inhumans, Iron Fist and more…
