If you’re a Marvel fan, you have good reason to be very, very excited. Marvel Studios has announced all nine — yes, nine — films that will make up “Phase Three” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, lasting from 2016 to 2019. (Phase Two will end not with Avengers: Age of Ultron, but instead end on July 17, 2015 with Ant-Man.) Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige made a ton of announcements which apparently weren’t fully worked out until recently, or else they’d likely have announced them at Comic-Con. Some of these may have been rumored in the past, but there’s still a lot of new information, including three films in both 2017 and 2018, so let’s jump in! Read more…
Due to story events, Thor is no longer worthy to wield Mjolnir, so a new character is taking over the mantle and wielding the mighty hammer in the comics. But for the first time, that character will be female. It’s easy for sexists to complain about this, but I think there are other reasons this is a poor decision. Let me try to unpack why Marvel’s good intentions aren’t necessarily right. Read more…
Arrested Development is about a dysfunctional family and the way they bounce off of each other’s mistakes and schemes. So it’s natural to extend that same metaphor to a messed up family of gods — in this case, Marvel’s Asgardians. In this fan video, Thor, Loki, and Odin are mixed with scenes and lines from Arrested Development to create a funny look at this strange royal family. Take a look! Read more…
Thor is back for phase two of the Marvel cinematic universe, and they’ve brought a new trailer to show for it. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original Thor movie, but I felt its best moment were when Chris Hemsworth got to really throw himself into the silly Norse side of the character (“Get me a horse!”). At the least, it seems The Dark World takes place in in Asgard mostly, so we get to see more of the fantastical and Norse-inspired side of things. Also, Christopher Eccleston is the villain, but you can barely see him in this trailer. Given that he seems to be the most interesting new actor in this deal, I’m very keen on seeing how his role plays out. Check out the trailer below and play Where’s Waldo, but with Eccleston. Read more…
Marvel’s done pretty well for itself bringing its A-list heroes to the big screen — Iron Man, Thor, (hopefully) Captain America — but what about some tried-and-true second-stringers? What about the Dr. Stranges and Iron Fists of the world? When do they get their time in the sun? Apparently soon, according to Film School Rejects. Marvel has reportedly filmed two shorts for the Thor and Captain America DVD/Blu-Ray releases starring some B-list heroes and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Agent Coulson, with more to come. If the shorts were filmed and star heroes with at least a little name recognition, I’m really surprised that the casting didn’t get out into the wild already. Now I’m excited for those video releases! Give me Dr. Strange, Marvel! Read more…
It’s been hinted at for a while, but now we can finally confirm that Hawkeye makes an appearance in the Thor movie via this puzzlingly context-free clip from Marvel. Why’s the dude just hangin’ out on the crane? Why doesn’t he shoot Thor? Does he shoot Thor after the clip ends? Why is this fight scene so important? I probably shouldn’t be so glib. They’re obviously just trying to toss us a little Avengers bone here, get the ol’ word-of-mouth machine rolling to get people hyped. It’s working! By the way, if you missed Hawkeye, he’s at about 24 seconds in, and shows for less than a second. Hopefully he’ll be in the full film for a little bit longer.
The last few Thor trailers haven’t really had a lot to say in terms of Thor the character, just how people around him react to him. We haven’t gotten a chance to see the oblivious oaf side of the Odinson, a necessary counterpart to his more stalwart and heroic side. Well, in this latest trailer, we get a little more action and a little more oaf. And Kat Dennings taking out the depowered god of thunder with a taser. This I like. We even get the indication that Loki is the villain of the film, not just a side character! Not that followers of the film didn’t already know that, but at least the trailer is making it obvious to the average viewer. It’s a big summer for comic book movies — let’s hope Thor makes an impact. Read more…
Of all the ads that were broadcast during this year’s Superbowl, only two of them had me drooling with anticipation. Marvel debuted not one, but two trailers for their upcoming blockbusters. First there was the latest trailer for Thor, and while we’ve seen a bit of that footage dating back to San Diego Comic Con, there was some new content mixed in. As for Captain America, I believe this is the first public trailer to be shown any where, and it looks pretty interesting. We even get a glimpse of Red Skull, which gave me goosebumps. Check out the trailers below, though I’m not sure how long they’ll be up.
Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury is sort of the glue that holds the Marvel film universe together, having cameoed in pretty much every Avengers-universe film so far. According to the man himself, he’ll also have post-credits cameos in the Thor and Captain America movies too. But he also confirmed, via the Jimmy Fallon Show, that he’ll have a new “sidekick” in The Avengers, and a female one at that. The Hollywood Reporter, er, reports that a handful of actresses are already in consideration for the role, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Cobie Smulders, and Morena Baccarin. If the character is either Maria Hill or Janet Van Dyne (aka Wasp, one of the original Avengers) and Baccarin’s schedule is clear, then it’s almost guaranteed that she’ll get the role, given her long history with Avengers director Joss Whedon (and her resemblance to both of the characters). But anything can happen! One thing’s for sure — it’ll be nice to see a female hero amidst the male-dominated Avengers team, even if the role is small at first. Read more…
Marvel’s been dropping cameos of their lesser-known heroes into their movies ever since they took charge of their film universe. Anyone who saw Iron Man or its sequel caught glimpses of heroes like Nick Fury or gear belonging to Thor or Captain America; it’s all part of an effort to unify the film universe and make it easy to introduce new characters. It appears that 2011’s Thor will be no exception to this rule — rumor has it that one of the stars of the upcoming Avengers movie will be making a cameo. And that Avenger is none other than Hawkeye! It’s just a rumor, for now, but it makes a heck of a lot more sense than the other recent rumor that Demi Lovato snagged an Avengers role. Read more…
We’ve had a rough, unfinished teaser for the upcoming Thor film making the rounds online for a few months now, but now we’ve got a crisp, glorious, official trailer on which to feast our eyes. The trailer’s got pretty much everything you need — Natalie Portman for the fellas, shirtless (and built) Chris Hemsworth for the ladies, a beautiful Asgard for Jack Kirby fans. Heck, there’s even some action in there. It certainly looks great, and we finally get a taste of the Kirby cosmic mythos that could bring the Marvel films up to that next level of awesome. Let’s hope the film itself hits as hard as Mjolnir does in the trailer. Read more…
Nobody seems to know how Marvel will react to this, however a number of weblogs have posted a leaked trailer for the upcoming Thor film set to release next May. The 5 minute trailer premiered at San Diego Comic-Con International last week, but it wasn’t long before someone managed to leak it to the net and it’s since spread like wildfire. While I’m not about to join everyone else in posting the trailer, I’d gladly point you all in the right direction. My suggestion? Watch it before the cease and desist letters are sent out, because it’s bound to happen. As for the trailer itself, Chris Hemsworth, and Natalie Portman look promising. It’ll be interesting to see how they transition from Asgard to Earth and vice-versa. At least we can expect plenty of action. Click here to see the trailer while it’s still on the net.
I’m a journalism major, not a design major, but I have to say that the logos for the upcoming film adaptations of Marvel comics’ Thor and Captain America are…less than thrilling. And I mean that in the literal sense. They’re pretty boring. Let’s have a look-see. Read more…
