In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Aquaman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Gotham, Lucifer, Constantine, The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, A.K.A. Jessica Jones, Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers Assemble, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Fantastic Four, Powers and more…
After a big couple of weeks of Marvel news, DC fans got something to smile about this week as Zack Snyder delivered our first look at Jason Momoa as Aquaman in next year’s DC ensemble Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (and of course the subsequent Justice League and 2018 solo movies). The promotional image came with the caption “Unite the Seven”, so could that mean we can look forward to another six promo shots of the rest of the Justice League? Let’s hope so – and in the meantime, a high-resolution version of the official promo banner featuring the Trinity of Henry Cavill’s Superman, Ben Affleck’s Batman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman has arrived online, and you can check that out here…
…Following the Aquaman reveal, Batman v Superman costume designer Michael Wilkinson shared a few comments about the character’s design, stating that: “Zack Snyder has a brilliant vision for making this character powerful and relevant…I enjoyed designing a costume that reflects this vision and honors the character’s rich legacy…It has been a thrill and an honour to bring this iconic character to life for a modern audience…”
…As director David Ayer continues with pre-production on Warner’s second DC movie of 2016 ahead of a Spring shoot, it has been revealed that Jay Hernandez (Friday Night Lights) has joined the cast of Suicide Squad. Hernandez’s role is being kept under wraps, although Latino-Review are stating that he’ll appear in a minor role as El Diablo, who will be a prisoner in a supervillain prison alongside the likes of Killer Frost, Block Buster, King Shark and Live Wire, not to mention The Joker. And speaking of the Clown Prince of Crime, Jared Leto has briefly spoken about his upcoming role, stating that he’s putting in weight in preparation for the part and that, “The opportunity to take on this nearly Shakespearean character – that’s what graphic novels and comic books are becoming, right? [He’s] this beautiful disaster of a character. What a big challenge…”
…It looks like Suicide Squad won’t be the only DC movie shooting this year, as it is being reported that Gal Gadot will don the bracelets as the Amazon Princess in the fall for production on 2017’s Wonder Woman solo movie, which is being directed by Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad)…
…Fox’s Batman prequel series Gotham took its first steps on the road to the origin of the Joker this past week with ‘The Blind Fortune Teller’, and that will continue on Monday with the seventeenth episode ‘Red Hood’. We’ve got a couple of promos for the episode which you can see here and here, as well as a batch of images for the following episode ‘Everyone Has a Cobblepot’ – which happens to give us our first look at another villain in The Dollmaker (Colm Feore) – here…
…It looks like Fox will be expanding its DC output this next TV season, with the network placing a pilot order to an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s DC and Vertigo series Lucifer, a spin-off from Sandman which sees the character abandoning Hell and heading to Earth to open a bar in Los Angeles, as well as helping out the LAPD in his spare time. The pilot is being written by Tom Kapinos (Californication), with Len Wiseman (Underworld) directing…
…Sticking with the supernatural side of the DC universe and it seems there’s still a chance NBC could offer Constantine a second season renewal, with showrunner Daniel Cerone providing an update on its status this week: “NBC made some early pickups by Constantine is not cancelled. We’ll pitch them our plans for a second season in May. Then they decide. Our show is expensive. The ratings are okay for Friday night but not strong. The studio holds options on Constantine actors and writers til mid-June. We will definitely have an answer by up fronts…”
…Following this week’s episode ‘Fallout’ [read our review here], The Flash is taking a little break until March 17th, but if you’re desperate for a sneak peek at what’s in store in the fifteenth episode ‘Out of Time’, you can take a look at a trailer and promo right here…
…Next week will give us a new episode of Arrow, entitled ‘Nanda Parbat’, and you can see a trailer and promo (which give us our first look at Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer in action in his A.T.O.M. suit) here, as well as our review of Wednesday’s episode ‘The Return’ here. Meanwhile, in other Arrow news, Hellboy star Doug Jones has joined the cast as the metahuman supervillain Deathbolt, executive producer Marc Guggenheim has revealed that Jessica De Gouw’s Huntress has been cut from season 3, and he’s also put an end to the rumour and speculation linking David Ramsey’s John Diggle to John Stewart, a.k.a. Green Lantern: “It’s funny, I’ve spoken to David quite a bit about this issue, I know it keeps coming up. I spoke to Geoff Johns at DC after that interview went viral. Basically, John Diggle is now a character in the comics… John Diggle is John Diggle. We’re not being coy and saying John Diggle is someone else, i.e. John Stewart. DC has other plans for that character. We love David, and we love the character of John Diggle that he’s created. We have really cool plans for him… they involve a wedding ring, but they don’t involve a power ring…”
…CBS’s upcoming DC series Supergirl has added another name to its cast, with Laura Benanti (Nashville) nabbing the “key recurring role” of Alura Zor-El, the Kryptonian birth mother of Kara. Benanti joins a cast that so far includes Melissa Benoist (Glee) as Supergirl and Mehcad Brooks (True Blood) as Jimmy Olsen…
…Segueing from DC to Marvel and Samuel L. Jackson has stoked the fiery rivalry between fans of the two comic book giants when he was asked about the movie output of both publishers: “I think Marvel has figured out a way to make those movies accessible to the public… DC hasn’t. The Marvel universe is huge. There’s thousands of characters that they can access and do stuff with… it’s been that way since we started reading comic books. Most of us that understand the comic book world know that you can cross-breed and do all kinds of stuff. They actually did a great job bringing a guy like [Robert] Redford in, which turned up the legitimacy factor in a very interesting way, and made [Captain America: The Winter Soldier] a serious movie along with the popcorn and bubblegum stuff we do. I don’t know what it is [with DC]. I don’t know why you can’t get Batman and Superman together and have people as juiced up to be a part of that…”
…Click below to continue on for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, A.K.A. Jessica Jones, Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers Assmeble, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Fantastic Four, Powers and more…
