Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the top stories in superhero comic based Film & TV news! Get comfortable, this week is a mega update covering a ton of movie news!
[toggle_box title=”Justice League” width=”Width of toggle box”]We already know that the fate of WB’s Justice League movie is based on the success of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. We learned this after the script for the film had been thrown away, and the confidence level of the studio seemed to falter. After some great reactions to the trailer and generally positive mood behind Snyder’s upcoming Superman film, chances seem good that the Justice League will move forward, with Zack Snyder directing. GammaSquad reports:
Empire (via The Playlist) says Warner has picked Zack Snyder to direct Justice League, but only if his Man Of Steel is a hit. If the unmitigated awesomeness of the trailer is any indication, the movie’s going to do just fine.
Empire also spoke to Snyder, who said Man Of Steel wasn’t designed to be “a one-off” (well, obviously). He also said his Superman is in “the DC world. I have been making references to the DC universe, just to let you know that world is out there.” Case in point, the LexCorp building was in the trailer for a split second.
It’s hard to react too much to this news, as the fate of the JL still waits to be decided, but overall it’s a good thing. Snyder has the same kind of fanboy mentality that Joss Whedon has, mixed with the darker edge that DC seems to be looking for. If Man of Steel hits big, we’ll be back with more news from the film.[/toggle_box]
[toggle_box title=”X-Men: Days of Future Past” width=”Width of toggle box”] It seems like the casting news has slowed down for now, but news keeps hitting, with most of it coming from director Bryan Singer. The latest twitter teaser reveals the confirmation of two new characters to the X-Men Movie Universe. You can check out the tweet below, and click the link to check out a quick Vine video that scrolls through the cast’s set chairs, which reveals both Bishop and Warpath:[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/BryanSinger/statuses/327037468673208320″%5D Bishop has long been rumored as being a part of the film, so it’s nice to see his character confirmed, if not the actor playing him. New addition Warpath is an interesting one, as he is more commonly a member of the various forms of X-Force we’ve seen over the years. And another look at more from the set featured a new image of Halle Berry as Storm in a new costume. This pic was again tweeted by Bryan Singer, who has been the main source of most of the news coming from the highly anticipated sequel.
There has been a bit of discussion and hatred thrown around about this costume, but this first look is probably more of a test shot than anything concrete.[/toggle_box]
[toggle_box title=”Amazing Spider-Man 2″ width=”Width of toggle box”]We haven’t heard a ton of news regarding the story of the film yet, but we have seen quite a few pictures from the set featuring our first looks at both Jamie Foxx and Dane DeHaan as Max Dillon/ Electro and Harry Osborn, respectively. The first image shows Electro after his transformation into the villain, from Newsarama: 
This was followed up with a look at Foxx as Max Dillon before the villainous transformation, and a quick glimpse at DeHaan as Osborn, from Entertainment Weekly: 
We also have a great set of photos featuring the new Spidey costume during filming. With these new pics it’s interesting to see the evolution of the costume from the first film into the more established version of the costume. The new version still has the elongated spider emblem from the first costume, but the rest is pretty much as faithful to the comics as possible. 
You can check out ComicBookMovie for a lot more images that give you a full look at the costume on set. While you’re checking out pictures from the film head on over to Splashpage to see some set photos that reveal Ravencroft Asylum as a part of the film, with a nice little Easter Egg that should tease some Spidey fans.[/toggle_box]
[toggle_box title=”Captain America: The Winter Soldier” width=”Width of toggle box”] Filming has recently begun on the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger, and a small amount of news has recently been confirmed. First we had seen a concept art for the second film that features a new costume of Chris Evans. The concept art seemed to draw from the Steve Rogers Secret Avengers costume, as you can see below: 
Some recent set photos have indeed revealed a new costume, as well as features an appearance from fellow Avenger Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson. JFX Online has the pics: 
There were rumors of Hayley Atwell’s involvement in the sequel as well, but not a lot of concrete proof has come out to back that up. Recently Hayley dropped the news that she has finished filming something that will be revealed at Comic-Con, which most fans seem to think will be a new Marvel One-Shot. Splashpage reports: 
[Hayley Atwell]”There’s been an online campaign for Peggy to be featured. People really liked her. So Marvel have made sure that as part of ComicCon there will be a little kind of snapshot as to what Peggy’s actually really capable of, which was finished here and which was great fun. Hopefully, it will lead to other things.”
According to a report by ComicBookMovie and Comicbook.com, at the premiere of “Iron Man 3” Marvel Studios co-President and director of previous One-Shot, “Item 47,” Louis D’Esposito was asked about Marvel’s next potential short film. He said, “I’ve just done a couple of short films for Marvel that feature [a] female protagonist,” adding that, “…it’s still top secret, but we will be premiering it at Comic-Con.” The source of D’Esposito’s quote was not reported by either site, so this can’t yet be considered a full confirmation.
So either we’ll see Hayley reprise her role as Peggy Carter in a One-Shot, or maybe see even more of another female character from the MCU. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.[/toggle_box]
[toggle_box title=”The Avengers 2″ width=”Width of toggle box”]Joss Whedon has been discussing a bunch of news regarding the upcoming sequel to the hit geek-gasm that was The Avengers. The first bit was probably the most exciting, as he teased some new recruits to the team. SuperHeroHype reports: 
“I have finished a draft and I’m redoing it now. I think it’s in really good shape. We’re in a very good place,” [Whedon] said.
