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It's Marvel's week. Again. After a relatively quiet period, the studio's promotional tour for Captain America: Civil War and the start of the Doctor Strange advertising blitz have combined to ensure that the week has been dominated by the Avengers and their ilk, to the point where a new Suicide Squad trailer wasn't even the biggest thing in the superhero movie consciousness. Even confirmation that Ben Affleck will direct a solo Batman movie and news that Spider-Man: Homecoming really is the title of the new Spidey movie didn't make the kind of splash you'd expect. Anyway, here's a very weighted roundup of the highlights of the last seven days worth of capes and boots storylines to whet your appetite for the future of the MCU.
As we speed towards the release of Captain America: Civil War, Marvel has released a number of new clips from the movie to get you even more excited. It'd only be polite to watch them, really.
Why this is super: If we can just have Paul Rudd fanboy around the other characters for the entire movie, that'd be great, thanks very much.
Hey, look: The Doctor Strange movie is real! In addition to the flick's teaser trailer, revealed on Tuesday night...
...there was also the Twitter reveal of the movie's new poster.
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A poster which, it turns out, we've all seen before. Kind of.
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Why this is super: He may have his haters, but as Sherlock fans, we are particularly excited about the prospect of seeing Mr. Benedict Cumberbatch try to control his disdain for the shenanigans of a Marvel movie when he's directly at the center of one. On board for this.
Turns out, there might be some forward motion on Captain Marvel before we hit the two-year anniversary of the movie's announcement. Doing press for Civil War, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige told Fandango "I think we’ll be announcing a filmmaker in the next month or two, and probably some cast members later in the summer, at the end of the summer." For those paying attention, that could coincide with Comic-Con International in San Diego.
Why this is super: It's been a long time coming, but hopefully the announcement of just who will play Carol Danvers, and who'll direct Marvel's first female-led movie—it only took a decade!—will be worth the wait.
Things are changing for Thor: Ragnarok, with Creed star Tessa Thompson signing on to play a role described as "kind of a superhero [that] will appear in other Marvel films" (Valkyrie, perhaps?), while Natalie Portman will not be returning for the third installment in the Thor series.
Why this is super: We're trying to think of a way to say "Natalie Portman didn't seem particularly excited to appear in the first two Thors, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise." (Tessa Thompson joining the cast, though, is just great news because she's wonderful.)
Turns out that Ryan Coogler is more involved in Black Panther than had been previously revealed. Not only is he currently working on the screenplay, he also helped out with Black Panther's scenes in Civil War as well, providing some new lines for the character during reshoots.
Why this is super: Coogler's Creed and Fruitvale Station have already demonstrated his writing chops (and, in *Creed'*s case, ability to work with existing material to come up with something that feels fresh). Having him take this level of ownership over Black Panther just feels like a smart move, and makes the movie seem even more exciting.
Just as it's been revealed that Warner Bros.' Justice League Parts 1 and 2 might end up being two entirely separate movies, now it turns out that Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War two-parter might not actually be a two-parter either. Talking to io9, director Anthony Russo said that "the movies are very very different from one another ... It’s not a part one and part two scenario, necessarily. They’re just two different expressions. I think it creates a misconception that we’re shooting them at the same time." Stephen McFeely, one of the writers working on the movies, agreed, saying that it was "very important to us" that the two movies were different. Co-director Joe Russo, however, added that "there’s an overarching story that’s going to be told through all four films," which means look for Infinity War clues to be found in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. Wait, does this mean Infinity War is actually all about Bucky?!?
Why this is super: OK, start your speculation engines to try and work out what "they're just two different expressions" actually means in practice. Two different teams of Avengers tackling different missions to achieve the same end goal, perhaps?
Bad news for anyone waiting for the Inhumans movie; Kevin Feige believes that it will be pushed off its (already rescheduled) July 2019 release date by Lucasfilm's new Indiana Jones flick. "Walt Disney Company has announced an Indiana Jones film for right around that same time. So I think it will shuffle off the current date that it’s on right now," he said. "How far down it shuffles, I’m not sure yet."
Why this is villainy: While it's true that the world is hardly waiting for the Inhumans movie, considering everything else out there, the way in which this movie has been continually pushed back (it was originally announced for 2018, back in 2014) is beginning to get ridiculous.
