It's been a mixed week for superhero movie news. In unsurprising developments, Robert Downey Jr. is talking about whether or not he's up for another Iron Man movie and Ben Affleck is defending the potential for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to be good. And in more surprising (and pretty out-there) news, there are rumors that the Avengers won't star in Avengers 3. If this kind of thing keeps up, expect next week to bring news that Chris Evans likes playing Captain America and Warner Bros. is planning for all future Batman movies to be made by obscure Eastern European independent studios and only released on bootleg VHS tapes in the US. For now, though, here are the highlights of the week's superhero movie news.
The will-he/won't-he about whether Robert Downey Jr. plans to do another solo Iron Man movie in addition to his planned appearances in the next couple of Avengers movies took a dramatic shift towards the positive this week when the actor told Ellen DeGeneres that he was "in negotiations" with Marvel about the idea, while also telling Reddit that "all questions will be answered" when Marvel's roster of movies is made public "sooner or later." Of course, RDJ went on another talk show—The Late Show with David Letterman—after speaking with DeGeneres to declare "there's no plans for an Iron Man 4," so let's not get our hopes too high yet.
Why this is super: It's easy to be dismissive of Marvel's movies and of Downey's Iron Man success in particular, but there's no denying that he makes a particularly charming Tony Stark, and Iron Man 3 was far better than most expected. Get an interesting writer and director on board (a crazy, but perfect, idea would be to get IM3 co-writer Drew Pierce handling both roles) and you know you'd love this.
A strange and fascinating rumor popped up online this week, when HitFix suggested that Sony is looking to dump its current Amazing Spider-Man movie plans and instead rework the franchise so that it'll tie in with Marvel Studios' movies. The full version of the rumor, as it currently stands, is that plans for both Venom and the unnamed female-superhero movie scheduled for 2016 will be dropped, with Sinister Six being reworked to feature the debut of an all-new Spider-Man—the third cinematic version in less than 10 years—who will then go on to make appearances in various Marvel Studios movies.
Why this idea is super: It's an idea that sounds unlikely (since when did studios start essentially promoting each others' movies?) but not impossible. After all, if this happened, Sony would get to take advantage of the buzz surrounding Marvel's movies, and Marvel would get to use Spider-Man onscreen again. More importantly, all the fans who have wanted to see the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler back with his Avengers buddies will find something to cheer about as well. Is this one of those rare cases where everyone wins...? Given that there's already limited pushback from anonymous sources within both studios, obviously not—but note that even that pushback doesn't argue that it's not possible "a few years from now."
In another out-there Marvel Studios rumor doing the rounds, Badass Digest is claiming that Avengers 3 might not feature the team as it appeared in the first Joss Whedon movie. Specifically, Captain America, Thor, and Black Widow are named as being potentially absent. This almost jibes with an earlier rumor that Avengers: Age of Ultron would end with an all-new team led by Captain America. It doesn't explain why Cap would end up replaced by Iron Man for the next installment, but still: There are certainly a bunch of people out there who want you to think that the Avengers won't be the Avengers sooner rather than later.
Why this is super: If the comic book Avengers are known for anything, it's the that "The Old Order Changeth!"—a legend that traditionally appeared on the cover of an issue when new members joined the team to replace others taking a vacation. Importing this tradition to the movie version of the team helps keep things fresh and also helps keep costs down by replacing big-name stars with cheaper newcomers.
Talking on NPR this weekend, future Batman Ben Affleck sought to console those worried that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will be as bad as his last attempt at a superhero movie—2003's Daredevil—by saying "look, if I thought we were remaking Daredevil, I'd be out there picketing myself."
Why this is super: While Affleck was never going to say "yeah, there's potential for BvS to be really, really bad," it's kind of great/funny to hear him be so dismissive of the 2003 movie. His reasoning why BvS will be better, it turns out, is that writer Chris Terrio is "not a comic guy" and director Zack Snyder is an "incredibly magical sort of visual stylist," with the combination of the two being, quote, "this sandwich of talents." You couldn't go one step further and describe it as a "hero sandwich," Ben? Really?
So, despite earlier reports, it turns out that Joaquin Phoenix won't be Marvel's Doctor Strange after all (a shame, considering the trailer for Inherent Vice makes the prospect seem even more exciting than before). Other reports that Ethan Hawke might be in talks have similarly appeared to come to nothing, leaving us with no idea of who is going to play Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme in Scott Derrickson's adaptation, unofficially scheduled to hit theaters in summer 2016.
Why this is villainy: Firstly, this development—lack of development, considering it's about things not happening?—is disappointing because, let's be honest, Phoenix as a trippy Stephen Strange could have been a lot of fun. Let's also take a moment to be somewhat disappointed in the fact that Marvel's apparently going with a white male lead for the movie, even if they can't quite work out which white male lead just yet. If ever a Marvel character was primed to be race- or gender-bent for the big screen, it's the one where the secret origin consists of "asshole surgeon ends up being the world's greatest magician after a terrible accident." There is literally no reason why Doctor Strange couldn't be any race or gender other than dull traditionalism. On the plus side, maybe Marvel will realize this if enough white guys say no to the part.
