Our weekly round up of the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Guardians of the Galaxy, Planet Hulk / Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Captain America 3, Iron Man 4, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Fantastic Four, X-Men: Apocalypse, The Sinister Six, The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Shazam, Arrow, The Flash, Gotham, Avengers Assemble, Young Justice and more….
With Comic-Con kicking off tomorrow and a host of superhero news expected, including an announcement on Marvel’s Phase Three movies and – potentially – the future of the DC movie universe, it’s an early (and somewhat abridged) edition of The Week in Spandex this week as we round up all the superhero news from the past few days, with a post-Comic-Con edition set to follow on Monday. Anyway, let’s get cracking…
…Ahead of its release next week, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy had its world premiere in Hollywood on Monday evening, and you can watch a video of all the action from the red carpet right here, along with a five-minute sneak preview [see here], an IMAX featurette and IMAX poster [see here and here], a motion poster and two clips [see here], a host of new TV spots [see here and here], and a couple of new posters [see here and here]…
…With all signs pointing to another hit for Marvel, Guardians director James Gunn has discussed the chances of him returning to direct the inevitable sequel: “I’m actually in a somewhat weird position. Because if the movie does well, then I’m gonna make the sequel. And if it does okay then, well, I’ve already been offered other movies but I can only do those other movies if I don’t do the sequel, so it’s a weird situation…”
…And speaking of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Gunn also took the time to address – and completely shoot down – the rumours of Mark Ruffalo’s Incredible Hulk meeting up with the cosmic superhero team for a variation of the Planet Hulk storyline spinning out of Avengers: Age of Ultron: “It is absolute, 100% bullshit. It feels like a great relief to finally say this after all the dumb stuff on the Internet. There’s not going to be a Planet Hulk movie, there was never going to be a Planet Hulk movie, there was never plan for the Hulk to team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy – I wouldn’t want the Hulk to team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy! And it’s all a bunch of complete bullshit…”
…As Marvel prepares to finalise – and hopefully announce – its Phase Three plans, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has spoken about the upcoming showdown between Captain America 3 and Warner Bros.’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and indeed the competition between Marvel and DC overall: “The Dark Knight movies were rather successful and genre-defining, they altered the genre in big ways. So I think there has always been competition that way. I mean Iron Man was the number one movie of 2008 until The Dark Knight came along, and I loved it frankly. I love that the number 1 and the number 2 movies of that year, and it has happened a number of times since then, being comic-book movies, even if it wasn’t one we made. Here we are now, 14 years since the first Marvel movie I worked on. At that point it had been eight years and for about those eight years people had been asking ‘How much longer gonna last?’ ‘When are people gonna get tired of these movies? And my answer always was ‘People only get tired if a whole slew of terrible ones come out’. And it was our job to make sure that doesn’t happen. If there are other people out there interested in that not happening as well, I’m all for it! So I continue to be all for quality entertainment for moviegoers to enjoy on weekends. If it is on the same weekend I enjoy it slightly less. But we are doing what we’ve always done, which is sticking to our plan and sticking to our vision for the movies going forward and we have a very large vision that we’re working on for Cap 3 and for all the threes movies and just because another movie plops down onto one of ours doesn’t mean we are going to alter that. Maybe we should, but we’re not going to…”
…With seven currently-unannounced features on Marvel’s slate between now and 2019, there’s been speculation about whether Tony Stark could returning for another Iron Man movie, and Robert Downey Jr. has now suggested that he’d be open to reprising the role for Iron Man 4: “It’s down to Kevin Feige and Ike Perlmutter [CEO of Marvel Entertainment] and Disney to come to us with what the proposal is, and that’s on us to agree or disagree. When things are going great, there’s a lot of agreement. Right now, this has just been swell, hasn’t it? [Age of Ultron] has been a really good one and it feels good and we’re having a good time. It’s that thing of: why give up the belt when it feels like you can barely get jabbed? Most people are saying that right when they get knocked out. The future is, as usual, uncertain…”
…In a few other bits and pieces from the big screen aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII star John Boyega has expressed an interest in playing Black Panther, Hayley Atwell has confirmed that she’s set to reprise the role of Peggy Carter for Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, Corey Stoll has spoken to Collider about the original and revised scripts for Ant-Man, Kevin Feige has discussed pretty much everything Marvel in a series of press interviews this week, including the impending casting of Doctor Strange [see here], the potential introduction of a female-led superhero such as Captain Marvel [see here], and Josh Brolin’s casting of Thanos, development on Thor 3 and Captain America 3 and whether there’s any movement on Black Panther [see here], and Marvel has added another release date to its upcoming schedule, setting May 4th 2018 for an as-yet-untitled movie. Avengers 3? You’d have to assume so…
…Moving to Marvel’s small screen projects and showrunner Steven S. DeKnight took a moment to discuss the upcoming Netflix series Daredevil during the premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy, stating that: “We’re going for a very kind of gritty, 1970′s New York feel for the show. We love the idea of beauty in the decay of the city and Hell’s Kitchen being a place that is both horrible and beautiful at the same time, and that’s why Matt Murdock loves it so much and wants to protect it…”
…Ahead of the Marvel Television Presents panel, it has been revealed that Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess, Battlestar Galactica) has joined the cast of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for an as-yet-unrevealed role in the second season, while showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen have confirmed that Cobie Smulders’ Agent Maria Hill will be back when the show resumes on September 23rd…
Click below to continue on to the next page for The Fantastic Four, X-Men: Apocalypse, The Sinister Six, The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Shazam, Arrow, The Flash, Gotham, Avengers Assemble and Young Justice…
