In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Wonder Woman 2, Justice League, The Batman, Batman: Year One, Superman Lives, Man of Steel 2, Suicide Squad 2, Nightwing, Gotham, Supergirl, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, Krypton, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers 4, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Venom, Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp, X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, Logan, X-Men: The New Mutants, The Gifted, Hellboy, The Boys, SuperMansion and more…
We’re starting things off in the DC Extended Universe this week, and it’s now official thatPatty Jenkins will be back in the director’s chair on Wonder Woman 2, with Jenkins putting pen to paper on a deal which has presumably made her one of – if not the – highest-paid female directors in Hollywood. Meanwhile, Jenkins has also enlisted Dave Callaham (The Expendables, Godzilla) to script the film, from a story by the filmmaker and DC Films’ Geoff Johns.Wonder Woman 2 is set for release on December 13th 2019 (unless it decides to move away from Star Wars: Episode IX) and will see Gal Gadot reprising the role of the Amazon Princess…
…Next up from the DC Extended Universe isJustice League, and this week saw the release of a new banner for the teamup with Wonder Woman front and centre, as well as a promotional image from the superhero team-up featuring Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen. Miller also revealed one (unsurprising) change we’ll be seeing when The Flash hits the big screen this November: “Well, you know, look, I can confirm, spoiler alert, his suit does not pop out of his ring [in the movie]. Things have to progress, you know? Original Barry Allen was clearly an incredibly, incredibly clever scientist. We acknowledge and respect that. We want to apologize to the fans who are mad about the ring thing. I know the ring is the coolest thing about the DC universe. It was a little hard for us to sell in this version of this universe right now. Bear with us! There’s gonna be other cool things…”
…With Matt Reeves taking over directing duties on The Batman and working on a page-one rewrite of the script for the Dark Knight solo movie, question marks have been raised about whether we’ll be seeing Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke in the film.Manganiello himself said back in July that he knew the answer but couldn’t reveal it, and now Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim has just dropped a major hint that Deathstroke won’t be in the film after all during an interview discussing Slade Wilson’s return to the DC show: “DC control these characters. We went through a period where DC was like, ‘We’ve got plans for Deathstroke that don’t include Arrow.’ That changed at the end of this year.” Meanwhile, our old friend El Mayimbe popped his head up this week to claim thatBen Affleck’s unused script for The Batmanwas inspired by David Fincher’s The Game…
…On the subject of unused Batman scripts,Darren Aronofsky has been talking about his aborted Batman: Year One adaptation this week, comparing the tone to Warner’s recently announced standalone Jokerorigin movie: “You know what, I think it’s finally… I think we were basically – whatever it is – 15 years too early. Because I hear the way they’re talking about the Joker movie and that’s exactly – that was my pitch. I was like: we’re going to shoot in East Detroit and East New York. We’re not building Gotham. The Batmobile – I wanted to be a Lincoln Continental with two bus engines in it…”
…Another DC project that never saw the light of day was Tim Burton’s Superman Lives, but that hasn’t stopped Nicolas Cage from describing it as the definitiveSuperman movie: ““I would offer that the movie that Tim and I would have made, in your imagination, is more powerful than any of the Superman movies. I didn’t even have to make the movie and we all know what that movie would have been in your imagination. That is the Superman. That is the movie. Even though you never saw it — it is the Superman…”
…In other Superman-related news, Matthew Vaughan (X-Men: First Class, Kingsman: The Golden Circle) has confirmed that he has had talks with Warner Bros. about the prospect of directing Man of Steel 2, although he’s undecided as to what his next project will be: “I am planning another Kingsman, I’ve written the treatment and some of the scenes… I don’t know what I’m going to do next but I have had chats about Superman, I love Superman. If somebody asks me to do Indiana Jones, most of the superheroes or Star Wars, the fanboy in me can’t help but be excited…”
