So the spate of summer cons where Lucasfilm might announce news related to Episode VII has come and gone, and we’ve gotten some announcements, but nothing mind-blowing. As Dunc said earlier this week, let’s not lose our heads over it. Is it frustrating that Celebration Europe’s big reveal was John Williams, and nothing much came from D23 Expo? Perhaps. Especially when compared to the glut of Marvel movie news that came out at Comic-Con and appearances made at D23. But as film franchises go, Marvel is not Star Wars. And Star Wars is not Marvel.
Trailer park: Thor, Loki and more
The latest trailer for Thor: The Dark World reportably contains some of the footage that was shown at Comic-Con, and also features plenty of Loki.
Below the cut: New looks at Ender’s Game and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
SDCC: Marvel piles on superhero reveals; Superman and Batman to meet in 2015
Saturday night’s highlight was the Marvel Studios panel, which opened with Tom Hiddleston as Loki (in full costume!) taunting the crowd and introducing a new new trailer for Thor 2: The Dark World. They continued with the full cast of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and more footage… And then the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, who’ve only just begun filming. Somehow they brought footage as well, and then… Doctor Who’s Karen Gillan, who will be playing space pirate Nebula, revealed she’s shaved her head for the role. They introduced some new Guardians concept art, above. And then Joss Whedon came out to reveal that Avengers 2 is titled Avengers: Age of Ultron. [Recaps: Tor, THR, HitFix/HitFix, Hero Complex, EW]
For the Marvel properties that live at other studios, Fox brought out the entire cast of X-Men: Days of Future Past, a time travel story which includes mutants from the original films and the prequel First Class. [THR, EW, /film] And Sony touted the just-wrapped Amazing Spider-Man 2. [/film]
As for DC… They announced that the Man of Steel sequel will also involve Batman – a new one, as the studio has previously said that they’ll be rebooting the character for any future films. Both writer David S. Goyer and director Zack Snyder will return. It’s aiming for… You guessed it… 2015. Rumor has it that they plan to follow the team-up with The Flash and Justice League. [Hero Complex, THR, EW]
SDCC: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire trailer
A new trailer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire debuted yesterday at the con, while Jennifer Lawrence continues to be very Jennifer Lawrence.
Trailer park, SDCC edition: Legend of Korra, Veronica Mars
These almost certainly won’t be the last trailers out of the con, but these two revealed yesterday are certainly among my most-anticipated. Book 2 of Legend of Korra will be coming in September, but you can watch the first three minutes now.
The Veronica Mars movie is expected early next year.
We’ll have links of the rest of the non-Star Wars announcements later. There are apparently some doozies coming today…
Trailer park: How to Train Your Dragon 2
A quick, simple teaser from the sequel to How to Train Your Dragon does the job pretty stylishly. Below the cut, a few genre-ajacent trailers…
Trailer park: Pacific Rim, Percy Jackson
This new Pacific Rim trailer focuses a bit more on the people and internal tech than the giant robot/monster fighting. The Mary Sue points to an interesting quote from Legendary Entertainment’s Jon Jashni:
Jashni maintains that the “fanboy psychographic” isn’t limited to men anymore, and that character helps sell a movie to all audience segments. “There’s an emotional aspect to this movie, and there’s a bombastic aspect,” he says. “Some women will respond to the emotion inherent in the movie, some will respond to the spectacle. Same is true for men and adults. ”
Well, at least someone gets it.
Pretty slim pickings this week, but head below the cut for another Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters trailer. Continue reading “Trailer park: Pacific Rim, Percy Jackson”
Harrison Ford returning to SDCC… For Ender’s Game
Harrison Ford infamously made his San Diego Comic Con debut for Cowboys and Aliens back in 2010… And he’ll be returning this year to promote Ender’s Game.
I wouldn’t necessarily count on any Episode VII announcements regarding Ford and the other all-but-confirmed returning actors, as they may still be negotiating and we’ve heard nothing about any Star Wars panels yet… Plus Celebration Europe is the very next week, so Lucasfilm may chose to take advantage of the post-SDCC lull and reveal any big news in Germany instead.
Lucasfilm doesn’t show up in the SDCC exhibitor list, but the so-called Del Rey/Lucasbooks booth (#2913) looks a little too big to be just a single licensee on the map… Where it shows a giant Lucasfilm logo. Data entry mixup? In any case, hopefully they leave the snakes at home this year.
Trailer park: The Hobbit, Frozen and more
After a brief lull in new trailers, the past few weeks have given us quite a variety. First up, released while we were in JadeCon mode, is our first look at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Below the cut, the first look at 300: Rise of an Empire, a teaser from Disney’s Frozen and second trailers for Elysium and Riddick, plus… A LEGO movie?
Continue reading “Trailer park: The Hobbit, Frozen and more”
Rumor: Is May 29, 2015 Episode VII’s release date?
The date was also part of an earlier rumor, but Cosmic Book News claims that a second source has collaborated the date.
A May 29 release does put a few weeks time between the release of Episode VII and The Avengers 2, which is currently set for May 1 that year. And other studios are certainly planning like that’s the case, although a May release date for a Star Wars movie is always a pretty safe assumption.
While we’re on the topic of The Avengers sequels, Marvel confirmed yesterday that Robert Downey Jr. will be back as Tony Stark for The Avengers 2 and 3, and they took a page from Lucasfilm’s book to do it.