Here’s everything you need to know about the Deadpool movie starring Ryan Reynolds. We’ve got posters, trailers, cast info…you name it.

Hey, did you hear? Deadpool is getting his own movie! A Deadool movie! Isn’t that nuts?

It’s coming out on Feb. 12, 2016 and everything! There’s a lot of news and stuff that’s been coming out and it can be hard to keep track of it all. Luckily, you can check back at this page to get a pretty strong idea on what’s what.

Check out the (ahem) Superb Owl TV spot that arrived tonight.

Deadpool Movie Review

Here’s an excerpt from our spoiler free Deadpool review…

…we can tell you that Deadpool the movie has at least nailed both the tone of the comics and the ragged charm of the character himself. As Wade says himself early in the film (after a brilliant and hilarious opening credits sequence), he’s not a good guy; he’s a mercenary, a bad guy who gets rid of worse guys. But he’s fun to be around, he’s quick with the quips and the meta references, he breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience (as he has done so famously with the readers of his comic books) and – as we find out when he meets the woman of his dreams, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin of Firefly and, more recently, Gotham) – he’s a romantic at heart.

The Merc with a Mouth gets a shot at cinematic glory (accurately this time) in the form of Ryan Reynolds. Here’s our Deadpool movie review.

For Ryan Reynolds, third time is the charm as he at last fulfills his superhero destiny with Deadpool, based on the anti-hero created in 1991 for Marvel Comics by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld. After an abortive first attempt at bringing some sort of version of Wade Wilson to the screen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, followed by his disastrous portrayal of Hal Jordan in 2011’s Green Lantern, Reynolds has returned to Wilson – the character he was born to play – in a movie that he has spent several years with director Tim Miller and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick practically willing into existence.

Now here it is, in all its crude, ratty glory, and we can tell you that Deadpool the movie has at least nailed both the tone of the comics and the ragged charm of the character himself. As Wade says himself early in the film (after a brilliant and hilarious opening credits sequence), he’s not a good guy; he’s a mercenary, a bad guy who gets rid of worse guys. But he’s fun to be around, he’s quick with the quips and the meta references, he breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience (as he has done so famously with the readers of his comic books) and – as we find out when he meets the woman of his dreams, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin of Firefly and, more recently, Gotham) – he’s a romantic at heart.

The movie opens with Deadpool on his way to meet and rough up some of those bad guys we mentioned earlier. And we do mean rough up: there is very little in the way of a moral code about killing in Deadpool’s addled brain. He decapitates and disembowels his enemies with gleeful abandon, and is more than willing to torture the ones that survive. Eventually we find out why he’s after lead baddie Francis/Ajax (Ed Skrein) – who, like Wade, has been mutated and given enhanced powers by a secret program that Wade volunteered for, with the reason disclosed in flashbacks.

It turns out that Wade submitted himself to the experiments in order to cure the Stage 4 cancer he’s been diagnosed with, but in addition to giving him remarkable healing powers and strength, the process has scarred him horribly and left him mentally unstable. Rather than reveal his hideous appearance to Vanessa, he allows her to assume that he is dead and creates the Deadpool persona (and a dead-on costume right out of the books) so that he can track down Francis, whom Wade believes can restore his flesh to normal. Along the way he gains the attention of the X-Men, represented by metal-skinned Colossus (voice by Stefan Kapicic, motion capture by Andre Tricoteux) and the rather explosive Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand).

That’s the extent of the plot, much of which plays out as a standard origin story — only filtered through the worldview of Deadpool/Wade, who is just as aware as you that he is a fictional creation. Reynolds gives his all in the role, and it’s clear from the start that he has immersed himself in this character and worked to create the perfect screen version of Deadpool. He’s endlessly carrying on a running conversation with himself (“Did I leave the stove on?”), reacting like a petulant child when he gets shot or stabbed, and riotously commenting on the comic book movie world around him — including several jokes at the X-Men franchise’s expense.

