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.)

Captain America to challenge Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman in 2016

Captain America to challenge Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Yes Marvel and DC movies will face off directly at the box office on May 6, 2016 with the third Captain America film and the Man of Steel sequel both opening the same weekend. Is Marvel’s head start and higher quality enough to take down DC’s three biggest names? All I know is that I’ll probably be seeing the one that’s not directed by Zack Snyder first.

Ben Affleck is Hollywood’s latest Batman

AffleckFollowing in the footsteps of Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Christian Bale, Warner Brothers has dropped the bomb that Ben Affleck will be the next Batman. He’ll join the reigning Superman, Henry Cavill, in the Man of Steel sequel that was announced at SDCC. It’ll be the first live-action film in which the two characters face off.

My reaction can only be summed up with an animated GIF.

Affleck’s doing pretty well for himself these days as a star and director, taking home a second Oscar earlier this year for Argo’s Best Picture win, but who among us doesn’t remember 2003’s Daredevil? Still, if the second superhero role was the charm for Chris Evans, certainly Affleck can turn it around as well.

And, lest we forget:

Sigh.

SDCC: Marvel piles on superhero reveals; Superman and Batman to meet in 2015

Guardians of the Galaxy

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]

Oscars nominations boring as ever for genre fans

Not a whole lot of love for genre pictures at the Oscars this year.  The Avengers got just one nomination, for Visual Effects, where it was joined by online punching-bag Prometheus.  Both of them will probably lose to Life of Pi.

May the odds be ever in her favorThe good news is that some fan-favorite actors scored big.  Jennifer Lawrence was nominated for Best Actress — not for The Hunger Games, but rather for her work in Silver Linings Playbook.  She plays a woman suffering from a variety of mental illnesses so who knows, maybe she’ll even win.  And though The Dark Knight Rises was shut out, Anne Hathaway got a Supporting Actress nod for playing Fantine in Les Misérables, and she’s pretty much a lock.  Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, was also nominated for Les Misérables, but let’s face it, he has no chance.

The Hobbit got three nominations, for Visual Effects, Makeup, and Production Design.  Not bad until you remember that the last Middle-earth epic nabbed eleven nominations, and won all of ’em.

Plus we have to mention: John Williams picked up his 48th nomination for Lincoln.  Pretty sure that’s a record.  And weirdly enough, the Simpsons are now Oscar nominees.  Something called Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” is up for Best Animated Short.

At least we can always look forward to making fun of the fashions.  This year the Academy Awards air on February 24th.

Edit: Thanks to Pablo for pointing out that new Lucasfilm head honcho Kathleen Kennedy (along with Steven Spielberg) was nominated for producing Lincoln!  It’s the front-runner for Best Picture, too.