Our weekly round up of the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America 3, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Luke Cage, Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Venom, Sinister Six, The Fantastic Four, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Batman vs. Superman, Gotham, Arrow, The Flash, Constantine and more.... It's been a bumper week for superhero news, so we'll get things underway with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is set to open here in the UK in just eleven days time (we'll have our review up this coming week). Naturally we've been treated to a wealth of promotional material for the Phase Two sequel this week, including propaganda-style posters for Cap (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Falcon (Sam Wilson), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) [see
here], plenty of new footage courtesy of two clips [see
here and
here], a Falcon featurette [see
here] and three Disney Channel promos [see
here and
here], along with a batch of concept art [see
here] and promo images for
The Winter Soldier,
Falcon,
Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) and
Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo). And if all that isn't enough, you can also check out highlights of the
Captain America: The Winter Soldier red carpet world premiere over on
YouTube...
...With
Captain America: The Winter Soldier tracking an $80 million + opening weekend in the States alone, it looks certain that the sequel will continue Marvel's run of blockbuster success; however, it's Steve Rogers
next solo outing that has grabbed much of the headlines this week, with Marvel confirming that
Captain America 3will occupy the studio's May 6th 2016 release date, which will put Steve Rogers squarely up against Warner Bros.'
Man of Steel sequel
Batman vs. Superman, and Kevin Feige has confirmed that
Marvel has no plans to the release, despite competition from DC's big guns. Meanwhile, with
The Winter Soldier helmers Anthony and Joe Russo confirmed to return for
Captain America 3, Joe took the opportunity to
speak briefly about the threequel, stating that, "We’re just in the formative stages of it right now. We just started breaking story with [screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely] and we’re just getting an idea of what we wanna do with it. It’s crazy working on it before the movie even comes out because you want to see what people respond to in the film. You want to get some inspiration from what people like about the film so you go, ‘Okay, this is what we gotta lean into in the next movie’ or ‘this is what we should move away from, this didn’t work so well.’ So we’re just in that phase of breaking story but waiting to see how people respond to the movie..."
...Turning to Marvel's second release of 2014 and Kevin Feige, director James Gunn and star Chris Pratt have taken part in a live streaming interview about the cosmic superhero ensemble
Guardians of the Galaxy [watch the interview
here], while former
Doctor Who star
Karen Gillan has discussed her villainous role as Nebula, as well as teasing a big fight scene with Zoe Saldana's Gamora: "There's a big girlie fight sequence, but it's not that girlie. They made sure there weren't any nice pirouettes or anything like that. This is the integral one for my character, because it's not just a physical battle. Their relationship goes very deep, and there's a huge history between them. So there's a lot more to it than just the physical..."
...As production gears up on
The Avengers: Age of Ultron ahead of principal photography next month, several of Earth's Mightiest Heroes have taken the opportunity to praise Joss Whedon's script for the hotly-anticipated 2015 sequel - check out the thoughts of
Chris Evans,
Chris Hemsworth and
Scarlett Johansson...
...In a couple of other bits and pieces from Phase Three of the MCU, Michael Pena (
American Hustle) has revealed that he's
yet to officially sign on alongside Paul Rudd (
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues), Michael Douglas (
Behind the Candelabra) and Patrick Wilson (
The Conjuring) in Edgar Wright's
Ant-Man; Scott Derrickson (
Sinister) has been tipped as one of three directors on the
shortlist for the director's chair on Doctor Strange alongside Mark Andrews (
Brave) and Jonathan Levine (
Warm Bodies)...
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...And as for possible future Marvel movies,
Kevin Feige has spoken more about a potential solo movie for Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, stating that: "I think the idea would be great. We've got various outlines and ideas of where to take that. As Scarlett already said, there's a big element that explores her back story in an upcoming Marvel feature. The question really is, 'When will we take her out of the ensemble and have her do her own thing?' As you saw in [
Captain America: The Winter Soldier], as you'll see in
The Avengers: Age of Ultron, she's really the key to so much of the plot development." Meanwhile,
Johansson has suggested that a Black Widow movie could happen, if there's enough fan demand: "The great thing about working with Marvel is that they are really into the audience participation. If the audience wants to see a Black Widow movie then that conversation can certainly be opened up. I love playing that character, she has a wonderful depth and really interesting grey area. She has no moral compass. These are all things that I think would be interesting to explore for her own spin-off..."