The movie basically is a one-man show and director Miller wisely derives almost all its entertainment value from Reynolds’ detailed and truly oddball performance, which luckily powers through a production that is otherwise fairly threadbare. A friend noted after the press screening that Deadpool operates in fours: the movie more or less consists of four characters, four scenes, and four sets/locations.

We spend a hell of a lot of time on that one freeway set where the opening confrontation takes place, and the only other major action set piece — handled adequately if unspectacularly by Miller — takes place at the end, in a dingy shipyard atop something that should give sharp-eyed Marvel fans pause. Wade and Vanessa’s apartment and the bar belonging to Wade’s sidekick Weasel (T.J. Miller) are cramped and dark, while the Weapon X lab looks like they just redressed the bar. For a mutant with such a big mouth, Deadpool’s world is decidedly small.

The rest of the cast never quite gets out of the shadow of our star either, and the script (by Zombieland scribes Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese) doesn’t do much to help them. Baccarin is playful and sexy but ultimately her Vanessa (who is the mutant Copycat in the comics) becomes just another girlfriend in danger, while Miller’s Weasel is there simply for Reynolds to play off of. The CG Colossus could have used one more pass through the hard drive, but comes across as reasonably lifelike and has a few good lines. Sadly, in grand Marvel movie tradition, the villains fare the worst: Skrein’s Ajax is a generic, shaven-headed bad guy with a British accent and a murky motive, while Gina Carano’s Angel Dust barely registers except for one cute moment near the end.

With the main character’s over-the-top-and-beyond behavior and constant self-awareness dominating the proceedings, it’s too easy to think that Deadpool could be a game-changer of some sort or an antidote to the sometimes ridiculously grim gravitas of a lot of today’s superhero movies. Sure, it’s a welcome dose of comic relief, but it’s too small a movie to rest that burden on its red-clad shoulders. And besides, in the end it’s still a one-trick pony, as enjoyable as that trick is (and at 106 minutes or so, it doesn’t overstay its welcome).

Deadpool is fun, highly entertaining and, for fans of the comics, does exactly what it promised — nothing more or less. Oh, and make sure you stay until the very end — the post-credits sequence isn’t the one you might have expected, but it’s the one you deserve.

Deadpool is out in theaters this Friday (February 12).

Deadpool Movie Trailers, Story, and Cast Details

Mojang have a new game out, but this 2D shooter is not necessarily what you’d expect from the makers of Minecraft.

We’re sure it would be easier for everyone involved if Cobalt was marketed as the new game from the creators of Minecraft, but it isn’t. But it is notable for being Minecraft developer Mojang’s first attempt at publishing someone else’s game – in this case fellow Swedish studio Oxeye. The end result is absolutely nothing like Minecraft, and won’t necessarily appeal to the same people, but it’s definitely worth a look anyway.

Although it may look like a generic 2D indie shooter the best point of comparison for Cobalt is probably Max Payne, or any of the other myriad of games obsessed with the late ‘90s fetish for firing guns in slow motion. It does not, we admit, look impressive in either screenshots or videos, but it’s been in development for four years now and that clearly shows in the highly refined controls and action.

The plot, about saving a colony of humans from rogue robots and aliens, is purposefully silly and inconsequential but the game’s story mode is actually a nicely varied mix of platforming, simple puzzles, and shooting. The action moves at a dizzyingly fast pace, as you leap and flip across the landscape – right up until the point where you segue into bullet time and start picking off bad guys in slow motion.

For a dumpy-looking robot, the titular Cobalt is quite the gymnast, but in gameplay terms his wide repartee of jumps, rolls, and slides all have a specific purpose. Spinning in mid-air sends a Catherine wheel of bullets out in every direction, while rolling in mid-air can counter enemy bullets, sending them back to their source like a lightsabre deflecting a laser bolt.

