In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Deadpool/Wolverine, Logan, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Animated, Doctor Strange 2, Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Punisher, Luke Cage, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Shazam, Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham, The LEGO Batman Movie, Batman Returns, Captain Underpants and more…
Welcome to the final edition of The Week in Spandex for 2016, and we’ll start things off this week with the first-live-action superhero movie of 2017, 20th Century Fox’s Logan. This week brought some exciting news for fans with a report suggesting that Ryan Reynolds had reprised the role of Deadpool for an appearance in Hugh Jackman’s X-Men swansong. However, by the time you’d reached the byline and saw it was from Umberto Gonzalez, Reynolds, Jackman and Logan director James Mangold had already taken to Twitter to shoot the claims down, with Mangold in particular giving the “scoop” both barrels. Nevertheless, Reynolds is still keen to try and persuade Jackman to postpone his retirement, stating that: “I want a Deadpool/Wolvie film. But Logan is its own unique and perfect thing. The Big Red Shit-Talker wouldn’t mix with the tone…”
…Fox has kept the marketing campaign for Logan ticking over this week with the release of a new poster [see here] and official stills from the movie featuring Wolverine [see here] and Caliban [see here], while it’s been reported that the second trailer will be with us next month, and could be attached to either xXx: Return of Xander Cage or Resident Evil: The Final Chapter; in any event, you can help to unlock the new trailer by visiting a newly-launched viral site which is unveiling the trailer a frame at a time (that’s 1974 frames in total), and you may also want to watch a LEGO remake of the first trailer here…
…CinemaSins turned their attention to this year’s box office smash Deadpool for the latest entry in their ‘Everything Wrong With’ series, and you can watch the video here…
…Turning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe now and an international TV spot for Spider-Man: Homecoming arrived online this week, which offers up a few snippets of previously unseen footage and the chance to watch Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr. and company dubbed into a foreign language; check it out here…
…Spider-Man: Homecoming isn’t the only big screen adventure that Sony has planned for the wall-crawler, as the studio is set to unleash an as-yet-untitled animated Spider-Man move in 2018, and an alleged casting call surfaced this week suggesting that the film will see Miles Morales as the lead, as opposed to Peter Parker. Meanwhile, Miles will be linking up with Peter Parker as part of Marvel’s new Spider-Man animated series, with some promo art arriving online this week featuring Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen and Venon; take a look here…
…Although it’s yet to be confirmed that Doctor Strange will be getting a sequel, screenwriter Jon Spaihts has been discussing potential characters for the Sorcerer Supreme’s second solo outing, or more specifically Clea, love interest to Dr. Stephen Strange, daughter of the sorceress Umar, and niece to Dormammu: “She’s a tricky character to interpret because her uncle is a kind of fire-headed omnipotent god and she’s kind of a hot babe who studies magic. That’s a tricky relationship to bring out of a comic book and on to a movie screen. But she’s a really compelling character as a foil, a love interest, a colleague of Doctor Strange’s, and she always carries with her that width of mystery as to whether she is human, and how human, and what that means for his relationship to her. So we might find a way to introduce her to the story.” You can read the rest of Spaihts’ comments, including his thoughts on villains, here…
…Fresh from his role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Forest Whitaker is gearing up to swap the galaxy far, far away for the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an appearance in Black Panther, and the actor has shared his excitement about working with director Ryan Coogler on the Phase Three solo movie: “I’m excited to do it. I mean I think Ryan’s an amazing filmmaker. I’ve got a chance to know him since college, so I’m excited to see what it’s like to be working with him on the other side, not as a producer but as an actor cause that’s how we started with Fruitvale Station…”
…On the subject of Black Panther, some concept art from Captain America: Civil War has arrived online this week, giving us a look at some unused designs for T’Challa’s homeland, Wakanda. Take a look at the concept art here…
…Matthew McConaughey has revealed that he was offered the role of Star-Lord’s father Ego the Living Planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but turned it down in favour of The Dark Tower: ” like Guardians of the Galaxy, but what I saw was ‘It’s successful, and now we’ve got room to make a colorful part for another big-name actor.’ I’d feel like an amendment. The Dark Tower script was well written, I like the director and his take on it, and I can be the creator, the author of the Man in Black—a.k.a. the Devil—in my version of this Stephen King novel. We’ve done the first one. It’s a fantastic thriller that takes place in another realm, an alternate universe, but it’s very much grounded. For instance, the gunslinger’s weapon isn’t a lightsaber or something; it’s a pistol. I enjoyed approaching my character as if I were the Devil having a good time, getting turned on by exposing human hypocrisies wherever he finds them…”
…Turning to the small screen and ABC has released a batch of promotional images for the January 10th midseason premiere of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season four ‘Broken Promises’ [see here] along with a synopsis for the following week’s ‘Patriot’ [see here], while executive producer Jed Whedon has been chatting about the shift from Ghost Rider to the LMD story arc, as well as teasing a return for the Spirit of Vengeance: “This year we’re getting to play with a lot of the toys that we’ve been hoping to play with. We want everything to feel like its own mini world, and to have its own flavor. So we do think you’ll come into the next section [of episodes] and immediately feel like, ‘Oh, this is a different kind of story.’ So we’re excited about that. [Ghost Rider] is trapped in another place, which usually means that he’s not dead. We can go on a different journey, but we are still playing in the same world [as Ghost Rider], and these things could link up later in some way — maybe in thrilling fashion…”
…As he gears up to headline his own Netflix series, Jon Bernthal has been speaking about the appeal of The Punisher, and how the character of Frank Castle resonates with him: “I’m working on The Punisher now. You know, this whole superhero-comic-book thing is something I had zero interest in being a part of. The guys that I really, really respect as actors seem to have kind of purposely stayed away from that. I don’t mean that I’m above that or anything, just that it was not for me. But then when I got to know a little bit about this character… He ain’t got a fucking cape. He ain’t got any superpowers. He’s a fucking tortured, angry father and husband who’s living in this unbelievable world of darkness and loss and torment. Frank Castle resonates with me…”
…Having lobbied for the role of Power Man prior to Mike Colter’s casting, Shadowhunters star Isaiah Mustafa has now expressed his interest in joining the second season of Marvel and Netflix’s Luke Cage (or any Marvel project for that matter), with the actor stating that: “Definitely, I’d play anything on that. I just love the characters so much that I really just want to be a part of it in some way. Just get an opportunity to just play in that world, but I think the direction they went was probably the best direction they could have went. But yes, I would love to be involved in any aspect of any Marvel production. It would just be fun…”
…This month the Flickering Myth writing team has been casting votes to rank the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Iron Man through to Doctor Strange, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Luke Cage. Be sure to take a look at our final ranking of the MCU here, and let us know whether you agree or disagree…
…Click below to continue on for Wonder Woman, Justice League, Shazam, Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham, The LEGO Batman Movie, Batman Returns, Captain Underpants and more…
