5/26/15 Marvel News Mash-Up (Captain America Civil War, Spider-Man Reboot, Vision, ETC.)

WDWNT on June 5, 2015

First Images From “Captain America: Civil War”

“Captain America: Civil War” started filming recently in Atlanta, GA and many on set photos have made its way onto the web.

Chris Evans as Captain America with the same costume as in “Age Of Ultron”

Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man

Anthony Mackie as Falcon, which also seems to be the same costume from “Age Of Ultron”

Scarlet Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye

Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Elizabeth Olson as Scarlet Witch

Frank Grillo as Crossbones

Captain America and Crossbones going at it

Source: Just Jared, Screen Crush, MTV News

Rumor: Is Asa Butterfield The New Spider-Man?; Is Matthew McConaughey The New Green Goblin?

Many names have been thrown around as the potential new Spider-Man and according to reports, it now sounds like Asa Butterfield is the front runner to don the mask. Asa Butterfield is best known from the films “Hugo” and “Ender’s Game.” A definite plus for him is that he is 18 but he looks even much younger and that is what Marvel and Sony are looking for. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear something official in the next few weeks since “Captain America: Civil War” is filming, and although not officially announced, it is rumored that Spider-Man will make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in “Civil War.”

Another rumor that has been making the rounds is that Marvel and Sony are in talks with Matthew McConaughey to take on the role of the Green Goblin. I think McConaughey would make an excellent Norman Osborne/Green Goblin. Even though we have see the Green Goblin in 3 (maybe even 4) of the 5 Spider-Man films that have been made, I would love to see the Green Goblin back just so that he could be done right for once. Hopefully it is true and we will hear something soon.

Source: umbertogonzalez; That Hashtag Show

Sideshow Collectible Corner

“Vision”

Hot Toys and Sideshow Collectibles have revealed their newest premium collectible figure and it is The Vision from “Avengers: Age Of Ultron.”

One of the biggest highlights of the record-breaking film Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, is the introduction of the new characters! Originally planned to be the perfect “evolution” for Ultron, the Avengers were able to retreive the android, Vision, and make him a valuable ally for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to stop Ultron from eradicating mankind!

Sideshow Collectibles and Hot Toys are excited to present the humanoid hero that many fans have been waiting for – the Vision Sixth Scale Collectible Figure!

The movie-accurate Vision Collectible Figure is specially crafted based on his image in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It features a newly developed head sculpt with detailed texture and Mind Stone, specially tailored costume and cape, Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, and a specially designed figure stand.

The Vision is available exclusively for preorder through Sideshow Collectibles with a cost of $219.99 and will ship in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Source: Sideshow Collectibles

That’s it for this time!

5/7/15 Marvel News Mash-Up (Civil War Cast Announced, Spider-Man Joins Avengers, New Ant-Man Poster, ETC.)

WDWNT on June 5, 2015

Marvel Begins Production On “Captain America: Civil War” ; Cast Announced; First Production Art Leaked

Marvel has just announced the cast of “Captain America: Civil War” and the biggest surprise to me is that William Hurt will reprise his role as General Ross from “The Incredible Hulk” movie. There was also no mention of Spider-Man in the cast, but expect an announcement soon.

Marvel’s Official Announcement For “Captain America: Civil War”:

Marvel Studios has commenced principal photography at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, Georgia on “Captain America: Civil War,” the third installment of its Super Hero franchise. The production will shoot on location in Atlanta, Georgia, which serves as the base for the film’s production, as well as locations in Germany, Puerto Rico and Iceland.

Set for release in the United States on May 6, 2016, “Captain America: Civil War” is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Community”) from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (“Captain America: The Winter Solider,” Marvel’s “Captain America: The First Avenger”). The film returns Chris Evans (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron”) as the iconic Super Hero character Steve Rogers/Captain America along with Robert Downey Jr. (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Marvel’s “Iron Man 3”) as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Sebastian Stan (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: The First Avenger”) as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) as Sam Wilson/Falcon, Paul Bettany (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Iron Man 3”) as The Vision, Jeremy Renner (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Marvel’s “The Avengers”) as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Don Cheadle (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Iron Man 3”) as Jim Rhodes/War Machine and Elizabeth Olsen (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Godzilla”) as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch.

After his debut in Marvel’s “Ant-Man” on July 17, 2015, Paul Rudd (“Ant-Man,” ”Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”) will make his first appearance alongside the Avengers as Scott Lang/Ant-Man in “Captain America: Civil War.”

The film also includes outstanding additional cast, including Chadwick Boseman (“42,” “Get on Up”) as T’Challa/Black Panther, Emily VanCamp (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Revenge”) as Sharon Carter/Agent 13, Daniel Brühl (“Inglourious Basterds,” “Bourne Ultimatum”), Frank Grillo (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Warrior”) as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, William Hurt (“A History of Violence,” Marvel’s “The Incredible Hulk”) as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross and Martin Freeman (“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”).

“Captain America: Civil War” picks up where “Avengers: Age of Ultron” left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.

“Captain America: Civil War” will open on May 6th, 2016.

New Poster For Marvel’s “Ant-Man” Released

Marvel recently released a brand new poster for the upcoming movie, “Ant-Man.”

Marvel’s “Ant-Man”, one of the original members of the Avengers, makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut this summer following the global critical and box office success of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

“Ant-Man” stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Douglas and is in theaters on July 17, 2015.

Rumor: The New Spider-Man Movie Will Be Called “Spider-Man: The New Avenger”

The author of this rumor says to take this with a grain of salt and he is right. Recently there was a rumor that the next Spider-Man movie would be called “The Spectacular Spider-Man” but now it is being reported that the next Spider-Man movie will be called “Spider-Man: The New Avenger.” I like Spectacular better but since the ultimate goal for Sony is to make Spider-Man more profitable it makes sense to throw in “The New Avenger” in the title.

The way everything is shaping up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man will make has MCU debut in “Civil War”, so I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the movie he is asked to join the Avengers and then “Spider-Man: The New Avenger” continues Spider-Man’s story from where “Civil War” left off. Spider-Man will be making his “Avengers” movie debut in “Avengers: Infinity War” Part 1.” Even though this is a rumor, it does kind of make sense if they went this route.

Source: umbertogonzale via Intagram

WDWNT: Nerd Alert Episode 4 Airs Thursday Night

Our fourth episode of “WDWNT: Nerd Alert” will air this Thursday night at 10:05 PM, which can be heard on WDWNT: On The Air. Nerd Alert will immediately follow “WDWNT: The Radio Show,” which airs from 8-10 PM.

This week will be a special roundtable episode where we discuss just what we thought of “Avengers: Age Of Ultron!”

Link: WDWNT: On The Air

Sideshow Collectible Corner

“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Collectible Set Of Three

Sideshow Collectible has just released it latest exclusive collectible set which show cases Iron Man, The Hulkbuster and The Hulk.

We are delighted to continue the line and officially present the Avengers: Age of Ultron Cosbaby Series 1.5 which features the Hukkbuster and Hulk. A special box set of 3 is also available which exclusively includes the Mark XLIII (Battle Damaged Version)!

The Hulkbuster and the Hulk both stand approximately 14cm tall and the Mark XLIII (Battle Damaged Version) is approximately 9.5cm tall. A special feature for the Hulkbuster is that the helmet can be opened up to put in a Mark XLIII or Mark XLIII (Battle Damaged Version) Cosbaby!

“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Collectible Set Of Three is exclusively sold through Sideshow Collectibles and is avaiable for preorder for $94.99 and will ship in the third quarter of 2105.

Source: Sideshow Collectibles

That’s it for this week!

4/30/15 Marvel News Mash-Up (Avengers, Guardians 2, Spider-Man, Muppets, ETC.)

WDWNT on May 5, 2015

“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Opens This Friday, May 1st! New High Resolution Photos

To celebrate the opening of “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Marvel and Disney Studios have released a ton of high resolution stills from the movie:

“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” opens this Friday, May 1st!

After “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”, What Is Next For Joss Whedon?

This is complete speculation on my part, but I am calling it right now, Joss Whedon is going to leave Marvel for either Warner Brothers or Sony.