Cobalt also has a range of dual purpose defensive moves, include a shield that can also reflect bullets and a particularly versatile parry that allows you to knock grenades out of the air and redirect them either at enemies or for other puzzle-solving purposes. Your momentum is also vitally important, to the point where being at full speed as you begin an encounter is often just as important as what weapons you chose to wield.

The game can seem almost overdesigned at times, with a loot system constantly tempting you into danger, a stealth element, and smaller details such as a Gears Of War style active reload system. The latter is never mentioned in any of the tutorials, and neither is the idea of riding pet animals (and using them as projectiles when you get tired of them). Which is one way to try and ease new players in, but not necessarily the most honest one.

There is an obvious cost for squeezing such a multitude of moves down into one diminutive robot body, and it’s the utter bewilderment of playing the game for the first time. To a newcomer the action can be utterly incomprehensible and uncontrollable. Not to say extremely difficult. Beyond some tutorial-like challenges Cobalt does relatively little to compensate for this, and so becomes a game you have to want to play – rather than you being drawn in by the spectacle or graphics.

And you’d have to say that visually the game isn’t terribly interesting, it gets the job done but unlike the gameplay there’s no panache or originality about it. In short it’s no fun to watch Cobalt in action, and in this day and age that may cost it more than any other issue.

As you might imagine the game’s complex systems create quite the entry barrier when trying to indulge in the many multiplayer modes. There’s versions of Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and a Horde-like survival mode but competent human players give you even less margin for error than the computer-controlled ones.

That’s not necessarily a negative though and Cobalt has clearly been designed for people that are tired of being hand-held, and miss the days when playing a video game was about learning and perfecting new skills – not following objective markers. If you miss those times, or simply enjoy a good video game that’s out to test your reflexes and ingenuity instead of your patience, then Cobalt may have been crafted just for you.

Cobalt

In Short: A boldly inventive 2D shooter that asks a lot of its players but rewards them with one of the most versatile action games of recent months.

Pros: A dizzying array of abilities, many with multiple uses that take real skill to use. Cleverly varied story campaign and plenty of multiplayer modes and challenge missions.

Cons: Steep learning curve, where many of the game’s mechanics aren’t properly explained or only hinted at. Dull visual design and impenetrable multiplayer for newcomers.

Score: 8/10

Formats: Xbox One (reviewed), Xbox 360, and PC
Price: £15.99
Publisher: Microsoft Studios/Mojang
Developer: Oxeye Game Studio
Release Date: 2nd February 2016
Age Rating: 12

Cobalt review – don’t be blue

SPOILERS: New THOR: RAGNAROK Details Revealed; Finally Getting PLANET HULK?

New Thor: Ragnarok story details have been revealed, and if accurate, it sounds like we’re finally getting that Planet Hulk adaptation.

Take this with a pinch of salt for the time being, but a new report from Geek.com claims to reveal how The Hulk will factor into Thor: Ragnarok next year. Revealing that Hela manages to destroy Mjolnir and banish the God of Thunder from Asgard, the site adds that the hero apparently ends up not on Midgard, but an alien gladatorial planet instead. Knowing he needs to stop her and Loki, Thor fights his way through all of the opponents put before him so he can escape this world, but it’s when he runs into the current champion that he gets an unpleasant surprise.

As you’ve probably already guessed, that’s The Hulk, and “he’s managed to avoid reverting back to the Banner state since we last saw him in the Quinjet in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Hulk in Hulk form is pretty much unkillable, so he survived the trip to Sakaar (however he got there). His ‘Banner’ is starting to seep through into the Hulk persona, and because of the Hulk-Banner melding, Hulk actually remembers Thor and his relationship to him. That’s what starts the two on a Midnight Run to the MacGuffin that Thor desperately needs.” That sounds awesome and all, but seeing as the script is still being worked on, it may be too soon to get excited!

