Real quick mission statement: this column is for discussion of superhero movie news and superhero movies. Titular allegiance aside, this sphere includes non-Marvel properties.
This week: I am my own cold shower.
Big franchises take big planning and big planning happens for years. As someone who considers himself a fan of the blockbuster superhero franchise film, I’m familiar with impatience if I’m not used to it. As American mainstream cinema has been re-directed into the capitalist franchise game (man!), the long-view on these projects has lengthened.
Like when a certain studio head says he has plans up until 2021 – that’s more lead time than any blockbuster gets, but somewhere deep in Disney is the answer, supposedly. And that’s both maddening and comforting. Comforting because surprises await. Maddening for the exact same reason.
Maybe we should all be a bit more patient with the process without devolving into straight fanboy self-flagellation…if we can.
ANT-MAN
The world is an exciting place for a fan of superhero movies who also surfs the internet for news on those properties. Not only can you get yourself psyched for your favorite properties coming to the screen, but you can get swept up in the massive, multi-billion dollar gambles major studios are making on the backs of these super-properties.
Sometimes, a break in news can lead to debate, which is arguably what makes comments sections worthwhile. A false rumor can unlock your favorite head-canon and let the rest of the world get a peek, also worthwhile, I think. However, there might be – nay, should be – a line in the sand with how seriously we take rumors, especially ones based on one in a series of pictures of a famous geek actor visiting Marvel HQ when he was in town promoting his movie The World’s End.
Granted, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright frequently work together and Pegg is capable of participating in the American Blockbuster Movie Machine, as we’ve seen with his two memorable Star Trek installments, but we don’t know who the voice of Rocket Raccoon is going to be and that movie is filming in the UK already. We don’t know anything about how The Avengers 2 is going to mix the Pym-less Ultron mythology we’ve been promised with the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver we’ve been promised, in what world would Simon Pegg be gunning-for or cast-in November 2015’s Ant-Man?
Because it wouldn’t be a bad choice, really. Or at least a handful of people thought so, because this is a good example of fandom reacting to a film so far ahead of time, we’re more than willing to live in a world where crazy sh*t is going down that only we’ve imagined. After The Avengers ended, I know I spent a lot of time (and probably too many e-mails) talking to people about how Marvel’s Phase 2 films could focus on the collecting of the Infinity Gems and how doing Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet meant for sure we’d be seeing Adam Warlock. That was just a little over a year ago. A month ago, Joss Whedon stood at Comic Con and showed Avengers 2 to be The Age of Ultron and everything got upended in a very official way.
It was comforting living in a fantasy world that couldn’t be disproven and still aligned with what we knew. It’s not the thrill of being an insider, as e-mails have accused, it’s the thrill of being close to something you love and understanding it and being excited about the potential of it. We’ll resist anything that goes in a different direction. When someone other than Simon Pegg gets cast as Ant-Man, the people who most believed his twitter picture was a subtweet casting announcement will be the people most angered by the other guy. This is coming from a man who will never really forgive Andrew Garfield for not being Donald Glover, so take me seriously. I understand why the “I Want To Believe” poster was above Fox Mulder’s desk in The X-Files, but like the Simon Pegg pointing at Ant-Man photo ended up being less magical than we hoped, it wasn’t aliens but Ghost Angels that took Fox’s sister Samantha…
…sorry if I just spoiled something really disappointing for you.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
I guess there is such a thing as “going over too well” at Comic-Con, because James Gunn has announced that the footage shown at Comic Con and D23 has a “zero percent” chance of ever being officially released. He cites a reasonable excuse: that he hadn’t been filming that long and he’d like to present his full movie after a bit more time, you know, actually making it. I can understand that thought process, but I’m surprised with how well the footage went over that Gunn says there’s literally no chance of it being released. It seems like something you could at least pick up as an Easter Egg on the Thor: The Dark World DVD or something.
At least part of the teaser, the later montage-heavy part, has leaked online and it totally easy to find because it’s not the greatest quality, but if you’re frothing at the mouth to see what Rocket Raccoon will actually look like moving (and I wouldn’t blame you, though frothing is gross), have at it.
Really it just serves as a method of delivery for the “Hooked on a Feeling” earworm.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
I get it, Avi Arad is funny. Maybe there was a Stage 6 and someone photoshopped “Sinister” over it, or they even painted “Sinister” over something number 6. Then they sat one of the producers of The Amazing-Spider Man franchise under it and took his picture. That is all this is.
Why? Because Amazing Spider-Man 2 will not have the Sinister 6 in it and suspecting what we all suspect will be the big emotional climax in this movie, I don’t think it’ll be directly teasing a Sinister 6 either. Which makes this like Bryan Singer being photographed buying an Old Man Logan trade paperback with Hugh Jackman: a huge, drool-inducing red herring.
I’m sure there are plans for a Sinister 6 to show up in Spidey’s universe. And if they do half as good a job as the recent comic run of The Superior Foes of Spider-Man has been doing, the 6 could support their own spin-off. But that’s very, very far ahead of where we are now and I promise you that we are thinking about it 1000x more than anyone involved in the post-production of Amazing Spider-Man 2 is thinking about it.
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