When they asked him if he felt pressure to top the first film, he offered this response.
“I try not to think of it as topping it. I try to think of this as its own movie. Sometime yeah, I feel pressure and by the way, Shane (Black) not helping, Iron Man 3 not helping, because I saw this and man he really got it right. But when you’re in the story and you’re dealing with these characters that you love, that everybody loves, when you’ve got the new characters sliding in next to them it’s very exciting. Then I don’t feel pressure, it’s like I’m reading my favorite comic.”
New characters you say? Whedon offered a few more details about who these might be.
“I’ve got these two characters, two of my favorite characters from the comic book, a brother-sister act. They’re in the movie.”
The only brother-sister combo that we can think of is Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. While Whedon could just be having fun at the expense of the online community, it is likely that these characters could appear in the sequel as Marvel shares the rights with Fox. Overall though, Whedon says he is having fun with the sequel.
“It’s going really well, eventually someone will explain to me that it’s not and pull me out of my bubble. I’ve been writing and meeting with actors and we’re starting to storyboard, all the preliminary processes. This is the part where it’s all still fun.”
Fans have definitely been awaiting the arrival of both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who were the first new recruits along with Hawkeye in the comics. There are a few other brother-sister characters in the world of the Avengers, but none stand out quite like Wanda and Pietro. Whedon also discussed his thoughts on Robert Downey Jr. staying in the role of Iron Man, due to some recent concerns that RDJ might not be returning to the role. He also drops a little information about the role of Thanos in the MCU. SHH Reports: The director has now spoken with Desde Hollywood and has teased some more about what we can expect, but first he spoke about whether Robert Downey Jr. will return as Tony Stark.
“I am not the guy who has to worry about him being replaced. He is Iron Man at this point. When I heard that he was cast I knew that something had just changed, and I usually don’t know stuff like that. I was like ‘Now we are in a new phase.’ The way he embodies it… I love working with him. He is so perfect for it, Shane captures it so perfectly in this movie.
“I want him to play it forever. The great thing is that he has a flying metal suit. So it’s not like those Charles Bronson or Roger Moore movies where you’re like ‘Dude, you can barely stand.’ He’s got some fight in him. At the same time, if Robert decides to hang it up, he has a perfectly good excuse.”
This comment seems to lead to the idea that Thanos might not be the villain until the third Avengers film, which most can assume to be the big finale Whedon was talking about. As to who the people that will shake up the team in the sequel are, we can let the speculation begin on that.[/toggle_box] [toggle_box title=”Doctor Strange” width=”Width of toggle box”]All of this buildup towards Marvel’s Phase Three settles around the only known films that have been announced; Ant-Man and Dr. Strange. We obviously assume we will see the third sequels of the various established characters as well, but those have yet to be announced. We know a little about Ant-Man, which was initially part of the Phase Two announcement. Dr. Strange was recently announced, so news has been pretty scarce. We saw a brief rumor that The Evil Dead‘s director Fede Alvarez was being looked at, but that was soon denied by Alvarez. The next rumor to develop was a possible star of the film, from ScreenRant:
Who will play Doctor Strange? There has already been plenty of speculation about who could play the Sorcerer Supreme, with producer Victoria Alonso singling out Viggo Mortensen out as someone Marvel would “love to work with.” Now, a new report from CHUD claims that actor/screenwriter Justin Theorux is in the running for the role.
Citing an “industry source,” CHUD says that Marvel is strongly considering Theroux for the part. If true, it would be the second time Marvel has turned to Theroux – though the first time for his acting. Previously, Theroux wrote the script for Iron Man 2.
Not a terrible pick for the role at all, but it’s still incredibly early. We haven’t even heard casting news or rumors from Ant-Man, which has already received a director (Edgar Wright) and some test footage, but we’ll be keeping an eye on this rumor.
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[toggle_box title=”The Crow” width=”Width of toggle box”]We haven’t heard much from The Crow reboot that had been in production until it ran into some legal gridlock. The star rumored at the time was Bradley Cooper, but some new candidates have popped up in connection with the film. The first was that Tom Hiddleston may be in the running for the role, which was quickly shot down. No surprise considering he is sure to be busy as Loki with Marvel Studios upcoming slate of films. The latest candidate for the role comes to us from CinemaBlend:
Deadline has effectively splashed cold water on the idea of seeing the Thor villain dress up in goth makeup and become Eric Draven, saying that “A simple conversation has been over-hyped and reported like it was going to happen.” But while the site throws that option out the window, they offer up what they believe to be an actual possibility: Alexander Skarsgard. Apparently the True Blood star has been getting a ton of offers ever since his version of Tarzan was put on hold at Warner Bros, and the site says that The Crow “[is] Skarsgard’s role if he wants it.”
Again, this isn’t a terrible casting choice, but it’s nearly impossible to see anybody but Brandon Lee in the role. Which says a lot, considering there were three sequels with different actors in the role that we will not waste time talking about.[/toggle_box]
That does it for the Mega Movie Update! Be sure to comment below with any thoughts on the stories covered!
Grizzly Bomb 