Still, this sounds like a pretty cool way of utilsing the Planet Hulk storyline even if it isn’t a direct adaptation which will lead to World War Hulk somewhere down the line. Do you hope this is how Thor: Ragnarok plays out? Share your thoughts in the usual place.

SPOILERS: New THOR: RAGNAROK Details Revealed; Finally Getting PLANET HULK?

It’s official: Marvel Phase Three is here. So what the heck does that mean? Well, for one, it means that many of your favorite characters are about to take a dirt nap. Here’s a look at some of the huge characters that will probably die in Phase Three—and why. Watch our video above or read about who’s going to most-likely get killed below. Plus, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more awesome list videos.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

No spoilers, but in the comic Captain America: Civil War is based on, Captain America gets killed. Wait, did we say no spoilers? Sorry. But that’s not the only reason we don’t expect Cap to make it out of Phase Three alive; while star Chris Evans has spoken publicly of his desire to continue working with Marvel, he’s also been forthright about wanting to work behind the camera instead of in front of it. Evans might be around for Phase Four, all right. He’s just more likely to be directing Stan Sebastian as the new Captain America. RIP, Steve Rogers.

THOR

If there’s one thing we learned from studying Norse mythology, it’s that Ragnarok is very, very bad. After all, it involves the destruction and death of all the gods. So expecting Thor to survive the events of Thor: Ragnarok is beyond optimistic. There is some hope, though; in the comics, Ragnarok is an endlessly repeating cycle of death and rebirth, so it’s possible Thor could be reborn. But he’ll have to die first for that to happen, so don’t be surprised when ol’ goldilocks takes a permanent arrow to the knee.

THANOS

At this point, big cosmic baddie Thanos has almost had more cameos than Stan Lee. But in the two-part Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos is finally going to get the spotlight—and it’s going to be a bloody one. Thanos, after all, worships Death. So even when he inevitably loses, he still gets what he really wants most in the end. The question isn’t whether Thanos will die, it’s how many heroes he’ll take down with him. Speaking of which…

IRON MAN

Of all the stars powering the Marvel Cinematic Universe, none is as important as Robert Downey Jr.—and none have been quite so up front as Downey about being tired of putting on his costume again. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone if Iron Man makes the ultimate sacrifice in Avengers: Infinity War, especially given the clear foreshadowing of exactly that in Tony Stark’s dream sequence from Avengers: Age of Ultron. At least it’s probably going to be epic.

THE VISION

Tony Stark is just one of many heroes we’re expecting to meet their end in Avengers: Infinity War. Chances are that The Vision is going to join him in perpetual rest. Why? Well, the synthetic man who stole every scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron was given life by the Infinity Stone he wears on his brow—and Thanos is going to need that stone in order to complete the Infinity Gauntlet. Hopefully someone will be able to rebuild Vision after Thanos dismantles him.

DRAX THE DESTROYER

Drax the Destroyer’s entire reason for living is to exact vengeance on the villains who killed his family. And that means Thanos. It’s inevitable that Drax is going to get a showdown with Thanos at some point, but given their relative power levels, it’s also inevitable that Drax is going to come out on the losing end. Don’t be sad, though. When you think about it, is there really any other way the single-minded Drax could go out?

GAMORA

Drax isn’t the only member of the Guardians of the Galaxy who has a grudge to settle with Thanos. His adopted daughter Gamora is also one of many looking to permanently wipe that giant grin off of Thanos’ ugly mug. Given that he trained her to be the universe’s deadliest assassin, she has a better chance than most. But, like Drax, Gamora has one big thing going against her odds for survival: in the comics, they both were killed by Thanos. Hey, it ain’t easy being green.

EVERYONE

If it sounds like pretty much everyone you care about is going to die, that’s because they are. In the comic book Infinity Gauntlet, which all of the cosmic stuff in the Marvel movies is based on, Thanos actually wins and kills everyone. Don’t be surprised if that’s the cliffhanger ending to Avengers: Infinity War Part One. Of course, eventually Thanos is defeated anyway and most of the heroes are resurrected, so don’t worry, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will survive. Whether you’ll survive the stress of the viewing experience, though, is another question.

