It’s here. It finally happened. My most anticipated panel of this year’s CCI has arrived and started with a bang. I’ve got a few great news stories to discuss with you today, not the least of which is Iron Man’s new armor, Cap and Thor sequels officially titled, and the announcement of Marvel Studios’ 2014 movie! Let’s get to it.
Iron Man 3 Armor Revealed!
This happened before the panel started and was a nice little appetizer for the upcoming announcements. Since Comic-Con started the Iron Man 3 display featured all seven of the armors Tony Stark has worn throughout his film career as Iron Man, and today the eighth was revealed.
Now I’ll warn you before we get a little closer look. I would like to venture that this isn’t the main armor from the movie. More along the lines of his briefcase armor from Iron Man 2 or one of his special purpose armors (Deep Sea, Space, Stealth, etc.).I say this because the general opinion of the armor is… unfavorable.
I think that Tim the Film Guy nailed it when he said it looks like C-3PO threw up all over the suit. I’m inclined to agree. Like I said, I’m holding out hope that this is just a specialty armor, or that it will grow on me if it isn’t. This isn’t the best news from the Iron Man 3 camp, either.
Footage shown has revealed that Sir Ben Kingsley is indeed playing The Mandarin and Tony’s new armor can do some pretty amazing things. CinemaBlend reports:
Robert Downey Jr. The consummate showman. The self-proclaimed “King of Comic Con.” And he proved it once again with rock-and-roll footage from the upcoming Iron Man 3, directed by Shane Black. RDJ made sure his part of the panel kicked right in with original footage. Here’s what we saw:
Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) is in his technical laboratory. He asks Jarvis to cue up some seasonal music, and we get Run DMC’s Christmas in Hollis (confirming yet abother Shane Black movie set at Christmas time). He’s suiting up, and he tries to summon his new armor … with his body. It doesn’t work at first. But then a glove flies over and attaches to Stark’s hand. He gradually calls more pieces, but they come flying at him at a rapid clip. At one point, the back plate hits him so hard that he almost falls over, but uses his gloves to right the ship. The last piece to fall into place is his face mask. To get it on properly, Stark has to fly and flip over, lands in the classic three-point Iron Man pose.
The audience goes crazy.
The next scene is Stark talking with Happy (Jon Favreau), who gets hell from Tony for quitting his job as bodyguard (apparently he was getting too much shit from friends about being the protector of Iron Man). Happy mentions that his grandmother lives in New York City, and jumped out of a two-story window when she saw a giant robotic snake coming out of the sky. So there are a lot of references to The Avengers. Happy even busts Starks chops for being one of “the Super Friends.” Funny stuff.That’s the longest full scene. The rest is a montage of footage showing Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Rhodey (Don Cheadle). In one of the quick-cut shots, Pepper is picking up a banged-up Iron Man mask from a pile of rubble. We see newcomer Guy Pearce briefly, dressed in a suit, but it’s his powerful voice-over that damn near steals the footage. “Ladies, children,” Pearce says, “Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. Lesson number one: there is no such thing as heroes.” We then see a helicopter flying outside of Stark’s Malibu mansion, firing missiles. Pepper and Tony are blown backwards, as the mansion starts tumbling into the Pacific Ocean. The whole house is destroyed. Iron Man suits are blowing up in their pods. And Tony, now in a gold and red suit, is pulled with the wreckage into the sea.
We get the title treatment. Iron Man 3. The screen fades to black. Then we’re back.
Close up of hands, with 10 rings. We pull back a little, and someone’s stroking a grey beard. From behind, we get a shot of this character cocking a pistol. And then it pulls back even further to give us our first shot of a bearded Sir Ben Kingsley in character as The Mandarin.
And finally, Marvel Studios released all the logos for their upcoming slate of movies, so here is the official Iron Man 3 logo, with the rest to follow throughout the article.
Finally you can check out a few interviews from the cast and the director over on SuperHeroHype.
Marvel’s Phase 2 Announced!
