Our weekly round-up of all the latest superhero news and talking points, including Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America 3, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Defenders, Big Hero 6, Ultimate Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, Doom Patrol, Plastic Man, Tales of Metropolis, Kick-Ass 3, The Tick, The Greatest American Hero and more…
…We’ll kick things off this week with Marvel Studios’ most recent release Guardians of the Galaxy, which climbed back to the top of the U.S. box office chart last weekend on its way to becoming the biggest domestic release of year (overtaking Captain America: The Winter Soldier to do so) and passing the $500 million mark at the box office, making it the seventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to do so. Guardians is sitting on just over $503 million worldwide as of Thursday, and with the film still to open in several markets, it looks pretty much certain that the film will go on to overtake Iron Man’s $585.2 million. Meanwhile, in another couple of _SPOILERY – GOTG bits and pieces, director James Gunn has posted a behind-the-scenes image of himself and Cosmo, while Funko has revealed that Howard the Duck will be joining Dancing Groot as part of the POP series of vinyl figures…
…After claiming incorrectly that Mad Men star Jon Hamm had bagged the role of Doctor Strange, This Is Infamous plucked another name out of a hat this week, suggesting that Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) was now in the running for the role of the Sorcerer Supreme; however, Collider has since stated that Joaquin Phoenix (The Master) is now in final negotiations with Marvel and should be announced in the near future, assuming a deal is reached…
…Looking ahead to Marvel’s next release and this week has given us a new image of Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye from Avengers: Age of Ultron alongside director Joss Whedon, while Renner has spoken about the fate of the archer in the hotly-anticipated sequel as well as suggesting that he’s “heard rumblings” that Hawkeye will join up with Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers for 2016’s Captain America 3…
…And speaking of Captain America 3, co-director Anthony Russo has refused to confirm or deny Hawkeye’s inclusion, but he has stated that: “We just got another incredible draft from the writers and are very excited about the film. I can’t divulge who is going to be in the film, but I think the fans are going to freak out when they hear about it.” Meanwhile, he also confirmed that Sebastian Stan will be back as Bucky Barnes / The Winter Soldier: “The relationship between Cap and the Winter Soldier was never resolved at the end of the last movie. Thinking about where that relationship can go is a piece of the puzzle for us for sure. That character is a wonderfully, beautifully tragic figure in the sense of is he the world’s most feared assassin or is he the world’s longest serving POW. Is he innocent by reason of insanity or the equivalent of it because he’s been mind controlled or is he irredeemable? Is he ever going to be acceptable to Cap again as the friend that he used to be before he was the Winter Soldier? These are very philosophical, emotional questions that pique our interest and definitely form one layer of the next movie…”
…Asked if he would like to tackle a superhero movie, Game of Thrones and Constantine director Neil Marshall has expressed his interest in helming a solo movie for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow: “I’d like to do a big movie with a strong female lead, whether or not she would be a superhero. I’m more interested in characters like Scarlett Johansson in Lucy. I’m less interested in people with superpowers because I can’t identify with them. Very rarely do they get killed off, and when they do get killed off, chances are they’re going to be back . . . somehow. Yes, I’d love to do a big splashy movie with a great female lead, but it has to be someone I can believe in. I would love to do a Black Widow movie. That’s perfect, I would love to do that. That character is really interesting, she doesn’t have any superpowers, she just has extraordinary skills, and the world that she comes from, being this ex-K.G.B. assassin, I find that really fascinating…”
…In the week’s most blatantly made up story of the week, it has been “reported” that Wesley Snipes is set to return to the role of the Daywalker for a new Blade movie. The original report makes no reference of the fact that the rights to the character have reverted back to Marvel Studios while Snipes was doing bird, and it is of course hugely unlikely that Marvel would want to tie the MCU incarnation of Blade into the continuity of New Line’s original trilogy…
…On the small screen, we’ve had our first look at Xena: Warrior Princess and Battlestar Galactica star Lucy Lawless as Isabelle Hartley in the upcoming second season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as an image of the returning Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson in his new job as the Director of the rebuilt S.H.I.E.L.D.; meanwhile, ABC has also kicked off the casting for AoS‘ sister show Agent Carter, with Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse) and Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill) joining Hayley Atwell in the upcoming series as Agent Daniel Sousa and Agent Jack Thompson, two members of the pre-S.H.I.E.L.D. Strategic Scientific Reserve in New York City…
…We got our first look at Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood) as Karen Page alongside Elden Henson’s (The Butterfly Effect) Foggy Nelson on the set of the upcoming Netflix series Daredevil this week, while Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has spoken about the series and how it will differ from the 2003 Ben Affleck movie, stating that: “The series will not be afraid to go darker than the film did. What we love about this particular set of heroes is that they’re a little more down to Earth. Costume wise and also in that these are gritty crime stories, more in the streets than in the clouds.” Sarandos also gave an update on the whole Defenders project: “It was really based on the theatrical model of The Avengers. Could you take another group of characters, The Defenders, and go about it the same way? Normally they do the big movie and then eventually they get to the group origin story. Having 13 hours to tell each of these stories, you can go right to the origin story and the action at the same time. Right now, the writers’ rooms are open and they’re looking at casting Jessica Jones. If you sense some hesitation in my voice, that’s classic Marvel fashion. They like to keep that veil of secrecy. But Daredevil is already shooting, since that’s out first. Eventually the series will run very close together. You can then have a separate season where the characters will cross over…”
…Click below to continue onto the next page for Big Hero 6, Ultimate Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Gotham, Arrow, The Flash, Doom Patrol, Plastic Man, Tales of Metropolis, Kick-Ass 3, The Tick, The Greatest American Hero and more…
