…Moving on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios’ latest Phase Two offering Captain America: The Winter Soldier has crossed the $500 million mark at the global box office, putting it ahead of previous MCU releases The Incredible Hulk ($263.4 million), Captain America: The First Avenger ($370.6 million) and Thor ($449.3 million). The Cinematic Universe is also on the verge of overtaking James Bond ($6.198 billion) to become the second-highest grossing franchise of all time behind Harry Potter ($7.709 billion) – a feat it should achieve this weekend…
…The MCU will continue its march towards becoming the biggest franchise of all time this August with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, and we’ve got an extended TV spot and behind-the-scenes featurette from the upcoming space epic, while leading man Chris Pratt has spoken about the film, stating that: “They’re cutting it together and loving everything that they see. They’re being very careful about what they release and very smart about getting people excited without giving away what the movie’s about and not giving away the best jokes or story. I think people are very fired up to see it, and don’t know what to expect. That’s the best way to see a movie. If I’m really excited to see something, and I have no idea what I’m about to see, I love that. I think that can be a problem you get when you’re dealing with [franchises where moviegoers] want to know everything about it. I hope people really like it, and I hope I get to play that character for a very long time. I think Marvel’s been very smart about projecting into the future and what they’re putting on their slate. It’s based on what people like, so we’ll put this movie out there and see how people react to it. Who knows..?”
…The roster of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will be fleshed out when The Avengers reassemble in 2015 for Avengers: Age of Ultron, with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (played by Godzilla duo Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen) set to be joined by another classic member of the Avengers roster in The Vision. Paul Bettany – voice of JARVIS in the Iron Man films and The Avengers – is set to perform the character, and the British actor offered up a few words about his new role in Joss Whedon’s hotly-anticipated sequel: “The [Vision] can do all sorts of things, but I’m not allowed to really talk about them and what we’re going to because there might be a Marvel agent in the room who will actually wrestle me to the ground and fire me. It’s very exciting for me but everything’s a double-edged sword because I was playing JARVIS for years. My job was I would turn up at a recording studio for 45 minutes, do my stuff, they’d give me a huge bag of cash and then I would go home. Now it turns out they’ve found me out and want me to actually do something. It’s not right…”
…Marvel supremo Kevin Feige has confirmed that the characters of Kingpin and Elektra are available to the studio, should they decide to include them in Daredevil, or any of Netflix’s other upcoming Defenders miniseries (or films, for that matter), stating that: “Kingpin we either have or somehow share. Elektra I think we have. I think that was part of Daredevil, and that’s clean and simple.” Feige also went on to state that the rights to Namor “is a little complicated”, with Universal reportedly still holding the rights to the Sub-Mariner…
…After dealing with the fall-out of Captain America: The Winter Soldier in ‘Providence’ [read Anghus Houvouras’ review here], Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is set to pick up a plot thread from The Avengers this Tuesday with ‘The Only Light in the Darkness’, which guest stars Amy Acker (Angel) as Agent Coulson’s (Clark Gregg) true love, The Cellist, along with Patrick Brennan (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2) as Blackout. Check out a poster for the episode here, as well as a promo and batch of images here (the latter link also includes images from the next episode, ‘Nothing Personal’, which sees Cobie Smulders reprising the role of Agent Maria Hill)…
…Moving on to Batman vs. Superman now and with production on Warner Bros. hotly-anticipated Man of Steel sequel now underway, cinematographer Larry Fong delivered what may be the first behind-the-scenes image from the film, while director Zack Snyder spoke in depth about bringing Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) together on screen: “The thing also that’s really fascinating for me is that, even just in the tests we’ve been doing, the costumes, right? You basically have Batman and Superman — and this is without Ben and Henry in the costumes, but just like the stand-ins, just testing to see what the costumes look like. And you have them standing there and they’re standing in the same shot — and then we have Wonder Woman, you know, all three of them in the same shot. Even just for a test, you really have to go, “Wow, that’s crazy!” Not only is it the first time that I’m seeing them, it’s the first time they’ve ever existed together on screen in a movie. And that’s kind of a huge deal. Even just Batman and Superman standing next to each other… It’s kind of epic. You do sort of sense the weight of the pop culture iconography jumping out of its skin when you’re standing there looking at the two of them and Wonder Woman. It’s crazy. But it’s fun. I mean, I have the first photo, I’ve got it in my archive because I was like, ‘Okay, I better keep this, it’s gonna be worth something.’” Read more from Snyder here…
…In other Batman vs. Superman news, Hans Zimmer has confirmed that he’ll provide the score for the sequel, while Flickering Myth’s Trevor Hogg managed to get a few words from costume designer Michael Wilkinson, and reports have emerged suggesting that UK audiences will get to see the film a week earlier than its May 6th 2016 release date on April 29th…
…On the animated Batman front, it’s been announced that Beware the Batman will return next month, with the CG-animated show joining Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block for its 26-episode first (and only?) season run from May 10th, while we’ve also had our first look at Darwyn Cooke’s Batman Beyond short, which has been produced in conjunction with The Dark Knight’s 75th anniversary. And that’s not all, as Warner Bros. has also debuted some new images and the first two clips from the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie release Son of Batman, which hits shelves on May 6th [see here and here], while we’ve also got the first trailer for the next animated release, Batman: Assault on Arkham, which sees Kevin Conroy returning to the role of The Dark Knight…
…After battling Deathstroke in last week’s Arrow [read Jessie Robertson’s review here], Oliver and his gang will have to content with an out-of-control Roy Harper in Wednesday’s episode, entitled ‘Seeing Red’. Check out a batch of images for the episode here, which has the following description: “The mirakuru sends Roy (Colton Haynes) into an uncontrollable rage and he unleashes on the city. After Roy’s deadly fight with a police officer, Oliver (Stephen Amell) realizes the mirakuru has taken over Roy completely and must figure out a way to stop him. Things get more complicated after Sara (Caity Lotz) declares that Roy is too far gone and the only way to stop him is to kill him. Meanwhile, Thea (Willa Holland) believes she can breakthrough to Roy so she goes on camera at Moira’s (Susanna Thompson) campaign rally to lure him to Verdant. Her ploy works but after Roy attacks Thea, Team Arrow unleashes on him…”
…Back in February it was announced that NBC is to revive Heroes with a new series entitled Heroes Reborn from original show creator Tim Kring, and now it’s been revealed that the new show will get underway with an online prequel webseries entitled Heroes Reborn: Digital Series, which will be promoted across the TV network and air first digitally, including NBC’s websites, Hulu, and video on demand…
…And finally, we’ve had a couple of superhero-themed feature articles on Flickering Myth this week that you may be interested in checking out – take a look at Thomas Roach’s Eight Predictions for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as Anghus Houvouras’ Superfan to Supervillain.
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.
