Welcome back, my friends, to the superhero show that never ends ... although, come the fall, it does tend to shut up shop just a little and head towards the small screen because it's cold outside and, well, you know how it is. Nonetheless, this week has brought more than just *Saturday Night Live'*s new Marvel movies (and let's be honest: Fancy Ghosts could totally work). X-Men! Avengers! Big Hero 6! Fantastic Four! And a comic book movie that admittedly has nothing to do with superheroes, but we're including it here nonetheless so you shut up! Here are the highlights of the week's superhero movie news.
Good news for all of those distraught by the fact that the majority of Anna Paquin's appearances in this summer's X-Men had been cut for time: this time next year, that won't be the case anymore. Fox has confirmed that a special extended edition of the movie, referred to as "The Rogue Cut" after Paquin's character, will be released for the home market at "some point" in summer 2015.
Why this is super: The Rogue sequence has taken on near-mythical status since it was first reported that it had been cut earlier this year. (It's apparently set at the start of the movie, in the "future" era as the Sentinels are attempting to kill all X-Men). Even if it doesn't live up to fans' imaginations, it'll be good just to finally have it out there. No more mystery!
It's not a superhero movie as much as a comic book movie—we're blurring lines and causing trouble, apologies!—but director Dan Trachtenberg confirmed to /Film what many people had long suspected: The movie adaptation of the DC/Vertigo comic Y: The Last Man isn't going to happen, and the rights are reverting back to creators Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra.
Why this is super: Considering that Y is a wonderful comic, it might seem counter-intuitive to consider the fact that the movie won't happen "super," but there's method to our madness. Namely, the belief that the best way to bring the 60-issue series about the world following the death of the males of all species (two exceptions: a man and his monkey) to the screen is via television. Vaughan has TV experience as a writer and producer on Lost and CBS' Under the Dome, so fingers are definitely crossed that, now that he has the rights back, we can finally get the Y TV show we all so desperately want.
Thanks to the movie's new trailer we now know more about the team assembling in the adaptation of Marvel's Big Hero 6.
Why this is super: The majority of earlier previews for this movie have centered on Hiro and his toyetic robot sidekick, Baymax (indeed, they've really centered mostly on Baymax), so it's nice to see something that gives the rest of the team a little bit more screen time, as well as hinting at an overall plot for the movie. Of course, there's every chance that the actual movie will be as focused on Hiro and Baymax as the earlier ads, but we can but hope that's not the case. (The robot sounds like Pete from 30 Rock, people. That's not cute, that's weird and disturbing.)
Talking to The Daily Beast about his future as Marvel Studios' Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner said that next year's Avengers: Age of Ultron will finally give the character a little bit of the spotlight. "Hulk has a more prominent role, and I have a more prominent role," he said. "There are a lot more scenes of the entire Avengers gang together—both in and out of the cape, so to speak. It's making me become a total fanboy." He also said that he hasn't "had any official conversations" about his rumored role in the third Captain America movie, and revealed that his Marvel deal consists of three Avengers movies and a potential Hawkeye spin-off, should Marvel want one.
Why this is super: Hey, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor have their own movies already. The Avengers movies really should focus on the other characters—although, if the focus really is on Hawkeye and Hulk in the second one, everyone who thinks that Marvel has a problem with female characters will have more reason to be upset.
Miles Teller, who'll play Reed Richards in next year's Fantastic Four reboot from Fox told Vulture the movie will be "different in every way" from the last time the classic Marvel characters appeared on the big screen. Likening director Josh Trank's approach to X-Men: First Class, he said, "you're dealing with these characters but you're making them real people in how they exist day-to-day. People wanted it to be taken more seriously than the kind of Dick Tracy, kitschy, overly comic book world."
Why this is villainy: Your mileage may vary, of course, but the original Fantastic Four run by creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby not only featured characters with names like the Impossible Man, Rama Tut and Him!, but also saw one of its lead characters go back in time and become the legendary pirate Blackbeard and its resident scientist hypnotize a bunch of aliens into thinking they were cows. If there's one thing that FF probably shouldn't be it's "taken more seriously."