Over the last few weeks I have been watching and reading interviews with Joss Whedon promoting “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” and he just doesn’t seem very enthusiastic in most of his interviews. In fact he seems to be kind of negative towards Marvel at times. Whedon is contractually obligated to promote the film, but once “Ultron” is released, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear an announcement that he will be doing another superhero movie, just not with Disney and Marvel.

Here are my clues:

He’s not coming back to direct “Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and 2.” I really was expecting to hear that Joss Whedon would be directing “Infinity War,” or at least one of them, but it was recently announced that The Russo Brothers (“Winter Soldier”, “Civil War”) would be directing probably the biggest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s going to be big because not only will the Avengers be in it, but also The Guardians Of The Galaxy and Spider-Man and even more superheroes. Either Disney/Marvel think the Russo Brothers are really that good or they asked Whedon and he said no. It’s more likely the later because although I really enjoyed “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” I wouldn’t bet the farm just on the results of one movie.
Whedon recently came out and said that Edgar Wright’s “Ant-Man” script was the best script that was ever written for a Marvel movie. For those that dont know, Edgar Wright has been attached to Marvel’s “Ant-Man for years. He pushed hard to get this movie made and more than likely we have him to thank that it is coming out. But something happened where Wright and Disney/Marvel disagreed about the direction and future of Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Wright and Disney/Marvel parted ways. Wright has a huge following of comic book fans and most were very upset to hear that he was no longer attached to the project. Whedon said the following, “I thought the script was not only the best script that Marvel had ever had, but the most Marvel script I’d read. I don’t know where things went wrong but I was very sad because I thought, this is a no-brainer. This is Marvel getting it exactly right. Whatever dissonance that came, whatever it was, I don’t understand why it was bigger than a marriage that seemed so right.” For Whedon to come out and say that Wright’s “Ant-Man” script was the best Marvel script he has ever written, to me, was the start of burning his bridges with Marvel.

He recently saw the “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice” and gushed like a little girl about it. The trailer was good, but it aint that good. Whedon said,“People with power, who are good, do not always agree and it makes perfect sense for me that (Batman and Superman) would fight. And besides… Batman and Superman are gonna fight! I’m so excited! I’m so excited!” He also said that Superman would destroy all of the Avengers. I’m not going to deny that if I had to choose who would win, I would pick Superman, but I wouldn’t say that while promoting a Marvel property.
He recently said that “Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD” is basically all a dream because Agent Coulson is dead. Whedon said, “Yeah he’s dead. The entire television series is just a fever dream. It’s a Jacob’s Ladder moment he’s having at the point of death, but we don’t give that away until after season seven. And there’s a snow globe. Now I’ve given it away. Bollocks!” I’m sure Marvel and Disney are not happy that he is telling fans that this show is just basically one big waste of time.
He came out and said that he was disappointed that he never got to work with Spider-Man in the Avengers. Spider-Man is Marvel’s most popular character and to many, including me, he is Marvel’s best character. Whedon is a comic book fan and it’s obvious that if he had a choice, this would be his next Marvel movie. Whedon said,“Yeah I’d like to have worked on Spider-Man, he’s the poster child. He’s the first book I read, and I think that’s true for a lot of people. There are so many things I would want to do, even with these characters The Avengers, even with just one of these characters. But the fact of the matter is: they’re doing fine, and I’ve probably got to move on.” He said it right there, he’s moving on. Whedon would be an excellent choice because he is a big Spider-Man fan and I think he would bring back the magic of Peter interacting with J Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle.

In all honesty as a comic book fan, I think it would be great if Whedon directed a non Marvel superhero movie. The perfect movie for him to direct would be “Justice League”, but Zack Snyder is directing that one. Whedon gets the team dynamic really well and feel he is best suited for a superhero movie. Whedon also did Firefly and you can tell he works really well with an ensable. If I had to guess, I would say that the one movie that he wants to do is “Spider-Man”, but Sony is still being run by poor management and probably will go with someone less experienced. The other property that he has said that he wants to do is “Batman” but have a feeling that WB will go with either Ben Affleck as director or maybe even Snyder. Which leaves “Superman” and I would love for him to do a “Superman” movie. Whedon could bring back some of the light heartedness that “Man Of Steel” was lacking and some nice colors that are not hidden behind a dark camera filter. Again, this is all speculation on my part but I doubt we will ever see Joss Whedon ever do another Marvel movie again, but he’ll be back again and I’m sure whatever superhero story he tackles, he will do a great job.

“Guardians Of The Galaxy 2” To Introduce Starlord’s Father

In the Guardians Of The Galaxy movie, there was a bit of mystery surrounding Peter Quill’s (Starlord) father. We do see his mother in the beginning and she does mention Peter’s father briefly. Soon after we hear that Yondu was hired by Quill’s father to retrieve Peter from Earth shortly after his mother death. And that’s it.

While being interviewed about the “Guardians Of The Galaxy 2,” James Gunn, director of the first film and the sequel, made the following comments to Vulture.com:

“There’s a lot of stuff I’m excited about in the new movie,” he said. “Listen, I’m still excited about Star-Lord’s character and where he goes. At its heart, Guardians is a story about families, and if the first film was about him and his mother, this is a story about fathers. So it’s exciting to go there.”

So who is Peter Quill’s (Starlord) father?

In the comics, Starlord meets Emperor Jason of the planet Sparta and he reveals that he is Peter’s father. Jason explains that he had crashed on Earth decades earlier and been rescued by Meredith Quill. During the year that he had spent repairing his ship, Jason and Meredith fell in love. When it came time to leave, Jason, for Meredith’s safety, had placed a mindlock on her memories of him, causing her to remember their year together as only a dream.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure they aren’t going with that father story. From the rumors that I have heard, again rumors, more than likely, Starlord’s father will be Adam Warlock.

Adam Warlock is an artificially created human who was born in a cocoon at a scientific complex called The Beehive. The goal of his creators, the Enclave, was to create and subsequently exploit the perfect human. While in the cocoon, he became aware of his creators’ plans for him. He awoke from the cocoon and rebelled. Adam Warlock definitely has a long and unusual history that I am not going to get into but he is also a very prominent character in “The Infinity Gauntlet.” “Guardians Of The Galaxy 2” would be the perfect way to introduce Adam Warlock into the Marvel Cinematic Universe before he is seen in “Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet.” No guarantees, but it seems like the it would all fit perfectly.

Source: Vulture.com

“Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 And 2” To Begin Filming Back To Back For 9 Months In Late 2016

Chris Evans recently revealed that the prospective back-to-back shoot for Avengers: Infinity War will take nine months, with production due to start sometime in the “fall or winter of 2016.”

The two-part “Infinity War” will be directed by The Russo Brothers. Marvel has slated part one of “Infinity War” for release on May 4, 2018, with the second installment hitting theaters on May 3, 2019.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Sony To Release A Theatrical Animated “Spider-Man” Movie In 2018

Sony announced recently that there will be an animated “Spider-Man” movie that will hit theaters on July 20, 2018. The movie will be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who directed the highly successful “The Lego Movie.”

Sounds good, right? The only issue that concerns me is that Marvel will not be involved with this and the people behind “Amazing Spider-Man 2,” Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal will be producing the movie.

Source: Variety

Sesame Street And The Cookie Monster Spoof “The Avengers”

Just in time for the release of “Avengers: Age Of Ultron,” Sesame Street put together a little Avengers spoof featuring the Cookie Monster as The Hulk and a bunch of vegetable loving Muppets as the rest of the Avengers.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHPn5d7wRtk]

Source: Sesame Street

Sideshow Collectible Corner

“War Machine Mark II”

I was glad to hear that Don Cheadle was reprising his role as James Rhodes/ War Machine in “Avengers: Age Of Ultron.” Now thanks to Hot Toys and Sideshow Collectibles, we finally get a good look at the new Mark II armor for War Machine.

Sideshow Collectibles and Hot Toys are excited to present the new War Machine Mark II Sixth Scale Collectible Figure as a Hot Toys Exclusive item! The newest addition to the MMS Diecast series is made of diecast material and is realistically designed to look even more like the armor as it appears in the film!

The movie-accurate War Machine Mark II Collectible Figure is crafted with great detail and is based on the image of Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It features a highly detailed head sculpt, metallic black and dark silvered colored armor with decals, LED light-up functions, rotatable machine gun, and a specially designed Avengers: Age of Ultron figure stand.

