…It was the rumour that wouldn’t die and, it seems, it was true from the start. Yes, despite numerous denials from the actor, reports emerged again this week stating that Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones) will appear as Aquaman in Warner Bros.’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, leading to a bigger role further down the line in Justice League. Momoa posted an image of himself holding a trident-like pitchfork in response to the latest claims, before the ever-reliable Hollywood Reporter confirmed his casting as the King of Atlantis, with Momoa’s Aquaman set to appear alongside fellow Justice Leaguers Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) in 2016’s Dawn of Justice, leaving just The Flash and Green Lantern as the only two members so far absent from the film. Meanwhile in other Batman v Superman news, a set report and spy photo from the Michigan shoot offered up some details about the unveiling of a Superman statue [take a look at a close up shot of the monument here], while some details also surfaced about Jesse Eisenberg’s take on Lex Luthor, along with rumours that Tao Okamoto (The Wolverine) is playing his assistant Mercy (a.k.a. Mercy Graves?); read more details here…
…A couple of weeks ago we got a peek at Warner Bros.’ supposed DC movie plans, with Batman v Superman reportedly set to be followed by Shazam (July 2016), Sandman (Christmas 2016), Justice League (May 2017), Wonder Woman (July 2017), a Flash / Green Lantern team-up (Christmas 2017) and Man of Steel 2 (May 2018). And, as we await an official announcement at Comic-Con, we’ve now got a rumour / educated guess about when we’ll see Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight getting his own solo movie, with Latino-Review reporting that Warner Bros. is looking at 2019 for the film, which will apparently go by the title of The Batman…
…This will no doubt make a few readers feel old, but the Batman movie franchise celebrates its 25th anniversary this Monday (June 23rd), with a quarter of a century passing since Tim Burton brought Batman to the screen amid a summer of Batmania. To commemorate the occasion Anghus Houvouras has put together an op-ed entitled ‘Batman 89: The Most Influential Film of the Last 25 Years’, which you can read here…
…Warner Bros. has also dropped a pair of stills from Batman: Assault on Arkham, giving us a new look at Batman (Kevin Conroy), The Joker (Troy Baker) and King Shark (John DiMaggio) from the the upcoming DC Universe Animated Original Movies release; take a look at the images here…
…With positive reactions to the upcoming pilot from the online press arriving this past week, FOX has upped the promotion for its upcoming Batman prequel series Gotham by releasing a new villains TV spot showcasing Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova), Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) and Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) [see here], while showrunners Bruno Heller (The Mentalist) and Danny Cannon (Judge Dredd) have spoken about the eventual introduction of the Clown Prince of Crime, The Joker: “I would say [The Joker] is, for everyone involved to a degree because it’s about the villains, he’s the crown jewel in the villains’ crown. So we’re going to be very careful and thoughtful about how we roll that character out,” said Heller, with Cannon adding that: “We have the luxury in nobody’s ever really delved way back [into The Joker’s history]. The amount of thought and time we’ve been allowed to give that is terrific because when we finally do reveal the ‘real’ Koker, and that’s a tip, it will be very thought out and worth the wait…”
…As the Arrow team gears up to go into production on the third season of the show, descriptions for four new characters have arrived online, with the first two apparently using aliases to avoid potential spoilers. You can read the character descriptions for ‘Daniel’, ‘Seth’, Toshi and Akiko here…
…Arrow will of course be joined by the spin-off show The Flash when the new TV season gets underway in the Fall, and this week has brought a selection of cast interviews with Candice Patton (Iris West), Jesse L. Martin (Detective West), Tom Cavanagh (Dr. Harrison Wells), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow), Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon) and Rick Gosnett (Eddie Thawne) discussing their respective characters. See here and here…
…Warner Bros. also took the opportunity to showcase its upcoming line-up of DC TV shows at the Licensing Expo 2014 in Las Vegas this past week, with promotional artwork for Arrow, The Flash, Constantine, Gotham and iZombie among the goodies on display; check out some images here, along with promo material for a host of upcoming moves including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice…
…Despite the fact that Guillermo del Toro has a million and one projects on his slate – including the proposed Justice League Dark movie – Ron Perlman is refusing to give up hope of reuniting with the director to complete his Hellboy trilogy, with Perlman stating: “I’d like to finish it. I’d like for there to be a third film because the first two films were set up for this huge resolve and he (Guillermo del Toro) already understands what that resolve will look like. He never gave me the nuts and bolts of it, but he gave me a rather broad strokes sketch of what the third film would look like and it’s so epic and so deserved by the fans that hung in there for the first two that I really feel as though it’s essential that we make it. So I fight for it every day. Sometimes I’m the only voice and sometimes there are others, but I’m never going to stop trying to get Hellboy 3 made…”
…And finally, NBC’s upcoming Heroes reboot Heroes Reborn has secured its first cast member, with Jack Coleman set to reprise the role of Noah Bennet – a.k.a. the Man in the Horn-Rimmed Glasses. Heroes Reborn is being developed by original show creator Tim Kring, with the 13 episode miniseries set to air some time next year.
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
Originally published June 21, 2014. Updated January 18, 2020.
