Our weekly round up of the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Big Hero 6, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Force, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Batman vs. Superman, Catwoman, Gotham, Son of Batman, Arrow, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more...![]()
Marvel Studios may have started rolling out its latest Phase Two offering in
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it was
Avengers: Age of Ultron that grabbed most of the Cinematic Universe headlines this week as principal photography on Joss Whedon's hotly-anticipated sequel got underway in Italy (doubling for Serbia). The shoot revolved around a big action sequence, with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) battling a load of guys in mocap suits, as well as a stand in for James Spader's Ultron. Be sure to check out the set photos and video (including a good look at Hawkeye's new costume), which we've got for you
here,
here,
here,
here and
here...
...While Hawkeye and the Maximoff twins battled the maniacal A.I., a couple of other cast members took a moment to speak briefly about the sequel, with
Samuel L.Jackson suggesting that we'll be seeing little more than a glorified cameo from Nick Fury, and Robert Downey Jr. sharing some of his enthusiasm for suiting up once again in the follow-up to 2012's mega-blockbuster
The Avengers: "This one is a very ambitious sequel. If you read it, it’s dense, it’s smart. Joss Whedon is a really smart guy. My 2-year-old is crazy about Hawkeye, and I think Jeremy Renner has a lot to do with the plot. There’s always so many plates to spin to get these things half-right, and I’m really excited about this one..."
...And so we come to
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is set to hit North American theaters on Friday after opening here in the UK this past Wednesday. For those yet to see the film, Marvel has released plenty of new promotional material, including a featurette and a couple of TV spots [see
here and
here], an Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp) character poster [see
here], a rather splendid 70s-styled cast and crew poster from artist Paulo Rivera [see
here], and a batch of new images featuring Cap (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo) [see
here]. Meanwhile, we've also got a couple of ★★★★ reviews that you can read
here and
here, as well as a competition with three merchandise packs up for grabs, each consisting of T-shirt, baseball cap, stickers and coasters. It's open to U.K. residents only I'm afraid, but if that's you, then you can enter
here...
...It would seem that Chris Evans' Captain America is living on borrowed time, with Evans revealing this week that he
plans to retire from acting after his Marvel contract runs out with
The Avengers 3: "I’ve known for a while I wanted to direct. But (time) never really opens up. There’s another movie to do, there’s another acting job. It just got to a point where I was like, you know what — I have to do this. If I’m acting at all, it’s going to be under Marvel contract, or I’m going to be directing. I can’t see myself pursuing acting strictly outside of what I’m contractually obligated to do... We can do this out loud. [
Avengers: Age of Ultron] will shoot till August. I wouldn’t be surprised if for all of 2015, we didn’t do a movie. I bet by 2017, I’ll be done..."
...Elsewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn released a new image of former Doctor Who star
Karen Gillan as the villainous Nebula in the upcoming cosmic ensemble, while Evangeline Lilly (
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) was confirmed as joining Paul Rudd (
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues), Michael Douglas (
Behind the Candelabra) and Patrick Wilson (
The Conjuring) in the cast of Edgar Wright's
Ant-Man, with Corey Stoll (
House of Cards) also said to be up for an as-yet-unrevealed role...
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...Shifting to the small screen and it's been announced that Joss Whedon regular Amy Acker (
Angel,
Dollhouse,
Much Ado About Nothing) is set to appear in "at least one episode" of
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the role of
Audrey, the cellist love of Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), in a storyline that will also include
Marcus Daniels, a.k.a. Blackout, who's set to be played by Patrick Brennan (
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2) .But before then, the Agents are set to go up against J. August Richards' Deathlok in Tuesday's episode 'End of the Beginning', and we've got a poster featuring the cyborg here, as well as two clips
here and
here...
...In other Marvel TV news, the studio's Head of Television Jeph Loeb has given us some indication as to the
timescale for the upcoming Netflix miniseries, with Loeb stating that production on Drew Goddard's (
The Cabin in the Woods)
Daredevil is set to get underway in New York City in July, and that "
Jessica Jones comes after that, and then after that,
Iron Fist and then after that
Luke Cage, and then that'll culminate in
The Defenders." So, we should probably expect to hear who'll succeed Ben Affleck as the Man Without Fear before too long...
