Comic-Con recap: Day three
By Ben Johnson
Some really big news came out of day three yesterday, so let’s not waste time and get right to it.
One of the biggest reveals was that Batman will be coming back to the big screen in 2015 alongside Henry Cavill’s Superman in the sequel to this year’s Man of Steel. It’s the first time Warner Brothers and DC have attempted any kind of team-up movie with their characters, and indicates that they are taking significant steps towards creating the kind of interconnected movie universe that Marvel has so successfully created in the last five years. This is a very quick turnaround for Bruce Wayne, as by the time Man of Steel 2 comes out it will have only been three years since Christopher Nolan’s trilogy ended. That means WB is going to have to really step up its game to find an actor who can take on the iconic role with enough authority to stand alongside Superman and make audiences willing to push Christian Bale’s performance to the back of their minds. Needless to say, it’s definitely going to be a challenge.
THR also reveals that Warners is planning for The Flash to be the next planned solo movie after the Superman/Batman team-up, and I imagine everyone in the studio is hoping it is does light-years better than Green Lantern from a few years ago. A movie about a guy with super speed will probably be easier to market than one about a man who gets a special green ring, joins an intergalactic police force, and can’t fight anything yellow (no, I’m not making that last part up). According to the same report, we’ll finally see Justice League in 2017. If all that is true, I’m surprised and a little disappointed that they’re going with The Flash instead of Wonder Woman as their featured pre-Justice League solo movie. But hey, who am I to complain? Batman and Superman are going to be in a live action movie. Together. At the same time. Things could be worse.
The other huge studio panel yesterday was Marvel Studios, who showcased their next three films: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor: The Dark World, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Empire has great rundowns of all of the footage screened for the three movies, and if their response is any indication, Marvel has some really good things coming up. They describe Captain America 2 as more of a “political thriller” than anything Marvel has done before, and it seems that the movie will do a lot to explore the partnership between Cap and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow. As for Thor’s next solo outing, it’s a safe bet that with frequent Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor behind the camera, things will get much darker than Kenneth Branagh’s fun but light first film. By far the biggest risk Marvel is taking is with Guardians of the Galaxy, which, as I briefly described in my Comic-Con preview, is a sort of space-outlaw team-up movie featuring a tree – described by Empire as “an Ent gone bad” – and a talking raccoon. It’s a serious gamble, but seems like it could be a heck of a lot of fun if Marvel can pull it off.
While there were no announcements about what to expect from Marvel’s mysterious release dates in 2016 and beyond, we did get the subtitle of the next Avengers team-up: Age of Ultron. For those who don’t know, Ultron is a super-intelligent robot created by Hank Pym (otherwise known as Ant-Man, who has his own movie lined up for 2015 – coincidence? I think not) who, as super-villains are wont to do, dreams of world domination. Ultron was one of the first villains the Anvengers faced in the comics, so there are plenty of storylines for Joss Whedon to draw from. As they have done throughout their movies, we can expect Marvel will be planting seeds at the end of the credits of their next few movies that set up the conflict or creation of Ultron, so there will be plenty of opportunities to speculate just what Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will be dealing with come 2015.
Another highlight from yesterday was the entire cast of X-Men: Days of Future Past – that includes practically everyone from the first trilogy plus the cast of First Class and Peter Dinklage – showing up on stage at Fox’s panel for the film. Again, footage was screened that shows Wolverine going back in time into his younger self to bring everyone together in order to stop the dystopian future he is currently living in from coming to pass. Again, Empire has a great detailed description of what was shown.
All in all, a huge day at Comic-Con, with lots of stuff to look forward to over the next couple years for Marvel and DC fans! Keep an eye out over the next several months for more Marvel reveals and news on who will be our next big screen Caped Crusader!