War Machine Mark II is now available exclusively through Sideshow Collectibles for preorder at a price of $339.99 and will ship in the third quarter of 2015.

Source: Sideshow Collectibles

That’s it for this time!

4/23/15 Marvel News Mash-Up (New-Look Spider-Man, Captain Marvel in Avengers, Nerd Alert Episode #3)

WDWNT on May 5, 2015

Official Character Poster Of ” The Vision” From “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

Just minutes after the last Marvel Mash-Up article came out, Disney and Marvel released the official character poster for “The Vision” in “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” and he looks fantastic! Trust me on this one, I hear he steals the movie, just like Hulk did to the original “Avengers: Movie.”

“The Incredible Hulk” Graces The Cover Of Rolling Stone Magazine

The Hulk is on this months issue of Rolling Stone mostly to promote “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” but it really looks like he is ready for a solo movie. I’ve been watching some interviews with Joss Whedon and Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) and they both seem to hint that a solo movie for the Hulk is in the works.

Ruffalo was asked by IGN about the future of the Hulk:

Mark Ruffalo: “I think there’s a lot of places to go with him [Hulk].”

Scarlett Johansson: “Like where?”

IGN: “Space?”

Ruffalo: “Well he’s going to space. Yeah, I mean there’s some talk of maybe Planet Hulk.”

Here is a synopsis of the Planet Hulk comic book series:

The Illuminati (a group consisting of Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Black Bolt, Namor, and Dr. Stephen Strange) meet to discuss the recent destruction of Hulk and how to deal with him. The decision to deposit Hulk on a peaceful uninhabited planet is interrupted by a wormhole, placing the savage Hulk on the violent planet Sakaar.

The green skinned warrior quickly bonds with others like him in a gladiator arena, as well as creates an enemy of Red King. Through his conflicts and troubles Hulk unites a planet by killing the tyrant king, while finding a kindred spirit and falls in love with the warrior Caiera. Hulk, the savior of the people, is crowned king with Caiera as his queen. The peace does not last for the green goliath however, but instead leads to the destruction of Sakaar and the terribly destructive World War Hulk.

That would be great if the went with a movie adapation of “Planet Hulk.” If that is the case, it would probably be 5% Bruce Banner and 95% Hulk in the movie.

Source: IGN; Rolling Stone

Marvel Releases Covers For The “Star Wars” Movie Adaptions

Marvel has revealed the covers for all three of the “Star Wars” Original Trilogy comic book adaptions drawn by artist Adi Granov.

These issues are actually reprints of the original “Star Wars” comic book series that was released back in 1977. Marvel added a nice touch be retouching all of the panels and they look really nice.

Source: ComicBook.com

“Spider-Man” In The Marvel Cinematic Universe Update

Kevin Feige, the heard of Marvel Entertainment, recently spoke with Collider and revealed some new information, as well as confirmed previous speculation, about the new “Spider-Man” who will make his debut in “Captain America: Civil War”:

Spider-Man will be Peter Parker, not Miles Morales, who is currently the Ultimate Spider-Man in the comics.
No origin story. Feige said, “There is a young kid [already] running around New York City in a homemade version of the Spider-Man costume in the MCU, you just don’t know it yet.”
Spider-Man will get a new costume. It will be classic Spider-Man but not a costume we have ever seen before on screen.
Peter will be 15-16 years old and he will be a high school student.

Personally, I would love for Spider-Man’s costume to be inspired by Todd Mcfarlane’s version, which was inspired by the very earliest versions of Spider-Man in the comics. Todd added really big bug eyes to the costume and brought back the webbing under his armpits. He also brought us those crazy detailed webs from his web shooters. Always loved this version:

Source: Collider

“Captain Marvel” Was Originally Going To Be In” Avengers: Age Of Ultron” But Her Scene Was Cut And Replaced By “Scarlet Witch” And Her New Costume

Kevin Feige explains just how close it was that Captain Marvel was going to appear in “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” and he explains why her scene was cut:

There were drafts that maybe people somehow got their hands on and read early on that included some characters – maybe others, but certainly one, which is why it’s dangerous to read scripts early on, and talk about them early on…

[Captain Marvel] was in a draft. But to me, it would have done that character a disservice, to meet her fully formed, in a costume and part of the Avengers already when 99% of the audience would go, ‘Who is that?’ It’s just not the way we’ve done it before.

Thanos is the good ‘Who’s that,’ because he’s clearly a bad guy, for comic fans he represents a specific storyline, you can get the buzz started from fans to non-fans with that cameo – as opposed to a title character, who deserves their own story. Even Black Widow you don’t meet in the last two seconds of Iron Man 2 wearing her costume – you evolve that going forward.

The way we reveal Scarlet Witch [in costume] at the end of the movie? Those were Captain Marvel plate shots. Joss said, ‘We’ll cast her later!’ And I said, ‘Yeah Joss, we’ll cast her later.’ [Whispers to an invisible associate who isn’t Joss] ‘We’re not putting her in there!’

Finally Joss was like ‘Let’s use those plates to let Scarlet Witch fly into frame, give her a big entrance?’ And that makes sense – she’s come to their side, and she deserves the cool intro, which will feed into another movie we start shooting in a few weeks.

Scarlet Witch In The Comics (maybe?):

Source: BadAssDigest

WDWNT: Nerd Alert Episode 3 Airs Thursday Night

Our third episode of “WDWNT: Nerd Alert” will air this Thursday night at 10 PM, which can be heard on WDWNT: On The Air. Nerd Alert will immediately follow “WDWNT: The Radio Show,” which airs from 8-10 PM.

This week we will be talking about the recent flood of trailers and our main focus will be the newest trailer for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Link: WDWNT: On The Air

That’s it for this week!

3/27/15 Marvel News Mash-Up (Civil War, Captain Marvel, Who’s Leaving the Avengers?)

WDWNT on April 13, 2015

Official Synopsis For “Captain America: Civil War”

Shooting for “Captain America: Civil War” is scheduled to begin this April. Marvel has released the official synopsis for the film:

Following the events of Age of Ultron, the collective governments of the world pass an act designed to regulate all superhuman activity. This polarizes opinion amongst the Avengers, causing two factions to side with Iron Man or Captain America, which causes an epic battle between former allies.

There is definitely a few things to consider. First, how the synopsis is worded. The Avengers are going to do something really messed up in “Age Of Ultron” to have basically the whole world not have any trust in them. From the trailers you can see that The Hulk and Iron Man have a big battle in the middle of a city causing lots of destruction. I think that is part of it but probably the main issue has to be Tony Stark’s creation of Ultron. By doing so, Ultron creates an army looking to either enslave or destroy all of humanity. That he was able to create such a monstrosity probably results in the world not trusting him specifically, but also other super heroes.

In the comics, “Civil War” started slightly differently. A group of heroes called the New Warriors had their own reality TV show and in order to boost ratings they fought with an enemy whose demise resulted in the death of many children. Public opinion was very negative towards all superheroes and the government instituted a superhero registration act that would reveal all of their secret identities. Iron Man was on the side of the government and Captain America was against registration. The two formed opposite sides and became enemies. One hero that was caught in the middle of all of this was “Spider-Man.”

Now that Marvel is able to use “Spider-Man” in it’s movies, it is more than likely that Spider-Man will play a major role in “Civil War.” Even though there has been no official word that Spider-Man will be in the movie version of “Civil War,” most insiders have heard that he will definitely be in the movie. This means that Sony and/or Marvel will have to announce an actor who will portray Peter Parker and Spider-Man in “Civil War” and the upcoming “Spider-Man” solo film and probably fairly soon.

The Russo Brothers Will Direct “Avengers: Infinity: War Parts 1 And 2”

This week The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the Russo Brothers will direct “Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2.” The Russo Brothers directed last year’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and are also back to direct the sequel, “Captain America: Civil War.”

It seems like the Russo Brothers are Marvel’s go to directors now. On top of that, they recently secured a 3 year first look deal with Sony Pictures. My spider sense is tingling and saying that the Russo’s will have some say as to which actor will portray the next Spider-Man. Sony would not have approached the Russo’s if they were not impressed with their work on “Winter Soldier” and it is possible that they may direct a Spider-Man spin off or even be named as the directors of the new Spider-Man movie. When you think about it, they should have ample time between “Civil War” and “Infinity War” to direct the new Spider-man movie. That actually would fit in nicely with their schedule.

