It is, indeed, a superhero movie world and the rest of us are just living in it. In a week during which both ABC and the CW aired what were essentially trailers for upcoming movies pretending to be TV shows (the Captain America 75th Anniversary Special and Dawn of the Justice League, both on Tuesday), it was a nice reminder that superheroes rule everything around us. Not to mention a good chance to get some new information about what we'll be seeing in theaters soon. Here, as always, are the highlights of the week's superhero movie news.
The week has belonged to Suicide Squad, with the release of multiple posters and a new trailer for David Ayer's adaptation of the DC Entertainment property. Following the release of character posters on social media Sunday, a poster featuring the entire team dropped Tuesday ahead of the first official trailer for the movie:
Why this is super: What was once the dark horse of superhero movies for 2016 is beginning to look like the crowd favorite, with Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn being named as the new superhero character audiences are most excited to see in a recent poll. Well, if the superhero genre is going to continue to thrill, perhaps this kind of evolution of the genre will keep things fresh.
Suicide Squad wasn't the only DC property to get a bump this week. The launch of the new official DC Films Facebook page also gave a boost to the cinematic Justice League thanks to some fancy concept art. It was hardly the most surprising image ever—we had, after all, seen Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, and Aquaman already, and Cyborg and Flash look a lot like their comic book counterparts—but still: It looked damn cool. All of the sudden 2017's Justice League Part One feels just a little too far away, doesn't it?
Why this is super: Look, if you have to have it explained to you why seeing the Justice League all together, even in concept art form, is pretty cool, then perhaps you're in the wrong place. But here is a question that should be asked about the artwork: Where's Green Lantern?
Be jealous of Deadpool fans in New York and Los Angeles. A select few showed up for a special preview of selected scenes from the Fox movie Monday night, only to see the entire movie, and advance word is very positive indeed. At the LA showing, Ryan Reynolds also showed up and answered some questions about the movie, including a tease that plans are already in the works for a follow-up, which might include the antihero's regular comic book partner, Cable. "Your lips to God's ears, my friend," the actor apparently said in response to one fan asking for the team-up. "Believe me, that's being talked about." (The rest of us who didn't get to see the movie, did at least get a new poster. It's better than nothing, right?)
Why this is super: The best news here is, of course, that Deadpool is apparently great. (Mind you, the fact that the raves come from people who were already in favor of the movie enough to attend a preview screening of clips from the movie might mark them as a biased sample group.) But a Cable appearance ahead of the in-development X-Force movie? That'd be surprising…
This probably goes without saying, but Michael B. Jordan told MTV that the planned sequel to last year's Fantastic Four is "definitely something that's up in the air ... especially after, y'know, the first one." He does, at least, have an unexpected answer to the traditional question of who he'd like to team up with in any potential follow-up: the Inhumans' Black Bolt. If only those movie rights weren't owned by a different studio...
Why this is super: We'd be into seeing a second Fantastic Four if the script was better. (And if the people responsible promised to do more with the Thing than they managed in the first one.) Go on, Fox. What do you have to lose, aside from millions of dollars?
A surprising rumor has emerged about Captain America: Civil War, claiming that no less than four death scenes have been filmed for the movie in an attempt to throw off anyone seeking to get spoilers from the set (only two deaths will make the final cut, apparently), but you shouldn't read further if you want to remain ignorant of who is on the potential chopping block. According to That Hashtag Show, the four who have met their end on set are Peggy Carter, War Machine, Falcon, and the Scarlet Witch, with the two who actually die being (again, spoiler warning, just in case it turns out to be true): Peggy and Wanda.
Why this is, let's be honest, BS: While we're not too convinced that this rumor holds up (especially in light of a competing rumor that the big death of the movie will actually be Steve Rogers, mirroring his death—don't worry, it didn't last—in the aftermath of the Civil War comic book storyline), it'd be very, very strange if the movie only kills off women. It would also be odd for Marvel to kill off Scarlet Witch, since she just made her debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron and a death in her second appearance would leave all but one of that movie's three new characters dead within two films. File under: "This can't be right, can it?"