CHARACTERS WHO WILL PROBABLY DIE IN MARVEL’S PHASE THREE

Machine Zone spends $5M on Mobile Strike Super Bowl 50 commercial with Schwarzenegger

Above: Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in the new ad for Mobile Strike from Machine Zone.

Image Credit: Machine Zone

Machine Zone spends $5M on Mobile Strike Super Bowl 50 commercial with Schwarzenegger

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WITH THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3

In fewer than two decades, the Spider-Man franchise has already amassed a history of stops and restarts. But the most surprising were the sudden cancellations of Amazing Spider-Man 3 and the spin-offs planned to follow. It was confusing and strange, but there’s an interesting story behind why the sequel to a successful movie got tossed in the garbage.

THE REBOOT

After Sam Raimi’s withdrawal from Spider-Man 4 because of studio interference, among other things, Sony Pictures decided to reboot the franchise. The new series starred Andrew Garfield and relatively new director Marc Webb. It was a bold move for Sony, since Raimi and Tobey Maguire’s collaborations were proven box-office draws. However, the studio wanted someone younger in the role of Peter Parker, feeling the story of Spider-Man is the story of “a boy trying to become a man,” according to Collider. While some fans expressed sadness over the loss of Maguire, they were happy there was going to be another Spider-Man movie of some kind. Plus, we wouldn’t have to look at that weird, confused expression Maguire makes when he’s acting.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
So 2012 came, and so did Amazing Spider-Man. The movie had a decent story, moving away from the goofiness of Raimi’s interpretation of the character and going for something a little more serious and grounded in the real world. It also had an impressive cast: Denis Leary as Captain Stacy, and Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Plus, there’s no denying that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are a much more attractive pairing than Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire. The movie did well commercially, grossing almost a billion dollars, and set a record for the all-time highest-grossing reboot. It even garnered some impressive critical attention. In fact, in one of his final reviews, Roger Ebert said that it was the “second best” of the Spider-Man franchise. Sure, second-best doesn’t sound that impressive, but it’s not like he said it was godawful. So the reboot was off to a decent start!

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
Of course, there was a sequel. Like most sequels, it didn’t perform as well with the critics as the first movie. It pulled in about the same amount of money, however, but the reviews weren’t as kind as theater goers’ wallets. The general consensus was that, while Garfield, Stone, and everyone else in the cast did a good job, there was just too much going on. As a result, the movie came off as something of a muddled mess. Still with all that went wrong with it, it wasn’t bad enough to earn any Razzie nominations. And it did well enough that not only had the studio planned to make more sequels, but spin-offs too.

THE PLANNED SEQUELS
Sony’s plans for Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4 were pretty crazy. According to various websites, the plan involved not only resurrections for both Gwen Stacy and her father, but also Gwen becoming something like the Spider-Gwen character who has since debuted in the comics in 2015. (For those not familiar with the comics, “Spider-Gwen” is basically, “Gwen Stacy, but with the powers of Spider-Man. And is from another dimension.”) To add to that, Sony also planned some villain-centric films as well: Sinister Six and Venom. Casting villains in the lead role isn’t something that gets done a whole lot, especially not in comic book movies, making it a pretty controversial—yet interesting—move on Sony’s part. There were even rumors that Felicity Jones might get her own spin-off as Amazing Spider-Man 2’s Felicia Hardy, aka Marvel Comics’ Black Cat, but that was probably speculation. Sony’s plan was to create their own universe to compete with, or be something akin to, Marvel’s cinematic universe, while using Marvel’s own characters, ironically enough. Still, the ideas were all intriguing. But then, seemingly overnight, those plans got scrapped.

