In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Deadpool 2, The New Mutants, Gambit, The Gifted, Avengers: Infinity War, Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Runaways, Marvel Rising, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Venom, Justice League, Flashpoint, The Batman, Aquaman, Shazam, Nightwing, Justice League Dark, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Arrow, Black Lightning, Krypton, Gotham, Watchmen, The Incredibles 2 and more…
After last week’s first look at Avengers: Infinity War, 20th Century Fox decided to give us our first glimpse at its big 2018 superhero team-up movie this week with the release of a batch of images from X-Men: Dark Phoenix featuring Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Professor X (James McAvoy), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), director Simon Kinberg and Jessica Chastain’s as-yet-unrevealed villain (who has now been confirmed as a shape-shifter, seemingly confirming those rumours about the Skrulls making an appearance). Along with the images, EW also unveiled the cover to its latest issue featuring Sophie Turner’s Jean; check that out here…
…As part of the image unveiling, long time X-Men writer-producer and debut director Simon Kinberg offered up some plot details on Dark Phoenix, as well as revealing that – much like X-Men: The Last Stand – the Phoenix will be part of Jean, rather than a cosmic entity of its own: “Jean absorbs those solar flares and then hurls them back out into space. That’s what triggers, awakens, creates this Phoenix force and voice inside her. What appears to the world to be another heroic victory by the X-Men in saving stranded people in space we realize is the the thing that begins the unraveling of Jean and the unraveling of secrets Charles told her…”
…Fox also unveiled a new teaser for Deadpool 2 which saw Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth advertising his appearance at this weekend’s Comic-Con Experience in Brazil, a.k.a. “the “beautiful sun-kissed home of Pele, hairless genitalia, and the world’s largest Jared Leto statue”. Watch the teaser promo here…
…First up from Fox in 2018 though is The New Mutants, and the studio has debuted the first poster for the horror-themed X-Men spinoff [see here], while director Josh Boone also debuted a promotional photo featuring featuring the troubled mutant teens Cannonball (Charlie Heaton), Mirage (Blu Hunt), Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams), Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Sunspot (Henry Zaga) [see here] and a description of the footage shown at Brazil’s Comic-Con Experience surfaced online [check it out here]…
…It looks like Gambit has suffered another delay, albeit only a brief one, with production now said to get underway on the long-planned solo movie in March 2018 instead of the previously announced February. The film, which is being directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean, A Cure for Wellness) with Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street) and Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) on board to star, is set for release on February 14th 2019…
…2017 saw Hugh Jackman hanging up the claws as Wolverine, and the actor has been reflecting on his time as Logan this week, stating that he said goodbye to the character with tears in his eyes: “I wish I’d started playing him like that 17 years ago. So there’s some sense of missed opportunity, but when I saw Logan, I sat there and I did have tears in my eyes. The main feeling I had was: ‘There, that’s the character. I feel like I’ve done it now.’ And I was calm and at peace, but I’m going to miss that guy…”
…You can read Rachel Bellwoar’s review of the ninth episode of The Gifted ‘outfoX’ here, and watch a promo for this coming week’s midseason finale ‘eXploited’ here…
…A few weeks ago it was reported that The Walt Disney Company was looking to purchase some of Fox’s assets, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio. Well, it seems that talks have now progressed, and by all accounts a deal could be announced before Christmas, worth around $75 billion in total. That would of course mean that Marvel Studios reacquired the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four – something which Chris Evans and Ryan Reynolds have both joked about on social media this week…
…That leads in nicely to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has been talking this week about the concept of shared universes, and Marvel’s approach towards building one: “The only advice, and I’ve sort of said this already today, is don’t worry about the universe. Worry about the movie. We never set out to build a universe. We set out to make a great Iron Man movie, a Hulk movie, a Thor movie and then be able to do what, at the time, nobody else was doing: put them together… Make that movie work. The notion of sitting down going, ‘Let’s build a cinematic universe,’ might be a little off. Let’s sit down and make a great movie and if people are interested in that, there are ways and ideas to tie them together going forward.” You can read the rest of Feige’s comments here…
…Marvel has released a batch of official images from Avengers: Infinity War featuring Vision (Paul Bettany), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Wong (Benedict Wong), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thanos (Josh Brolin), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) [check them out here], as well as a potentially spoilery set photo relating to The Incredible Hulk [see here]. Meanwhile, we also got a look at some promotional cup toppers which are set to arrive in a theater near you soon; take a look at those here…
…Before we get to Infinity War, there’s the small matter of Marvel’s first superhero offering of 2018, Black Panther, and this week brought us a new poster for the solo movie [see here], as well as promotional images for LEGO’s Marvel Super Heroes tie-in sets [take a look here]…
Click below to continue onto the next page for Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Runaways, Marvel Rising, Animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Venom, Justice League, Flashpoint, The Batman, Aquaman, Shazam, Nightwing, Justice League Dark, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Arrow, Black Lightning, Krypton, Gotham, Watchmen, The Incredibles 2 and more…
Originally published December 9, 2017. Updated April 19, 2018.
