By now, you've either been bowled over by the amount of Suicide Squad hype that's in the air, or you're in a bunker somewhere avoiding any mention of it altogether. Either way, it's worth remembering that there is, in fact, life in the comic book genre beyond Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and co.—and if you look below, here's where it gets started. Welcome to your weekly roundup of the greatest superhero movie news!
The news broke late last week: Disney is planning to reboot Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer, replacing the white, male hero of the first incarnation with an African-American woman this time around. *The Jungle Book'*s Brigham Taylor is on board as producer, although no other creatives have been named yet. The project is said to be in "early development stages," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Why this is super: The Rocketeer is a somewhat forgotten classic, and a comic book character whose career was sadly short-lived (Stevens, the creator of the character, only managed to publish a handful of comics featuring the hero; he died in 2008). That there will be a revival that updates the concept and hands the jetpack on to a new character who—gasp!—isn't a white guy feels simultaneously respectful of what came before and long overdue.
While we're on the subject of Disney, the company has made official what screenwriters had leaked months ago: following the lead of Justice League, the two-part Avengers: Infinity War movies will be renamed. Currently, only the title of the 2018 first installment has been revealed (Avengers: Infinity War, dropping the "Part One" suffix); the following year's movie is now known only as "Untitled Avengers." Which, you know, isn't the worst title in the world when you consider Marvel's comic book arm is going to be launching a comic called Occupy Avengers to run in 2017.
Why this is super: There have been reports suggesting that the re-naming means that the Infinity War plot will now be wrapped in one movie, and that the 2019 release will be something else entirely. This isn't the case; screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have spoken publicly before about the fact that the two-movie structure won't be a straightforward two-parter, but something more unusual. That still seems to be the plan following the renaming.
The apparent quest for Spider-Man: Homecoming to add every living actor not currently attached to a superhero project continues, with the two-fer update that Martha Kelly and UFC's Tyron Woodley have signed on to the second big-screen reboot of Marvel's wall-crawling superhero in recent memory. As is now traditional for the project, both actors will be playing unnamed characters, because why let people know which characters will appear in a movie when wild Internet speculation will get people talking about the movie that much more?
Why this is super: At this point, it might be easier to start naming people who aren't in the new Spider-Man movie. Let's see: white dudes named Chris. Well, that's enough to differentiate the movie from almost all of Marvel's other projects right there, so that's something.
Anyone who's hoping that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will lead into Avengers: Infinity War should prepare themselves for some disappointment. Despite the first movie putting the Infinity Stones front and center, director James Gunn says "there will be no Infinity Stones in Vol. 2." Sorry, those for whom Kurt Russell as an actual living planet named Ego isn't enough.
Why this is super: Aside from freeing up Guardians from having to tie in to Avengers continuity, the fact that the Infinity Stones won't appear in the movie raises another question: Will they appear in other Marvel movies between now and the next Avengers? Because both Thor: Ragnarok and Doctor Strange would seem perfectly positioned to reveal the few remaining Stones that Thanos needs... Or does he already have all of the Stones, and we're just waiting to find out what he's going to do with them?
