Welcome to our new column The Big 3. Where look at the biggest superhero news you might’ve missed in the world of pop culture.
Spider-man: The Marvel Debut
This one got by a bunch of people but it is actually really important to fans of the Marvel films. It was confirmed this week that the Russo Brothers have signed a three-picture deal with Sony. Their involvement in the franchises remains under wraps but this likely means they have at least an advisory role on the new Spider-man films. That would also most likely confirm that Spiderman will be making his Marvel debut in the Russo directed Captain America: Civil War. Although the Russo brothers haven’t done any work on the character yet, after their stellar performance with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, most fans agree Spidey is in very capable hands.
This news came with the equally great news that Drew Goddard would likely be signing on to direct the Spider-man reboot at Sony. Drew is best known for the cult hit Cabin in the Woods. He was also attached to the Sinister Six film that is all but cancelled and did writing on the new Netflix Daredevil series. There are also rumors this week that Freddie Highmore, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and more recently Bates Motel, is up for the role of Peter Parker. This lines up with the age range Sony seems to be shooting for and honestly Freddie seems like a really good fit. Highmore himself even said that the role is one he would love but then again who wouldn’t?
Avengers: A New Trailer
The new Avengers trailer was definitely the most popular story of the week. Originally to be shown on Thursday during ABC’s American Crime, a twitter campaign with the hashtag #AvengersAssemble unlocked the trailer 18 hours early. I wrote about the five most interesting moments here. Fans got their first look at the vision and a lot of new action sequences including a fight between Cap and Ultron, a couple of new “everyone fights together’ sequences, and wave after wave of Ultron drones. One clever NeoGafer even added Spiderman to one of the shots.
One thing that many fans are speculating about is the specific shot at the end of the trailer. We get a glimpse of the face of the Android Avenger, Vision. The shot starts with a close up on the Vision’s face and seems to linger on the yellow gem implanted in his forehead. Longtime fans recognize it as the Solar Gem, which is one of the Vision’s weapons that also doubles as his power source, but due to a recent focus on a specific set of space artifacts, many fans are speculating that it is in fact the Soul Gem. While it isn’t clear exactly how it exists, the coloring of the gems does match up really well with art of the gauntlet and the purpose of the gem (to give Vision a soul) matches up with the Soul Gem’s general purpose. If you need further proof, look at some of the promo art of Vision. The stone is missing. Wouldn’t it make sense if it was added by our heroes during the film to convert their foe to friend?
Supergirl
This week we got a bunch of Supergirl news. Most notably, we saw the costume that former Gleek Melissa Benoist will don. It looks pretty much like everyone expected. Cape, skirt, big dumb S. It’s good. Benoist does have a very earnest and hopeful look on her face that really seems to sell the character. Hopefully she doesn’t take too many cues from her Man of Steel cousin and she has a little fun.
More importantly, there were a lot of major casting announcements surrounding the new show.
The original Supergirl, Helen Slater, will have a yet unknown role. So will Dean Cain who many will remember as the Superman from the hit show 90’s show Lois and Clark. Iron Man alum Faran Tahir (the bald guy who kidnaps Tony) will also play a character known only as The Commander who is an “alien military expert” in opposition to Supergirl. Whether that sentence means he is an earthling who specializes in alien military or a member of an alien military, is unknown. The description does read like that of a Kryptionian General with a penchant for kneeling but whether it is a disguised Zod or his Supergirl analog remains to be seen.
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Matthew Nando Kelly is an incredibly cool and handsome staff writer for Pop-Break who was allowed to write his own bio. Aside from weekly Flash reviews, he writes about film, television, music, and video games. Matthew also has a podcast called Mad Bracket Status where he discusses pop culture related brackets with fellow Pop-Break writer DJ Chapman. He loves U2, cats, and the New Orleans Saints. He can also occasionally be found writing lists on Topless Robot and his twitter handle is @NationofNando
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