Stan Lee talks about a Star Wars/Marvel crossover movie, because of course he does. Maisie Williams adds another twist to Game of Thrones’ worst kept secret. Ben Affleck offers a mysterious comment about directing the solo Batman film. Plus, Wonder Woman set pictures, and a long wait for Sherlock. Spoilers now!
Captain America: Civil War
In an extensive Q&A with Collider, the Russo brothers discuss their work on The Winter Soldier as well as the upcoming sequel—and jokingly claim that Spider-Man’s appearance won’t be unveiled until the day the film comes out. In fact, they say the real reason Spider-Man has not yet been revealed is partially because of the long-reaching deal that brought Marvel and Sony together:
Part of the reasons of what was so secretive was that the deals were always lagging slightly behind how we were using the character. We were always in danger of upsetting the deal—there were still sensitive issues going on between the two studios that they needed to agree on. When we were casting Tom Holland, when we were screentesting him for the movie there was a whole very involved kind of process that was under the radar and secretive, because of the fact that it was still a sensitive business issue.
... The reason why I preface that is we’re still kind of in “deal zone”. The reason why we still won’t talk about [the costume] is that Marvel and Sony still have to work out what uses they have for the character, on a promotional level, on a commercial level. There’s still complications as far as that goes that involves business deals.
There’s much more in the full video below.
Star Wars: Rogue One
Birth Movies Death offer an update on last October’s rumors
Deadpool
In perhaps unsurprising news, the film has been banned in China for its graphic content. [FilmSchoolRejects]
Star Wars/Marvel Crossover
Stan Lee has randomly decided to ponder the possibility of Disney merging two of their most successful brands into one unholy crossover film:
Yeah, probably. It’ll be the most expensive film ever produced! But anything that the public want to see you can be sure it will eventually be produced.
Well, I don’t know how many characters you can have in a movie but obviously the people who produce these things are looking to be as successful as possible. If they feel that incorporating Star Wars with the Marvel characters will be very successful, they’ll find a way to do it. Can you imagine Spider-Man saying: ‘May the force be with you’? It may come to that!
Suffice to say, this is more of an example of Stan’s imagination than an actual rumor. [Big Issue]
Batman
Ben Affleck has a rather nebulous response to the long running rumor
I’ll just say going through the process, I would never have imagined that I could or would direct a movie like this.
[I]n working with [Snyder] and seeing what he did and watching him every day, I got really inspired by that and by seeing the scope on which he was telling the story, by seeing what he was able to do with this kind of mythic story on a grand scale.
Assassin’s Creed
Michael Fassbender briefly discusses his character, Callum Lynch:
He is an outsider. He’s been institutionalized from his early teens. He’s a little bit of a lost soul of sorts. He starts to identify [his] lineage and where he comes from in a way.
Wonder Woman
Here’s a few new set pictures from filming, featuring a WWI-era-garbed Diana and Steven examining a decidedly non-WWI-era sword and shield.
Jessica Jones
Melissa Rosenberg says that David Tennant’s Kilgrave will definitely not be back in the second season:
Well, sure, I mean, we have David Tennant and you want him around forever. I mean, he’s such an extraordinary actor and he’s really, truly one of the loveliest people you’ll ever work with, but, you know, the show is called Jessica Jones ... the story is about Jessica’s arc and how does that play out as best we could, so that was the arc of the first season.
Daredevil
Contrary to the first season, there’s a lot more people in superhero costumes by the time the second season concludes, according to Co-Executive Producer Marco Ramirez:
‘Cause of what Drew [Goddard] and Steven [S. DeKnight] did so well season one - and much to Marvel and Netflix’s credit - was allow them to ground the show and make it as gritty as possible. Anything like a comic book costume, to us, a fun part of the challenge is making it organically feel part of the world or the tapestry of the world that makes it seem like season one.So, will people be wearing kick ass costumes in this show? Yes. Yes, everybody does - we promise! But, that said, we wanted to make it feel as organic and grounded as possible.
Game of Thrones
In a new video interview, Maisie Williams offers another teasing twist in the long, long saga of Jon Snow’s life/death in the show:
It was awful, it was really awful – everyone was so sad about it. And I feel so mean because I speak to people and they’re all like ‘Jon Snow, is he back?’ and it’s really heartbreaking because people are like ‘yeah, but he’s coming back though?’.
There’s a great twist – but I can’t say that he’s going to be alive…
There’s a little more in the video below. [Radio Times]
Sherlock
PBS president Paula Kreger has confirmed the fourth season of the show will land in the U.S. in early 2017. [Comicbook.com]
Star Wars Rebels
During a breakdown of the recent trailer
I like a lightsaber fight like anybody, or a big action sequence like we’ve done in the past, but I always find that those have little meaning if you don’t have the emotions going into it to support it — you don’t have the tension and the stakes. There’s some really powerful scenes coming up for fans involving Ahsoka.
As well as the incoming appearance of Princess Leia in the show:
We were really focused on trying to discover who Leia was prior to A New Hope. We know that she’s very strong, somewhat rash, super intelligent, but how did she develop those skills? In A New Hope, she’s really an impressive character when you think of her standing face to face with Tarkin, standing face to face with Vader, talking back to them, lying to them, deceiving them, misdirecting them.
Agent Carter
Hayley Atwell ponders on if the show will ever explore Peggy’s backstory in England:
I think in Season 2, without giving anything away, there are moments that we see of what her life potentially could have been before back in England, and it also sets up a very rich background for her. So knowing that her roots are there, knowing that there are certain things that happened in her past in England that defined who she was as a woman, as a person, I think there’s plenty of opportunity to explore that a little bit more. It would just mean we wouldn’t be able to bring the whole crew over, and we love the crew here. So we’d be having to say goodbye. But we’ve always had this kind of strong sense of as much as we are a family here, we want to protect the show and do what’s best for the show.
[CBR]
The Flash
Finally, here’s a new trailer for the show’s return tonight.
Additional reporting by Gordon Jackson and Charlie Jane Anders. Image: The Amazing Spider-Man 2.