Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them proved to be a welcome and successful return to the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling’s creation. To date, the movie has pulled in over $812 million at the box office, and recently became the first movie within the Harry Potter universe to win an Oscar. It’s fair to say the future looks bright for the four remaining movies in the franchise, too, since audiences really warmed to the characters of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), her sister Queenie (Allison Sudol), and No-Maj Jacob (Dan Fogler).
Fantastic Beasts 2is set to arrive in 2018, and though Newt Scamander will feature, the movie looks set to focus much more heavily on the rise of the dark wizard, Gridelwald (Johnny Depp), and in particular his relationship with a young Dumbledore (yet to be cast). Following on from news that Fantastic Beasts 2 would start filming this summer, and according to My Entertainment World(viaHeroic Hollywood) it now looks certain that it will start shooting this August in Paris and the U.K..
New York is not listed as a filming location this time around. Though it was already known that Fantastic Beasts 2 would be set mainly in Europe, since that was where Grindelwald conducted his reign of terror, it wasn’t known if New York and in particular, MACUSA, would feature at all. That means, then, that somehow Jacob, Queenie and Tina find themselves in Europe; not much of a stretch for Tina since we know she goes onto marry Newt, but it’ll be interesting to see how or if Queenie and Jacob end up there (let’s hope so).
It also paves the way for Credence Barebone to have an interesting journey of some kind, since director David Yates has confirmed that when the obscurus was obliterated, bits of it remained, meaning Credence can return. There was also a scene cut from the ending of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which showed Credence leaving New York on a boat. Given his eerie infatuation with Percival Graves, who turned out to be Grindelwald, and the fact that Grindelwald knows Credence is an obscurus, it seems like only a matter of time before the pair meet again.
Elsewhere, Zoe Kravitz has confirmed that she will also have a bigger arc in the subsequent Fantastic Beasts movies, as Leta Lestrange. Teasing her “complex relationship” with Newt Scamander, Kravitz hinted at having a much larger role than just appearing as a moving photograph. It could well be that her relationship with Newt, and in turn, his relationship with Dumbledore, will all tie in together, as Dumbledore tries to stop Grindelwald’s rise to power.
When Marvel brought Nerd Christmas early in the summer of 2008 by teasing the rise of the Avengers in the tag at the end of Iron Man, even they didn’t fully envision the shared universe they were on the brink of creating. A few years later, The Avengers finally saw a number of their films and heroes join forces for an unprecedented blockbuster that finally proved Marvel and superhero movies were here to stay. Since then, the company has only reached new heights, while virtually every other studio taking steps to build their own shared universe.
Marvel have taken things a step further, spinning off the adventures of Agent Phil Coulson into ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Along with their group of Netflix shows, the TV side of Marvel is said to exist in the same universe as the movies. While it’s merely been alluded to on Netflix, S.H.I.E.L.D. has built entire episodes and seasons around the events of Marvel movies. Given this shared continuity, many have wondered how connected the upcoming Inhumansshow will be to S.H.I.E.L.D. when it premieres on IMAX screens later this year. Not only will both show eventually share a network in ABC, but S.H.I.E.L.D. actually introduced the concept of the Inhumans to the Marvel Cinematic Universe some years back.
Since then, charatcers like Daisy “Quake” Johnson from the Marvel comics (played by Chloe Bennet on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) have even been altered to match their Inhuman heritage on TV. While we haven’t heard any official confirmation of the two ABC Marvel TV shows being intimately connected or sharing characters, a new batch of set photos from @CrlRbs (see below) provides us with one direct connection between the two series.
As Carlos states, that alien writing matches the carvings we saw all throughout season 2 of S.H.I.E.L.D. The mystery of the writing eventually led to the discovery of the Terrigen crystals that transformed Daisy and Raina (and sadly killed Tripp). What’s more, but the comics have used the writing for years within the font of the Inhumans comics, further connecting things. Hopefully, this will just be the first of many threads joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and Inhumans, as the latter recently started shooting a few weeks back.
