It's all-go with Marvel properties this week. As Fox continues to plan ahead, Marvel is bringing on a new leading lady (even if we don't know who she'll be playing), and a beloved bad guy is admitting he's a little lost. Elsewhere, there is a rumor circulating about a potential sequel to Man of Steel that suggests Warner Bros. is going to try and ensure that all of its DC movies are filled to the brim with super characters. This, as ever, is the pick of the week's superhero movie news.
It's apparently official: Rachel McAdams will be joining Benedict Cumberbatch in next year's Doctor Strange. However, at this point it's entirely unclear which character she'll be playing. The smart money is probably on Clea, Doc's long-term mystical squeeze and princess of the Dark Dimension, but just because something seems like the smart choice doesn't mean it's the direction Marvel will move in (see also: almost everything about Avengers: Age of Ultron).
Why this is super: Whether or not Doctor Strange ends up being any good, we can all agree that any movie that features Mads Mikkelsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Tilda Swinton as well as McAdams is going to be eminently watchable. Consider it some kind of karmic payback for True Detective Season 2.
Contrary to previous rumors that Superman might be eclipsed in Warners' superhero movie universe after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Heroic Hollywood had a couple of updates on a potential Man of Steel 2 this week. Firstly, Mad Max: Fury Road's George Miller might still be connected to the project. Secondly, it'll be filled with familiar faces: Brainiac is in the running to be the central villain, with both Supergirl and Bizarro also popping up to complicate matters.
Why this is super: Say what you like about these DC Comics movies; they're certainly trying to give you as many characters in each movie as (super)humanly possible. At least you're getting some bang for your buck. Of course, whether or not this movie actually ever happens is another question altogether.
Even though Fantastic Four crashed and burned at the box office (not a Human Torch pun, despite how it would appear), Fox is apparently still working on the previously announced follow-up to the project, with producer Simon Kinberg telling MTV that the studio is still "figuring out what that movie would be." He suggested that there was a good movie to be made featuring that cast, even if it wasn't the movie that audiences happened to see first time around.
Why this is super: So maybe the sequel wouldn't be called Fantastic Eight (because Four times two is ... OK, maybe it's too complicated if it needs explaining), and sure, perhaps we remain unconvinced that either Miles Teller or Jamie Bell are the right Mr. Fantastic or Thing having seen the movie, but a chance to let Michael B. Jordan do something more than frown, or get to know more about Kate Mara's odd Sue Storm? We'd be onboard for that.
Talking of Kinberg and superhero sequels, he's already talking about a second Deadpool movie, months before the first hits theaters. "We certainly are talking about the sequel," he told Collider. The studio, he continued, is "feeling good about it, we're all feeling really proud of it, so hopefully before it comes out we will be well into the process of figuring out a sequel." He's seen a rough cut of next February's movie, he said, and "it delivers on the promise of the trailer. ... We really committed and leaned into it being R-rated. It's just darker and edgier and weirder in the best way—like Deadpool should be—than any other movie in the genre."
Why this is super: Clearly, Fox is on board with Deadpool after remaining on the fence for such a long time about the project. Kinberg has also been talking about plans to interconnect Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Gambit in some fashion, so expect the Fox Cinematic Universe to get into full swing sooner rather than later.
Hey, remember Tom Hiddleston's Loki? One of the most charismatic characters in the Marvel movies, a power player in the two Thor movies and the first Avengers? The character who's left in charge of Asgard while pretending to be Odin at the end of Thor: The Dark World? You'd think there was a grand plan about where we'll see him next, but if there is, no one has told Hiddleston. "I don’t know what’s happening," he told Collider. "That’s what I know, that's literally the limits of what I know. Honestly, I don't know." He added, "It feels like the Marvel Universe is expanding at such a rate, and I wish—I'm not being coy—I don’t know where Loki fits into that."
Why this is villainy: The Marvel Cinematic Universe is expanding at such a rate, but one of its biggest problems has been the disposable nature of its bad guys so far—with the sole exception of Loki. So quite why he's apparently being sidelined seems more than a little inexplicable. Surely he'll be playing a part in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, given that he's all-but a co-star of that series...? Can't we all just agree that we'd rather see more Loki than Thanos at this point? It's not too late to re-write Avengers: Infinity War!
