A special edition of The Week in Spandex rounding up all the superhero news and talking points from the San Diego Comic-Con, including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Doctor Strange, Thunderbolts, Captain America 3, Blade, Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Shazam, Justice League, Justice League Dark, Arrow, The Flash, Constantine, Gotham, Batman Versus Robin, Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Superman Lives, The Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Deadpool and more…
Well, the geek mecca that is the San Diego Comic-Con International has drawn to a close for another year, and naturally we’ve been inundated with superhero news over the past few days. We’ve been covering Comic-Con in depth here at Flickering Myth [check out our archive here], and now here’s a run down of all the big talking points from San Diego in the SDCC edition of The Week in Spandex, starting with the Marvel Cinematic Universe…
…Marvel Studios has traditionally knocked it out of the park with its Saturday night presentations, and this year saw them treating those lucky enough to be in attendance to some footage from Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron, as well as hosting panels for both shows [you can read descriptions of the Ant-Man footage here and Avengers: Age of Ultron footage here, as well as watching the entire panel minus clips here]. News coming out of the panel included the reveal that Corey Stoll is playing Darren Cross / Yellowjacket and Evangeline Lilly is Hank Pym’s daughter Hope Pym (a.k.a. Hope Van Dyne) in Ant-Man, and confirmation of Josh Brolin’s casting as Thanos (with Brolin appearing on stage wearing the Infinity Gauntlet)…
…While Marvel certainly rolled out the stars for its presentation, the expected announcement of a Phase Three line-up never came, barring the official confirmation that James Gunn is to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy 2 for release on July 28th 2017 (which came as little surprise really, seeing as Guardians of the Galaxy screenwriter Nicole Perlman had already revealed his involvement earlier in the week), which was followed by comments from Kevin Feige suggesting that Nova could make his MCU debut in the sequel. So, no other Phase Three confirmations unfortunately, and no Doctor Strange announcement, despite persistent rumours surrounding Benedict Cumberbatch (who shot them down) and reports from pretty much all of the Hollywood trades that Joaquin Phoenix had been in negotiations with the studio about taking on the role of the Sorcerer Supreme…
…While Marvel’s Hall H presentation may have fizzled to a close rather than ending with a bang, the studio did a fine job of generating hype in the build up, releasing a series of interlocking posters for Avengers: Age of Ultron that sees Earth’s Mightiest Heroes squaring off against a swarm of Ultron bots [see here, here, here and here], while other Age of Ultron goodies to emerge over the weekend included a new image of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle [see here], said motorcycle on display at SDCC along with Loki’s staff [see here], Captain America’s shattered shield, a gauntlet from the Hulkbuster armor and a look at Ultron Mark 1 [see here], and comments from Joss Whedon that there are four prominent female roles in the Avengers sequel, which launching a fresh wave of speculation about a potential appearance from Captain Marvel…
…Prior to the Saturday panel, Marvel gave us an early glimpse of Ant-Man with the release of a concept poster featuring Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang and Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym [see here], as well as displaying the Ant-Man helmet on the convention floor [see here] and gather Rudd, Douglas, Stoll and director Peyton Reed together for the first time to discuss the movie [see here]. Meanwhile, the fallout from Edgar Wright’s departure continued, with Patrick Wilson, Matt Gerald and Kevin Weisman all exiting the cast (the latter two due to recent script rewrites omitting their characters, and Wilson because of scheduling conflicts with the delay in production)…
…Surprisingly absent from Marvel’s presentation (except for the sequel announcement) was Marvel’s upcoming space opera Guardians of the Galaxy, owing to the fact that the cast are currently in Europe promoting the impending release of the penultimate Phase Two film. We’ve got a couple of spoiler-free ★★★★ reviews of Guardians from Luke Owen and Scott Davis which you can read here and here, as well as listening to their thoughts in the latest Flickering Myth Podcast, while you might also be interested in checking out a Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) featurette which offers up a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpse of Thanos [see here], comments from Chris Pratt at the UK press conference joking that he’d like to see Star-Lord kill Iron Man because Marvel can’t afford Robert Downey Jr. any more [see here], a trio of Mondo posters for Star-Lord and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) [see here, here and here], and an image of a fantastic LEGO version of Rocket Raccoon and Groot on display at SDCC [see here]…
…In a few other bits and pieces from the big screen side of the MCU, James Gunn has been speaking about the inevitable team-up between the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers, along with expressing his interest in directing a Thunderbolts movie, while Captain America screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely shared a few thoughts on the possibility of using Flag-Smasher and M.O.D.O.K. as the villains for Captain America 3, and Wesley Snipes revealed that he’d like to don the sunglasses one more time for another outing as Blade…
…And on the small screen, ABC showcased its two MCU TV shows Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. during the Marvel Television Presents panel. Among the highlights was the announcement that Louis D’Esposito (Agent Carter One-Shot), Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and Joe Johnson (Captain America: The First Avenger) will direct episodes of Agent Carter, and on the S.H.I.E.L.D. front new cast additions were announced in Lucy Lawless’ (Xena: Warrior Princess) as Isabel Hartly, Reed Diamond (Dollhouse) as Daniel Whitehall / The Kraken, and Nick Blood (Trollied) as Lance Hunter, with hints that Bobbi Morse – a.k.a. Mockingbird – would make an appearance in season 2. You can read our report of the panel and check out an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. promo and blooper reel here, and you can also watch the panel itself here. Meanwhile, although Marvel’s Netflix series didn’t have a dedicated panel, Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada did take a moment to reveal that Daredevil will land on Netflix in May 2015. Between that and Age of Ultron, it’s going to be a huge month for Marvel fans…
…Before we move on from Marvel, the Marvel Animation panel offered up a few bits of news, with confirmation that Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors, Avengers Assemble and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. have all been renewed, as well as the announcement that the long-rumoured Guardians of the Galaxy animated series will be heading to Disney XD in the near future…
Click below to continue on to the next page for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Shazam, Justice League, Justice League Dark, Arrow, The Flash, Constantine, Gotham, Batman Versus Robin, Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Superman Lives, The Fantastic Four and The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and Deadpool…
Originally published July 28, 2014. Updated November 29, 2022.