...
Thor and
Thor: The Dark World star Jaimie Alexander made a guest appearance in
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. this past week [read Anghus Houvouras' review
here], which delivered a solid ratings boost for the show, with the episode 'Yes Men' up 11% from the previous season-low. Meanwhile, Alexander also took a moment to discuss Marvel's penchant for delivering strong female characters [read her comments
here], while it's been announced that Adrian Pasdar (
Heroes,
Avengers Assemble) is set to feature in the series, taking on the role of Major Glenn Talbot - you can check out a first-look image of Pasdar in costume, complete with moustache,
here...
...With Marvel's Netflix series gearing up to commence production later in the year,
Brooklyn Nine-Nine star
Terry Crews has admitted that he'd be interested in playing Luke Cage, despite suggestions that he's too old for the role of Power Man: "Anything can happen. All I know is scheduling and all that stuff—anything can happen. I’m open to all kinds of things, but who knows? Actually I took myself out of the Luke Cage running a while back, just because it was people trying to put people against each other. [It was] Idris Elba vs. Michael Jai White and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, this is not even greenlit! Can we talk to Marvel? Why are you talking to me? Don’t put me against my homeboy for a movie that’s not existing.’ I said, ‘Take me out!’ I heard [it’s greenlit] but I haven’t gotten any calls. I’ve been hearing stuff like, ‘oh you’re too old,’ and I’m like, ‘Man do my workout 20 years ago and we’ll talk about who’s too old (laughs).’ Like I said, anything can happen, I never rule anything out. I’m game. There are no rules. What’s up, Marvel? I’m right here, baby. I ain’t goin nowhere. You know where I live..."
...On Tuesday, ABC will air an hour-long documentary special entitled
Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe which explores the Marvel Cinematic Universe and promises new footage from
Captain America: The Winter Soldier,
Guardians of the Galaxy and
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., along with our very first look at
The Avengers: Age of Ultron; check out a promo and clip from the special
here...
...While we're on the subject of Marvel documentaries, a new online series entitled
Marvel's Tales to Astonish has been announced at SXSW; the series will consist of 13-minute episodes that aim to put the comic book publisher's classic stories into a larger context and is set to get underway with the 2006-2007 crossover event
Civil War from writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven; you can read more about the series from Marvel's vice president of digital content and programming John Cerilli
here...
...And on the Marvel animation front,
seven clips and behind-the-scenes featurettes from the direct-to-video anime feature
Marvel's Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher, which you can see here. The movie features the voice talents of Jennifer Carpenter (
Dexter) and Brian Bloom (
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3) as the super spy and the gun-toting vigilante, and is released on March 25th...
...Moving on from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and with Sony's
Amazing Spider-Man 2 due for release in a few short weeks, the studio's marketing department has continued its promotional blitz, giving us even more footage in four new clips [see
here and
here] and two international TV spots [see
here], along with four viral articles from the Daily Bugle viral site [see
here,
here and
here] and a new
promo image of Spidey (Andrew Garfield) squaring up against The Rhino (Paul Giamatti) - which is of course advertising a new trailer set to arrive early next week. It's also been announced that the superhero sequel will receive its
world premiere on London on April 10th (the film is due out in the UK on April 18th and in North America on May 2nd), while director Marc Webb has moved to reassure fans concerned over the number of villains, stating that: "The main villain is Electro. Every other villain emerges around that. We were careful to make sure the stories entertained. You had to make sure to create obstacles that were difficult to overcome. We wanted to make the physical and emotional obstacles difficult. Rhino is in it for four minutes so it’s a legitimate comparison, but when you see the movie, I’m confident..."