THE PLANS GET CANCELLED
Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4 were both planned and even had release dates: June 10, 2016 and May 4, 2018, respectively. Paul Giamatti also confirmed that he’d return as the Rhino for the third movie, according to Collider. But then the movies began to get delayed. Also, Marc Webb, a huge part of the first two films success, stated that he’d only return to direct the third film and only act as consultant for the fourth, which wasn’t a good sign. Ultimately, all of the planned movies got cancelled. It was also strange that the studio, which had all of these big plans for the character, would suddenly ditch their plans. It’d be one thing if they delayed everything or put the plans on hold. That’d just mean the right script hadn’t been found or there was a technical issue or scheduling conflict holding things up. But a cancellation meant something bigger was going on.

THE SONY HACKS AND THE NEW DIRECTION
The Sony hacks from late-2014 revealed a lot about the sudden changes with their Spider-Man franchise. According to some of the stolen and leaked emails, even though Amazing Spider-Man 2 was still better than any of the Transformers movies, the lukewarm reviews it received were enough to spur Sony into taking the character in another direction. This decision was made primarily by the new regime that took over after former studio head Amy Pascal stepped down. Subsequently, this new direction involved the hiring of another actor to play the role of Peter Parker, Tom Holland. The hiring of Holland, the youngest actor to take the role so far, suggested a desire to keep Parker young. Sony didn’t want him to be an adult struggling to make it in the real world. Nor did the studio want him to be a young adult. They want Spider-Man to remain young, a snot-nosed punk even. But this wasn’t the only big news to come from the hacks…

JOINING THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
According to documents made public by the hacks, Sony worked out a deal with Marvel to bring Spider-Man into Marvel’s cinematic universe. Fanboys and fangirls around the world squealed in delight. Since then, it’s been revealed that Spidey would make his debut in a big way, as part of Captain America: Civil War. This puts Spidey in line to participate in Marvel’s climactic Avengers: Infinity War movies, something a lot of fans, Hugh “Wolverine” Jackman included, want to see. But while all this is great news, it’s not the only thing the hacks revealed.

GARFIELD GOT HIMSELF FIRED

Andrew Garfield helped pave the way for this new direction for Spider-Man. It’s also the actual reason plans for Amazing Spider-Man 3 got canceled. According to a series of emails obtained by Showbiz411, Garfield was supposed to attend a gala after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where he’d have been announced as the star of Amazing Spider-Man 3 by Sony bigwig Kaz Hirai, but Garfield cancelled at the last minute. Garfield most likely cancelled due to feeling under the weather from the long flight there, which is understandable. But still, Hirai felt slighted. And some of the execs not only agreed, but felt that it was a slight against the company as well. So Garfield was out. A man lost a job because someone’s feelings got hurt. That’s professionalism! And the old Parker luck in action…

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WITH THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3

The second Suicide Squad trailer has premiered, and it’s revealed a new, unexpected side to the anticipated anti-heroic film. The premise: a bunch of especially bad criminals with various powers are assembled under the guidance of Amanda Waller, a morally ambiguous government official who sees them as disposable. Their mission is to take down extremely dangerous threats to humanity, and if they survive, they’re given a clean criminal record and freedom. What could possibly go wrong? This new trailer gives us some very interesting details.

SUICIDE SQUAD WILL BE COMEDIC

Suicide Squad’s first trailer was deeply moody and grim, portraying a collection of angry and insane characters who all seemed doomed to die in a bleak world where the sun didn’t exist and everyone just shot at one another constantly. This second trailer let the characters speak for themselves, and it sounds like it’ll be a movie full of quips and jokes, despite the whole “suicide” thing in the title. And honestly, a bunch of clinically insane people acting weird instead of angry and violent for two hours sounds like a much more interesting film.

