The Reader’s Digest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, April 11-15 2016
Happy Monday morning, internet!
What’s that? Are you telling me to keep my “happy whatevers” to myself because it’s Monday morning and you haven’t even had your third cup of coffee yet so how could you be expected to react positively to enthusiasm about anything?
Well, that is a very reasonable and understandable sentiment. Please allow me to apologize by giving you all of last week’s news from the Marvel TV and movie universe. I’m confident it will be enough to keep you awake till lunch.
First, a brief trip to Netflix-land. Marvel announced on Friday that their upcoming crossover series Marvel’s The Defenders will be captained by Daredevil veteran producers Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez. Both come with impressive resumes. Petrie did extensive work for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and American Horror Story while Ramirez has contributed to Orange is the New Black and Fear the Walking Dead.
Defenders will unite New York City superheroes Daredevil (played by Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Iron Fist (Finn Jones). Say Petrie and Ramirez, “This is the big one. Four amazing casts, four amazing series, now all in one amazing story. We are thrilled at the opportunity to deliver the show that both we and the fans have been waiting for.”
Executive producer Cheo Hodari Coker (Southland) gave some details concerning the upcoming Luke Cage series while walking the Captain America: Civil War red carpet on Tuesday. According to Entertainment Weekly, Luke Cage will be “a powerful fusion of dark drama, hip-hop, and classic superhero action.” Coker described it as having, “a ‘90s hip-hop vibe,” as well as saying that, “I would like this to be…The Wire of Marvel television, because we really deal with a lot of different issues.” Helping to fuel this hip-hop vibe will be a number of musical guests, including Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest.
Seasons One and Two of Daredevil and Season One of Jessica Jones are currently streaming on Netflix. They will be joined by Luke Cage on September 30th.
In big screen news, Sony released the official name and logo for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Spider-man film. Your friendly neighborhood superhero will appear in Spider-Man: Homecoming, landing in theaters on July 7 of next year. The logo was revealed by Brit actor Tom Holland (In the Heart of the Sea) at CinemaCon last Wednesday. Holland’s first appearance as the webhead is in the upcoming Civil War flick and he will continue this role in Spider-Man: Homecoming alongside Marisa Tomei (Empire) as Aunt May.
Jimmy Kimmel hosted a variety of Marvel actors in his four-night “Marvel Week” celebration on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Monday saw Civil War main man Chris Evans and co-stars Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, and Paul Rudd. All four actors will reprise their roles as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Sam Wilson/Falcon, Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier, and Scott Lang/Ant-Man, respectively. Evans chatted about his initial reluctance to take the role of Captain America and his unconventional guests at the Civil War premiere. The group also discussed their camaraderie on set and the occasional awkwardness of superhero costumes. They finished up with a personal trivia quiz run by Kimmel.
Please note, this video includes a clip from Civil War. If you’re trying to avoid clips, skip to 0:35.
On Tuesday, Kimmel hosted Benedict Cumberbatch on screen and Clark Gregg in the studio. Kimmel and Cumberbatch, who portrays Dr. Stephen Strange in the upcoming Marvel movie Doctor Strange, exchanged barbs regarding the titular doctor’s magical abilities and whether they were applicable to children’s parties. Cumberbatch then introduced the world premiere of the Doctor Strange trailer.
Clark Gregg, who plays Director Phil Coulson in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., came on to talk about his character’s development in the Marvel universe and the remarkable fan reaction that brought him back from the dead. He also hinted at a possible upcoming character death on Agents but obviously couldn’t confirm anything. Kimmel revealed a sneak peek at this week’s Agents episode, which is included in the clip below. Start the video at 0:27 if you’d rather skip it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S15pkDXwbcM
Thursday saw Iron Man’s Civil War team in the studio with Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Emily VanCamp (Sharon Carter/Agent 13), Don Cheadle (Lt. James Rhodes/War Machine), and Paul Bettany (Vision). Downey Jr. and Kimmel discussed Downey’s influence on Chris Evans as he chose to take on the role of Captain America and Evans’ nerves during the Civil War premiere. Downey also talked about his enthusiasm for Tom Holland as Spider-Man.
The team offered insight into the somewhat complicated logistics of superhero makeup and having two directors on set. Like Team Cap on Monday, they played personal trivia with Kimmel. And as on Monday, we got a brief clip from Civil War. The clip is in the second video of the playlist below. Skip to 0:38 to avoid it.
And last but certainly not least, Captain America: Civil War made its official debut on Tuesday. Marvel provided a live stream of the red carpet event and you can still watch the whole thing below. It’s just under two and a half hours long, so it should get you to your first coffee break at least. Go ahead. I won’t tell your boss.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is broadcast every Tuesday 9/8c on ABC.
Captain America: Civil War comes to theaters everywhere May 6th. Tickets are on sale now.
Doctor Strange will arrive on November 4th.
And for shenanigan-filled discussions of all things Marvel, check out our very own Level Eleventy-Seven podcast! New episodes currently drop every week.