...With Sony planning an expansion of its Spidey franchise, producers
Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad have spoken about the planned spin-offs for Venom and The Sinister Six; first up is Arad, discussing their plans to position Venom as an antihero and seemingly hinting that Chris Zylka's Flash Thompson could be the character to bond with the symbiote: "Venom hated only one guy – Spider-Man. He wasn’t innately bad, he was a shortcut guy, not really into fighting hard for achievement. That’s the Venom story. Can he also be a good guy? As you know, Venom was also called ‘lethal defender of the innocent’. We had a great history with him, especially caring for the homeless, which is a very sensitive issue and something that many of us are very concerned with. Our villains all represent a different side of the misunderstood, and some of them unfortunately turned to the dark side. Venom happened to be a phenomenal character. With Eddie Brock, or if you do Flash Thompson, it doesn’t matter who is going to be inside the suit – what’s important is that a man like him is going to realize there comes a time when you wake up in the morning and say ‘How did I get here? There must be a better way...'"
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...Meanwhile, Matt Tolmach discussed the challenges of bringing the villainous
Sinister Six to the screen: "Obviously questions of traditional hero/villain dynamics have to be looked at. At the same time it’s an awesome challenge, because some of the greatest characters are in fact villains, and how you construct that is so much fun. People love those bad characters if they’re
good bad characters, and love to watch them. And nobody’s all good, nobody’s all bad, and so where we end up with that story, I think, is a really awesome challenge, and we all smile when we think about what you can do. It’s definitely a bad-ass group of people and I think it’s going to be a ton of fun to watch them..."
...Turning to Fox's Marvel movies and overlooking the seemingly false rumours that the studio is ready to ditch the director, cast and script for the upcoming reboot of
The Fantastic Four, Miles Teller (
The Spectacular Now) has
spoken briefly about the appeal of the film, which will see him taking on the role of Mister Fantastic alongside Kate Mara (
American Horror Story) as Invisible Woman, Jamie Bell (
Nymphomaniac) as The Thing and Michael B. Jordan (
Fruitvale Station) as Johnny Storm: "I think what we're going to do with
Fantastic Four is going to be very grounded and it made sense to me. When I read the script, I didn't feel like I was reading this larger-than-life, incredible superhero tale. These are all very human people that end up having to become I guess what is known as the Fantastic Four. So for me it was just a really good story and gives me an opportunity to play something different from my own skin. It's a proper character and that's my favorite stuff to do." Meanwhile,
a rumoured shortlist of actors has surfaced for the role of Doctor Doom, with reports suggesting that Fox and director Josh Trank (
Chronicle) are looking at Eddie Redmayne (
Les Miserables), Domhnall Gleeson (
Dredd), Toby Kebbell (
Wrath of the Titans) and Sam Riley (
Control) for the part of Victor Von Doom...
...Before
The Fantastic Four, Fox will release its latest mutant superhero offering
X-Men: Days of Future Past (which, according to Rotten Tomatoes, is the most anticipated blockbuster of the summer), and along with a
new batch of images featuring Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Bishop (Omar Sy), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), and William Stryker (Josh Helman), it's been confirmed that the eagerly-anticipated second trailer has been classified by the BBFC and will run for 2 minutes and 28 seconds. Expect it to arrive imminently...
...Wolverine will also be teaming up with the cyborg superhero Deathlok for the upcoming Marvel Knights Animation motion comic release
Wolverine Weapon X: Tomorrow Dies Today, which has been announced for release in May. Here's the official synopsis: "The future is controlled by a malevolent mega-corporation known as Roxxon — which keeps its tight grip on society through the use of cyborgs, the Deathloks, whose sole purpose is to seek out current and future vigilantes — and neutralize them with extreme prejudice. Now, in order to prevent Roxxon's rise and the eventual slaughter of the world's heroes, Wolverine must join forces with a mysterious woman possessing unexplained knowledge of the coming dystopia. He won't give up until the Deathloks are stopped, but what hope is there to prevent a future that has already come to pass..?"
