Has it happened yet? Have you been spoiled on Captain America: Civil War? The initial reviews are looking good, but even as that raises anticipation for the Avengers-movie-in-all-but-name, the sheer volume of people boasting about having seen it (while accidentally, or not-so-accidentally, revealing spoilers) is beginning to get a little daunting. That said, if you're one of those who have already seen the movie, don't leave any comments showing off. Some of us have another week or so to wait, you know. While we do, though, we'll be here catching up on all the superhero movie news of the past seven days.
What's that? Want to see a little bit more of Captain America: Civil War before its May 6 opening? Thanks to a promotional tie-in short from Audi—helmed by Civil War directors Joe and Anthony Russo—you can.
Lookit how fast they run! Lookit! (Yes, we're all supposed to be looking at the car, but c'mon...) With this kind of action, no wonder the movie is tracking for a huge $175 million opening weekend—the biggest US box office opening all year.
Why this is super: Sure, it's product placement gone mad, but there's something fun about the short nonetheless. If you're looking for something more substantial about the movie ahead of its release, there's always the writers discussing how uncertainty over Spider-Man changed the role Black Panther played in the movie's story.
It's not that easy making a big Marvel movie, you know. Consider the case of Joss Whedon, who came out of hiding—the rest of us just call it a break, but for some reason this is being considered a big deal—to talk about his experience making last year's Avengers: Age of Ultron, and it really doesn't sound pretty. "I was so beaten down by the process," Whedon said at an appearance with Mark Ruffalo at the Tribeca Film Festival, according to reports. "Some of that was conflicting with Marvel, which is inevitable. A lot of it was about my own work, and I was also exhausted. ... The things about it that are wrong frustrate me enormously, and I had probably more of those than I had on the other movies I made." Whedon later told Deadline he would be willing to work with Marvel again, but wasn't in any rush to do so. "It was just five years of my life," he said, referencing the two Avengers movies.
Why this is super: As exhausting as Whedon makes the process seem, that he's open to returning shouldn't be a surprise; this week, it also emerged that Jon Favreau, who laid the groundwork for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is returning to the studio to executive produce the next two Avengers movies with the Russo brothers.
As if the prospect of J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon in the upcoming Justice League movie wasn't an exciting enough prospect, a recent interview with the actor about how he's approaching the role has made it even better. J.K., what do you know about Gordon? "My understanding, from what I’ve learned so far about Commissioner Gordon, is that he’s the older guy with the mustache who relates with our hero in a certain way." To be fair, that really is the basics. He also revealed that, while he's seen earlier Batman projects with Gordon, he won't be re-watching them before playing the role himself—"I take this from my days doing theater," he explained. "If I was doing a musical, I would never listen to the cast album because I wanted to do my version of something"—and is, instead, planning on just reading a lot of Gordon-centric comics. "I'm just planning on learning as much as I can about him through the comics and getting my feet wet in the first movie, and then hopefully continuing on from there," he said.
Why this is super: While this means that we're not going to see Simmons do a Gary Oldman impression anytime soon, just the idea of him reading three-and-a-half years' worth of Gotham Central and then jumping straight onto Batman: Superheavy is tremendously exciting.
Simmons won't be the only actor joining the DC movie universe with Justice League, however; news broke via the Hollywood Reporter earlier this week that Willem Dafoe is also joining the cast of Zack Snyder's two movies, playing an unnamed role that Warner Bros. is keeping a secret, although he will apparently be a good guy—a shift from his days as the Green Goblin.
Why this is super: With Justice League Part One due for release in November of next year (and production just getting underway as you read these very words), it shouldn't be too long before information leaks from the set about Dafoe's role. But even before then, there's something curiously exciting about the secrecy, isn't there?
What do you do after the end of the world? Well, according to Heroic Hollywood, 20th Century Fox plans to follow this summer's X-Men: Apocalypse with a second attempt at filming the Dark Phoenix Saga, in which Jean Grey gets overwhelmed by her own powers, turns evil, and.. actually, we shouldn't spoil it. (But we will direct your attention to where you can find out more.) The storyline was the basis of one of the threads in X-Men: The Last Stand, but following X-Men: Days of Future Past, that movie is out of continuity. (Pay attention to who's alive in the final scenes to understand why.) Could this mean that the Heroic Hollywood rumor is true? Well, Apocalypse does introduce a new Jean Grey.
Why this is super: Before Jean has the opportunity to go bad, she'll have to contend with Oscar Isaac's villain in this summer's X-Men installment, the latest teaser for which dropped this week in wonderfully period-appropriate fashion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlPw8NUZuuU