Phase 2 describes the next phase in the Marvel sequels, namely the upcoming Thor and Captain America films. Up until now they have been untitled sequels, but announced today are not only the titles, but in some cases a look at the direction the films are taking.
First up is Thor: The Dark World.
Interesting enough title, although nothing is really given away. I would wager its a reference to one of the nine realms, besides Asgard and Midgard (Earth). If we are going with my prediction that Malekith the Dark Elf may be one of the villains that would certainly tie into the title, but I’m really reaching there.
Then it was announced the Cap sequel would be titled Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Boom. This is huge news. Its not really surprising, as we all kind of figured that the Winter Soldier would feature somewhere into the trilogy. For those that don’t know, The Winter Soldier is a character from Cap’s past that he encounters in the present Avengers era. You know what, I was going to go with no spoilers but there’s no way you won’t hear about it at some point.
The Winter Soldier is Bucky, Cap’s friend who ‘died’ in the first film. Sebastian Stan is almost certainly locked up for the sequels and will be reprising his role as Bucky, who will grow to become The Winter Soldier; A brainwashed assassin with a cybernetic arm that is frozen in suspend animation when not on a mission, prolonging his youth until the present era. This is big news, and I couldn’t be more excited. Oh wait, we’re not done here yet.
Edgar Wright Premieres Ant-Man Test Footage!
It’s been long understood that Marvel has plans for Ant-Man and those plans are being led by Edgar Wright. Nothing had really been announced yet despite a few teases that have shown up over the last few weeks. So it was no surprise that not only was Edgar Wright on the panel, he also showed some of his test footage that presumably sold Marvel on his vision for the movie. Here’s the official logo that was released, which finally confirms Ant-Man:
GeekTyrant has a small description of the teaser footage:
Ant-Man is in an air vent in his shrunken size, he jumps out and races toward a couple of security guards standing in front of an elevator. He ends up kicking the crap out of them, switching back and fourth between his large size and his small size. It was very entertaining and fun, and there’s no doubt this is going to make for a great film. I also loved the costume they created for the character. One of the funniest parts in the footage was when Ant-Man punches one of the guards in his face in his mini size, and the power behind smashes his face against the wall.
Can’t wait to hear some casting announcements, not to mention which Ant-Man we will be seeing. Our main options are obviously Hank Pym, Scott Lang, or Eric O’Grady. You can read about our thoughts on these characters here.
Marvel Announces Guardians of the Galaxy!
And the moment fans have been waiting for. Marvel has finally announced thier unknown movie planned for 2014, and its a doozy. Having been rumored now for a couple weeks, it looks like Guardians of the Galaxy will be the next epic delivered from Marvel Studios. This will be the first Non-Avengers movie that Marvel Studios will be tackling, and I for one couldn’t be more excited. I feel like I’ve said that before.
FirstShowing reports:
When it comes to their new ambitious property, Guardians of the Galaxy, we finally have some real news. For those rabid fans who have been waited with bated breath to hear about this cosmic comic book adaptation, the time has come for you to learn the line-up. Groot, Drax, Gamorra, Star Lord and yes, Rocket Raccoon, are your Guardians of the Galaxy.
Here’s some concept art that was released at the panel showing the Guardians:
This is a big move for Marvel, stepping outside their comfort barriers. It isn’t totally unexpected that Marvel would move towards some of their cosmic characters as we all saw the mid-credit scene featuring Thanos in The Avengers. I’d say it’s a pretty good bet that Thanos will appear in GotG and will still be a hit for Marvel. I had called that Black Panther would be the next film for Marvel to tackle, but I am still quite pleased by the announcement. Let’s hope this departure from the core Avengers characters will serve them well and further expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And that was the Marvel Studios panel! I am certainly not let down in any way, and look forward to the next few weeks as I’m sure we’ll get a chance to see some of the footage released at the Con.
UPDATE: You can watch the full panel (minus the footage) here.
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Grizzly Bomb 