Hey, let's talk about this idea that Ant-Man somehow underperformed in its first weekend for a second. Last time we checked, and we check a little too often, the movie was predicted to make somewhere between $55 million and $65 million in its opening weekend, and it ended up making just over $57 million. In other words, it performed pretty much as expected, and was the most successful movie of the weekend in the process. So less of this "Is This the End of Marvel?" talk, please—especially as, as you'll see below, Marvel is definitely planning for its continued domination of cinema. This, as ever, is the best of the week's superhero movie news.
Not only has the 2017 Spider-Man reboot hired Jon Watts, a man with plenty of comedy projects in his past as director, but news broke earlier this week that the new writers will also have comedy backgrounds. Apparently, John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein—writers of Horrible Bosses, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, and the upcoming Vacation—are in serious talks with Sony about coming on board the new movie, which will see Tom Holland take on the role of the occasionally-Amazing Spider-Man.
Why this is super: As great as it is to see one of the cast of Freaks and Geeks write Spider-Man (Daley was Sam Weir in the show), it's fascinating to see how heavily Marvel and Sony are leaning on the comedy element when it comes to the creative talent behind the reboot. Will the new Spider-Man be the first outright superhero comedy?
We know that Selma director Ava DuVernay won't be directing Marvel's first non-white-lead movie Black Panther, but at a recent public appearance, she explained why she had considered it in the first place. "I thought there was value in putting that kind of imagery into the culture in a worldwide, huge way, in a certain way: excitement, action, fun, all those things, and yet still be focused on a black man as a hero—that would be pretty revolutionary," she told an audience at the BlogHer conference this past weekend, noting that Marvel's cultural reach extends "from Shanghai to Uganda." However, she said, "everyone's interested in different things," and Marvel apparently didn't share DuVernay's ambitions for the movie. "If there's too much compromise, it really wasn't going to be an Ava DuVernay film," she said, noting that "what my name is on means something to me."
Why this is villainy: The more DuVernay says about her reasons for not doing the Black Panther movie, the more suspicious we get of Marvel's intentions for the movie. Black Panther is Marvel's Batman, only arguably even more competent; here's hoping his feature reflects that when it finally arrives in 2018.
In an interview with an Italian website, Martin Freeman started teasing information about his as-yet-unnamed character from next year's Captain America: Civil War, saying that he "works for the American government," and for "certain agencies that help to tame the superheroes' power, I suppose... So you're not quite sure which side he's on. It looks a little bit like he's playing one game when actually he's playing another."
Why this is super: Place your bets as to who Freeman is playing (we really think it's Henry Peter Gyrich, occasional Avengers character and infamous Marvel Universe bureaucrat), but perhaps even more importantly, wonder this: Did Freeman just accidentally out himself as either the big bad guy, or the unforeseen hero, of the movie?
Hey, you know that post-credits scene that audiences think might be the best part of Ant-Man? (Spoilers ahead, obviously.) Turns out, it's actually a scene from Captain America: Civil War. Director Peyton Reed told Entertainment Weekly that he saw the scene, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, in dailies from next year's movie, and knew that it "seemed to really complete the arc in our movie... We really wanted to do something that, at the end of that tag, we could throw up a title that said 'Ant-Man will return.' In true Bond movie fashion, you know that he's going to be back. Those were dailies from Civil War that we cut into a very succinct tag, just to kind of show the audience the progression."
Why this is super: While it's not uncommon for Marvel post-credits scenes to be directed by those who hadn't handled the main movie—Joss Whedon handled the Hydra tag at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, for example—this might be the first time a tag has started life as an actual scene from a separate movie. But on the plus side, now we've all seen part of Civil War a few months early, which is kind of awesome.
It wasn't even supposed to be officially released, but the Comic-Con "exclusive" preview of Warner Bros.' Suicide Squad ended up the most popular YouTube video of last week with 50.9 million views in its first few days, which is actually more views than Avengers: Age of Ultron managed in the same time period. It left *Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'*s trailer in the dust, with that one just managing just 19.8 million views. (Although it had gained 23 million additional views in the two days prior to the week, which should probably be noted.) Is this a sign that Suicide Squad has captured the attention of the masses?
Why this is super: Somewhere, the executives at Warner Bros. are very happy that the footage was properly released, and also wondering how best to keep up this level of interest for the next 13 months before the movie's actually in theaters.
