We’re finally getting the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man in Sony’s animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but he’s only one of many different versions we’ll get to see. Many of them came swinging into Sony’s Comic-Con panel at Hall H, which included producers Phil Lord & Chris Miller, Shameik Moore as the voice of Miles, Jake Johnson as Peter Parker, and Hailee Steinfeld as Spider-Gwen.
But there were more reveals…including one that made me leap out of my seat with excitement…
— Travis Hopson @ SDCC (@punchycritic) July 21, 2018
Yeeesssss! Spider-Ham was shown at the end of some brand new footage from the film, with confirmation that John Mulaney will be voicing Peter Porker. Yes, he is a real character with a real comic book series back in the day, a comic that I love. Obviously, The Spectacular Spider-Ham was a satirical riff on Spider-Man, but it was great stuff. The reason he exists again now is that Into the Spider-Verse connects all sorts of Spider-Men from different dimensions. Also included in that will be Nicolas Cage as the voice of Spider-Man Noir, news that was confirmed just weeks ago.
The last Spider-Man to be introduced was the anime-style Peni Parker aka Sp//dr, voiced by Komiko Glenn. Peni is accompanied by her super robot which, at least in the comics, is partially controlled by a radioactive spider.
This movie should be awesome. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse opens December 14th.
*UPDATE: One member of the Guardians cast who seems very upset over what’s happened to Gunn is Dave Bautista. He hit Twitter late last night and made it clear how unhappy he is over the move. I don’t know how that will translate into action, but his tweet reads like he plans something. Check that out below, followed by the original story.*
I will have more to say but for right now all I will say is this..@JamesGunn is one of the most loving,caring,good natured people I have ever met. He’s gentle and kind and cares deeply for people and animals. He’s made mistakes. We all have. Im NOT ok with what’s happening to him
There’s a lot of shock and anger surrounding the sudden firing of James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 over provocative comments he made more than a decade ago. One of those comments was about rape, yet the loudest voice in favor of Gunn’s firing is conservative pundit Mike Cernovich, who I remember claiming that date rape wasn’t a real thing. This whole thing started when Gunn attempted to defend actor/filmmaker Mark Duplass for praising conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, someone Gunn has nothing in common with. Disney put out their own statement through chairman Alan Horn, saying Gunn’s statements were “indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values.”
Hard to argue that point, no matter how long ago the tweets were. It should be noted that Gunn actually apologized for them already six years ago before he took on the Guardians job. More irony that they would still come back to haunt him. He has frequently talked about the way he used to think and act, bringing the offensive comments back up again in a 2017 profile.
Still, Gunn has issued another statement agreeing with Disney’s decision. He says…
“My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative,” Gunn said in a statement. “I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time.”
“Regardless of how much time has passed, I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. Even these many years later, I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then,” he continued. “All I can do now, beyond offering my sincere and heartfelt regret, is to be the best human being I can be: accepting, understanding, committed to equality, and far more thoughtful about my public statements and my obligations to our public discourse. To everyone inside my industry and beyond, I again offer my deepest apologies. Love to all.”
I’ll be honest, this makes me very angry. I’m pissed that Gunn’s clear and obvious evolution into a person of empathy has gone unnoticed by Disney. Or let me take that back; they noticed but don’t give a shit, preferring to bow down to angry conserva-pundits who support Donald “Grab ’em by the pussy” Trump. Because let’s be honest here; THAT is the reason they are firing Gunn. They obviously must have known about Gunn’s statements before because he’s so frequently talked about how wrong they were. Disney didn’t care until now when a very loud but also very minor group started to draw attention.
With production on Vol. 3 set to start early in 2019, we might see them move that date back. A new director needs to be found, and we may see Gunn’s script thrown out. Some are already hoping he’ll be replaced by Edgar Wright or Taika Waititi, two directors who have the right offbeat approach. We’ll see, but I’m guessing it will be neither. This smacks of a job for a relative unknown with a very strong personality, just as Gunn was when he came in.
Only moments ago M. Night Shyamalan and the cast of Glass just debuted the anticipated film’s first trailer. This has been a long time coming for fans of Shyamalan’s 2001 superhero drama, Unbreakable. The wait was made worth it with the surprise ending of Split, which reintroduced us all to Bruce Willis’ David Dunn. Glass will bring together Dunn along with James McAvoy’s The Beast and Samuel L. Jackson as Mr. Glass. Why wait? Here’s the trailer now!
Joined by the returning Anya Taylor-Joy and new addition Sarah Paulson, Glass takes place in a mental institution where Dunn, Kevin Wendell Crumb, and Mr. Glass are all being treated for delusions of grandeur, basically believing they are characters right out of a comic book.
And the cast for Top Gun 2 is really taking off the runway. With Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer reprising their roles and Miles Teller confirmed to play Goose’s son, now comes word that Jennifer Connelly is in talks for the female lead.
Connelly’s role is described by THR as a single mother who runs a bar near the Navy base. While it doesn’t say, can we just go ahead and assume she will be a love interest for Cruise’s Maverick? Or perhaps she is also Goose’s widow and raised their kid on her own? I’m just tossing out speculation here.
Joseph Kosinski is directing Top Gun 2 for release on July 13th, 2019.
