…20th Century Fox’s search for Cable came to an end this week, with Josh Brolin set to follow up his role as Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by starring as Nathan Summers alongside Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth in Deadpool 2. Brolin – who won the role ahead of the likes of Michael Shannon, David Harbour and Brad Pitt (the latter of whom had to pass due to scheduling conflicts) has signed a deal is said to be for up to four films, which includes Deadpool 3 and the planned team movie X-Force. Check out Ryan Reynolds’ welcome tweet here…
…According to reports, Fox is looking likely to give a full series order to Gifted, the X-Men-themed pilot from director Bryan Singer (X-Men: Apocalypse) and showrunner and executive producer Matt Nix (Burn Notice)…
We come on to the DC Extended Universe now and with Wonder Woman less than two months away, director Patty Jenkins has been discussing how she found working within the already established universe created by Zack Snyder: “Zack was making Batman v Superman simultaneous to making this, but he was very instrumental in the direction the film was going to take. That ended up leading to my signing on, because I know enough about these worlds now that unless we really have a shared vision, it’s going to be two years of fighting, and who wants that? I had a very strong feeling of what kind of Wonder Woman film I’d want to make… The costume made perfect sense to me. I love that costume, and I love that costume designer. Michael Wilkinson is an amazing costume designer. Because of it’s origins, because it had a relationship to the ancient Greek and Roman times, it made sense as a battle armor of somebody who would be coming from there. So, that was very easy. The song is slightly more complicated, because that is the song of a very adult and evolved character. I love that track, but we had to embrace it as a different thing. The story is of who Diana grows into being; you can’t just come out of the gate with a song like that for a ten year old.” You can read Jenkins’ comments on the casting of Gal Gadot here, while we also have promo images for Funko’s Pop! Vinyl, Rock Candy and Dorbz tie-in figures [see here] and Kotobukiya’s Wonder Woman ArtFX collectible statue here [see here]…
…Warner Bros. dropped a new poster for Justice League this week, which sees Ben Affleck’s Batman standing alongside fellow League members Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher); check it out here…
…James Wan has added a new member to the cast of Aquaman, with action icon Dolph Lundgren set to play King Nereus, the king of Xebel and a fierce revival to Jason Momoa’s Arthur Curry. Lundgren joins a cast that also includes Amber Heard as Mera, Patrick Wilson as Ocean Master, Willem Dafoe as Dr. Vulko, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Dolph Lundgren as King Nereus, Nicole Kidman as Atlanna and Temuera Morrison as Tom Curry…
…Dwayne Johnson has been talking about his upcoming DCEU role as Black Adam, and the decision to have him star in his own movie rather than the originally-planned Shazam film: “We’ve had great discussions with Geoff Johns over at DC. This is a really fun, cool time for DC right now because they’re world-building. We’re seeing that with Wonder Woman and Aquaman. We have a few surprises down the line. So what we decided to do was to create a scenario where Black Adam has his stand-alone movie, and Captain Marvel, Shazam, has his stand-alone movie. We’re building our world that way, and then we can come together at some point…”
…Armie Hammer has spent the past couple of months teasing his possible casting in the DCEU as Green Lantern, but now he’s revealed that he has had no talks with Warner Bros. with regards to the role: “Man, jeez…It was fun for a while and now I’m convinced that everyone’s gonna turn on me so I’m like ‘Oh shit, slowly backing away.’ I have nothing to confirm nor deny. The only talk of me being Green Lantern that I have heard in my life has only come from social media…”
…Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard has become the latest actress to express an interest in taking on the role of Poison Ivy in Gotham City Sirens, which will reunite Suicide Squad director David Ayer with Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn…
