Our weekly round-up of the latest news and talking points from the world of screen superheroes, including Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman, Justice League Dark, The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Constantine, Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, Batman Versus Robin, Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Jessica Jones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, The Fantastic Four, Powers and more…
There’s been some big casting news this week, and we’ll start things off with Warner Bros.’ 2016 supervillain ensemble Suicide Squad. Just days after Jared Leto stated that he’d “sworn to keep my mouth shut” over talk linking him to The Joker, the Oscar-winner was officially announced as taking on the role of the Clown Prince of Crime in the David Ayer-directed film. Leto will be joined in the cast by Tom Hardy (The Drop) as Rick Flagg, Will Smith (After Earth) as Deadshot, Cara Delevingne (Pan) as Enchantress and Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) as Harley Quinn, while Oprah Winfrey (The Butler) and The Help stars Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis are said to be in the frame to play Amanda Waller. Production on Suicide Squad is set to get underway in Toronto in the Spring, and you can read the thoughts of our writing team on the casting in the latest Flickering Myth Reaction…
…Before we get to Suicide Squad, there’s the small matter of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and with filming having wrapped on the Zack Snyder-directed team-up this week, it’s been rumoured that both The Joker and KGBeast will feature in the film, while Doomsday will be the main villain. There’s nothing new here, with several previous reports indicating that these characters will be involved. There is of course a dearth of villains in the film compared to heroes, so it’s pretty much certain that Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor won’t be the only bad guy going up against the World’s Finest and their future Justice League buddies…
…Prior to Ben Affleck’s casting as the Caped Crusader in Batman v Superman, rumour specialists Latino-Review assumed reported that Warner Bros. wanted Christopher Nolan to “godfather” the DC universe, with the studio also allegedly offering Christian Bale silly, silly money to reprise the role of Batman. We now know of course that Nolan’s involvement in the DC universe is minimal, and Christian Bale has now dismissed the rest of the story this week, stating that: “Untrue about them coming to me for Batman before Ben Affleck…I think it’s the right decision. People were talking about this obscene amount of money they were saying was thrown at me. No. I didn’t have a single conversation with anybody about ever playing the role again. I think, probably with [Batman], it’s never [again], because I can’t help but feel it would just be a spoof on it. You know what I mean..?”
…Sticking with Batman for a moment and some previosly unseen set photos from 1992’s Batman Returns has arrived online this week showing a Batman store featuring merchandise from the first film, including a pinball machine revealing Bats’ secret identity of Bruce Wayne! Check out the set photos here…
…Having secured a director in Michelle MacLaren (Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad), Warner Bros. has now found a writer for Wonder Woman, with Jason Fuchs (Ice Age: Continental Drift, Pan) signing on to script Gal Gadot’s first solo outing in the 2017 release…
…Although it was absent from Warner’s big list of DC movies, it seems that Guillermo del Toro’s Justice League Dark movie remains firmly on the cards; last week the script was handed over to the studio, and now del Toro has spoken briefly about the project when asked if he had any involvement with Universal’s shared Monsters universe: “Right now the only sort of shared universe project I’m working on is Dark Universe for Warners, you know, for DC, which is Swamp Thing, Demon, Deadman, Zatanna. It’s a very different universe.” So, does that mean Dark Universe will be separate from the main DC movie universe. I guess we’ll find out if and when the project gets the go ahead…
…Arrow enjoyed its second-best ever viewing figures this past Wednesday with the concluding part of a two-part crossover with fellow DC show The Flash pulling in 3.9 million viewers. You can read Jessie Robertson’s reviews of ‘Flash vs. Arrow’ here and ‘The Brave and the Bold’ here, and check out trailers, promos and images for the next episodes of The Flash ‘The Man in the Yellow Suit’ here (including our first official look at Reverse-Flash) and Arrow ‘The Climb’ here…
…With the search underway for Supergirl, it’s been reported this week that The Vampire Diaries and The Originals star Claire Holt is among the contenders for the role of Kara Zor-El in the upcoming CBS series, which is being developed by Ali Adler (Chuck, No Ordinary Family) and Greg Berlanti (Arrow, The Flash)…
…As Constantine continues towards the thirteenth and final episode, executive producer David S. Goyer has spoken about the chances of a second season for the supernatural DC show: “[Constantine] is solidly in contention for a second season of NBC, which is still supporting it. It’s not dead, at all…Constantine got caught in the midst of a change that is happening at the networks. It gets big numbers on DVR and online views, but it is sort of a tweener that doesn’t fit the traditional viewing box at the big networks…It’s frustrating what happened because creatively we’ve really started to hit our stride and people are responding to that. If I were a betting man, I would say there’s an excellent chance for a second season.” You can watch a promo for Friday’s eighth episode ‘The Saint of Last Resorts’ here, and be sure to read Martin Carr’s review of episode six ‘The Rage of Caliban’ here…
…On the DC animation front and ahead of its release on January 27th we’ve had a new trailer for the upcoming Justice League: War sequel Justice League: Throne of Atlantis [watch it here], as well as our first look at the Blu-ray cover art for the next DC Universe Animation Original Movie release (and sequel to Son of Batman), Batman Versus Robin, which features the Court of Owls from the Batman comic book series [see here]…
…Click below to continue on for Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Jessica Jones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, The Fantastic Four, Powers and more…
Originally published December 6, 2014. Updated November 29, 2022.