DR. HARLEEN QUINZEL’S ORIGINS

No one’s going to go see Suicide Squad because they’re a really big Deadshot fan. No, everyone will be going to see the twisted on-screen romance between Harley Quinn and the Joker. In this trailer, the Joker can be seen cradling a bleached-out Harleen in a vat of Joker-making chemicals, presumably after taking an intentional dive into the chemicals himself. According to DC’s revised New 52 history, this is pretty much how the insane joker created Harley Quinn. It looks like a bit of an origin scene, so we might get to see the complete evolution of Harley. Add this to the Joker’s changing tattoos, implying that we may get a flashback or two, and we might just get the full picture.

HARLEY QUINN’S VOICE

This trailer is the first time we’re hearing a lot of Harley Quinn’s voice, and it’s nothing like the vocal performance from Arleen Sorkin in Batman: The Animated Series, where the character originated. Cartoon Harley’s voice has always been a signature of her character, so fans are a bit up in arms about Margot Robbie’s interpretation of the character’s tone, which sounds more Clueless than villainous. We’ll know after the premiere if Robbie really makes the character her own, or if fanboys have been drawing hundreds of creepy pictures for nothing.

LEDGER REBORN

One of fans’ biggest concerns has been Jared Leto’s version of the Joker. Not only is Leto a beautiful doll of a man, but comparisons to Heath Ledger’s legendary take on the Joker are inevitable. This is really the first time we’ve heard Joker speak for a considerable amount of time, and this trailer truly makes it sound like this is Leto’s homage to Ledger. The raspy hiss that Leto uses for this Insane Clown Posse version of the Clown Prince of Crime sounds very familiar, and that’s not a bad thing at all.

THE JOKER IS WELL-PREPARED

We know that the Joker isn’t part of the Squad, but that he might just be manipulating it from the outside. What we now know from this trailer is that he’s not just some crazy random dude off the street who decided to dress like a Hot Topic reject; this guy has real estate, an entire armory at his disposal, and some fancy clothes. Fans will notice homages to different Jokers throughout the years, from the traditional purple jacket of comic book and 1989 film fame, as well as a classy black and white ensemble made famous by artist Alex Ross. Expect many more comic references along the way, as well as some wonderful toys.

DC INTRODUCES MAGIC

Both Marvel and DC have been very hesitant to introduce magical elements into their carefully-constructed worlds, because magic comes with rules, and those rules are often inconsistent and result in gaping plot holes. However, with the character Enchantress being genuinely magic, and Katana’s soul-stealing sword doing magical soul-stealing stuff, we now officially have a magical world—and magic has traditionally been one of Superman’s big weaknesses. What this means for the larger scheme of things is undecided, but Suicide Squad is now part of the big DC picture, so it’ll be interesting to watch if it all plays out consistently (or not).

CAPTAIN BOOMERANG MIGHT BE COOL?

There’s nothing cool about a guy who can throw boomerangs, unless maybe you’re hanging out in the quad at your state college, and with this new trailer, everyone seems to finally acknowledge that point. Fans are hailing this as Jai Courtney’s breakout role, though we haven’t seen him do much more than pop a beer and punch a guy, and he’s not even important enough to list in Rick Flagg’s rundown of the team’s roster. Then again, a guy who throws stuff probably isn’t nearly as interesting as the guy who eats people, and even less interesting than a guy who shoots people. Boomerang, known for his sneakiness and occasional cowardice, is probably the guy to keep an eye on.

THE VILLAIN REVEALED?

Something pretty bad is going on in the subway system, and we only get a glimpse of it, but it has some pretty wicked tendrils, and it can cut right through a train like it’s a hot dog. We don’t know if this opposing force is a new villain, or one from the history of comics, but it certainly doesn’t seem canonical to the Suicide Squad’s first appearance: there, they assemble to stop a guy named Brimstone, who happens to be made of fire and comes from Darkseid’s Apokolips. Could the metal tendrils belong to Brainiac? Metallo? Shade, the Changing Man? At least they didn’t blow the reveal in the trailer like Batman v. Superman did.

