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We get to see some costume choices for The Last Jedi today, along with a new director rumoured for DC’s Flash movie, plenty of little bits about the next two Avengers movies, and more.
The Flash
Not the TV series, though you’d be forgiven for getting a bit confused, there are some brand new rumours regarding the long-struggling Flash movie. Screen Junkies is reporting that Back to the Future’s Robert Zemeckis is in talks with Warner Bros. to direct the film. It’s good fit given his filmography, and the fact that Back to the Future is the closest thing anyone has come to the perfect film.
The Flash is still scheduled for a March 2018 release, but with everything that’s gone on that will definitely be changing.
The Last Jedi
We have our first look at Rey and Kylo Ren’s outfits in the upcoming film, thanks to a Battlefront II pre-order bonus of all places. Not that Kylo actually looks any different to how he did in the last film.
Avengers
There have been a lot of little bit of information regarding the third and fourth Avengers films this week. The main one was that the title of the fourth film as a big fat spoiler, with Zoe Saldana seemingly revealing the name had the non-spoilery word ‘Gauntlet’ in the title. According to Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn (via Yahoo Movies), who says he is ‘involved’ with the films, the title does not have the word ‘Gauntlet’ in the title. He assumes Saldana merely misspoke, though it could be a word the cast have been told to use to avoid giving anything away.
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has also confirmed that Thanos’s motivations in the third film, Infinity War, will be somewhat reminiscent of the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline from the comics. That’s what he told Collider, and said he wasn’t able to say anything else. Fans will know that Thanos’s goal was to wipe out life in half of the universe in order to impress the personification of Death, and he used the Infinity Gems to achieve his goal. Rumours have claimed that the films will replace literal Death with Cate Blachett’s Hela, the Norse goddess of Death set to appear in Thor: Ragnarok. Feige’s statement would seem to add a bit more credence to that theory.
Feige also told Cinema Blend that Infinity War is set four years after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 in in-universe time:
Yeah, knowing that outside of the Guardians franchise, we don’t necessarily always date the movies. You don’t always know, we don’t say, ‘2012, 2013…’ We do in the Guardians because you do the math and 1988, and it’s 26 years later. But we never say, ‘Oh, this takes place in 2018, this takes place in 2017.’ But it was important for the story that James wanted to tell that they’re still relatively fresh in their new group.
With Guardians of the Galaxy taking place in 2014, a few months after the first film, this naturally means Infinity War takes place in 2018 – which also happens to be two years after Civil War.
DC TV
Remember when CBS said it would be using Star Trek: Discovery to launch a brand-new subscription-based digital platform? Now it looks like DC is doing basically the same thing, using the upcoming third season of Young Justice and a newly-announced live-action Titans TV series to launch a digital platform of its own.
Titans is being written by Akiva Goldsmith, DC’s Geoff Johns, and Greg Berlanti – best known for creating Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and the still-in-the-pilot-stage Black Lightning. It’s being described as an action-adventure based on the enduring DC Comics franchise, featuring characters like Dick Grayson, Starfire and Raven. Geoff Johns later confirmed that he had started writing for the series, and that Beast Boy would also be included.
Yes!! Very happy to be writing the Titans again and working with this crew! Extremely excited. Will be something very different… #BeastBoy https://t.co/D4sl3Gip7y
— Geoff Johns (@geoffjohns) April 25, 2017
No word on any of the other characters just yet, but with Cyborg taking centre-stage in the Justice League film you can bet he won’t be one of the classic Titans characters included.
Young Justice, on the other hand, is being rebranded as Young Justice: Outsiders. It will see the team fighting meta-human trafficking “and the terrifying threat it creates for a society caught in the crossfire of a genetic arms race spanning the globe and the galaxy.”
Star Trek: Discovery
So here’s some funny news from a series with a very funny production schedule, Star Trek: Discovery has added some new cast members and recast one existing actor as someone entirely new. Shazad Latif was previously cast as Klingon commander Kol, but now he’ll be playing Federation officer Lt. Tyler. Kol will now be played by Jericho’s Kenneth Mitchell.
Also joining the cast are Rekha Sharma as the Discovery’s security officer Commander Landry, as well as Claire McConnell as Dennas and Damon Runyan as Ujilli who are both described as leaders in the Klingon Empire. McConnell’s character is going to be an interesting addition, since Klingon’s don’t actually allow women to hold leadership positions. At least not in the day-to-day running of the Empire.
Animated Spider-Man
The release date for Sony’s animated Miles Morales-led Spider-Man movie has been moved up by a week, and will now arrive on December 14th 2018 rather than December 21st.
Injustice 2
The Joker is officially confirmed for Injustice 2, being shown off in a trailer with a design akin to Jared Leto’s Joker if he went through an emo phase. In the trailer he faces off against Robin (Damien Wayne), Superman, and Green Lantern, before using his very Death-in-the-Family-style finishing move on the Boy Wonder. Take a look:
Kingsman
Hot on the heels of the trailer for Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Mark Millar has announced a new comic titled Kingsman: The Red Diamond. We don’t have any solid details about the comic just yet, other than the fact it arrives in September. What is interesting is that it’s picked up the title of the film series, ignoring the original comics title ‘The Secret Service’.
So it looks as though, just like he did with Kick Ass 2, Millar will be changing his comic to watch the expectations people will have after seeing the film.
Superman vs the Klu Klux Klan
This isn’t a very strange sequel to Man of Steel. Instead this has a historical basis, focussing on the very real time the man of steel went up against the KKK (via Deadline). It’s reportedly being based on the book Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate, written by Rich Bowers, which told the story of a 1946 radio play that had Superman face off against a fictional hate group based on the real-world KKK.
The play was apparently made possible by human-rights activist Stetson Kennedy infiltrating the Klu Klux Klan and supplying details about the group’s inner workings to the Anti-Defamation League and the play’s producer. The point was to demystify the Klan, and was effective enough for the KKK to denounce both the play and its sponsor, Kelloggs.
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Ant-Man and the Wasp will be the first Marvel Studios film to feature a headlining female character, but according to director Peyton Reed Evangeline Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne will be fully stepping into the spotlight instead of hanging around in Paul Rudd’s shadow. He told Collider:
“It’s something we’re excited about. For me as a comic nerd, I always thought of Ant-Man and Wasp as a team and that’s a lot of what the second movie is really about is how they work together, what their personal and professional relationships are like. To show her finally fully formed in this movie is really exciting. We really get to introduce this character into that universe. I mean we’ve introduced the character, but we haven’t seen her with her full power set and everything, so to me she’s not a supporting character in this movie. It’s every bit as much her movie as it is Scott Lang’s.”
Secret Empire
Look away now if you want to avoid spoilers for the Free Comic Book Day issues of Secret Empire #0 which isn’t due out until next Saturday.
The final page of the story has one very interesting twist, as reported by Bleeding Cool. In it we see the Hydra-loyal Steve Rogers, in his full Captain America garb, seemingly able to lift Thor’s hammer Mjolnir. It’s a big deal, since only those deemed worthy are supposed to be able to wield its power. There’s probably more context to the reveal, but we won’t be seeing any of that until Secret Empire #2 arrives on 17th May.
