The proportional strength of a spider, the ability to climb walls, and a sixth sense: all are the iconic powers of Spider-Man. Now, it seems like they should add "bringing two reluctant movie studios together after a month of intense fan outcry. Yes, as it was recently revealed Spider-Man will be rejoining the MCU after a public spat between Disney and Sony. The news, broken a few days ago by Mark Hughes at Forbes, was met with nearly universal praise from fans who argued the fate of the hero was best served in the hands of Marvel Entertainment owner Disney.
Besides that news, it was also announced that Tom Holland, Far from Home director Jon Watts, and the rest of the MCU Spidey cast and crew would be returning for one more film to round out the trilogy, resolving the cliff-hanger at the end of that film. This film, which is still untitled, will be released on July 16, 2021. However, rumors still suggest that the MCU Spider-Man will still cross-over with Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters, particularly Venom. Personally speaking, I'm excited for this news. While I still maintain that Sony has largely handled the wall-crawler with the utmost respect, Tom Holland's version of the character deserves to have his story properly told. Speaking of Holland, I applaud him for his role in resolving this issue, as he apparently used his clout with Sony (due to starring in Sony's Uncharted) to leverage chair of Sony Films Tom Rothman into renegotiating with Disney.
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It seems like 2019 is the year of major franchise conclusions and mega events: Avengers: Endgame capped off 11 years of character development and world-building, IT: Chapter 2 brought the end to the 2017 horror phenomenon, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will mark the end of arguably the most important piece of media in human history. And now, it seems like the CW's Arrowverse, which started in 2012 with the show of the same name, will join that club.
A few days ago, Legends of Tomorrow actor Brandon Routh revealed this image of himself reprising the role of Superman, 13 years after he first donned the cape in 2006's Superman Returns. As it was revealed some time ago, it was revealed that the actor, who plays the Atom on Legends, would be playing the Kryptonian once again for the annual crossover; initially, fans thought he'd be the same Superman from Returns, who's essentially the same version of the character that Christopher Reeve played so iconically for nearly a decade. But it was later revealed that he'd be the Kingdom Come version of the character: based off the comic of the same name, it depicts an older version of the hero coming to grips with a more jaded and cynical superhero landscape. Personally speaking, I'm very excited for the crossover, particularly this version of the character. However, I've noticed something about this version about Superman that may tie it into the Reeves movies. If you look closely at the texture of his suit, you can see mini Superman shields on the fabric: just like the Superman suit in Superman Returns, which I already said was a sequel to Superman 1 & 2. Considering the original version of the story featured other heroes, it's possible we could see references to Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman and Adam West's Batman. It seems like the web-slinger, only a year after his iconic death in Infinity War, will face with being erased from the face of the MCU once more. Yes, as it was recently revealed by Deadline, the famous super-hero will be removed from the MCU
Though news on Matt Reeve's upcoming Batman film has been mostly slow, it seems as if things behind the scenes have been moving along fairly quickly; most notably, the news that Twilight star Robert Pattison will be playing the Caped Crusader. And now, things seems to be moving even faster. Pattison was recently interviewed by Variety, his first since his casting. During the interview, Robert was mostly asked on his upcoming A24 film The Lighthouse, though most al mostly cared about his future exploits in crimefighting. One of the biggest reveals was that he already tried on a Batsuit for his audition, something he claims made him "feel very powerful immediately". Though which suit he wore is unknown, it's unlikely he wore one for his film specifically; considering Christian Bale wore Val Kilmer's suit during his Batman Begins Audition, one could assume Pattison wore either Bale's suit in The Dark Knight Rises or either of Ben Affleck's suits. Many have theorized on what suit Robert will wear, but most fan-art depicts him in a photo version of Ben Affleck's or the one the character wore during the DC Rebirth line of comics. For all the success that the Disney ownership of Marvel Comics has brought, there seems to be one area in which the company has consistently fallen behind. As many know, key Marvel brands like the X-Men and Fantastic Four saw their film rights sold to 20th Century Fox in the late 90's after Marvel Entertainment faced bankruptcy; the lack of these characters forced Marvel Studios to rely on some of their popular but less well-known characters to build the current cultural behemoth that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The success of these characters seems to have come at the expense of the Fox owned characters. Since 2013, it seems like the comics in which the two teams star in have either been under marketed or, in the case of the X-Men, given less attention. In the last 5 years, the following X-books have been released and cancelled: X-Men vol 4, All New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men vol 4, X-Men: Red, Blue, and Gold, Astonishing X-Men, and the list goes on and on. However, a recent superstar in the world of Marvel seems to be taking the X-Men in a more focused direction. Known for writing Fantastic 4, Avengers, and New Avengers, Johnathan Hickman has a positive reception among fans. In a recent CBR interview, the writer revealed that House of X will be "about a pivotal month in the history of the X-Men", and its companion series Powers of X will be about the history of mutants in the Marvel Universe. Personally speaking, I'm excited for both series. As a more casual X-Men fan, I don't read their current comics with the same feeling of seething rage others do, but I am aware of their flaws: namely, a constant return to the same status quo, odd writing, and just a lack of originality. I personally see Hickman as the best FF writer since Lee, and better in some ways. Avengers and New Avengers was good, if not a bit continuity heavy. I'm sure he'll deliver a satisfying return to form for the Merry Mutants. After Ben Affleck's announcement of his leaving the role of the Caped Crusader in early 2019, many across the comic book fandom have proposed their own replacement: most of these were stars in big name films, like Armie Hammer and Jon Hamm. And fans had good reason to assume either of those two actors (or anyone with a similar career path) would take the role: they're well-known, have ties with Warner Brothers, and with a strong fanbase.