Will Captain Marvel Make Her First Appearance in “Avengers: Age Of Ultron?”

Last year we found out that after “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” completed filming that some of the cast were asked back to shoot additional scenes for the movie. This led to a lot of speculation as to what, or who, could they be adding to the film. Back in October, Marvel officially announced the upcoming movies for Phase 3. One movie that was announced and stood out was “Captain Marvel.” Soon after that announcement, we found out about the “Ultron” re-shoots. Latino Review recently posted the following information on Instagram:

Like the information above says, take all this with a grain of salt, but he is right when he says it is within the realm of plausibility that we will see her character sooner than later.

Source: Latino Review

Possible Roster For The Phase 3 “Avengers” Team

This article is SPOILER heavy. Be warned that there are some big revelations, that may or may not be true, regarding the future of the Avengers proceeding the events that occur in “Avengers: Age Of Ultron.”

Screen Rant recently came across some information that reveals what the Avengers could possibly look like after the events of “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

The Avengers will break up at the end of “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”
The Avengers 2.0 roster will consist of Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Vision and War Machine. They will be led by Captain America and Black Widow.
Thor returns to Asgard and this will set up “Thor: Ragnarok.”
Hulk is missing. Speculation is that he is on the AvQuinjet leaving Earth’s orbit. “Planet Hulk?” Or will he appear in “Guardians Of The Galaxy 2?”
Iron Man is “done.” Not sure if that means he officially quits the team which leads to his role in “Civil War.”
Thor, Hulk and Iron Man will not be in “Infinity War: Part 1” but will return for “Part 2.”
No mention of Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel or Black Panther as being part of The Avengers, yet.
Quicksilver may be dead at the end of “Age Of Ultron.” There are apparently two versions of the script that have leaked and one has him dying but one has him surviving. The rumor has been taking off recently because of the image from the trailer below shows all of the Avengers together battling Ultron’s army except Quicksilver is absent (or maybe he is just so fast that we cant see him).

Source: Screen Rant, Superhero News, Badass Digest

First Look At Marvels’ “New York City” Themed Variant Covers

“Spider-Gwen”

As an ex New Yorker, I definitely appreciated these beautiful New York City themed covers for some of Marvel’s most popular comics. There will be 15 variant covers released that will showcase various New York City landmarks.

“New York has always been home for the Marvel Universe,” said Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso to The Post. “We were born here 75 years ago. We’re proud to be New Yorkers and we just thought that this was a way to underscore that.”

Here are some additional New York City themed covers:

“Howard The Duck”

“All New Hawkeye”

“Guardians Of The Galaxy”

“Hulk”

“Ant-Man”

“S.H.I.E.L.D”

Source: Comic Book Resources

That’s it for this time!

3/6/15 Marvel News Mash-Up (Spider-Man Rumors, Marvel Movie Marathon, Daredevil, ETC.)

WDWNT on March 19, 2015

Rumor: The New “Spider-Man” Movie Will Be Titled “The Spectacular Spider-Man” And Be Directed By Drew Goddard

Expect to hear a lot of Spider-Man news this month. Most sites are posting this as officially done but there has still not been any word from Sony or Disney/Marvel and until there is, I am labeling it a rumor.

According to Latino Review, Sony has hired Drew Goddard to direct and write the next “Spider-Man” movie which will be called “The Spectacular Spider-Man.” Drew Goddard is most known for writing and directing the movie “Cabin In The Woods.” He also has contributed to the upcoming Netflix series “Daredevil.”

So here is what we know based on what Latino Review had to say:

No origin story. Spider-Man already exists and has been fighting crime for a while in the new movie.
Peter Parker/Spider-Man will be played by a new actor. He will specifically be based in high school and they want him to be young so that he can grow into his role.
Casting for the new “Spider-Man” is currently underway, but an official announcement and decision may not be reached for months.
A major part of the first film will have Spider-Man fighting Iron Man as an audition to join the Avengers.
The Sinister Six will be involved somehow, but not affiliated with the Amazing Spider-Man’s previous version of the Sinister Six.
This will be a trilogy and they are aiming to just put out trilogies from now on. Sony wants the franchise to be something like “Harry Potter” in which a new “Spider-Man” movie will come out either annually or every other year.
The first film will have the Sinister Six coming together with the thought of maybe turning the Sinister Six into a spinoff movie.
Marvel would only allow Kevin Feige to produce the new trilogy of Spider-Man movies as long as Sony guaranteed that Avi Arad would not have any control. Avi Arad has been involved with producing all 5 Spider-Man movies and there has always been some bad blood between Marvel and Arad. Arad will still have an Executive Producer credit but he has no control whatsoever.
No more “Sinister Six” spinoff movie.
No more “All Female Superhero” spin-off movie based on the “Spider-Man” universe.
No more “Aunt May” spinoff movie. As crazy as that sounds, that was in development. Basically Sony trying to milk the Spider-Man franchise as much as they possibly could.

Again this has not been confirmed by representatives at Sony or Marvel but various websites like The Wrap are claiming that this is official.

I don’t know how this will effect “Captain America: Civil War.” It still sounds like Spider-Man will join the cast but now with the mention of Iron Man fighting Spider-Man in “The Spectacular Spider-Man” movie, it does kind of through a bit of a monkey wrench into some of the possible scenarios I have heard.

Source: Latino Review

Rumor: Dylan O’Brien Has Been Cast As The New “Spider-Man”

This rumor actually contradicts the first story above.In Latino Review’s original article, they say it wont be Dylan O’Brien to be cast as the new Spider-Man, since he is contractually obligated to the “Maze Runner” series. I was skeptical when I first heard this story because the source was a poster from Reddit. But this person does have an excellent track record and two months ago informed everyone that the Sony and Marvel “Spider-Man” deal was done and even went into specific details that matched the official announcement.

This is what redditleaker23456 had to say about the matter:

So Dylan O’Brien is pretty much our new Spidey from the look of things. A source tells me he gave Sony the audition of his life, who by the way, absolutely loved what they saw from him. Amy Pascal and team knew they had their Spider-Man.

Sony apparently started leaning towards O’Brien over Lerman when they figured Dylan had a better grasp and feel of the tone they were going for.

Mind you, anything could happen from now until the official announcement, which if not on March 5th, (unlikely) then somewhere in mid-March to early-April.

But nonetheless, there is a tremendously high chance, like a 99.9% percent chance, this will end up becoming official. There’s more info down below in the comments, see if you please.

UPDATE: It is official, Dylan has signed on as the new webhead!

So who is right? I’d be happy if both of these stories are true but we will have to wait for an official announcement from Sony and Disney/Marvel. Until then, expect more rumors.

Source: Reddit.com

Danny Elfman To Score Additional Music For “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

OK, this has to be our first clue that Spider-Man will appear in “Avengers: Age Of Ultron.” First off, the official composer of “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” is Brian Tyler, who also scored “Iron Man 3” and “Thor: Dark World.” So why was Danny Elfman, who has scored almost every single Tim Burton movie, hired to score additional music for “Avengers: Age Of Ultron?” Because more than likely they will use some of Elfman’s “Spider-Man” theme as a way to introduce Spider-Man into the world of the Avengers. Elfman originally wrote Sam Rami’s “Spider-Man” theme and score and his score was heard throughout all three of Tobey Maguire’s “Spider-Man” movies. Why would they use music from the “Spider-Man” movies instead of music from “The Amazing Spider-Man” movies? Beats me. But there is definitely something going on.

Will We See “Daredevil’s” Iconic Red Costume In The Netflix Series?

The short and sweet answer is “yes.” Definitely yes! Someone over at Marvel must have heard me complaining last week because just as that article I wrote went up about me not being happy that we have only seen his black pajamas suit, word came out that we will indeed see his classic red suit.

Showrunner, Steven S. DeKnight, gave the following explanation. “Without giving too much away, this show is Matt learning to be a hero. He starts in that first iteration of the Daredevil outfit which is taken very much from Frank Miller and The Man Without Fear. But I always questioned [the main costume]. I mean, one, he’s blind. Did he stitch it together himself? How did he manage all that? So, actually getting him to that point I thought was really interesting.”

