…The arrival of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will likely have a big impact on Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s repeat business, but Marvel Studios will surely be delighted with the performance of its latest Phase Two release, which has overtaken Iron Man ($623.9 million) and Thor: The Dark World ($644.8 million) this week to become the third highest grossing movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Winter Soldier currently sits on an impressive $649.7 million, and while of course it has no chance of catching Iron Man 3 ($1.215 billion) and The Avengers ($1.518 billion), it’s still been a mighty impressive run for Chris Evans’ Cap in his second solo feature…
…In a couple of other bits and pieces from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a new image has arrived online from Guardians of the Galaxy giving us another look at Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) as the villainous Nebula, while Stan Lee has confirmed that he’s shot a cameo for the August release, having previously suggested that his MCU cameo streak would come to an end with the cosmic superhero offering. And – fresh from his casting in Star Wars: Episode VII – it’s also been announced that Andy Serkis has joined the Avengers, kind of, with Mark Ruffalo revealing that the mo-cap expert is assisting with performance capture on The Incredible Hulk in Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron…
…With the first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fast drawing to a close, we’ve got a promo and poster for the penultimate episode ‘Ragtag’, which airs this Tuesday, as well as some first-look images from the season finale ‘Beginning of the End’ (which it may just be, if ABC doesn’t pick the show up for a second season). And of course, be sure to check out Anghus’ review of the previous episode ‘Nothing Personal’, which you can read here…
…Whether Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is renewed or not, it’s certainly not the end of Marvel’s TV output, with production on Daredevil set to get underway in July this summer, and Marvel Entertainment’s Chief Creative Official Joe Quesada has spoken about Netflix’s upcoming Defenders miniseries, their tone, and their place within the wider MCU: “There will be some interconnectivity, much like the movies. They will exist within the Cinematic Universe again, so this is all the same world as S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers… Although these are superhero stories, this is different now. This is the street level…this is the street level noir side of the Marvel Universe. Something that you haven’t really, really seen in any of our Marvel movies. And probably more ground level, than I think you’ve seen. This is not like us doing Batman, The Dark Knight or any of that stuff. This is very much Marvel doing street level superheroes… The scripts are coming in. They are pretty fantastic. They’re really emotional. They’re very, very original. But at the same time, it is Daredevil. It is Matt Murdock. We will eventually, hopefully start casting really, really soon, but I’m very, very excited about it…”
…With its November release date creeping up, Disney has added another two names to the voice cast of its animated Marvel movie Big Hero 6, with Jamie Chung (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) set to portray Go Go Tomago and Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) also signing on for an as-yet-unrevealed role. The pair join the previously announced T.J. Miller (Transformers: Age of Extinction) in the voice cast oft he film, which is being directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (Bolt)…
…Moving on to 2014’s next big superhero movie and with the marketing machine for X-Men: Days of Future Past in full swing, Fox has dropped a few clips from the film this weekend, which include an explanation of how James McAvoy’s Professor Xavier is able to walk and a showdown between Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) [see here] and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) infiltrating a meeting between Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) and military leaders [see here], as well as a Wolverine character featurette and a TV spot featuring Quicksilver’s (Evan Peters) young sister, who – according to Bryan Singer – is most definitely not the Scarlet Witch [see here]…
…Hugh Jackman has been speaking about the chances of him returning to the role of Logan for Fox’s third Wolverine movie (which would be his ninth outing in total, assuming he’s in X-Men: Apocalypse), stating that he’s yet to make the decision, but should he do it he’ll likely be hanging up the claws afterwards: ““I don’t know yet [if I’ll return for The Wolverine sequel]. We’re talking it through. I still am very ambitious for the character. And tonally I feel like we corrected the ship with the last one. But I feel we can still go further, in a way. If I did another one I’m 99.9% sure it would be the last, so that will inform what it is for me… I think it has to be better [than The Wolverine]. I can still see where we can improve on the last one. I love the intimacy of that story, I liked the small stuff, I liked that it was a little unexpected. I don’t want to get into specifics, because it just upsets people, but there are certain parts of that story where I felt we were predictable. And I don’t think you need to do that with Wolverine. What’s exciting is that you can make it a more interior story, and people actually prefer that. And that was good to show and convince everyone – especially everyone who greenlights the movies!” And as for potential source material for the third Wolverine, Jackman has mentioned that they’re looking at a range of storylines, including Old Man Logan. Read what he had to say here…
…Shifting to Fox’s other Marvel property and The Incredible Hulk star Tim Blake Nelson is in final negotiations with the studio about playing Harvey Elder – a.k.a. Mole Man – in director Josh Trank’s reboot of The Fantastic Four, although his appearance will be restricted to that of Elder, setting up Mole Man for a future instalment. Should negotiations go successfully, Nelson will join a cast that so far includes Miles Teller (Divergent) as Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara (House of Cards) as Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station) as the Human Torch, Jamie Bell (Nymphomaniac) as The Thing and Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) as Doctor Doom…
…And finally, it looks like the original superhero The Phantom could be heading back to the big screen, with rumours suggesting producer Mark Gordon (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair, Source Code) is looking to develop a live-action reboot of Lee Falk’s classic character, who was previously portrayed by Billy Zane (Titanic) in 1996’s The Phantom, as well as Ryan Carnes (General Hospital) in the short-lived 2009 TV series.
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.
