In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers 4, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Venom, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Iron Fist, Runaways, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, The New Mutants, Justice League, Justice League Dark, Aquaman, The Batman, Man of Steel 2, Shazam, Gotham City Sirens, Deathstroke, Arrow, The Question, Krypton, Watchmen, LEGO DC Super Heroes: The Flash, The Boys and more…
With Christmas just around the corner and 2017 drawing to a close, the IMDb has put together its list of the top ten most-anticipated movies of 2018 based upon its page metrics, with Avengers: Infinity War topping the pack in first place, followed by two more superhero movies in Black Panther in second place and Deadpool 2 in third. So, not too much love for The New Mutants, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Venom, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Aquaman, The Incredibles 2 or Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse from the IMDb users just yet, but nevertheless its certainly shaping up to be another busy year on the superhero front…
…Speaking of Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has teased that the first five minutes of the movie will firmly establish Thanos as the “biggest and baddest” MCU villain to date: ““You know, we’ve been teasing Thanos since the very first Avengers film. Remember the end of Avengers, the very end of the movie he turns around in the chair and you realize something bad is coming. We’ve been teasing him for years and the trick is when you tease something for that long you have to deliver. So, within the first five minutes of Infinity War people will understand why Thanos is the biggest and baddest villain in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.” And in other Infinity War and Avengers 4 news, Nebula actress Karen Gillan has been chatting about her experience working on the two movies, while Elizabeth Olsen announced that she’s wrapped production by sharing a set video featuring the Scarlet Witch in a stunt sequence…
…First out of the gates on the superhero movie front in 2018 is Black Panther, and this week brought us some comments from Letitia Wright and Lupita Nyong’o about their roles as Shuri and Nakia [read their comments here], as well as a big batch of promotional posters [see here], and fourteen new images featuring T’Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), Okoye (Danai Gurira), Zuri (Forest Whitaker), W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya), Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Ayo (Florence Kasumba), Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis), Shuri (Letitia Wright), and director Ryan Coogler [check them out here]…
…In other news from the big screen side of the MCU, Marvel has enlisted Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Doctor Strange director of photography Ben Davis to shoot 2019’s Captain Marvel movie, while Jeremy Renner has once again expressed his opinion in a Hawkeye solo movie, if it happens soon: “It would be a wonderful thing,” said Renner. “Just don’t wait too long! I don’t want to be in my 50s in tights…”
…While we’ve heard on numerous occasions that Venom won’t be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we still don’t know for sure if Sony intends on connecting it to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in some way, and producer Matt Tolmach was giving nothing away when asked that very question this week: “We’re making a Venom movie, is what I’m going to say to you. A Venom movie, with Tom Hardy, and I think you will be very pleased… We’re making a Venom movie, and I’m excited for people to explore it, and find out what that is.” Meanwhile, in other Venom news, Riz Ahmed’s character may have been revealed [see here], as might the design for Hardy’s Venom [see here], while some set photos arrived online showing Hardy filming a fight scene with co-star Scott Haze [see here]…
…Read Danny Hale’s review of the fourth episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season five ‘A Life Earned’ here, while we also have a promo and images for this coming week’s sixth episode ‘Fun & Games’ [see here and here], along with a batch of images for the following week’s ‘Together or Not at All’ [see here]…
…In other MCU TV news, Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick have been spotted on set as Danny Rand and Colleen Wing in the first set photos from season two of Netflix’s Iron Fist [see here], while Liam Hoofe has reviewed the seventh episode of the Hulu series Runaways, entitled ‘Refraction’ [read his review here]…
…Over at (the now Disney-owned) Fox, we’ve got a new batch of images from X-Men: Dark Phoenix, featuring Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), and Jessica Chastain in her as-yet-unrevealed role; take a look at the images here…
…Fox has also unveiled two new character promos for its first X-Men movie of 2018 The New Mutants featuring Blu Hunt’s Danielle Moonstar/Mirage and Alice Braga’s Dr. Cecilia Reyes [see here], while a report has surfaced this week suggesting that the budget for the Channing Tatum-headlined Gambit is around $155 million [read our report here]. Meanwhile, X-Men fans may also want to take a look at a batch of images from the next episode of The Gifted, ‘3 X 1’, which you can find here…
…Click below to continue on for Justice League, Justice League Dark, Aquaman, The Batman, Man of Steel 2, Shazam, Gotham City Sirens, Deathstroke, Arrow, The Question, Krypton, Watchmen, LEGO DC Super Heroes: The Flash, The Boys and more…
Originally published December 23, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