Costume designer Stephanie Maslansky offered more details on Daredevil’s crime-fighting outfit, including a promise that the classic red version will show up later on: “In the end, somebody else [in the story] makes his Daredevil costume. What’s really exciting is the evolution of it, and how he comes to have it made.”

Yeah!

Source: ScreenRant

Theater Chains Announce A “27 Hour Marvel Ultimate Movie Marathon”

How much do you like Marvel movies? Enough to watch every Marvel movie back to back in a movie theater? Well this news is for you.

AMC and Regal Theaters have announced that they will be hosting a “Marvel Ultimate Movie Marathon” of all 11 Marvel movies ending with the premier of “Avengers: Age Of Ultron.” “The Marvel Ultimate Movie Marathon” will start on April 29th and end on April 30th. The price for admission is $65.

Here is a list of all of the movies and show times:

6:00pm IRON MAN
8:25pm THE INCREDIBLE HULK
10:35pm IRON MAN 2
1:00am THOR
3:10am CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
5:30am THE AVENGERS
8:48am IRON MAN 3
11:15am THOR: THE DARK WORLD
1:45pm CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
4:20pm GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
7:00pm AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (RealD® 3D)

All “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Character Posters Revealed

That is, I think this is all of them. We could still see additional character posters for Vision, Hulkbuster and Ultron.

First Look At “Kingpin” From Marvel’s “Daredevil”

This is our first look at the “Daredevil” villain “Kingpin” from the upcoming Netflix series. Vincent D’Onofrio (“Full Metal Jacket”) will play Wilson Fisk, better known as “Kingpin.”

In order to physically prepare for the role, D’Onofrio shaved his head and packed an extra 30 pounds onto his 6’3, 250 pound frame. “I wanted him to have an appearance of being super-powerful so that when he throws a punch, it’s a major punch,” the actor told the newspaper. “There’s a lot of weight behind it.” He also studied the source material- comic books- to really get the “whole feeling and mood” of Kingpin.

I have always admired D’Onofrio’s work and admire him for trying to resemble the character from the comic book but he needs to gain another 200 pounds to even come close to the Kingpin’s weight in the comics. All kidding aside, he looks great and looking forward to his portrayal.

Source: USA Today

Hugh Jackman Wants “Wolverine” To Be In An “Avengers” Movie

While Hugh Jackman was promoting his upcoming movie “Chappie,” the subject of “Spider-Man” now being a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was brought up. Jackman was asked by UK.Yahoo.com, if he honestly thought that Marvel characters owned by Disney could team up with those owned by Fox, which include Wolverine, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four? Here is what Jackman had to say:

“You know, I think as an optimist I would love it. That’s the best thing about comic books; you can just pitch these characters into each other.”

“I’m surprised by what’s happened with Spider-Man joining. You’re in a very complex world where big, big sums of money are being spent for different franchises and so getting them together is difficult.

“Two years ago I’d have said you’d be a real optimist to think it’d ever happen, but weirdly now I just think it maybe could. I think there is the possibility that it will happen.”

This is not the first time Jackman has said this. He sincerely would like to be in a no holds barred, epic Marvel movie, like “Avengers: Infinity War,” which should include as many Marvel superheroes as they possibly can fit into it. One thing that I love about Hugh Jackman is that he has always been a fan of the character Wolverine and it shows on film just how much he understands the character by his portrayal. I have heard him say that unlike other actors, who will play superheroes for a few years and then drop out because they don’t want to be typecast as that character, he would like to play Wolverine for as long as they will allow him.

A few weeks ago, I felt there was no chance in which Fox and Disney/Marvel would come to an agreement where we would see characters from the X-Men and Fantastic Four come appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But now with Tom Rothman gone from Fox and Sony and Marvel working together I have a little more hope. Just a little though.

That’s it for this week!

2/27/15 Marvel News Mash-Up (Avengers, More Spider-Man Drama, ETC.)

WDWNT on February 26, 2015

“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Official Movie Poster

Here is the first official movie poster for “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” with all of the cast front and center.

If you have a magnifying glass, this poster also confirms that Anthony Mackie is reprising his role as The Falcon from “Captain America: Winter Soldier.” Both Thor alumni Idris Elba (Heimdall) and Stellan Skarsgård (Dr. Erik Selvig) are also returning from proof of their cast names appearing on the poster. I tried my best to zoom in on it and highlight it below.

Definitely glad to see that Captain America, the leader of the team, is highlighted in this poster as opposed to the original “Avengers” poster where he was way in the background and they basically made Robert Downey Jr. the focus:

Funny thing is that after this official poster was released, Marvel released another poster with Robert Downey Jr. as the focus, just in case:

“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Opens on May 1st, 2015.

Robert Downey Jr. Shares His “Iron Man” Character Poster From “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” And Also Hints Of Some Big News Coming Next Week

Robert Downey Jr recently revealed through his Twitter account the official character poster for Iron Man from “Avengers: Age Of Ultron.” I am sure this will be the first of many character posters that will eventually make its way into movie theater lobbies.

What is even more exciting is that he teased us that there will be a big announcement next week.

Of course I couldn’t help but speculate as to what it could be:

Marvel will officially announce that “Spider-Man” will be in “Captain America: Civil War” This is probably the most probable. During the announcement of the Sony and Marvel Spider-Man deal, they announced that Spider-Man will “first appear” in a Marvel movie prior to the new “Spider-Man” movie opening in 2017.
Marvel and Sony will announce that they have cast an actor to play “Spider-Man.” Very possible since “Civil War” starts shooting in April.
“Captain America: Civil War” will be split into two parts. This is wishful thinking on my part. There is so much material in the original Civil War comic book that there is no way that they could come close to being faithful to the original source material. Besides Captain America, Iron Man and hopefully Spider-Man, there is a huge lineup of superheroes involved. Civil War is one group of superheroes against another group of superheroes. You can’t squeeze all of that into one 2 hour movie.
Robert Downey Jr. will announce an extension to his contract with Marvel. Maybe showing up in “Guardians Of The Galaxy 2?” This could somehow tie the Guardians universe with the Avengers so that they could come together for “Avengers: Infinity War.”
New Trailer For “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” revealing “The Vision” for the very first time. This is very likely but definitely last on my list as to what I would prefer to see happen.

We should find out next Thursday and I will definitely let you know.

*And just as I was witting this article, Marvel released the official character poster for The Hulk.

Tom Rothman Named New Chairman Of Sony Pictures; Does This Mean “Big Trouble” For “Spider-Man?”

Last week we had possibly the best news ever when it was announced that “Spider-Man” was coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What a difference a week makes because this week we received some of the worst worst news ever. Tom Rothman is now in charge of Sony Pictures. What makes this such bad news? This guys track record is horrible when it comes to comic book movies and just movies in general. Tom Rothman was originally over at Fox and here are some of the questionable things that he did:

Rothman is rumored to be majorly responsible for all of the hate between Fox and Disney/Marvel.
Rothman was against the movie “X-Men” being made and went out of his way to cut the budget for the film. The first “X-Men” movie was the first superhero movie to reignite the public’s interest in superhero movies after the disastrous “Batman And Robin.” Comic book movie fans owe a lot to this movie.
Rothman was responsible for causing Brian Singer to leave as director of “X-Men: Last Stand” and then he hired Bret Ratner, one of Hollywood’s worst directors. Rothman went onto micromanage the film resulting in the worst X-Men movie ever made.
Rothman had his hands all over “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and forced director Gavin Hood to make changes that he was firmly against. So many changes were made by Rothman to the final movie that Gavin Hood eventually came out and said, “This is not my movie anymore.”
Rothman refused to have any Sentinels in any “X-Men” movies while he was head of the studio.
Rothman was behind the cloud version of Galactus that appeared in “Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.”
Rothman personally blocked the movie “Deadpool” from ever being made. The movie “Deadpool” was recently announced to be in production but it is mostly because Rothman left.
Rothman was behind the movie release of “Elektra.”
Ridley Scott and James Cameron were going to work together and make a sequel to “Aliens” and Rothman said no and decided to go with “Aliens Vs. Predator” instead.
Rumor is Rothman does not like comic book movies and he only names himself as producer for those comic book movies that guarantee him a huge paycheck and then he tinkers with them and they become a disaster.

