The last few weeks have been dominated by news about Suicide Squad and the upcoming Batman standalone movie—in other words, DC stuff. Well if this week's batch of rumors and interviews are anything to go by, the Internet has now turned its attention to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And we don't just mean this November's Doctor Strange, either. For those wondering about Avengers: Infinity War and a surprise potential addition to Thor: Ragnarok, look no further. These are, after all, the highlights of the last seven days' worth of superhero movie news.
Remember when Marvel Studios used to declare that everything was connected? It looks like that might even be the case when it comes to what seemed like obvious jokes, now that Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi is teasing that the Team Thor short might have some greater meaning. For those who don't remember Team Thor...
...So, obviously a skit, right? Well, perhaps not. Talking to IGN, Waititi said "I think you probably could see [Darryl] again. There may be other little pieces of that thing that everyone saw that may just be a small part of a bigger thing." Wait. What?
Why this is super: It's particularly unclear if Waititi is hinting at a longer edit of Team Thor, a larger mockumentary about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or some kind of Ragnarok appearance for Thor's unexpected between-movies status quo. But is it too greedy to hope that the answer is somehow all three? The age of Darryl is upon us.
Actually, perhaps Darryl will be one of the 66 potential characters in Avengers: Infinity War. Yes, 66. That number isn't plucked out of thin air, it's straight from directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who revealed it in a recent interview. Also revealed in said interview: Despite earlier hints to the contrary, the stars of the Netflix Marvel shows are still potentially in the mix for an appearance. "We do consider everyone," Anthony Russo explained. "We don't want to get too specific about what's going to happen with these movies. We want these movies to be a surprise for audiences."
Why this is super: Whether or not Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Daredevil get to show up on the big screen might come down to timing—after all, they couldn't really show up to take care of a cosmic threat to all existence and then return, unchanged, to dealing with whatever the threat of the Defenders series was, could they? Unless, of course, that's the entire plot of the Defenders series. But what are the odds of that?
While we're on the topic of Infinity War, Latino-Review claims it has uncovered the plot of the movie, and that it basically follows the comic book Infinity Gauntlet storyline—namely, that Thanos gathered the Infinity Stones together, and then uses them to prove his love for the abstract concept Death (personified as a woman, because of course) by murdering half of all life in the universe. Which he actually does. Of course, the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy might want to get involved to fix things before this becomes an even bigger problem.
Why this is super: Even LR emphasizes that this plot synopsis is just a rumor, and therefore shouldn't be taken as gospel (Avengers: Infinity War is still a couple years away from release, and hasn't even started production, after all), but given that this is by far the most high profile Thanos comic book story in existence, it was almost always certain that the movie would use at least part of the Infinity Gauntlet set-up in some way. After all, wiping out half of all life in existence is exactly the kind of wild scaling up of story that is necessary to bring multiple superhero teams together, isn't it?
Chadwick Boseman isn't into the argument that Captain America: Civil War was an origin story for the Black Panther. "It’s not necessarily an origin story because he remains a mystery through most of the movie," he argued in an interview with Yahoo! Movies, going on to say that the mystery element overrules any potential origin-ness about the story. (He considers it more of a tease.) "There is definitely more of his origin in Black Panther," he continued. "You’re going to learn about Wakanda, its culture, its traditions, the past. You can go through all the comic books and know that there’s more Panthers that have existed in the past—that’s [an] origin."
Why this is super: Technically, Civil War isn't an origin story because we don't know for sure that it's the first time that T'Challa has been the Panther (It would suggest that it wasn't, given how good at it he is), so let's let Boseman take the lead here. That said, if we don't get some kind of explanation about why he has a superhero alter ego in his own standalone movie, we suspect that there are going to be some angry fans out there.
We hope you all celebrated Batman Day last weekend appropriately. What constitutes "appropriately"? Why constructing a giant searchlight on your roof with a bat-symbol painted on it to attract your local batmen, of course! That's what Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League director Zack Snyder did, anyway.
X content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Of course, that wasn't as interesting as this picture tweeted immediately afterwards:
X content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Why, yes; that is the first glimpse of JK Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. It appears as though his character is aligned with the way he looks in the comics, if nothing else.
Why this is super: While it would've been great to get a closer look at Simmons, it's a lovely image, and we have to admit we've grown fond of the surprise reveals Snyder does on social media when no one's really anticipating it. More of this, please. And especially more of Simmons' Gordon. Can't we at least see him look a little harassed and grumpy?
