In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Gotham, The LEGO Batman Movie, Batman: Bad Blood, DC Super Hero Girls, Justice League Unlimited, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ant-Man, Thor: Ragnarok, Captain Marvel, Jessica Jones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Guardians of the Galaxy, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, Gambit, Fantastic Four, Heroes Reborn and more…
We’ll start off this Week in Spandex with the DC Extended Universe, and this week has brought confirmation from producer Charles Roven that a new trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is set to arrive “certainly before the end of the year”, while he also addressed the packed cast of characters for the superhero epic, as well as teasing a potential extended edition: “I don’t think that’s an issue for this film at all. I really don’t… I think that the film is called Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, so there’s a reason it’s called Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and not Dawn of Justice: Batman v Superman. So you’re gonna invest mostly in Batman v Superman and I think that you’ll find other characters in there that you hopefully will want to see more of…”
…A rather crazy fan theory has been doing the rounds lately, suggesting that Ben Affleck could actually be portraying Deathstroke in Batman v Superman, with The Dark Knight Trilogy star Christian Bale set to return as Bruce Wayne, making it a sequel to Christopher Nolan’s movies. No chance, right? Well, not according to Christian Bale himself: “I haven’t heard that. This is the first I’ve heard of it. I think it’s pretty clear that Ben [Affleck] is playing Batman now. No, it’s not happening…”
…This week has brought a look at some of the toy merchandising for Batman v Superman, with a selection of Hot Wheels products offering up some new promotional art featuring the Trinity [see here], along with the LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes – Heroes of Justice: Sky High Battle set [see here]…
…If you were hoping after the Comic-Con trailer that Warner Bros. had gone R-rated for the supervillain team-up Suicide Squad, then I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed to hear that Charles Roven has confirmed that the film is aiming for a PG-13 certificate: “The intention of the film is definitely to be PG-13. We really want to make these films tonally consistent so that, as I said because this is a shared universe, at least our current thinking—and again, we’re not dealing in absolutes because while this is business it’s also a creative endeavor, so you want to leave yourself open to changing your mind, doing something different, being inspired, that’s the whole process of filmmaking is you have to allow for inspiration as well as having a road map for what you’re gonna do. So our plan right now is to make all these films PG-13. In some cases, you know, right there on the edge of PG-13, but still PG-13.” Meanwhile, the producer has also spoken about Jared Leto’s method approach to the role of The Joker, even going as far as to have the cast and crew refer to him a Mister J; read Roven’s comments on Leto here…
…With Warner Bros.’ 2016 superhero slate in the can, the studio is now turning its attention to 2017, and Roven has given us a brief update on the shooting schedules for Wonder Woman and Justice League Part One (the latter of which will apparently not be shot back-to-back with Part Two): “We’re shooting [Wonder Woman] in the U.K. and in Italy. We’re making most of Wonder Woman [in the U.K.] and we’re also making most of Justice League there, JL One… We’re definitely gonna be shooting Part One in the first or second quarter of next year…”
…Speaking of Wonder Woman, it looks like production is underway on the Gal Gadot-headlined solo movie, with Saïd Taghmaoui (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) revealing that he’s joined the cast of the film by posting the first set photo, featuring himself and Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor in period clothing; check it out here…
…The Jason Momoa-headlined Aquaman has found a new writer, with David Leslie Johnson (Red Riding Hood, Wrath of the Titans) signing on to work on the script for the King of Atlantis’ solo movie. Johnson has previously collaborated with director James Wan on the upcoming horror sequel The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist, and becomes the third screenwriter on the project after Will Beall and Kurt Johnstad…
…The CW has kicked off promotion for its upcoming crossover between The Flash and Arrow, releasing a first look image featuring The Flash and Green Arrow joined by Hawkman (Falk Hentschel) and Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee) from DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, along with a poster [see here], and official episode synopses for The Flash’s ‘Legends of Today’ and Arrow’s ‘Legends of Yesterday [see here]…
…Sticking with The CW and you can read Jessie Robertson’s review of this week’s episode of The Flash ‘Enter Zoom’ here and his review of Arrow’s ‘Lost Souls’ here, while we also have a trailer, promo and images for Tuesday’s episode of The Flash ‘Gorilla Warfare’ [see here and here] and a trailer, promo and images for Wednesday’s episode of Arrow ‘Brotherhood’ [see here]…
…After enjoying stellar ratings with its premiere – pulling in a whopping 14 million viewers – Supergirl’s ratings continued to slide for the second week in a row with its third episode ‘Fight or Flight’ pulling in a 1.7 rating with 8.2 million viewers, despite its promos teasing an appearance from the Man of Steel. You can read Martin Carr’s review of ‘Fight or Flight’ here, while we also have three promos for Monday’s upcoming episode ‘How Does She Do It?’ here, along with a batch of images from the following week’s ‘Red Faced’ here, which sees Supergirl squaring off against the Red Tornado…
…Supergirl’s Monday night rival Gotham also slipped to a series with its eighth episode ‘Tonight’s the Night’ pulling in 4.11 million viewers. Check out Martin Carr’s review of the episode here, as well as a promo and images for Monday’s ‘A Bitter Pill to Swallow’ here, a batch of first look images from the following week’s ‘The Son of Gotham’ (featuring our first look at new villain The Knife) here, and the official episode description for the midseason finale ‘Worse Than a Crime’ here…
…Turning to the world of DC animation and this week brought a surprising announcement about The LEGO Batman Movie when it was reported that Mariah Carey would be voicing Commissioner Gordon in the 2017 spinoff to The LEGO Movie. Could they really be gender-swapping Jim Gordon? Well, no – as Deadline got its characters mixed up, and it was soon clarified that Carey will in fact lend her voice to the Mayor of Gotham…
…In other DC animated news, a new trailer and the cover art for the Son of Batman and Batman vs. Robin follow-up Batman: Bad Blood arrived online ahead of the movie’s release on February 2nd [see here], as did a brand new episode of DC Super Hero Girls entitled ‘Power Outage’ [see here]. Meanwhile, fans of the DC Animated Universe will also be delighted to hear that Justice League Unlimited: The Complete Series is now available on Blu-ray…
…Click below to continue on Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ant-Man, Thor: Ragnarok, Captain Marvel, Jessica Jones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Guardians of the Galaxy, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, Gambit, Fantastic Four, Heroes Reborn and more…
