…Moving on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe now and Sebastian Stan has been speaking about his experience on Avengers: Infinity War, comparing himself to Jon Snow from the Game of Thrones episode ‘Battle of the Bastards’: “I feel a lot like that Jon Snow character [in] ‘Battle of the Bastards’. When there’s that shot of Jon Snow, from the back as horses are charging at him and he’s just standing there, that’s kind of how I feel on set at times. Will I make this stampede or not?” Meanwhile, it’s been reported this week that The Wolverine’s Hiroyuki Sanada is set for a role in Infinity War (or perhaps Avengers 4), while Paul Bettany shared an aumusing behind-the-scenes photo from the set of Avengers 4 showing him in full Vision costume as he completes some paperwork…
…With a little over a month to go before Thor: Ragnarok begins its global rollout, Marvel has released a new banner for the cosmic threequel featuring Chris Hemsworth’s God of Thunder flanked by Heimdall (Idris Elba), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Hela (Cate Blanchett), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), and Odin (Anthony Hopkins) [see here], while director Taika Waititi has revealed that he considers Ragnarok to be the first in a new series of Thor movies, and producer Brad Winderbaum has revealed what Thor has been up to during the two-year gap between Age of Ultron and Ragnarok, and why he missed the Avengers’ Civil War…
…Spider-Man: Homecoming made its way to China this past weekend, debuting with $70.8 million (the third-biggest for a superhero movie) and helping to push the reboot’s global takings to $824.1 million and counting, putting it ahead of Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman ($817.7 million) and making it the wall-crawler’s second-highest grossing solo movie behind Spider-Man 3 on $890.9 million. It remains to be seen whether it will have enough in the tank to top that figure, but it may well surpass the $863.4 million haul of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to become the biggest superhero movie of the year to date…
…In other Spidey-related news, Sony has pushed back production on its Tom Hardy-headlined Venom movie, with filming now set to get underway in Atlanta on October 23rd, rather than the originally planned date of September 1st. Apparently the delay won’t have a knock on effect on Venom’s release date, with the non-Spider-Man spinoff set to open on October 5th 2018…
…It has been announced this week that Marvel has enlisted Oscar-nominated production designer Andy Nicholson (Gravity, Assassin’s Creed, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) to work on the Captain Marvel movie, while Brie Larson was full of praise about her work with Marvel so far: “That’s one of the things that I’m so impressed with at Marvel – is that although they are this big company, at the same time their stories are really character driven and they care a lot about the journey of these characters and they understand that these films are a metaphor for the things that are very real in our lives. There’s been a lot of talk about it, they’re really open to the things I have to say about it, and it’s super collaborative. It feels like any other job at this point, which is really wonderful…”
…Some new concept art from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 arrived online this week featuring an alternate costume design for Zoe Saldana’s Gamora [see here] and Yondu’s (Michael Rooker) climactic rescue of Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) as they escape Ego the Living Planet [see here]. Meanwhile, director James Gunn has revealed that the “horrible” origin of Rocket Raccoon will be explored in a future movie: “As you know, the MCU is one way of processing these characters. 616 is a different one. We are going to learn more about where Rocket comes from in the coming sagas. It’s going to be a little different from the comics. We already know a lot about from where he came from. It’s a little bit more horrible than what it is in the comics when you come down to it. We will learn more about that…”
…In a few other bits and pieces from the big screen side of the MCU, a set video has surfaced from Ant-Man and the Wasp featuring a car flipping stunt [see here], concept art of Captain America from the Marvel Studios opening logo sequence has landed online [see here], and it’s been confirmed that Stan Lee has shot his cameos for Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp and the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4…
…Speaking of Stan, the Marvel legend has also claimed that Leonardo DiCaprio is keen to play him a biopic, as well as stating that Marvel is actively trying to get the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four to bring back all of its properties under the one roof, and he’s optimistic that it will happen one day: “Sooner or later, they’re going to get the rights back to all our characters. They’re working on it, and they’re still making X-Men movies and stuff. Don’t worry about it. You’ll get more Marvel superheroes than you’ll have time to look at in the next few years…”
…Netflix released a batch of images new poster for its next Marvel series The Punisher this week, which confirms that the Jon Bernthal-headlined series will hit the streaming service this year (with previous rumours suggesting November). Meanwhile, we also got a character promo image featuring Bernthal’s Frank Castle in his full Punisher get-up; check it out here…
…In other Netflix news, Krysten Ritter has announced that principal photography has wrapped on the second season of Jessica Jones, and Anghus Houvouras has shared his disappointment with Marvel’s The Defenders in his latest op-ed, which you can read here…
…Back in January, Ryan Reynolds claimed that Logan “could break the glass ceiling” at the Academy Awards, tipping Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine swansong for Oscar success. And now comes word that Fox has kicked off its “For Your Consideration” campaign, sending out screeners to the Academy voters, with reports speculating that the film could be in with a shout of earning nominations for Best Screenplay, or in the acting categories for Jackman and Patrick Stewart…
…With filming on X-Men: The New Mutants drawing to a close, director Josh Boone shared an image of the film’s first – rather bloody – logo, which certainly seems fitting for the “horror” tone that the X-Men spinoff has reportedly adopted…
…With Fox and Marvel’s The Gifted set to premiere next month, this week has brought word on two new castings for the X-Men series: Jermaine Rivers (MacGyver) will play the Morlock character Shatter; and Garret Dillahunt (The Guest Book) has secured the role of Roderick Campbell, a.k.a. Ahab, who is described as “a mutant researcher contracted by the Sentinel Services. Professorial, intense and intimidating, Dr. Campbell has a morally dubious mission yet to be revealed…”
…Lionsgate gave us a look at Stranger Things’ David Harbour in full Hellboy make-up from the upcoming reboot with the release of a couple of promotional images [see here and here], while Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-O) has joined the cast as Major Ben Daimio, the role originally filled by Deadpool’s Ed Skrein before he decided to exit over the whitewashing controversy…
…Amazon is looking to add another superhero project to its slate, with the streaming service giving a script order to the long-gestating adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys, which has Eric Kripke (Supernatural) writing and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Preacher) directing an executive producing. Amazon is said to be looking at a straight-to-series pick up for the project, which “is set in a time where most of the superheroes are corrupted by their celebrity status and often engage in reckless behavior, compromising the safety of the world. It centers on a CIA squad, known informally as “the boys,” whose job is to keep watch on the proliferation of superheroes and, if necessary, eliminate some of them…”
…Crackle has released a poster, trailer and images for its upcoming animated superhero special SuperMansion: Drag Me to Halloween, which is set to air on the streaming service on October 5th and features the voice talents of Bryan Cranston (Titanium Rex), Keegan-Michael Key (American Ranger), Jillian Bell (Viking Woman, Clown Girl), Tucker Gilmore (Black Saturn), Zeb Wells (Robobot), and Heidi Gardner (Cooch). Check them out here…
…And finally, we end on a sad note with the news that prolific character actor Harry Dean Stanton has passed away aged 91. In a career spanning over 60 years, Stanton appeared in a host of movies including Alien, Escape from New York, Repo Man, Pretty in Pink and The Green Mile, as well as a brief outing in 2012’s The Avengers.
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.