It’s not all bad news though. I mentioned last time that with the new “Spider-Man” deal that Marvel has creative control of Spider-Man, which includes the upcoming solo film. Several people pointed out to me that in the press release Sony still has creative control. I found this hard to believe because Sony made the deal with Marvel because they knew they were having trouble with the “Spider-Man” franchise and they wanted to have similar success that the Marvel movies were experiencing. It made me wonder, why would Sony have creative control and why would Marvel agree not to have creative control? I recently read this in Bigassdigest.com and it confirms what I originally stated:

“Everything I have heard is that Marvel is calling most of the shots on this new movie. There’s been a lot of language in the press to help Sony avoid some embarrassment, to make this look less like admitting defeat.“

That sounds more feasible than Marvel not having any creative control and Sony having all of it.

Latino Review goes on to explain this even more in depth:

Avi Arad and Matt Tolomach, producers of the Amazing Spider-Man movies (and Arad being attached to the property since it’s initial sale) are producers for Spider-Man in name only.

We have information from a source suggesting there is no financial involvement whatsoever and no direct creative control over Spidey coming from the old guard. Amy Pascal still has a say in the Mom-and-Pop arrangement she has with Feige, but Disney didn’t want to unite Pearlmutter, Arad and Feige in earnest. This is the solution.

What does that mean? It means Marvel might have a bit more control than we thought. It means the new Spider-Man has been insulated from BOTH Avi Arad and new Sony head, superhero property curse, Tom Rothman.

As I had mentioned previously, there are many things that we will probably never know about the Spider-Man deal that exists with Disney/Marvel and Sony. I am sure that Disney was well aware of any possibility and probably knew that Amy Pascal was going to be replaced and who the likely candidates were. I don’t think they would have agreed to the deal if they did not have certain assurances and could also protect themselves. And I am sure one stipulation was “you wanted our help, don’t interfere in the direction we are taking the character.”

Rant: Seriously, why do corporations sometimes hire the worst possible candidates for high level positions? This guy seems like your typical corporate jerk who takes credit for everything and throws everyone else under the bus when someone is needed to blame. He seems like he thinks he knows better than everyone else and loves to throw his power around. I can never understand why people like this are constantly rewarded. Of all of the atrocities that he was responsible for, there was going to be an Aliens sequel where both Ridley Scott and James Cameron both agreed to be on board and he said no? This man should not even be allowed to work at a 7-Eleven.

Sources: Deadline, Latino Review, Bigassdigest

Preview Of Marvel’s “Star Wars #3”

Looks like Darth Vader still doesn’t know that Luke Skywalker is actually his son and he still hates his guts. In this issue, Han Solo and Princess Leia commandeer an AT-AT, C3PO has a license to drive the Millennium Falcon and Vader is about to take on the above mentioned AT-AT with a light saber!

“Star Wars #3” will go on sale on March 11th, 2015.

Source: StarWars.com

First Clear Image Of Marvel’s “Daredevil”

The magazine Film Ink has given us our best look at Daredevil so far by featuring “The Man With No Fear” on it’s front cover.

Rant: We better be seeing the classic red “Daredevil” costume very soon because if he is going to be wearing black pajamas throughout the first season, I’m not watching it. That’s like Batman not having his mask and cowl. That’s not Batman, that is just Bruce Wayne looking for trouble. This costume is fine if this is his first attempt at Daredevil but the character needs to look more like the iconic Daredevil. It makes no sense to be just showing us the black costume in promotions and not just revealing his red costume. Even if this was a motion picture, they would have revealed it by now. Don’t screw this up Marvel, you have a great track record with remaining loyal to the comics and the trailer looks great too.

Here are some of Daredevil’s costume that would be completely acceptable to me:

* Marvel just released this new poster as I was writing this. Well, there is red in there, but not the red I’m looking for.

Marvel’s “Daredevil” will premier exclusively on Netflix on April 10th, 2015.

Stan Lee Draws An Image Of “Spider-Man” For A Young Fan With Autism

This is a great story. The New York Times reported that Jamel Hunter, an 8 year old boy with autism, was celebrating his birthday with friends and family. Jamel’s favorite hero is Spider-Man and Jamel’s mother went out of her way to have Spider-Man images displayed throughout the birthday party.

Stan Lee read about the story and was moved and wanted to do something to help. Stan Lee is Spider-Man’s creator and he has always played the role of writer, not artist. But Stan decided this one time that he would draw a very special picture of Spider-Man for Jamel. New York Times writer, Michael Wilson, delivered the drawing to Jamel, with Lee’s signature in the corner.

Here are some pictures of Jamel with Stan Lee’s gift:

Source: New York Times

New “Ant-Man” Promo Art

Some new promo art for the upcoming Marvel movie “Ant-Man” has recently hit the internet. Lets’ take a look at what we could expect from the movie based on the concept art below.

“Ant-Man” will open on July 17th, 2015.

Sideshow Collectible Corner

“The Hulk” From “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

Sideshow Collectibles and Hot Toys have done it again. Check out this amazingly detailed premium figure of The Incredible Hulk as seen in “Avengers: Age Of Ultron.”

Sideshow Collectibles and Hot Toys are thrilled to officially present the Hulk Deluxe Sixth Scale Figure Collectible Set from this epic blockbuster!

The movie-accurate collectible figure is specially crafted based on the image of Hulk in Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. This deluxe set specially features two newly developed angry and screaming Hulk head sculpts with rolling eyeballs, a specially painted muscular body and a newly sculpted interchangeable Hulk smash pose upper body.

The Hulk Deluxe figure is available for pre-order exclusively through Sideshow Collectibles. The cost is $374.99 and expected to ship sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.

That’s it for this time!

2/17/15 Marvel News Mash-Up (Spider-Man Deal Details, Avengers Posters, Princess Leia, ETC.)

WDWNT on February 26, 2015

Update On Disney/Marvel And Sony’s “Spider-Man” Deal

Now that Disney/Marvel and Sony finally came to an agreement in regards to Spider-Man appearing in future Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, more information about the deal is making it’s way out. The following is what I was able to come up after researching all aspects of the deal:

No money changed hands by either company. This deal is being used so that both companies mutually benefit. It will benefit Sony by giving Spider-Man more exposure from appearing in Marvel movies like “The Avengers.” It will benefit Disney by having Marvel’s most popular character, Spider-Man, in their most popular movie franchise.
The final deal that Sony agreed to was to basically lease Spider-Man to Disney and in return Kevin Feige, head of Marvel, will co produce the new “Spider-Man” film scheduled to be released in 2017.
Marvel will have full creative control and help write the script for the new “Spider-Man” movie but Sony has final approval of the script.
Disney acquired Marvel in 2009 for $4 billion dollars. Since then they have been pursuing the “Spider-Man” movie rights from Sony for years offering billions of dollars for the franchise. Sony has rejected them every time.
The “Amazing Spider-Man 2” grossed $708 million dollars worldwide. The production budget and marketing costs for the movie was close to $500 million dollars. If you take into consideration that usually 50% of ticket sales goes to the theater owners over the distribution period of the film, Sony incurred a loss of about $150 million dollars theatrically. “Guardians Of The Galaxy” grossed $774 million dollars worldwide. The production budget and marketing costs for the movie was close to $350 million dollars. Unlike Sony, Disney incurred a profit from “Guardians” theatrical release. Both companies had additional revenue through home video sales. What stands out is that Spider-Man is one of the most recognizable comic book characters and previously had a franchise consisting of 4 profitable movies going into the release of “Amazing Spider-Man 2.” Prior to “Guardian’s” release, barely any moviegoers ever heard of them and two of its main characters were a talking raccoon and a tree that said three words. I heard that the parent company of Sony was very much aware of this and not happy.
Disney owns all of the merchandising rights to Spider-man, including movie merchandise, and having Spider-Man have more exposure in their movies will add to a big increase in Spider-Man related products. If Sony owned the merchandising rights to the “Spider-Man” movies, this deal between Disney/Marvel and Sony probably would not have happened.
The studios are looking for a much younger actor than Andrew Garfield, age 31, to portray Spider-Man. They would like to go with an actual teenager.
The story for the new “Spider-Man” movie will not be an origin story and will focus on Peter Parker being an awkward teenager by day and being Spider-Man at night. There will be less focus on his love life. All 5 previous “Spider-Man” movies focused on his love life and the studios want to go into a different direction.
By Disney planning to include some of their Marvel characters in Sony’s “Spider-Man’s” movies some sources are saying that this is the first step in Disney acquiring the movie rights. Disney could also be positioning itself into purchasing Spider-Man’s movie rights in the future.
The plan is for the new Spider-Man to appear in a Marvel movie “prior” to the release of the solo “Spider-man” movie in 2017. The movies prior to the new “Spider-Man” are:
- ”Avengers: Age Of Ultron” – Maybe. It’s possible as a post credit teaser.
- “Ant-Man” – Highly unlikely. I know, spiders and ants, but don’t see it happening.
- “Captain America: Civil War” – Highly likely. Marvel is scrambling to have Spider-Man in this movie before it goes into production. Apparently two scripts were written. One with Black Panther being a central figure, the other with Spider-Man.
- “Doctor Strange” – Mmmm, maybe. Doctor Strange is based in New York and so is Spider-Man. Plus Doctor Strange is a bit of a risk character with less people knowing who he is and the addition of Spider-Man could help the box office.
- “Guardians Of The Galaxy 2” – Nope. Unless it takes place on Earth.