...Before we finish up with Disney's various Marvel projects, the Mouse House's upcoming animated movie Big Hero 6 has secured its first cast member, with
T.J. Miller (
How to Train Your Dragon,
Transformers: Age of Extinction) set to lend his voice to Fred, "an aspiring low-budget filmmaker [who] originally volunteered to be a test subject for the the robot experiments by Tadashi, but then stuck around to help the Tech Lab research team with their projects."
Big Hero 6 is being directed by Don Hall (
Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (
Bolt) and is based upon the Marvel comic book series of the same name from Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau and is scheduled to hit cinemas on November 7th...
...Almost five months after the arrival of the first teaser, 20th Century Fox finally followed up with an
action-packed second trailer for Bryan Singer's mutant sequel
X-Men: Days of Future Past, which was accompanied by a new Photoshop-heavy poster and a
'Roll Call' TV spot that shows off the impressive roster of characters including Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Magneto (Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender), Professor X (Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Sunspot (Adan Canto), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence)...
...A couple of weeks ago Fox announced that
X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2015's
The Fantastic Four and 2016's
X-Men: Apocalypse would be joined by
The Wolverine sequel and
The Fantastic Four 2 in 2017 and a mystery Marvel movie in 2018, and if (with the emphasis on "if")
Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld is to be believed,
said mystery movie will see the Merc with the Mouth returning to the screen for the Jeff Wadlow-scripted spin-off X-Force. We should probably await official confirmation before it's taken as a given, but unless the studio is keen to push through with the rumoured
X-Men vs. Fantastic Four, then
X-Force would appear to be the best bet for the slot...
...Sony may have delivered the final trailer for
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 a couple of weeks back, but the studio's marketing department hasn't slowed down the promotional blitz for the superhero sequel ahead of its release in just a few short months. As well as a promo image of Andrew Garfield's wall-crawler [see
here], we've seen a trio of new TV spots [see
here], a new Daily Bugle viral article from J. Jonah Jameson [see
here], and a couple of batches of new stills, giving us our best look yet at Dane DeHaan's Green Goblin and Paul Giamatti's Rhino [see
here and
here]. Meanwhile, Felicity Jones' mystery character has now been confirmed [see
here, if you want to be spoiled... although it's not really much of a surprise if you've been keeping track of the rumours surrounding the sequel], and Flickering Myth's Thomas Harris was lucky enough to be invited to a special 30-minute preview of footage from the film; you can read his spoiler free thoughts
here. And, if you fancy becoming Spidey for the day, we've linked up with Morphsuits to offer five readers the chance to do just that (well, kind of) in out ultimate Spider-Man Experience giveaway, which you can enter
here...
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...Moving on to Warner Bros. and its DC projects and while Jesse Eisenberg has refused to give anything away about his role as Lex Luthor in
Batman vs. Superman - jokingly telling
MTV that he's not allowed to say anything about the film for the next six years - screenwriter David S. Goyer has offered up a few words about the Man of Steel sequel, specifically how he looked to
balance the characters of Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) within the script: "I always try my best to honor every character. When you’re dealing with big iconic characters, there’s a lot of fan pressure to get it right, and I respect that and admire that passion enormously. At the same time, you can’t let your creative process be too crowded by that or distracted by it. It’s not always one uniform opinion of how you should portray this character or that character. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of walking that razor’s edge. You just have to do your best and know what’s out there, but at the same time, follow your own muse." Meanwhile, an image has surfaced online which reportedly shows Henry Cavill dressed in Christopher Reeve's iconic Superman suit during his Man of Steel audition - take a look
here...
