Our weekly round up of the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Justice League, Man of Steel, Arrow, Gotham, Son of Batman, Batman: Assault on Arkham, Beware the Batman, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Sinister Six, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Big Hero 6, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Wolverine 3, The Fantastic Four, The Phantom and more…
It may not be the best of times for fans of DC movies, suffering a three year gap between Warner Bros.’ Man of Steel and Batman vs. Superman while Marvel fans enjoying three or four releases each year, and Marvel Studios, Sony and Fox all mapping out their superhero movies until 2018 and beyond. But, there was something for DC fans to cheer about this week with confirmation that Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) will reunite post-Man of Steel sequel as WB assembles the World’s Greatest Superheroes for the long-awaited Justice League movie. Zack Snyder is confirmed as returning to direct the team-up, while speculation has suggested that the film could arrive either in 2017 or 2018. Furthermore, it’s also been reported (albeit unconfirmed) that the studio has a further nine DC-based movies in development, with Shazam, Metal Men, Fables, Sandman and 100 Bullets all name-dropped. Oddly, there was no mention of Guillermo del Toro’s planned Justice League Dark adaptation, so perhaps that’s gone the same way as the majority of del Toro’s projects…
…We’ve posted a few op-eds in reaction to the big Justice League news this week – be sure to check out Anghus Houvouras’ Why Warner Bros. Needs to Combine TV and Film for Justice League and Why Is Everybody Writing Justice League’s Obituary?, as well as Anthony Stokes’ Why Zack Snyder Directing Justice League Isn’t a Big Deal…
…No sooner had the Justice League announcement been made than we got our first casting rumour / wild guess, with Ben Affleck’s good buddy Matt Damon thrown up as a contender for Aquaman (a role allegedly already filled by former Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa, if you believe every scoop you read). And of course it didn’t take long for Damon to deny the rumour, joking to CNBC that: “Since they made Ben Batman, I’ve been showing up at his house every day dressed as Robin, but my little campaign I don’t think has gone so well. So far, I haven’t been contacted by anyone to be in the movie.” However, he did suggest he’d be open to a role if it would benefit the charity Water.org, which aims to tackle water scarcity: “I’m open to being in any good movie, as always. It might be a bit of stretch, but, if dressing up in yellow tights somehow moved the needle for this issue, I would be willing to do that. I’ve done sillier stuff…”
…Sticking with the DC Cinematic Universe for a moment and former Superman Dean Cain has offered up a few words about last year’s reboot Man of Steel, criticising the film for a lack of humour and romance: “The last incarnation of Superman was completely different than anything I did on Lois & Clark. It was kind of devoid of the two things that made our show special, which were humour and romance. It didn’t have either of those. There was no humour and there was no real romance. I saw the movie they pushed. There’s no romance in there. I’m sorry. I think Henry Cavill did a great job. I love Amy Adams as an actress, but that wasn’t romantic to me. Those elements were missing but they weren’t going for those. They were going for that angst-y, alien, real feel. It was pretty cool…”
…On the small screen, and as Arrow draws closer to its season two finale, we’ve got a couple of promos and a batch of images from this week’s penultimate episode ‘Streets of Fire’, as well as a first-look image from the big finale ‘Unthinkable’, which reveals that Katrina Law’s Nyssa al Ghul will be making her return to Starling City. And, while you’re here, be sure to check out Jessie Robertson’s review of the latest episode ‘City of Blood’, which you can read here…
…Turning to Fox’s Gotham series and Donal Logue – who is set to portray GCPD Detective Harvey Bullock – has spoken about the upcoming show, and specifically how the Batman prequel series will appeal to fans despite the absence of the Dark Knight: “It’s interesting because people will say, ‘What good is Gotham? A Gotham without Batman is stupid!’. What’s fascinating about Gotham is like, what happened in the 20 years before Batman was so effed up that it needed a vigilante to come and save it – and those moral decisions have repercussions. Like, Gordon does stuff that seems to come from a good place, but you can do something and — this kind of goes back to the statecraft argument — say, in Vikings time, if I want to kill my enemy, I have to kill his kids. If I don’t kill sons, they’re coming after me and mine for the rest of our lives. So you’ve got to pull the root out. That’s something that Gordon struggles with, being that brutal. Then later, if some bad shit goes down, you can say, ‘Well, that was your bighearted moment.’ It’s kind of mock politics, so it’ll be interesting to see. I’m super fascinated to see where a lot of these things go. The question is, how did we get there? How did we get to the point where we had to have a Batman..?”
