DC Entertainment (left, right), Marvel Studios (center)
After the first two weeks of 2015, it almost feels anticlimactic to not have a new Marvel Studios trailer to enjoy this week, but don’t worry—there’s still plenty happening in the superhero movie world. Warner Bros. is having to deal with potential spoilers from a leaked T-shirt and losing a member of their DC Comics supervillain flick for 2016, and Fox is preparing to (finally!) let us see what Fantastic Four looks like. Meanwhile, what if there was a secret Avengers movie next year, except that it wasn’t called Avengers? Here are the highlights of the past week in superhero movie news.
MEH IDEA: The Suicide Squad Loses a Member Early
Bad news for those looking forward to Warners’ Suicide Squad movie because Tom Hardy was playing the film’s moral center Rick Flagg: He’s dropped out of the movie. The news broke late last week, with subsequent rumors suggesting the reason for his departure was that the latest version of the screenplay focused on the Joker at the expense of everyone else in the movie. A worrying sign of what’s to come, perhaps?
Why this is villainy: As bad as it may be to lose one of your leading actors ahead of production, the rumored reason is worse. It’s not that the Joker isn’t “traditionally” a Suicide Squad character, per se, but the idea that the movie might end up spending more time focusing on its high-profile guest star instead of the title characters is troubling. Here’s hoping this rumor turns out to be baseless. Please? (That rumor that Batman may make an appearance, on the other hand…)
SUPER IDEA: No More Old Xavier and Magneto
We can probably file this under “You Probably Already Knew This,” but Patrick Stewart has confirmed that neither he nor Ian McKellen will be appearing in the follow-up to last year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, which takes place entirely in the past (this time, the 1980s). He did reveal that he knew what 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse was about, however, and revealed that it was “looking very much at the earlier lives of all our characters.” Well, that’s not very helpful at all, Patrick.
Why this is super: While we have nothing against either McKellen or Stewart, they’ve been the focus of more than enough X-Men movies by this point. While simply shifting the focus to the younger incarnations of those characters might not be much of an improvement, let’s look at this as a stepping stone to movies featuring different characters altogether. It could happen!
SUPER IDEA: Nobody Knows What’s Going on With Fantastic Four, But We’ll Soon Have a Trailer
The bizarre game of dueling rumors surrounding Fox’s Fantastic Four continues to play out online, with last week’s “No, really, it’s awesome” leaks followed by a Latino Review report this week that the movie is in such trouble it’s about to undergo major reshoots in hopes of salvaging what’s possible. Almost immediately afterwards, Simon Kinberg—writer and executive producer on the movie—got in touch with the site to confirm that some additional photography was happening, but described it as just three or four days. Kinberg also revealed that we’ll soon get a chance to make snap judgments for ourselves about the movie: The first trailer will be released Feb. 13, to accompany the studio’s Kingsman in theaters.
Why this is super: The upside of this above exchange, more than anything, is the fact that we’ll be getting a Fantastic Four trailer sooner rather than later. With the movie coming to theaters in August, it’s surprising that we’ve not seen anything yet. Of course, there’s no proof that the trailer would do anything other than fuel even more speculation about the actual movie, but at least it’ll help everyone be just a little more informed.
SUPER IDEA: Let’s Just Call Captain America: Civil War an Avengers Movie, Already
Let’s go through the characters appearing in next year’s third Captain America movie, shall we? Cap himself is a lock, obviously. And we know that Iron Man and Black Panther have been officially confirmed to show up in it. And Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye is heavily rumored to show up as well. Oh, and Joe and Anthony Russo have just confirmed that both the Winter Soldier and Black Widow will be popping up as well. Can we just bring in the Hulk and Thor and admit that this is a stealth Avengers installment, finally? Thanks.
Why this is super: Well, if nothing else, the Civil War plot line should include a number of Marvel heroes, and there’s no denying there’s a lot of fun to be had watching the various Marvel heroes interact … maybe having a secret Avengers movie isn’t such a bad thing, when it comes down to it.
SUPER IDEA: Has a Leaked T-Shirt Shot Confirmed a Batman v Superman Plot?
An image from the fan-run Batman v Superman 2016 Instagram account claimed to show the crew shirt from Zack Snyder’s intra-hero smack down … including a heavily-armored Batman, a la Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. If true (and that is, to be fair, a substantial “if” at this point), then this might explain how the two characters can face off without it being over very, very quickly.
A photo posted by Batman v Superman™ (@batmanvsuperman2016) on Jan 20, 2015 at 10:38am PST
Why this is super: While Warners’ DC movies have so far stayed away from straight adaptations to date (Watchmen aside, for many reasons), there’s definitely going to be a section of fandom very excited indeed about the prospect of that fight unfolding on the big screen come 2016. Of course, quite who’s going to take the place of the surly old Oliver Queen remains a secret. Think Stephen Amell could be coaxed to shave his head and play a few decades older, just for fun?
No comments:
Post a Comment