...Dwayne Johnson has been teasing an upcoming DC role for months now, and The Rock was at it again this week, stating at CinemaCon that he's
reached an agreement with Warner Bros. to play "an extremely complex, well known (but never played) bad ass MF" who isn't the John Stewart incarnation of Green Lantern: "So, you know, there’s been mutual interest with myself and DC for many years to find the right character. I, like everyone here in the room, love superheroes. So there’s been mutual interest with us for years, and we’ve been having ongoing discussions, myself and DC, for years about the right character, what the right character would be. That’s another thing, too: It had to be right. The first quality we were looking for was that he had to be extremely complex and have a lot going on. What that does for me as an actor and the studio is it gives us space that we can explore; his complexities. The other quality was that he had to – the character we were looking for had to be well-known but never brought to life. Then what that does again as an actor, it gives me a little bit of space, and we talked about personality. It just gives me a chance to put an imprint into his personality, with the set of tools that I could bring to the table and put a very unique twist on his personality, but still pay homage to who he is. The third thing – and most important – is he had to be a badass motherfucker, OK, and on a Superman level of power, where [he] could throw down. In those three qualities, I’m happy we’ve found that character." So, who could this character be? Lobo? Black Adam? Cyborg? Martian Manhunter? Let us know your thoughts...
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...While it would seem that there's absolutely no chance of this ever happening,
The Dark Knight Rises star Anne Hathaway has admitted that she'd be open to
reprising the role of Catwoman, either as part of DC's Cinematic Universe or a standalone movie based around the feline femme fatale, stating that: "I would love it if that happened, no one's talked to me about it and I think that its probably not going to happen, but that would be pretty cool..."
...On the small screen, Fox has continued to unveil the cast of its upcoming Batman prequel series Gotham, giving us official character shots for Ben McKenzie (
The O.C.) as
Detective Jim Gordon, Sean Pertwee (
Dog Soldiers) as
Alfred Pennyworth and Robin Lord Taylor (
Another Earth) as
Oswald Cobblepot. The pilot for Gotham is currently shooting under director Danny Cannon (Judge Dredd), with a cast that also includes for Donal Logue (
Sons of Anarchy) as
Detective Harvey Bullock, newcomer Camren Bicondova as
Selina Kyle, David Mazouz (
Touch) as Bruce Wayne, Jada Pinkett Smith (
The Matrix) as Fish Mooney, Zabryna Guevara (
The Guilt Trip) as Detective Essen, Erin Richards (
Being Human) as Barbara Kean and Drew Powell (
Malcolm in the Middle) as Butch Gilzean...
...In other Dark Knight-related news, Warner Bros. has released a new still of Killer Croc from the upcoming animated movie
Son of Batman, while Batman voice actor Jason O'Mara (
Justice League: War) was a guest on the latest instalment of DC All Access, during which he discussed his work on the upcoming DC Universe Animated Original Movie, as well as introducing a new clip [see
here].
Son of Batman is set for release on May 6th, with a voice cast that also includes Stuart Allan (
Rise of the Guardians) as Damian Wayne / Robin, Morena Baccarin (
Homeland) as Talia, Giancarlo Esposito (
Once Upon a Time) as Ra's Al Ghul, David McCallum (
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) as Alfred Pennyworth, Xander Berkeley (
24) as Kirk Langstrom / Man-Bat, Fred Tatasciore (
Avengers Assemble) as Killer Croc and Thomas Gibson (
Criminal Minds) as Deathstroke / Slade Wilson...
...And speaking of Slade Wilson, Deathstroke is set to put his plan for revenge against Oliver Queen into action in this week's
Arrow; check out two promos for the 'Deathstroke' episode
here, which is described as follows: "OLIVER’S WORLD STARTS TO CRUMBLE — Slade (Manu Bennett) makes his move against Oliver (Stephen Amell) and the repercussions are enormous. While Oliver scrambles to protect his family, a key player in his team starts to question Oliver’s decisions. Meanwhile, Isabel (guest star Summer Glau) makes her move to take Queen Consolidated away from Oliver..."
...And finally, this week has given us our first look at director Jonathan Leibesman (
Wrath of the Titans) and producer Michael Bay's (
Transformers: Age of Extinction) upcoming live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, with the
first trailer for the film arriving online, as well as some new promo artwork featuring the Heroes in a Half-Shell. Did it do much to quell the controversy? Well, our writing team wasn't overly impressed, to say the least. Check out our thoughts in the latest
Flickering Myth Reaction.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen - Available now via Amazon.co.uk![]()
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Gary Collinson
and 
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