Joss Whedon Returns For Avengers 2 And More!

HUZZAH!

At this point I think it's safe to say that Avengers is the biggest (and possibly most fun) movie of the year.  You can thank writer/director Joss Whedon for that.  While we all hoped and prayed that he'd be back again for the sequel sometime in 2015, Disney announced on an investor conference call that it's now officially a done deal.  Not only that, but Whedon will also be shepherding the still-in-development live action TV show that will be somehow set in the Marvel-verse.  That project is still in the extremely early stages - Marvel hasn't even really announced a general pitch, although rumors point towards some kind of police procedural.  While none of the established Marvel heroes would be regular cast members, I certainly wouldn't rule out the occasional cameo.

While we can hope that Whedon will stay heavily involved in the proposed hour-long (the man is responsible for some of the greatest TV in the past 20 years after all), what looks even more likely is that he'll have a strong hand in the remainder of the in-development movies that make up Marvel's Phase Two.  Whedon did some fiarly extensive re-writes on Captain America, something that was very evident in the finished product, (Tommy Lee Jones' Colonel Phillips feels like a wholesale Whedon creation.) so it makes sense that he'd want to shape the rest of Marvel's upcoming slate to properly set the stage for the next Avengers adventure.  Iron Man 3 is already heading into post-production and the most input he can probably have on Thor: The Dark World at this point is some quick dialogue punch-up, but I expect Whedon will be heavily involved in shaping the stories for Captain America: The Winter Soldier as well as the way-out-there Guardians Of The Galaxy.

A gun-toting raccoon spouting witty Whedon-banter?  Yes please.

Mjolnir vs Sonic Screwdriver! Thor To Be Menaced By The Ninth Doctor

Shortly after Comic Con I mentioned that Mads Mikkelsen had abandoned his unnamed villain role in Marvel's upcoming Thor: The Dark World in favor of some fava beans and a nice chianti, i.e. taking on the mantle of Anthony Hopkins in NBC's upcoming series Hannibal.  (Sidenote: that series just picked up the marvelous Caroline Dhavernas, veteran of Bryan Fuller's quickly and tragically cancelled series Wonderfalls. Happy to see her getting some work these days.)

Well fear not, fans of the thunder god, because Mikkelsen has been replaced in the form of Christopher Eccleston.  The erstwhile Doctor Who has signed on to play the now confirmed role of Malekith The Accursed,* who is the lord of the dark race of elves.  It's probably a safe bet that Marvel plans to give him the Frank Gorshin paint job.  As delighted as I am to see Eccleston land such a marquee role (I can't believe he's not a household name by now.) I'm far more excited at the prospect of a Thor film that won't be bogged down in boring SHIELD crap.

The first movie spent WAY too much time on Earth and really felt like it's entire function was just to help set the stage for The Avengers, which was a real shame considering that Thor didn't exactly have a huge fan base to start.  But Hemsworth is entertaining as hell and I think public opinion of the character is much higher in the wake of The Avengers massive success.

Now let's see him and his warrior pals kicking ass across the Nine Realms.  Leave the humans out of it.



*Wasn't he also Malekith The Butch?  (And there's your Ghostbusters quote of the day.)

COMIC CON: Get Ready For Marvel's PHASE TWO!

While I already covered some of the early highlights from this year's Comic Con, there's still plenty to talk about.  Let's kick things off with all things Marvel...

Obviously the folks at Marvel are in high spirits in light of the overwhelming success of The Avengers, but they're far from resting on their laurels.  As "Phase One" will hit DVD and Blu-Ray this September in the form of a giant boxed set (complete with glowing Tesseract!) Kevin Feige and friends laid out their blueprint for "Phase Two" on Saturday in Hall H.  Here's what it looks like, including logo branding and new titles!

First up, we've got the Shane Black directed Iron Man 3, hitting theaters May 3, 2013.

Marvel put on a helluva show with this one, including an exclusive footage presentation that more than impressed the audience.  Highlights included shots of Don Cheadle's Rhodey in his new red white & blue War Machine armor and the first glimpse of Ben Kingsley as the now-confirmed Mandarin.  (He does not appear to be playing the role as Asian.)  For a more detailed take on the footage, check out Drew McWeeny's excellent description over at HitFix.  They also had all seven previous versions of Iron Man's armor on display, as well as the newest model we'll see next spring:

Thor: The Dark World opens November 8, 2013.  

That subtitle doesn't give too many clues as to where the story is headed, but we might get a better clue as they finish up casting.  They've already had to replace Josh Dallas with Zachary Levi as Fandral (which is ironic as Levi was originally set to play the role in the first film, but was later replaced by Dallas, both times due to unexpected TV renewals.)  They've also lost their villain in the form of Mads Mikkelsen, whose commitments to the upcoming Bryan Fuller-helmed Hannibal Lecter television series forced him off the Marvel project.  We'll see who emerges to torture the thunder god in his next go-round.


Arriving on April 4, 2014 is Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

As opposed to the Thor sequel, this title speaks volumes.  It's clear the Russo brothers (!) will be drawing heavily from Ed Brubaker's infamous run on the comics in which Cap's sidekick Bucky is revealed to be very much alive, now a deadly Russian assassin with a mechanical arm who's spent the decades since WWII in and out of cryo-stasis. (I almost put a spoiler warning there, but ultimately decided the title indicates that Bucky's presence in the movie will probably be well advertised beforehand.)  We've also learned that Cap's 70's-era partner The Falcon will appear and that Marvel is in negotiations with Anthony Mackie.  The Falcon is one of Marvel's early black superheroes, a Harlem native who can fly with the help of a special suit.  He also has a psychic link with his pet Falcon and can generally see through the eyes of birds.  Mackie is a fantastic actor who should be far more successful than he is, so here's hoping he'll get a bit of the Marvel bump.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him appear in the next Avengers flick either.


Marvel's also opening up a new franchise, Guardians Of The Galaxy, on August 1, 2014.

This one is WAY out there compared to the Marvel movies we've seen so far.  This is a huge outer space epic, with a team of heroes named Star Lord, Groot, Frax, Gamorra and Rocket Racoon.  Yes, that last one is an actual racoon.  With automatic weapons.  Oh, and Groot is a walking tree.  Here's some concept art, to give you a sense of the characters.  

The Guardians will be teaming up to fight Thanos, who was briefly glimpsed during the credits of Avengers and will definitely be the villain the next time Earth's mightiest heroes assemble.  I actually love the idea of using this new franchise to flesh out the Avengers' newest foe, as we'll have essentially had three (or in Tony Stark's case four) movies with each of our heroes by the time we get to the next Avengers movie.  Since most folks aren't terribly familiar with Thanos, it'll be nice to have the team fighting an enemy with some serious backstory that the audience might even be more aware of than some of the characters. 

And finally, the much anticipated Ant-Man from Edgar Wright.

Wright recently shot some test footage to see how Ant-Man's growing and shrinking abilities could be utilized on-screen, but this project is still quite a ways off.  While Marvel formally announced the project with Wright attached (and showed the footage, which sounded beyond cool, even sans-ants) there is still no official release or production start date.  Wright is about to start shooting The World's End, the final entry in his infamous "Blood & Ice Cream" trilogy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

All told, an ambitious and (hopefully) impressive slate for the next two years.  Color me stoked.