…Margot Robbie has revealed this week that she expects to be back in the role of Harley Quinn in 2018, although she’s not sure exactly what movie it will be for (candidates include Suicide Squad 2, Joker and Harley Quinn, and Gotham City Sirens). Meanwhile, Harley fans will soon be able to get their hands on Hot Toys’ Harley (Dancer Dress Version) collectible figure from the first Suicide Squad movie, and you can take a look at the official promotional images here…
…The LEGO Batman Movie director Chris McKay has been speaking about his upcoming live-action DC movie Nightwing, stating that: “I’m a big comic book fan, and being able to do the story of Nightwing, to do a Dick Grayson story, which is a character that every single person in the world knows, but has never really had a lot of screentime…I’m a big fan of underdog stories, and he is one of the biggest underdog stories in comics. And he’s a character that I grew up with. I like the arc. It’s gonna be a badass action movie with a lot of heart and emotion. It’s gonna be a crazy, fun ride. It’s gonna be real stuntwork, and they’re gonna need to do all of the stuff on camera and do it credibly. For the cast and the crew, it’s gonna be a visceral experience, and for the audience. It’s not gonna be like a lot of these movies where there’s a lot of CG and flying, and things like that. Everything he does is gonna have to be real.” You can read the rest of McKay’s comments on DC’s filmmaker-led approach here…
…Gotham’s fourth season gets underway this coming Thursday, and we’ve got a batch of promotional images from the premiere episode ‘Pax Penguina’ [see here], while showrunner Danny Cannon has revealed that Chris Chalk’s Lucius Fox will be the one to create Bruce Wayne’s proto-Batsuit which we’ve seen in the trailers for the new season: “Lucius is beginning to suspect that Alfred and Bruce might have a double life and politely weaves his way in. Lucius has worked for Wayne Industries and he may work there again one day, and for right now he doesn’t want to see Bruce get hurt. So he finds a way of helping without interfering…”
…The CW stepped up the promotion for its returning DC superhero shows this week, releasing new promos for Supergirl season 3 [watch it here], DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season 3 [watch it here], The Flash season 4 [watch it here] and Arrowseason 6 [watch it here]. Meanwhile, we also got a first official image from season four of The Flash featuring a bearded Barry Allen [see here], while Flickering Myth’s Alex Moreland caught up with Arrow star Juliana Harkavy for an exclusive interview about her role as the new Black Canary; read the interview here…
…Syfy has announced a new addition to the cast of its Superman prequel seriesKrypton, with Shaun Sipos (Melrose Place, The Vampire Diaries) joining the new show in the series regular role of Adam Strange. The series’ incarnation of the DC hero is described as “a world-weary human, who finds himself stranded on Krypton as the unlikely mentor to Seg-El, Superman’s grandfather.” Adam Strange was one of several DC characters that were announced as being part of the series during the San Diego Comic-Con, so we should probably expect to get some casting news on the others – Hawkwoman, Doomsday and Brainiac – very soon…
…Click below to continue on for Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers 4, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Venom, Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp, X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, Logan, X-Men: The New Mutants, The Gifted, Hellboy, The Boys, SuperMansion and more…
…Moving on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe now and Sebastian Stan has been speaking about his experience onAvengers: Infinity War, comparing himself to Jon Snow from the Game of Thronesepisode ‘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 thatThe 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 ofAvengers 4 showing him in full Vision costume as he completes some paperwork…
…With a little over a month to go beforeThor: 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 directorTaika Waititi has revealed that he considersRagnarok to be the first in a new series ofThor movies, and producer Brad Winderbaum has revealed what Thor has been up to during the two-year gap betweenAge 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’srelease date, with the non-Spider-Manspinoff set to open on October 5th 2018…
…It has been announced this week that Marvel has enlisted Oscar-nominatedproduction 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 Waspfeaturing 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 Mutantsdrawing 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 theX-Men series: Jermaine Rivers (MacGyver) will play the Morlock character Shatter; andGarret 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 includingAlien, 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.
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