…As production on Avengers 4 winds down, both Robert Downey Jr. and Jeremy Renner have taken to social media to mark the end of filming, while directors Joe and Anthony Russo released a video showing them answering questions about this year’s hugely anticipated superhero epic Avengers: Infinity War [watch it here]. Anthony also revealed that “in a lot of ways” Infinity War is Thano’s movie, as well as namedropping Thor when asked which hero he’s most excited to explore across the two movies, while a video arrived online giving us our first look at some of LEGO’s Infinity War minifigures, including Captain America, Spider-Man (in his Iron Spider suit), Black Widow, Thanos, Proxima Midnight and the Outriders; watch it here…
…With the marketing campaign for Black Panther expected to ramp up soon ahead of the release of the solo movie next month, Marvel Studios has this week unveiled a new ‘Origins’ featurette [watch it here], along with seven character bios for T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Okoye (Danai Gurira), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Shuri (Letitia Wright), Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), M’Baku (Winston Duke), and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) [see here], while theater listings are suggesting that the Ryan Coogler-directed movie will have a 135 minute running time. Meanwhile, it’s also been announced that Kendrick Lamar and Anthony ‘Top Dawg’ Tiffith are producing Black Panther: The Album featuring music from and inspired by Marvel Studios’ upcoming superhero blockbuster, while Marvel is set to release a free comic book sampler on January 31st to help get new fans up to speed with Wakanda and its King…
…He may be a little late to the party, but Ryan Reynolds shared a glowing review of Thor: Ragnarok this week, stating that “I dislocated my face laughing”. Meanwhile, She’s Gotta Have It star DeWanda Wise became the latest addition to the cast of Captain Marvel in an as-yet-unrevealed role, and reports emerged stating that production on the as-yet-untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel will get underway on June 1st, with Sony also planning on starting principal photography on its spinoff movie Silver & Black on March 5th…
…In news from the small screen side of the MCU, it has been reported that Rosario Dawson will reprise the role of Claire Temple for both Iron Fist season two and Daredevil season three [read more here], we’ve got a promo and batch of images from next week’s seventh episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ‘Together or Not at All’ [see here], and a review of this week’s ninth episode of Runaways ‘Doomsday’, which you can read here…
…In other Marvel TV news, it has been announced this week that The Gifted has been renewed for a second season, and that Bryan Singer’s executive producer credit is under review given the sexual misconduct and assault allegations surrounding the filmmaker (an update to the story also revealed that he has stepped down as EP on FX’s Legion). Meanwhile, you can also check out a promo and images for the season one finale of The Gifted, ‘Extraction’, which we have here and here…
…Although it was originally reported that Jessica Chastain would be portraying the character of Lilandra, Empress of the Shi’ar Empire, in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, this was quickly debunked by the actress herself. Well, while we still don’t know for sure, it’s been revealed this week that the character goes by the name of ‘Smith’, which is presumably an alias and doesn’t really give anything away, although with the character being described previously as a “shape-shifter” it certainly lends weight to the Skrull theory…
…Wonder Woman isn’t the only superhero movie of 2017 with Oscar ambitions, as 20th Century Fox has high hopes for the James Mangold-directed Logan, and that will have been boosted this week with the news that Hugh Jackman’s X-Men swansong has received a nomination at the Writer’s Guild of America Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay…
…Don’t expect Jodie Foster to be joining the superhero genre any time soon, with the actress and director stating this week that she doesn’t want to make “$200 million movies about superheroes” and that “studios [are] making bad content in order to appeal to the masses and shareholders is like fracking — you get the best return right now but you wreck the earth. It’s ruining the viewing habits of the American population and then ultimately the rest of the world.” Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn quickly came to the superheroes’ defence, responding by saying that: “I think Foster looks at film in an old-fashioned way where spectacle film can’t be thought-provoking. It’s often true but not always. Her belief system is pretty common and isn’t totally without basis. I say not without basis because most studio franchise films are quite soulless – and that is a real danger to the future of movies. But there are also quite a few exceptions. For cinema to survive I believe spectacle films NEED to have a vision and heart they traditionally haven’t. And some of us are doing our best to move in that direction. Creating spectacle films that are innovative, humane, and thoughtful is what excites me about this job.” You can read Gunn’s full response here…
…And finally, David Harbour has revealed that the upcoming Hellboy reboot won’t employ any CGI to create his incarnation of the Dark Horse comic book character, with the Stranger Things star confirming this week that: “Not a single bit [of CGI], man. I don’t know why people complain about ‘fake news,’ because fake news works in my favor, in terms of this. That’s all me, 100%.”
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.