Even though we are learning more about the “Spider-Man” deal, there probably is a lot that has yet to be revealed. The one thing that I feel most people have overlooked is Disney moving “Thor: Ragnarok” and other Phase 3 release dates to accommodate the opening of the new “Spider-Man” movie. Why would Disney do that? Sony will get 100% of the revenue and Disney will get nothing, except maybe a bump in Spider-Man merchandise revenue. This is either an act of goodwill on Disney’s part, or like what was mentioned, Disney is positioning itself to acquire the “Spider-Man” movie rights back. Disney had planned to release 3 Marvel movies in 2017 and with “Thor” moving to November of 2017 it resulted in “Black Panther” being pushed back to 2018. I think that is more than just goodwill on Disney’s part because they are sacrificing a whole movie that would add to Disney’s overall 2017 revenue. Disney is basically saying, “This is the movie that we want you to see before you see the rest of our Phase 3 movies.” Maybe I’m just an optimist but I think that move was a significant move on Disney’s part.

Definitely exciting times are ahead and expect news some news next month since “Captain America: Civil War” begins filming this April.

Actors Being Considered For The New “Spider-Man”

According to Variety, Sony is looking at actors Dylan O’Brien (“The Maze Runner”) and Logan Lerman (“Percy Jackson”) as potential candidates for the role of the new Spider-Man. Both actors are 23 years old. As previously mentioned, the studios want to go with a younger Peter Parker who is an awkward high school teenager by day and superhero at night. Sony is looking for a new director to replace Marc Webb, who directed “Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2.”

The studio is also unsure if they will continue with Peter Parker or go with Miles Morales. In the comic “Ultimate Spider-Man,” Miles Morales is a young boy of African American and Hispanic decent who takes over the role of “Spider-Man” after Peter Parker dies (not much of a spoiler, this is comic is based in an alternative universe).

Variant Covers For Marvel Comics “Princess Leia #1”

If it is one thing that Marvel Comics can never have enough of, it’s variant covers.

When Princess Leia Organa was captured by the Empire as a Rebel spy, she never betrayed her convictions, even in the face of the complete destruction of her home world, Alderaan. When her rescue came, she grabbed a blaster and joined the fight, escaping back to the Rebel Alliance and helping strike the biggest blow against the Empire-the destruction of the Death Star. But in the aftermath of that victory, the question remains…what is a princess without a world? Follow Leia’s journey in the days following the end of “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” as she searches for answers…and for hope. Witness the beginnings of the journey that transforms a princess without a home into one of the greatest leaders in the fight for freedom across the galaxy! “Princess Leia #1” will be released on March 3rd, 2015.

Behold the latest variant covers for the continuing adventures of “Star Wars” very own “Princess Leia.”

More Promo Art For “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

Here is some beautiful looking promo art poster from the upcoming movie, “Avengers: Age Of Ultron.”

Source: Jposters

That’s it for this week!

“Spider-Man” Is Now Officially Part Of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe

WDWNT on February 26, 2015

It’s official! “Spider-Man” will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Disney/Marvel will co-produce future “Spider-Man” movies with Sony.

Under the agreement, the new “Spider-Man” will first appear for a film in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe and then Sony will release a new “Spider-Man” movie on July 28th, 2017 to be co-produced by Marvel’s Kevin Feige and Sony’s Amy Pascal.

Marvel and Sony Pictures are also exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the MCU into future Spider-Man films.

Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO, The Walt Disney Company said: “Spider-Man is one of Marvel’s great characters, beloved around the world. We’re thrilled to work with Sony Pictures to bring the iconic web-slinger into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which opens up fantastic new opportunities for storytelling and franchise building.”

“We always want to collaborate with the best and most successful filmmakers to grow our franchises and develop our characters. Marvel, Kevin Feige and Amy, who helped orchestrate this deal, are the perfect team to help produce the next chapter of Spider-Man,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “This is the right decision for the franchise, for our business, for Marvel, and for the fans.”

“Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios share a love for the characters in the Spider-Man universe and have a long, successful history of working together. This new level of collaboration is the perfect way to take Peter Parker’s story into the future,” added Doug Belgrad, president, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group.

“I am thrilled to team with my friends at Sony Pictures along with Amy Pascal to produce the next Spider-Man movie,” said Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. “Amy has been deeply involved in the realization on film of one of the world’s most beloved characters. Marvel’s involvement will hopefully deliver the creative continuity and authenticity that fans demand from the MCU. I am equally excited for the opportunity to have Spider-Man appear in the MCU, something which both we at Marvel, and fans alike, have been looking forward to for years.”

Source: Marvel

Welcome home “Spider-Man!”

This is without a doubt the news that most Marvel fans have been waiting to hear. It is still uncertain if “Spider-Man” will make his debut in “Captain America: Civil War” or “Avengers: Infinity War Part 1.” I have a feeling that he will be a part of “Civil War” since the character of “Spider-Man” was a major participant in the comic book series. I had heard previously that Marvel was not going to use “Spider-Man” even if a deal between Marvel and Sony emerged because the script had been finalized and they were planning on going into production soon. “Black Panther” was expected to fill in for “Spider-Man’s” role. I am sure that Disney and Marvel were aware that an agreement was in play and it wouldn’t surprise me if they had written two scripts just in case. So I would expect “Spider-Man” to be the third major character in “Civil War.” I also would not be surprised if the title changes to just “Civil War” at some point.

It sounds as though Andrew Garfield will no longer be playing “Spider-Man” and that they will be casting a new “Spider-Man.” Marvel also mentioned that characters from “Spider-Man’s” Universe may appear in future Marvel movies. This is an added bonus because the Marvel Cinematic Universe is really lacking in “good” villains.

Now that a new “Spider-Man” movie will be released on July 28th, 2017, some of Marvel’s Phase 3 movies release dates are being shifted around. “Thor: Ragnarok” was scheduled to be released on July 28th, 2017 but will now be moved to November 3rd, 2017. The following year, Marvel’s “Black Panther” will make its way to theaters on July 6, 2018, and Marvel’s “Captain Marvel” on November 2, 2018. Finally, Marvel’s “Inhumans” will now debut in theaters July 12, 2019. The previously announced dates for Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War Part 1” and “Avengers: Infinity War Part 2” on May 4, 2018 and May 3, 2019, respectively, remain unchanged.

1/5/15 Marvel News Mash-Up (Avengers, More spider-Man Rumors, ETC.)

WDWNT on January 29, 2015

**New “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Trailer To Premier January 12^th On ESPN**

During this year’s Rose Bowl, an advertisement was played for an exclusive new “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” trailer that will appear during the College Football National Championship, which will air on January 12^th at 8:30 PM on ESPN. There will also be an ad during the Superbowl on February 1^ston NBC. I’m not sure if these ads will be identical or not.

Here is the advertisement that aired during the Rose Bowl:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOSgoawQ7DE]

First “Ant-Man” Trailer To Premier January 6^th During Marvel’s “Agent Carter”; First Promotional Banner For “Ant-Man”

Marvel has announced that the very first trailer for “Ant-Man” will occur during the premier of “Agent Carter”, which will air on Tuesday January 6^th at 8PM on ABC.

