In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Daredevil, The Punisher, Luke Cage, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Deadpool, Wolverine 3, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Fantastic Four, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Aquaman, Shazam, Justice League Dark, The Flash, Arrow, Gotham, Batman ’66, Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Lucky Man and more…
With less than three weeks to go until the start of the 2015 superhero season with the UK release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel has upped the promotional blitz for the eagerly-awaited sequel this week. The studio has offered up plenty of new footage from the film courtesy of three new TV spots [see here and here], a ‘Re-Assembled’ video featurette [see here] and an Audi tie-in commercial [see here], as well as releasing four potential IMAX posters and encouraging fans to vote for their favourite [see here]. Meanwhile, a series of official character bios have been released, which confirms that Andy Serkis is portraying Ulysses Klaw Klaue, while Hot Toys has shown off its Mark XLIII Iron Man, along with a lifesize Hulk vs. Hulkbuster statue which is on display in Hong Kong (and is up for grabs for just $21,5000, if you feel like treating yourself)…
…In other Avengers: Age of Ultron news, Marvel legend Stan Lee has teased his cameo in the film, describing it – unsurprisingly – as “his favourite” [see here], Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige have spoken about the inclusion of Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past after they had decided to include him in Age of Ultron, with Whedon stating he “was never thrilled” with Fox’s decision [see here], and Andy Serkis has spoken briefly about his role as Klaw, as well as denying any knowledge about his possible appearance in Captain America: Civil War or Black Panther [see here]…
…During a fan Q&A this week, James Gunn spoke briefly about Guardians of the Galaxy 2, confirming that Karen Gillan’s Nebula is set to make an appearance in the sequel, as well as providing an update on his progress with the script: “I turned in my treatment. I’m going to meet about it on Friday and we will start working on the screenplay next week…”
…With Daredevil set to land on Netflix this coming Friday, two new trailers have been released for the hotly-anticipated series, along with a pair of TV spots [see here and here] and a batch of interlocking character posters featuring Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) [see here]…
…Out on the press tour for Daredevil, showrunner Steven DeKnight was asked if there’s any other particular Marvel character that he’d like to see heading up their own series on the streaming service. His response? Frank Castle: “I’ve been a huge fan of the Punisher comics for years. I’d love to see him get his due on a platform like this. Nothing would delight me more than to see the Punisher get his own show and maybe we could convince Marvel to go Hard-R rating. If any character deserves an R rating, it’s the Punisher…”
…Meanwhile, Vincent D’Onofrio was asked if he’d like to see his character The Kingpin squaring off against new Marvel Cinematic Universe acquisition Spider-Man: “That would be super-cool, yeah. To be able to kick Spider-Man’s butt would be awesome. But we just don’t know about those things. Those are all the Marvel secrets that they never tell us until they need us, so… Yeah, I would do it. I would do it in a second…”
…Before we get to the likes of The Punisher, we still have A.K.A. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders to look forward to from Netflix, and this week has brought news that Cheo Hodari Coker (Ray Donovan, Southland) will serve as executive producer and showrunner on the Mike Colter-headlined Power Man series, which will get underway in 2016…
…Over at ABC’s corner of the MCU and you can read our review of this past Tuesday’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ‘One Door Closes’ here, while we’ve also got a promo and poster for the next episode, ‘Afterlife’, which you can see here and here…
…Attending the Emerald City ComicCon last week, Hayley Atwell was asked what she’d like to see in a second season of Agent Carter: “I would like one of two things — I’d really like to explore her background of where she’s come from, what her family was like, what created this exceptionally strong and unique woman, and who it was in her life that told her she could be just as good — or better — as the guys,” said Atwell when asked what she’d like to see in a second season of the show. “Secondly, I’d like to go a few years in the future, to see how she tackles being a mother and a wife, as well as being kick-ass in the office.” Click here to read the rest of Atwell’s comments, where she discusses her role in July’s Ant-Man, and the prospect of an Agent Carter movie…
…Moving on to Fox and Wednesday brought fans the news they’d been fearing, with Ryan Reynolds announcing that Deadpool would be rated PG-13… fortunately, it was April Fool’s Day, and the Merc with a Mouth then popped up to interrupt an interview between Mario Lopez and Reynolds to say “fuck you Slater!”, confirming in fact that the movie will be R-rated after all! Meanwhile, this week also brought the news that newcomer Brianna Hildebrand has joined the cast as the mutant Negasonic Teenage Warhead, as well as a batch of set photos featuring Reynolds as a scarred Wade Wilson alongside co-stars Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein and Gina Carano…
…Back in February that “I’ve got to find a way to keep playing him until I die”, it seems Hugh Jackman has had a change of heart as he announced this week that he’s set to don the claws as Logan “one last time”, which director James Mangold subsequently confirmed to be his third solo outing in the follow-up to The Wolverine. At this point, it’s unclear whether than means Wolverine will be absent from 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse (and/or Fox’s two X-Men spin-offs Deadpool and Gambit), but assuming his plans don’t change, it looks like 2017 will be the last time we see Jackman as the adamantium-clawed mutant. Rumours quickly emerged suggesting that Idris Elba tops Fox’s shortlist of replacements which also includes Chris Pine, Ryan Gosling, Robert Pattinson, Zac Efron, Dan Stevens and Bryan Cranston, but that was just us making it up as an April Fool. Sorry. Still, don’t be surprised if a few of the scoop sites throw several of those names out there sooner or later, like they do for every movie…
…Bryan Singer posted a new piece of production art from X-Men: Apocalypse this past week, which confirmed that Warren Worthington III – a.k.a. Angel – will make an appearance in the 2016 sequel, with EastEnders star Ben Hardy said to be portraying the charatcer…
…The British Board of Film Classification posted the run time for the upcoming Rogue Cut of X-Men: Days of Future Past, revealing an additional eleven minutes of footage in the upcoming extended edition, with Bryan Singer then taking to Twitter to state that there’ll actually be an extra seventeen minutes in total, when the version arrives on DVD and Blu-ray “this summer”…
…Fox also debuted an international trailer for August’s The Fantastic Four, which featured some new footage from the Josh Trank-directed reboot, including Sue (Kate Mara) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) in flight; check it out here…
…Click below to continue on for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Aquaman, Shazam, Justice League Dark, The Flash, Arrow, Gotham, Batman ’66, Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Lucky Man and more…
Originally published April 4, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