However, it seems like WB's gone the opposite approach with the casting of a new Barman in Matt Reeve's upcoming prequel film. It was reported by many outlets late last night that Robert Pattison and Nicholas Hoult were on the studio's shortlist to play the character. Both of the two actors had long been in the spotlight for the role, but many assumed they'd not play the character: Hoult due to his association with the X-Men franchise, and Pattison due to his history with the Twilight films and his more indie filmography. However, it seems like the latter may be the one to take the role. With the Fox-Disney deal finally completed, Fox 's X-Men films, which started all the way back in 2000, is at an end. Though their final film slated is The New Mutants (set for a summer release), the main series of films reaches a climax with 2019's Dark Phoenix. Based on the Chris Claremont's era-defining story of the same name, the film marks the fourth film featuring the new cast members first introduced in 2011's X-Men: First Class. Though some have critiqued the film for being unwanted and seeming extremely derivative of the much-maligned X-Men: The Last Stand, others have praised the movie for looking like the bang needed for the conclusion of such an influential film series.; both sides of this argument have been amplified by the release of the film's final trailer yesterday.
It mostly consists of pre-existing footage from the first two trailers and TV spots, but what is new presents some interesting story details.
In the ever-changing media landscape, the Mouse House must fight to survive. We first saw this in November 2017 when they announced they made a bid to purchase the majority of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets; this granted them access not only to the highly coveted X-Men and Fantastic 4 properties for Marvel, but also to a majority stake in Hulu, TV channels like FX and Fox News, and such profitable media franchises like The Simpsons, Alien, and the distribution rights to Star Wars: A New Hope. Likewise, the dominance of Netflix and other streaming services as a business model has motivated Disney to create their own streaming service, announced in September 2017. Known as Disney Plus and slated for a November launch, the service is expected to play host to a variety of original content based on Disney's franchises, as well as already released media. Recently, a meeting was held for investors detailing exactly how the service would work, as well as what would be released on launch and later on. Marvel-As Disney's major moneymaker, it stands to reason that the service would place most of its focus on the House of Ideas. And sure enough, executive producer of the MCU Kevin Fiege, announced a whole slew of shows based on Marvel Comics characters, as well as additional information on already known shows.
Its very unlike an MCU film to cause much, if any, controversy among moviegoers: since 2008, the franchise has been almost Teflon-like in its success, earning fan adoration, critical praise, and box-office glory like nothing Hollywood has ever seen. But then again, Captain Marvel's not exactly like any other MCU film. Aside the obvious fact of being the first to feature a female character as the lead, the film also has stirred up controversy like no major blockbuster since 2017's The Last Jedi. Comments dealing with topics like feminism, diversity in film review, and the role actors play as activists have stoked emotions among many, but a big concern was how the film would perform at the box-office. As seen with TLJ, as well as 2016's Ghostbusters reboot, films involving hot-button social issues, regardless of which way they lean, can underperform if fans are unsatisfied with the message. In both cases, The Last Jedi, though a certified success, earned close to a billion less than The Force Awakens, and the controversy around The Last Jedi certainly played some role in the box-office tanking of Solo: A Star Wars Story. And as for Ghostbusters, similar political messages both within the film and from its actors, though certainly well-meaning, did cause controversy among fans, who made their discontent heard by not watching the film. Considering similar comments made by lead actress for Captain Marvel Brie Larson, some speculated the film had a chance of similarly failing to meet studio expectations. However, the opening weekend box-office reports are in, and seem to indicate the film as doing just fine. According to Variety, the film earned around $455 million globally in its opening weekend, with about $153 million of that coming from the U.S; the latter number exceeded the estimated $125 million by about $25 million. The success of the film so far almost certainly means a sequel is on the way. It seems the end of an era regarding live-action comic book media has arrived. Running for 6 years since 2012, the eponymous progenitor of the Arrowverse, Arrow, has been announced to be canceled after it's upcoming eight season. The news first broke on March 6th, with lead actor Stephen Amell taking to social media to announce the news to fans in an emotional video. Though no reason has been given as to why the show has been announced to end, most speculate that actor Stephen Amell desires to move on in his career and avoid the show limping to its conclusion. Many Arrowverse actors who started on Arrow, like Katie Cassidy and lead of The Flash Grant Gustin, spoke on social media about their joy working on the show and with its cast and crew. It had been speculated before that two shows in the Arrowverse would be ending after their renewal for the upcoming TV season, with Legends of Tomorrow being the other show theorized to end. On the fan side of things, many speculate that Oliver Queen will die in the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, based on the 1985-86 comic event of the same name; evidence of this mostly deals with some form of a deal Queen made with the Monitor, Mar Novu, in 2018's Elseworlds event. Regarding the rest of the Arrowverse, all else seems to be in order to continue: Batwoman, who made her debut in Elseworlds, will have her show premiere sometime this year, and possibly take the Monday night slot of Arrow. Season 6 of The Flash has been known to be happening since at least January of this year, same with Supergirl. however, Amell has hinted that though the show may be ending , Queen may continue on with his life. In any case, the show that arguably did as much for superhero TV as the Avengers did for films, has finally earned the same rest as its tortured hero. |