Well, Marvel Studios has managed to make a huge splash without having much presence here at Comic-Con. James Gunn, best known for writing and directing the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies with eyes on a third, has been fired from the job. The reason are a series of controversial tweets in which he jokes about rape, pedophilia, the Holocaust, and more.
Some of these tweets were unearthed by right-wing media, who targeted Gunn for his vocal political stance, which tends to be very progressive and anti-Trump. He also got involved in an argument between actor Mark Duplass and pundit Ben Shapiro. Others have been circulating through the Internet for years, stretching back as far as 2008. I’m not going to repost them here but they should be fairly easy to find. It’s enough to know that Disney vetted them and released this statement to go along with their decision to fire Gunn…
“The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.”
Gunn has since deleted his Twitter account but not before issuing a statement explaining his past comments and that he has evolved since then…
“Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor.”
So this is huge because Gunn was set to play a vital role in the expansion of the MCU’s cosmic franchises. He was also deep in pre-production on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, with filming to start early next year. But obviously this conduct isn’t going to work for Disney, not a chance. Gunn also had a secret horror project to be announced here at Comic-Con today. Chances are that will be put on hold now.
So Marvel takes a heavy blow, but the MCU will keep on rolling. Expect to hear word about Gunn’s replacement soon so that we stop dwelling on his departure.
The panel for The Walking Dead just kicked off with the new trailer for season 9, and the confirmation of the show’s return on October 7th. The footage reveals, what else, a ton of internal conflict as Rick, played by departing star Andrew Lincoln, builds the utopia that his son Carl always hoped for. Part of that conflict looks to be between Rick and Daryl, and it definitely seems as if Norman Reedus will be stepping up as the new lead.
Also seen in the footage are new cast additions Dan Fogler and Eleanor Matsuura. Fogler is playing Luke, a character who didn’t last long in the comics, while Matsuura is playing Yumiko.
The trailer was followed by Lincoln confirming once and for all that he is indeed departing the show after this season. While trying to hold back tears, Lincoln talked about his love for the show and the people who have worked with him over the years, and that includes the fans. But one thing that is clear from this trailer is that incoming showrunner Angela Kang is basically soft rebooting the series. This will look very different when it return on October 7th.
I don’t know if anybody is having more fun with this superhero thing than Jason Momoa. The Aquaman had a blast shooting Justice League and again with the aquatic hero’s solo film. We’ve long expected to see the first trailer tomorrow during the Warner Bros. panel here at Comic-Con,but Momoa has now confirmed it the only way he knows how: by doing something crazy.
In the video, Momoa does a little bit of cliff diving, but not before talking up Aquaman which is expected to be huge for the future of the DCEU. He then dives into the water and holds up a phone confirming tomorrow’s trailer.
The Warner Bros. panel isn’t until tomorrow, but already we’re getting rumors about the upcoming Joker film. Yesterday we learned Deadpool 2 Zazie Beetz was in talks to join Joaquin Phoenix, and now a rumor from That Hashtag Show has additional plot details. Or so they say, remember to take this with a grain of salt.
So their rumor goes that Joker’s actual name will be revealed as Arthur Fleck. That’s a pretty big deal because he’s never had one in all of his years in the comics. Arthur will return home to care for his aging mother Penny, who was once beautiful and obsessed with her former employer, who may turn out to be Bruce Wayne’s father, Thomas Wayne. The site begins theorizing that Arthur may be Wayne’s son, which could be accurate since Wayne is expected to have a large role. Arthur eventually meets with single mother Sophie Dumond, the love interest character Beetz would be playing.
Not much of this scans to me, and I’m hoping we get more solid info during tomorrow’s Comic-Con panel.
The 20th Dragon Ball movie will officially bring fan-favorite Broly into canon, where he can beat up everyone from Vegeta, Frieza, and even Goku. Dragon Ball Super: Broly made a splash here at Comic-Con with its panel that debuted the English-language dub to be released by Funimation domestically in January 2019.
Watch Broly take on Goku and his crew now!
The film follows the events of Dragon Ball Super, the first original storyline in nearly two decades from original creator Akira Toriyama. This is also the kickoff destination for Funimation’s North American tour that will encopass 7 cities in the U.S. and Canada. And why shouldn’t they take this film on the road considering the successof 2015’s Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’?
If I’m honest, nearly everything said at the panel was flying over my head, having not seen Dragon Ball Super. I remember the Broly character, but to me he’s just another opponent who was over powered so he could compete with Goku and force him to reach some new Saiyan power level. Is there any reason I should think differently now?
With musicals proving to be big business once again, it was only a matter of time before the legendary Broadway musical Cats was adapted for the big screen. Leading the way will be director Tom Hooper, best known for The King’s Speech and his adaptation of Les Miserables, and the cast he’s putting together is one worth purring over.
The Wrap reports Oscar nominee and R&B singer Jennifer Hudson will star, along with superstar singler Taylor Swift, host and singer James Corden (If you havent seen him in One Chance, check it out), and Ian McKellan who needs no introduction. Lee Hall, who previously wrote Billy Elliot, will pen the script about a tribe of cats who must make “the Jellicle choice” and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage production was once the longest-running ever on Broadway, and introduced the song “Memory” which has become an iconic showtune.
Production should begin later this year, and I’m guessing they’ll target a late 2019 release, perhaps around Christmas? Seemed to work pretty well for The Greatest Showman, right?