…And while we’re on the subject of Batman, Warner Bros. has released another new clip from the DC Universe Animated Original Movie Son of Batman ahead of its arrival this coming Tuesday, while we’ve also got our first look at the cover artwork for the next direct-to-video animated feature, Batman: Assault on Arkham, which is set within the world of the hit Arkham video game series. Meanwhile, Beware the Batman has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Animated Program (where it’s up against Fairly Odd Parents, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Turbo FAST and Monsters vs Aliens), and it rather sad news it’s been revealed that Efrem Zimbalist Jr. – the voice of Alfred Pennyworth in Batman: The Animated Series and the DCAU, as well as Doctor Octopus in the 90s Spider-Man series – has passed away aged 95…
…Having opened here in the UK a couple of weeks back, Sony’s superhero sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2 finally made its way across the Pond to the States yesterday. The wall-crawling sequel spun an opening day haul of $37 million for a projected $90 million weekend (which would be down some $5 million on Marvel Studios’ opening weekend for Captain America: The Winter Soldier), while it’s also retained top spot at the UK box office for a second weekend, and is currently on $155 million internationally. Ahead of its U.S. release, Marc Webb spoke in depth about the sequel, discussing the decision to cut Shailene Woodley’s Mary Jane Watson from the film and the chances of her returning for The Amazing Spider-Man 3, the evolution of Felicity Jones’ character Felicia, the differences between the first and second movies, as well as whether Sony’s plans for The Sinister Six affected the final product [read what he had to say here]. And if you’ve not already, you can check out our reviews of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 our reviews here, here and here, along with Anthony Stokes’ assessment in What The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Does Right and What It Does Wrong…
…Speaking of The Sinister Six, Sony has seemingly teased the line-up of the upcoming spin-off from writer-director Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods), with a mobile tie-in app revealing a short video when recognising the end credits song of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 that hint towards Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan), The Rhino (Paul Giamatti), Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Kraven the Hunter and A.N. Other, who’s been speculated as either Mysterio or The Chameleon. Take a look at screengrabs from the Sinister Six teaser here and see if you can work it out…
…Looking beyond The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and Andrew Garfield spoke about the possibility of his Peter Parker handing the torch to Ultimate Spider-Man’s Miles Morales: “Miles Morales was a huge moment in this character’s comic book life. And I do believe that we can do that. It’s something I’m really interested in figuring out; an eloquent way of coexisting, or passing on the torch. I don’t have an answer, but I think it’s actually a really important move. I think it’s a really beautiful and important move… I want it to feel like a circle. I want the two ends to join, somehow. I don’t know what that means, yet. I don’t know what that means in terms of the quantity of Spider-Man movies I do. But I know that I don’t particularly want to be a 40-year-old Spider-Man. [Laughs] I do know that time is fleeting…”
…However, when Garfield does decide to call it a day, don’t expect to see Morales, Ben Reilly, Miguel o’Hara or any other incarnation of Spider-Man taking over the reins, with producer Avi Arad stating categorically that: “The one thing you cannot do, when you have a phenomena that has stood the test of time, you have to be true to the real character inside. Who is Peter Parker? What are the biggest effects on his life? Then you can draw in time, and you can consider today’s world in many ways. But to have multiple ones… I don’t know if you remember, but Marvel tried it. And it was almost the end of Spider-Man…”
…And of course, with a new Spider-Man movie out in cinemas, Arad couldn’t resist grabbing a few headlines by bringing up a possible crossover with the Avengers or the X-Men, whilst simultaneously putting an end to any chance by declaring that Spidey would have to be the main focus of any team-up: “I think there are some stories that will fit beautifully into a cross. Spider-Man would be incredible mixed up with those other universes. But if we want to do that, the crossovers, it has to be a story that is absolutely centered on Spider-Man. We cannot be second banana to anything out there. Because this is the king. This is the one that influenced young people from birth. I’m not preaching, but Spider-Man, Peter Parker, who is in all of us, is too important to go in and use it as a sidepiece for corporate purposes. The studio may disagree with me, some fans may disagree with me. I don’t care…”
Continue on to the next page for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ulron, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Defenders, Big Hero 6, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Wolverine, The Fantastic Four and The Phantom…