...Turning to DC now and along with a
presumably fake first-look image Ben Affleck's Batman, it's been rumoured that principal photography is now underway on Zack Snyder's
Man of Steel sequel
Batman vs. Superman, although there's been no confirmation from anywhere to support the original report, and Jeremy Irons - who is set to play Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred Pennyworth - has suggested that the
script remains incomplete. Meanwhile, costume designer Michael Wilkinson has spoken more about his work on the film, confirming we'll get to see images of Affleck, Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot in full costume "well before the film" (seriously?!), and offering some more comments on the new designs for Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman [read what he had to say
here]...
...
Batman vs. Superman news might be pretty scarce at present, but there's a hell of a lot going on for DC fans on the small screen at the moment, so while we're on the subject of Batman, Fox has released the
official logo for its upcoming Dark Knight prequel series
Gotham, along with this show description: "Everyone knows the name Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the crime world’s greatest foes, a man whose reputation is synonymous with law and order. But what is known of Gordon’s story and his rise from rookie detective to Police Commissioner? What did it take to navigate the multiple layers of corruption that secretly ruled Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world’s most iconic villains? And what circumstances created them – the larger-than-life personas who would become Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker?" The
Gotham pilot is to be directed by Danny Cannon (
Judge Dredd) are will star Ben McKenzie (
Southland) as Detective Jim Gordon, David Mazouz (
Touch) as Bruce Wayne, Sean Pertwee (
Dog Soldiers) as Alfred Pennyworth, Robin Lord Taylor (
Another Earth) as Oswald Cobblepot, newcomer Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle, Jada Pinkett Smith (
The Matrix) as Fish Mooney, Zabryna Guevara (
The Guilt Trip) as Detective Essen, Erin Richards (
Being Human) as Barbara Kean, Drew Powell (
Malcolm in the Middle) as Butch Gilzean and Donal Logue (
Sons of Anarchy) as Detective Harvey Bullock.
...As
Arrow prepares to introduce the Suicide Squad - and, potentially, Harley Quinn - with this week's episode [watch the Producer's Review featurette
here], production has kicked off on the spin-off pilot for
The Flash, meaning we've now been treated to our first look at Grant Gustin's Barry Allen in full costume as the Fastest Man Alive, with an
official promo shot, followed by a batch of
spy photos and video from the set of the pilot, which also includes a snap of Candice Patton (
The Game) as Iris West. David Nutter is handling directing duties on the pilot, while the rest of the cast includes Jesse L. Martin (
Law & Order) as Detective West, Patrick Sabongui (
Almost Human) as David Singh, Danielle Panabaker (
Friday the 13th) as Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost, Rick Gosnett (
The Vampire Diaries) as Eddie Thawne, Broadway star Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon / Vibe, Michelle Harrison (
Emily Owens, MD) as Nora Allen, Tom Cavanagh (
Ed) as Harrison Wells, and original
Flash star John Wesley Shipp in an as-yet-unrevealed mystery role...
...And finally, not to be left out, NBC has also given us our first look at Matt Ryan (
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior) as John Constantine from their own upcoming DC pilot with the release of a
behind-the-scenes image and
official promo shot of the supernatural detective. Meanwhile, David S. Goyer has offered up a few words about the show, as well as the supporting cast for the pilot, which is being directed by Neil Marshall (Game of Thrones): "I'm proud to say that Constantine is actually being played by a British guy, Matt Ryan, and he is going to have blond hair. [Whether he will smoke is] a tricky one on network TV. We're negotiating right now. He will have his signature trench coat and skinny tie. I would say that the show clings more closely to the sourse material then the film did. Even though the film was interesting. Harold Perrineau. He's amazing. He plays an angel but not the kind of angel from
Touched by an Angel. He's fantastic.
Charles Halford who plays Reggie Ledoux on
True Detective. He plays Chas. I don't know if you know that character from the comic books. He's sort of Constantine's strong man/friend. Lucy Griffiths who is ... I don't want to say too much about her. She' s an amalgam of characters. Hopefully, touch wood, They'll be another recurring character announced. Pretty cool actor who fans will know and the character he plays from the comic books as well."
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen - Available now via Amazon.co.uk![]()
and Amazon.com![]()
.
Gary Collinson
_2.jpg "J.K. Rowling releases new Harry Potter story 'History of the Quidditch World Cup'")
and 
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