…DC Films co-chief Jon Berg has shot down a rumour this week that Warner Bros. is looking to celebrate the 80th anniversary of The Dark Knight in 2019 by releasing FOUR Batman-themed movies that year in The Batman, Batgirl, Nightwing and Gotham City Sirens. Meanwhile, Deathstroke co-creator Marv Wolfman has praised Joe Manganiello’s casting as Slade Wilson, stating that: “I feel more confident than ever that we got both the Slade Wilson the movies need and the Deathstroke great movies deserve.” That is of course if Deathstroke remains involved with The Batman following its rewrite…
…Some new pieces of concept art arrived online this week for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which show that a much more comic book-faithful version of Doomsday was considered for the movie before they decided to opt for a Lord of the Rings Cave Troll design…
…Gotham is set to return to Fox on April 24th, and to whet our appetites for ‘How the Riddler Got His Name’, the network has released a batch of promo images showing Ed Nygma is his green suit [see here], along with a synopsis for the following week’s episode ‘These Delicate and Dark Obsessions’ [read it here]. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a refresher on all the season three happenings to date, you may want to check out this handy recap video…
…Supergirl also returns from a short break on April 24th, and The CW has released a batch of images from the next episode ‘Ace Reporter’ [see here], along with a synopsis for the nineteenth episode ‘Alex’ [see here]. Meanwhile, we’ve also had work that Calista Flockhart’s Cat Grant and Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman will both be returning for the season two finale, as well as the release of a video breaking down the visual effects of the DC superhero show [watch it here]…
…The CW also unveiled a VFX breakdown for The Flash which focusses on the creation of Gorilla Grodd and King Shark [watch it here], as well as releasing a synopsis for the twentieth episode ‘I Know Who You Are’, which sees Vibe squaring off against Killer Frost [read it here]…
…And fear not Arrow fans, as we also have a VFX breakdown for that series [watch it here], along with a synopsis for the twentieth episode ‘Underneath’ [see here]. And in casting news, it’s been revealed that Katrina Law’s Nyssa al Ghul will return for an “epic fight” with Talia in the season five finale, while Deathstroke is also returning for the final episode of the season (Stephen Amell announced Manu Bennett’s return, which Bennett subsequently denied), and both Juliana Harkavy’s Dinah Drake and Rick Gonzalez’s Wild Dog have been promoted to series regulars for season six…
…It looks like we may soon be able to add another DC show to The CW’s slate, with a report this week suggesting that it’s looking likely the network will place a series order for Greg Berlanti’s Black Lightning…
…Be sure to read Rachel Bellwoar’s review of this week’s episode of Powerless, titled ‘Green Furious’, which you can find here…
…Moving on to animation now and it looks like voice recording sessions for the third season of Young Justice are underway, with The Walking Dead’s Khary Payton revealing that he’s begun work on the returning series, which will see him reprising his role as Aqualad…
…Warner Bros. has announced the home-entertainment release dates and special features for The LEGO Batman Movie, which is set to hit Digital HD in May and DVD and Blu-ray in June. You can find a list of the bonus features here…
…Warner Bros. Animation supervising producer James Tucker has revealed that he’s keen on revisiting the Flashpoint story arc, although unlike Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, he’d like to shift the focus from The Flash to tell another story: “The thing we never got to do with Flashpoint was the Flashpoint Batman story. You know there was no time in the Flashpoint movie to tell that particular story. We did our little-abbreviated snippet to show you how Joker came about, but there’s a whole three comic book arc of that that was in the comics, and I always wanted to bring that to the screen…”
…And finally, it also looks like Warner Bros. may be keen to revisit Watchmen, with a rumour this week suggesting that an R-rated animated adaptation of the seminal graphic novel is in development at WB Animation. Apparently, the news was revealed during a marketing survey from Warner Bros., which also allegedly sought to gauge interest in a number of other properties, including Swamp Thing, Batman: The Long Halloween, Gotham Academy, Superman: Red Sun, Injustice, Fables, Lucifer, iZombie, Hellblazer, Preacher, Sandman, Scooby Apocalypse and the Archie Comics series Afterlife with Archie.
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.