The beginning of production has also given us our first looks at the announced Inhumans cast in action. We’ve already seen Black Bolt and Lockjaw, and yesterday gave us our first look at Crystal in a very comics-accurate costume. We’ve also heard a rumor about Hawaii’s famous Diamond Head volcanic crater being used as a filming location, possibly to house the Inhuman city of Attilan. With filming continuing out in the open, we’re likely to get a lot more looks at the upcoming show in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned.
Inhumans comes to IMAX theaters for two weeks starting Friday, September 1st, prior to its television debut on Tuesday, September 26th on ABC.
Among the many DC Extended Universe films that are currently in some stage of development without an official release date is The Flash solo movie, as well as the Suicide Squad spinoff Gotham City Sirens and a direct followup to Zack Snyder’s Superman movie reboot, Man of Steel. That’s just the tip of the iceberg too, as the list of DCEU movies that are actively moving forward without a firm launch date in place (yet) includes director Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the Dwayne Johnson-headlined Black Adam movie, a Birds of Prey film and a Nightwing solo movie from The LEGO Batman Movie‘s director, Chris McKay.
Over the past year, there’s been much in the way of reported activity on a number of those same DCEU movies. The Flash, for example, was seemingly all ready to begin filming at the beginning of this year, before writer/director Rick Famuyiwa stepped down in late 2016. Meanwhile, Gotham City Sirens (by most accounts) continues to make steady progress forward, with not only a director (Suicide Squad helmsman David Ayer) but also a screenwriter (Tomb Raider reboot writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet) and one of its three central stars (Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn) in place already. As for Henry Cavill’s Superman: a Man of Steel 2 script is in active development and has been since last fall, but there hasn’t been a major update on the project since.
We may now have some fresh details concerning the release date windows for the three aforementioned DCEU films, thanks to “leaked” information that was posted on a DCEU sub-Reddit (via Screen Geek). According to the post, Gotham City Sirens is targeting a February 2019 theatrical release date, putting it a few months ahead of the current release date for the Shazam movie. Man of Steel 2, meanwhile, is supposedly taking the November 2019 release date previously reserved for Justice League 2, while The Flash is apparently being put on the back-burner for a 2020 release (the same year that Cyborg and Green Lantern Corps movies are scheduled for).
While this information should (obviously) be taken with a healthy helping of salt – given that it comes from Reddit – there is fair reason to believe that it’s accurate. For starters, this comes from the same source that claimed Joe Manganiello is playing Deathstroke in the DCEU, long before the news was made official. Moreover, these release date windows more or less align with other recent progress updates concerning these three DCEU installments.
It’s to be expected that Gotham City Sirens would be fast-tracked ahead of the Suicide Squad sequel’s release, given the popularity of Robbie’s turn as Harley Quinn from Ayer’s (yes, Oscar-winning) first Suicide Squad movie. The early 2019 date would give the film sufficient time to make its way down the pipeline, thus avoiding the blowback that Warner Bros. and DC endured for Suicide Squad‘s rushed development process. Alternatively, with The Flash struggling to hold onto a director and now undergoing rewrites, the movie (once scheduled to arrive in March of 2018) is unlikely to hit theaters until 2019, at the earliest.
As for Man of Steel 2: with many DCEU fans wanting to see a truly Superman-focused followup to Man of Steel (e.g. not the shared universe launchpad that was Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice), WB and DC have good reason to prioritize getting such a project off the ground at last. Snyder is following up Justice League with his passion project The Last Photograph rather than Justice League 2 and Man of Steel 2 reads as being a sensible replacement for the latter. That said: with so many films currently in the pipeline, the larger game plan for the DCEU may be equally fluid right now.
While there has already been several crossovers in the first three films of the DCEU and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice directly followed the events of Man of Steel, there has yet to be an official sequel within the universe. That will apparently not be true for much longer, a script is in the works for Man of Steel 2. While there is no word yet on when the sequel will be filmed or released, things are certainly underway. The movie needs a director now, and it seems like Warner Brothers may have someone in mind. Matthew Vaughn.