Actress Haley Atwell is reprising her role as “Agent Carter”, who was a character seen in both Captain America movies. The series will focus on Agent Peggy Carter going on secret missions for Howard Stark while trying to navigate life as a single woman in 1940s America. “Agent Carter” will fill in for “Agents Of SHIELD”, while it is on it’s mid season break.

Here is a sneak peak that Marvel released for the upcoming “Ant-Man” trailer:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ent7BoDR1yE]

Marvel also released the first promotional art for the movie “Ant-Man” which shows the title character, Ant-Man, and the villain, Yellow Jacket.

New Promo Art For “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

Marvel Studios recently revealed some promo art for “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”. We get a very detailed look at Vision as well as some other Avengers and the villain Ultron. There are also promotional cards that describe Vision and Ultron’s origins. Let’s take a look:

Source: Superherohype.com

“Captain America” Star Chris Evans Visits Young Cancer Patient

Chris Evans stopped by to visit Kenny Botting, a young boy battling cancer. Evans was in Massachusetts for a fundraiser for Christopher’s Haven, a place that provides support for young cancer patients.

“It’s their strength that gives me strength. No matter what hurdles are in my life it’s nothing compared to what these families go through, so any way I can bring a smile it’s worth it,” Evans said.

Below is a video of Evans visit with Kenny:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEgzt9FP9gI]

Source: Comicbook.com

“Daredevil” Series Rumored To Debut May 1^st On Netflix; New Synopsis

Twitter user, Marvel_Spider, noticed via his PS3 Netflix app that the first episode of “Daredevil” is scheduled to air on May 1^st. This date is also the exact same date as the release “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” in theaters. Keep in mind that this date may just be a placeholder since “Daredevil” is expected to debut this May.

Marvel’s Jeff Loeb recently gave a brief synopsis about the “Daredevil” series:

“Within the Marvel universe there are thousands of heroes of all shapes and sizes but The Avengers are here to save the universe and Daredevil is here to save the neighborhood. It’s a very unique look at Hell’s Kitchen in New York, where Matt Murdock grew up and continues to defend it from people who would harm the people that live there.”

**Marvel And SONY Meeting This Month To Discuss The Future Of The “Spider-man” Movie Franchise; Possible Plans**

We still do not have an official date but at some point during this month, Marvel and SONY will be sitting down to talk about Spider-man possibly joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Due to the recent SONY leaks, SONY Pictures needs all the help it can get to recover from the damage that these leaks have done to it’s reputation. More than likely we can expect to hear some kind of announcement in February from both camps regarding an agreement.

FuriousFanboys.com recently did a story on one of the SONY email leaks and it contained the following points of information:

In Captain America: Civil War, Tony Stark would recruit Spider-Man and give him a suit (the Iron Spider suit?). He’d meet the rest of the heroes such as Cap and Black Widow, etc.
Following that the first Spider-Man standalone would have him back home in Queens with Aunt May and back in school, while living in a world affected by Civil War where heroes are split into groups.
Marvel would then want Spider-Man to appear in Avengers: Infinity War parts 1 and 2.
Sony then would want a second standalone Spider-Man by 2019 so there isn’t too much time between his movies.

All of these points sound great and hopefully we will see something like this in the future. I still feel it is important to have Spider-man in “Captain America: Civil War” and hope that he isn’t just a cameo or an after credits teaser for “Avengers: Infinity War”. Even though the script has been finalized, I am sure it is very easy to just change the character (rumored to be Black Panther) back to the actual character the Civil War comic is based on, Spider-man.

Sideshow Collectible Corner

Here is another beautifully detailed premium collectible figure by Hot Toys and sold through Sideshow Collectibles. The “Tony Stark With Arc Reactor” collectible set includes a specially crafted collectible figure based on the image of Robert Downey Jr. as the genius billionaire Tony Stark in “Iron Man 2″, and features a newly developed head sculpt, an advanced body with light-up chest light, detailed outfit, and the Captain America shield prototype which he has used to level the particle accelerator and workshop accessories. This figure is currently available exclusively through SideShow Collectibles for pre-order for $199.99 and will ship sometime this month.

That’s it for this week!

First Images From “Captain America: Civil War”

Rumor: Is Asa Butterfield The New Spider-Man?; Is Matthew McConaughey The New Green Goblin?

Sideshow Collectible Corner

“Vision”

Marvel Begins Production On “Captain America: Civil War” ; Cast Announced; First Production Art Leaked

New Poster For Marvel’s “Ant-Man” Released

Rumor: The New Spider-Man Movie Will Be Called “Spider-Man: The New Avenger”

WDWNT: Nerd Alert Episode 4 Airs Thursday Night

Sideshow Collectible Corner

“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Collectible Set Of Three

“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Opens This Friday, May 1st! New High Resolution Photos

After “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”, What Is Next For Joss Whedon?

“Guardians Of The Galaxy 2” To Introduce Starlord’s Father

“Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 And 2” To Begin Filming Back To Back For 9 Months In Late 2016

Sony To Release A Theatrical Animated “Spider-Man” Movie In 2018

Sesame Street And The Cookie Monster Spoof “The Avengers”

Sideshow Collectible Corner

“War Machine Mark II”

Official Character Poster Of ” The Vision” From “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

“The Incredible Hulk” Graces The Cover Of Rolling Stone Magazine

Marvel Releases Covers For The “Star Wars” Movie Adaptions

“Spider-Man” In The Marvel Cinematic Universe Update

“Captain Marvel” Was Originally Going To Be In” Avengers: Age Of Ultron” But Her Scene Was Cut And Replaced By “Scarlet Witch” And Her New Costume

WDWNT: Nerd Alert Episode 3 Airs Thursday Night

Official Synopsis For “Captain America: Civil War”

The Russo Brothers Will Direct “Avengers: Infinity: War Parts 1 And 2”

Will Captain Marvel Make Her First Appearance in “Avengers: Age Of Ultron?”

Possible Roster For The Phase 3 “Avengers” Team

First Look At Marvels’ “New York City” Themed Variant Covers

Rumor: The New “Spider-Man” Movie Will Be Titled “The Spectacular Spider-Man” And Be Directed By Drew Goddard

Rumor: Dylan O’Brien Has Been Cast As The New “Spider-Man”

Danny Elfman To Score Additional Music For “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

Will We See “Daredevil’s” Iconic Red Costume In The Netflix Series?

Theater Chains Announce A “27 Hour Marvel Ultimate Movie Marathon”

All “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Character Posters Revealed

First Look At “Kingpin” From Marvel’s “Daredevil”

Hugh Jackman Wants “Wolverine” To Be In An “Avengers” Movie

“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Official Movie Poster

Robert Downey Jr. Shares His “Iron Man” Character Poster From “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” And Also Hints Of Some Big News Coming Next Week

Tom Rothman Named New Chairman Of Sony Pictures; Does This Mean “Big Trouble” For “Spider-Man?”

Preview Of Marvel’s “Star Wars #3”

First Clear Image Of Marvel’s “Daredevil”

Stan Lee Draws An Image Of “Spider-Man” For A Young Fan With Autism

New “Ant-Man” Promo Art

Sideshow Collectible Corner

“The Hulk” From “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

Update On Disney/Marvel And Sony’s “Spider-Man” Deal

Actors Being Considered For The New “Spider-Man”

Variant Covers For Marvel Comics “Princess Leia #1”

More Promo Art For “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

New “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Trailer To Premier January 12th On ESPN

First “Ant-Man” Trailer To Premier January 6th During Marvel’s “Agent Carter”; First Promotional Banner For “Ant-Man”

New Promo Art For “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

“Captain America” Star Chris Evans Visits Young Cancer Patient

“Daredevil” Series Rumored To Debut May 1st On Netflix; New Synopsis

Marvel And SONY Meeting This Month To Discuss The Future Of The “Spider-man” Movie Franchise; Possible Plans

Sideshow Collectible Corner

**New “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” Trailer To Premier January 12^th On ESPN**

First “Ant-Man” Trailer To Premier January 6^th During Marvel’s “Agent Carter”; First Promotional Banner For “Ant-Man”

“Daredevil” Series Rumored To Debut May 1^st On Netflix; New Synopsis

**Marvel And SONY Meeting This Month To Discuss The Future Of The “Spider-man” Movie Franchise; Possible Plans**