In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Wonder Woman, Justice League, Aquaman, The Flash, Black Adam, Shazam, The Batman, Batgirl, Black Lightning, Supergirl, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, Gotham, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Venom, Spider-Man 4, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Inhumans, The Defenders, The Gifted, Logan, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, X-Men: The New Mutants, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen, Bloodshot, Rendel and more…
With less than two weeks to go until its release, the social media embargo for Wonder Woman lifted midweek, with the Gal Gadot-headlined solo movie coming in for overwhelmingly positive praise, with some even calling it the best instalment of the DC Extended Universe to date. Naturally, we’ve also had an enormous amount of promotional material, including seven clips [watch them here], an international trailer [watch it here], three new posters, including an anime-style Japanese one-sheet [see here, here and here], a promotional banner [see here] and a huge batch of new images from the film [see here]. Meanwhile, to prep you for the film, Flickering Myth’s Ricky Church has posted an article looking at 8 must-read Wonder Woman comic book stories, while DC has designated June 3rd as Wonder Woman Day and Zack Snyder has confirmed that a sequel is in the works, although the next female-led DC movie from WB will be Joss Whedon’s Batgirl…
…Rumour time now and according to a report this week, Justice League has been undergoing major, major reshoots – to the point that it has already been “remade… twice” – and that further reshoots are planned ahead of the film’s November release. Rather humourously, the “scoop” comes back way of former Latino-Reviewers Splash Report, and was quickly “debunked” by former Latino-Reviewer El Mayimbe. Given the track record of both, we can probably write this entire paragraph off as baseless speculation…
…With Aquaman now in production, director James Wan and star Amber Heard have shared a couple of images of Heard’s Mera, showing off an updated costume from the one we’ve seen her sporting in Justice League [check out the images here]. Meanwhile, we also have some new casting news, with Power Rangers star Ludi Lin joining the film as Murk, who in DC comic book continuity is the leader of the front-line army of Atlantis known as the Men-of-War and an ally of Aquaman (Jason Momoa), although he secretly disobeyed Atlantean law and showed loyalty to Arthur Curry’s brother Orm, a.k.a. Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson)…
…It looks like Warner Bros.’ search for a third director on The Flash could be nearing an end, with a report this week stating that Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future) tops the studio’s wishlist, and Warner Bros. is willing to wait until he’s completed work on his next film, which has him tied up until late 2018. Meanwhile Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class) and Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) are also said to be in contention, although it was subsequently reported that Raimi and Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man) have already passed. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. also confirmed that Billy Crudup remains attached as Barry Allen’s father Henry, after a false report claiming he’d dropped out of the solo movie…
…Dwayne Johnson has been talking about his upcoming role as Black Adam, teasing a “surprise” introduction for the character: “[The Black Adam movie is] definitely going to happen, sure. We’ve had great conversations with Geoff Johns and everyone over at DC. It’s an exciting time right now for everyone at DC because they are in a process now where they are building out their DC universe really nicely. We have a really cool surprise for Black Adam that I can’t reveal, in terms of where we will see Black Adam being introduced.” Johnson was also asked about a possible showdown between Black Adam and Superman, stating: “One fine day… that’s coming. That’s in the cards…”
…The Rock was also asked about who he’d like to see taking on the role of Shazam, throwing the name of Armie Hammer – who seems to constantly be linked to Hal Jordan – into the mix: “I’m going to throw one name out here, and I want to see how the fans are going to react to this. A guy who I met, and after I met him I was like ‘man that guy is such a cool guy’. He is a lot bigger than I thought he would be, and when I walked away, I remember telling our producer … we both looked at each other and was like: ‘Possibly Shazam? And we’re like yes, all right.’ I’m not even going to tell you his name, I’m just going to say Lone Ranger…”
…A few weeks ago Josh Gad sparked speculation that he could be set to take on the role of The Penguin in the DCEU, owing to the fact he shared a picture of Oswald Cobblepot to social media, and now he’s said he was just toying with fans: “Just having some fun… Really. I promise. There’s no ‘there’ there. You know what? The internet just goes wild — I’m just having some fun. Just putting things out there. I have not met [The Batman director] Matt Reeves. No, no, no. Seems like a lovely guy. Love his work…”
…One person who may (and the emphasis here is on “may”) find themselves with a role in The Batman is Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes star Andy Serkis, with Reeves responding to a Twitter question about that very possibility by replying that: “Andy Serkis in ANYthing! He is the BEST!”…
…As Joss Whedon continues with development on his Batgirl movie, Batman & Robin star Alicia Silverstone has thrown her hat into the ring to take a second stab at the character, stating that: “I feel like I could do a much better Batgirl now than I did then. It would be fun to tackle it again. Because I’m older and my acting is better. I know I would bring so much more to it. I was just a baby [on Batman & Robin]. It was a different thing. But I had fun back then. And I think it would be fun to do it again…”
…Aside from Alicia Silverstone and her agent, there’s probably not going to be too much support for her casting in the Batgirl movie, although Flickering Myth’s Luke Owen may not be against the idea, given his passionate defence of Batman & Robin. Check out his feature ‘Can We All Just Admit That Batman & Robin Was Kind of Awesome’ here…
…Turning to the small screen now and after placing a series order last week, The CW has now unveiled the first trailer for its latest DC offering Black Lightning, which is set to premiere in midseason [check out the trailer and synopsis here]. However, if you were looking to see Jefferson Pierce as part of the Arrowverse, The CW Network President Mark Pedowitz has some bad news for you: “Black Lightning, at this time, is not part of the Arrowverse. It is a separate situation. But there will be a big fourth quarter crossover with all four of the shows that are on in the fall… Our belief is that we will never have more than four DC shows [on] at a time, as far as that goes, so we’ll always have a rotation of some sort…”
…The CW has also unveiled official synopses for its upcoming seasons of Supergirl, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow. They give very little away, but you can find them here…
…You can read Martin Carr’s review of Supergirl’s penultimate episode ‘Resist’ here, while we’ve also got a trailer, promo and images for the season two finale ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’, which you can find here, here and here…
…Read Jessie Robertson’s review of this week’s episode of The Flash ‘Infantino Street’ here, and take a look at a trailer, promo and images for the season three finale ‘Finish Line’ here and here…
…And you can find Jessie’s review of Arrow’s twenty-second episode ‘Missing’ here, along with a trailer, promo and images for the season five finale ‘Lian Yu’ here, here and here. Meanwhile, the network has also announced that the show will be moving from its traditional Wednesday slot to Thursday nights when it returns for its sixth season in the fall…
…Over at Fox and you can find Martin’s review of this week’s eighteenth episode of Gotham season three ‘Light the Wick’ here, while we also have official images of Michael Chiklis in costume as The Executioner [see here], a promo for the nineteenth episode ‘All Will Be Judged’ [see here], a batch of images for the twentieth episode ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ [see here] and a synopsis for the two-part season finale, which introduces Alexander Siddig as Ra’s al Ghul [read it here]. Meanwhile, it’s also been announced that Gotham will be moving to Thursday nights in the fall, as it makes way for Marvel’s The Gifted on Mondays…
…Click below to continue on for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Venom, Spider-Man 4, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Inhumans, The Defenders, The Gifted, Logan, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, X-Men: The New Mutants, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen, Bloodshot, Rendel and more…