Matthew Vaughn is no stranger to comic book adaptions; he co-wrote and directed Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Classand Kingsman: The Secret Service and was the first director attached to X-Men: Days of Future Past. When it comes to comic adaptions, it’s clear Vaughn knows what he is doing – and it sounds like Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment agree with that sentiment.
According to Collider, Vaughn is currently in talks to helm the DC Extended Universe-based Superman sequel. Vaughn has spoken publicly about wanting to make a Superman film in the past, going back to before Man of Steel hit the scene. It seems as though he made an impression, as WB apparently wants to give him the reins to Man of Steel 2 – and is willing to give Vaughn a different film, should a deal here fail to materialize.
If Vaughn does get the job, that might signal a shift in tone from what Man of Steel and the rest of the DCEU has thus far been. He’s spoken in the past as to who he thinks Superman is:
“I think that’s the one thing not to do with Superman, trying to do the serious The Dark Knight version. Superman is about color and fun, or it should be, for me.”
Even if it functioned as a soft reboot, it would probably be a bit of work to transform the current film incarnation of the Man of Steel into someone more colorful and fun, at least in a way that seems natural for the character and story. But if Vaughn can find a way to do it, that could have long lasting implications for the entire DCEU. So if he gets the job, there may be a very different series of films on the way than the ones we have seen from DC so far.
Though there are sure to be a number of classic moments from the franchise that we’ll never see on screen, the new movie will also be fleshing out the mythos of the Rangers in a number of ways. Part of that is down to the design of the film itself. We’ve already seen how different villains like Rita Repulsa and Goldar will look in the film. That more alien and organic design will also be carrying over to everyone from Alpha 5 to the Zords themselves. We’ve had a pretty good look at the updated Zords so far, in everything from TV spots to posters. Now, we’ve got a little more insight into the concepts behind their redesign.
During an interview with Collider, Israelite discussed how the new look for the Zords came about, and how the film will expand their backstory.
“The idea is the Zords are machines that take on the form of the most powerful organisms of the planet they’re on. When these Zords came to Earth, dinosaurs reigned supreme and so they took on the image and the spirit of these dinosaurs – that’s the mythology that we’ve put into the movie. But in the concept that we’ve created they’re meant to be inspired by those animals – not an actual, literal, version of it, and so we decided we wanted to take certain liberties, too.”
Israelite went on to talk about trying to craft a unique aesthetic for the movie, in order to separate it from things like Transformers and Star Wars. In doing so, he and the crew tried to craft an organic look for everything, as opposed to simply designing mechanized monsters. In focusing on the more alien elements of the Zords, some liberties had to be taken with the final look of the dinosaur-inspired robots to make them function in a more pragmatic way.
“The other component of it is almost more of a practical component. We look at these renderings and we create a 3D space and we look at how they should move, and you learn a lot from that. And the mastodon is so big that we realized that with added legs it would just move better in a CG environment, and we’d be able to make it a more nimble machine. So it felt kind of like practical; if you were an alien creating this machine, you would want those added limbs.”
Of course, Israelite isn’t using ‘practical’ in the usual sense when it comes to movies. Unlike Fury Road or The Fast and the Furious franchise, Power Rangers won’t be telling their story using very many practical effects. But though the Zords will be all CGI, Israelite’s comments tease the idea that from an alien design point, the giant robots will move in a way that makes sense. Part of that was redesigning the Zords to look like mechanized creatures that could actually run, jump, and fight.
And while we’ve known for some time that the film’s aesthetic would have a more otherworldly bent, all this talk of alien design and an updated mythology make it seem as though the movie might dive into the history of the Power Rangers in new and exciting ways. Over the years, the various TV shows have expanded the lore of the Rangers, but the new film may mark the most concise and cohesive origin yet for the Rangers and their mighty Zords. Whether that holds true or not, we’ll know in a couple of weeks once Power Rangers lands in theaters.
