…20th Century Fox officially kicked off production on Deadpool 2 this week, with Ryan Reynolds marking the occasion by announcing that Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s Julian Dennison has joined the cast in an as-yet-unspecified role. Meanwhile, we also got a series of spy photos from the set, which includes Wade Wilson in and out of his Deadpool costume [see here], crashing a children’s party [see here], and running around in casual clothing, albeit masked, with gun in hand [see here], as well as an Alpha Flight Easter egg [see here]…
…Deadpool 2 wasn’t the only Fox/Marvel project expanding its cast this week, as it has been revealed this week that Alice Braga (Queen of the South) has replaced Rosario Dawson as Dr. Cecilia Reyes in X-Men: The New Mutants, while Evan Peters is confirmed as reprising the role of Quicksilver for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and Lamar Johnson (The Next Step) has also signed on for an as-yet-unrevealed role…
…Fox has also set dates for six mystery Marvel movies, set to arrive on June 7th and November 22nd in 2019, March 13th, June 26th, and October 2nd in 2020, and March 5th in 2021. As yet there’s no word on what movies might occupy those spots, but expect X-Force, Deadpool 3 and another instalment in the main X-Men franchise. Other possibilities include Gambit (don’t laugh) and that rumoured Fantastic Four reboot…
..Moving on to the DC Extended Universe now and Wonder Woman has officially become the highest-grossing instalment of the DCEU in North America, having reached $330.53 million by close of play on Thursday. This puts it ahead of Man of Steel ($307.0 million), Suicide Squad ($325.1 million) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($330.36 million). And, on the worldwide front, the movie is approaching $700 million, meaning it has overtaken 2009’s Mamma Mia! to become the highest-grossing live-action movie from a female director. Meanwhile, fans may also want to check out Quantum Mechanix’s SDCC exclusive Wonder Woman Q-Fig Max collectible figure based on the likeness of Gal Gadot from the DC blockbuster; take a look at the promo images here…
…Although Warner Bros. is yet to make an official announcement on Wonder Woman 2, director Patty Jenkins has spoken about her excitement over the opportunity to deliver another great Wonder Woman story: “I had an epiphany about Wonder Woman 2. I was like, you don’t have to do this. It doesn’t have to be a foregone conclusion that you do Wonder Woman 2. But then as I was falling asleep I had an epiphany. I was like, Wait a minute. You have the greatest character of all time that you love dearly, with a cast that you love sitting at the palm of your hand at this day and age — you can do whatever you want with them — are you crazy? And then I suddenly realized, it’s not more, it’s another movie. It’s its own movie. And it’s got to be great. It’s a continuation of the same character, but there’s a great, entirely different story to be told. With this character in our—in the world, that’s fun, because now she exists, just funny, and also says something profound about the world we’re in right now…”
…Zack Snyder took to social media this week to share a new image of Ben Affleck’s Batman from Justice League, while a set photo showed the Batmobile being transported for the film’s reshoots, and LEGO unveiled its upcoming tie-in sets for the DC superhero team-up [check them out here]. Meanwhile, with a new trailer expected to hit during Comic-Con, an alleged description arrived online this week, which you can find here…
…With War for the Planet of the Apes hitting cinemas this month, Matt Reeves will soon be turning all of his attention to The Batman, and this week saw him confirming that Ben Affleck is still attached to star in the solo movie (shutting down those rumours that he “wants out” of the DCEU), as well as describing his approach to the film as a “noir-driven detective story”: “I want to do a very point of view-driven — you know, this film and with all films what I try to do in an almost Hitchcockian sense is to use the camera and use the storytelling so that you become the character and you empathize with that point of view, and I think there’s a chance to do an almost noir-driven, detective version of Batman that is point-of-view-driven in a very, very powerful way that hopefully is going to connect you to what’s going on inside of his head and inside of his heart…”
…Comic book writer Mark Millar sparked a rather big rumour this week, suggesting on Twitter that Warner Bros. had been meeting with directors for a possible Superman: Red Son adaptation, with Kong: Skull Island helmer Jordan Vogt-Roberts revealing that he’d pitched WB that very same idea. However, Millar soon backtracked on his original comments, stating that: “Is this something they’re genuinely planning? I have no idea. I’ve got pals at Warner Bros but never discussed it with them. I think they’re just going through their back catalogue of big books and hoping to lure in good directors as opposed to any particular interest in developing Red Son. There’s always 50 conversations for every comic book movie that gets made and as far as I know this is something that is very much just at conversation stage…”
…In another sketchy DCEU rumour, it’s been claimed this week that Warner Bros. will announce its Barbara Gordon for the Batgirl solo movie at Comic-Con, and that the shortlist for the role includes Elle Fanning (The Neon Demon), Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel), Bella Throne (Shake It Up!), Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why), Margaret Qualley (The Leftovers), Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe), Emma Roberts (Scream Queens), Haley Lu Richardson (Split) and Naomi Scott (Power Rangers)…
…In other DCEU-related news, Baby Driver star Eiza Gonzalez has sparked some (rather tenuous) speculation that she could be set to portray Catwoman by sharing some images of herself in a black catsuit, while Daredevil star Vincent D’Onofrio has revealed that he’d been keen to make the jump to the DC universe should the opportunity arise…
…Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim has shared a piece of production artwork from the upcoming sixth season featuring a memorial display to Laurel Lance’s Black Canary [see here], while Stephen Amell has revealed that he’s hoping to see a more comic book accurate version of the Green Arrow in the new season: “I’ve said that it’s very, very important that if Oliver doesn’t take away lessons from Season 5 and doesn’t keep doing the things that have led to this catastrophic event, the character stops being interesting to me. So I hope that part of that, in Season 6 and if we have seasons beyond that, I hope that part of that is we get back to a lot of the tenets that people recognize from the comics. And that of course is humor and a socially conscious, slightly liberal superhero… The comics version, he has some really interesting qualities that make him unique, and I hope we get to explore more of those…”
…Warner Bros. is set to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line with a massive box set containing all thirty movies from Superman: Doomsday through to this year’s Batman and Harley Quinn. No word on a price yet (expect it to be pricey), but it is set for release on digital on August 15th and on Blu-ray on November 7th…
…Director Neil Marshall has been chatting about his upcoming Hellboy project Rise of the Blood Queen, confirming that he plans to have a heavy focus on practical effects rather than CGI, as well as discussing the R-rating: “We’ve been granted permission to do it R-rated, which for me is just like taking the cuffs off. It’s like, okay, so now we can just make the movie we want to make. It’s not like I’m going to force it to be R-rated, but if it happens to come out that way, just because of my own sensibilities, then fine. And nobody’s going to stop us. So, that’s the main [difference]. And I’m sure, obviously, the success of things like Deadpool and Logan have not hurt that cause. But, also, when you go back the original material, it is kind of bloody, so I’m going to embrace that…”
…And finally, be sure to check out Ricky Church’s feature ‘6 Female-Led Superhero Movies We’d Like to See‘, while you may also want to take a look out our ‘Top 10 Films of 2017 So Far‘ list if you’re interesting in seeing whether Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Wonder Woman and Logan made the cut (spoilers: all three did).
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.
