Category: film

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Marvel announces Captain Marvel, Black Panther films as part of their Phase 3 slate

Black Panther concept art (Marvel)
Black Panther concept art (Marvel)
Carol Danvers will be the MCU’s first female superhero to headline her own film, with Captain Marvel in 2018, Marvel announced at a massive event today. But first, they’re planning a Black Panther film, starring Get on Up’s Chadwick Boseman, for 2017. Boseman will first appear in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, along with vets Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. (Who tweeted a backstage picture of the three.)

And that’s not all. Marvel has revealed their (nearly complete?) slate for Phase 3, which also includes Doctor Strange, a Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, Thor: Ragnarok, the much-rumored Inhumans and a two-part Avengers: Infinity War.

The Wrap reported yesterday that Benedict Cumberbatch (of course) is in negotiations for Strange, but Marvel did not announce any new cast aside from Boseman. Civil War and RDJ’s involvement were also rumored a few weeks back. The Civil War comic series was fairly controversial (I saw a few fans describe it as Marvel’s New Jedi Order) but the movie version will take a slightly different angle.

Still no standalone Black Widow (or Hulk) films, but Captain Marvel and Black Panther are a big step forward… Hopefully not the last.

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Teaser trailer: Avengers: Age of Ultron


The Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer was supposed to come out next week… Or so we heard yesterday. It leaked this afternoon, so Marvel made a Hydra joke and released it for real. Well played.

(Now, hopefully this lesson means they don’t announce the Episode VII trailer drop date, when the time comes…)

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Wonder Woman is getting her own film (and so are a lot of other DC superheroes)

wonder-woman-snyder-cropWarner Brothers dumped the next several years of DC Comic films on the internet today – but the highlight, at least for our purposes, is the news that Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman will get headline her own film in 2017.

Gadot will debut as Wonder Woman in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, alongside Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill. (Who will be getting their own solo films, too.)

Three other new hero-centric films – and leads – have been added: 2018 will see the long-rumored Jason Momoa in Aquaman as well as The Flash starring Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower.) 2019 will bring Cyborg, starring Ray Fisher. (Who we heard was in the running for Episode VII at one point.) Momoa and Fisher reportedly also show up in Batman v Superman. (Momoa was definitely in Detroit, where BvS has been filming.)

There’s also Suicide Squad (2016,) Shazam (2019) and a new Green Lantern (2020.)

There have been female-led superhero films in the past – 1984’s Supergirl, 2005’s Elektra, and (arguably, depending on your feelings about antiheroes) the infamous 2004 Catwoman. None of these films did very well, but none of them are regarded as very good films, period. Supergirl is getting a TV show, but this cast list seems to make it very clear that Warner Bros. isn’t including DC’s TV shows in the same universe, as they just debuted a Flash TV show starring Grant Gustin as Barry Allen. However, there have been multiples Flashes in the comics…

Whatever the case, and as weird as this huge infodump of movies and actors is, it’ll be interesting to see how BvS incorporates the proto-Justice League – and if it’ll be enough to launch this ambitious slate successfully.

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Today in Episode VII: Yet more (spoilery) rumors regarding all sorts of things

spoilers-swirl-bbwarwick→ Making Star Wars is on a real roll today with several rumors that could be extremely spoilery. First, this morning, there was Daisy Ridley’s house. Jason then followed up this afternoon with some details about Max von Sydow’s character, a couple of planets/locations, a beast and lastly, a new droid, alien and discovery.

First of all, I have few doubts that Jason has seen this stuff. And doubling down is Devin at Badass Digest, who talks about much of the same stuff, including further von Sydow details and something about Chewbacca. But as a skeptical skeptic who skeptics, I have to wonder if some of this is a deliberate red herring. Head to the comments for my personal conspiracy theory.

In less spoilery things…

→ Carrie Fisher gets an award. Mark Hamill is there. Their #beardwatch and #blondewatch games are still strong, but they are both in Los Angeles, so perhaps they’ve wrapped up as well? In any case, enjoy the sibling cuteness and hope we’ll get to hear Carrie’s inevitable jokes sooner rather than later.

→ Ben Affleck explains the genesis of the Batman v Superman/Episode VII ‘feud.’ (Warning: Autoplay video.)

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McCaffrey’s Pern books optioned for movies again

pernIt seems like the Pern books get optioned every couple years, and nothing ever comes of it… But you never know. Today, it’s Warner Bros., in need of a fresh franchise, who’ve nabbed the rights to Anne McCaffrey’s classic sci-fi (with dragons!) series, Deadline reports.

I was a big fan of Pern as a kid, and even wrote up a guide to reading them in 2011. Hell, I just realized the other day these books are basically my personal equivalent to Lord of the Rings… But I’m never sure how to feel when the possibilities of movies (or TV shows) come up. Not sure if want?