THINGS THE SUICIDE SQUAD TRAILER REVEALED

Just before Halloween 2012, The Walt Disney Company made an announcement that shook Hollywood and fanboys all over the world: it had purchased George Lucas’s production company, Lucasfilm – along with the highly lucrative Star Wars and Indiana Jones properties that it owned – for the unbelievable sum of $4.05 billion.

The move made perfect sense on Disney’s end. Bob Iger, who has been the chairman and CEO of the company since 2005, has been on the singular quest to expand the roster of intellectual properties that it owns, given the growing pop-cultural irrelevance of Walt’s personal creations from the 1920s and the exploding popularity of newer brands. He wasted no time in the effort, scooping up Pixar in 2006 and Marvel Entertainment in ’09 before moving in on Lucas’s blockbuster territory. With some 10,000 additional characters now added to the Disney roster, it has more than enough material for future films, television series, comic books, stage shows, merchandising, and – most profitably of all – theme park and cruise-line attractions.

There’s been a pretty substantial effect on Star Wars’s end, too; literally from day one of the deal, Disney has moved to change the status quo of that galaxy far, far away in ways both big and small. Indeed, only three years later, the effect is a profound one – and it only looks to grow at an exponential rate in the future.

With less than a month(!) before Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens releases, it’s instructive and not a little enlightening to take a look back at how the balance of the Force has been changed. Join us, then, as we take stock of the 10 Biggest Changes Disney Has Made to Star Wars.

THE NEW TRILOGY (OR TWO)

The very first alternation The Disney Company made to George Lucas’s brainchild is, actually, one of the biggest and most important: the creation of a brand-new trilogy of films.

To understand the magnitude of such a development, a quick historical detour is in order. Literally right in the middle of creating the original trilogy (that’s Episodes IV through VI) back in the late 1970s, Lucas roughly sketched out a sweeping series of movies that would both move backward and forward in time; the prequels (Episodes I through III) would dramatize the complex backstory he had created, while the sequels (Episodes VII through IX) would chart out an uncertain future for all of his characters.

Except, the writer-director had a massive change of heart (as has been his wont for nearly all of his filmmaking career) and declared, right before the 1999 release of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, that the sequel trilogy was now narratively unnecessary – his story ends with the death of Anakin Skywalker at the close of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Fans slowly made peace with the fact that their favorite movie franchise of all time was suddenly cut short – until Disney entered the picture, that is, and resurrected those plans.

What’s more, the company’s furiously been hinting that, perhaps, 2019’s Episode IX may not be the end of the cinematic road, either; a fourth trilogy (Episodes X through XII) is likely to be in the cards, should these new installments prove lucrative enough. Although Lucas has, at one distant point, mentioned the possibility of a fourth set of films, it was more an abstract rumination than a concrete plan. And while he did end up scribbling down some notes for the upcoming sequel trilogy to bump up the price of the Disney sale, he’s never once put pencil to paper for anything beyond this current set of movies.

THE “ANTHOLOGY” FILMS

The next announcement from the Mouse House was equally as galaxy-shattering as the sudden appearance of Episode VII: an additional set of three films, loosely referred to as the Star Wars Anthologies, which would be standalone in nature and which would cover facets of the SW galaxy beyond the strict purview of the Skywalker family.

It’s a move that’s very telling of Disney’s mindset. Whereas Lucas took three years in between movie entries, Disney has mandated only two – and even these “off” years need to have brand-new content to keep fans interested and the merchandising afloat. This is where the Anthologies come into play, and this is how Disney will be able to pull off a new big-screen release each and every year from 2015 to 2020 – and, possibly, beyond.

What, exactly, are the premises of these spinoffs? 2016’s Rogue One depicts the Rebels’ stealing of the Death Star plans right before Episode IV: A New Hope; the untitled young Han Solo movie, set to be released in 2018 follows, well, a young Han; and Boba Fett’s installment, looking to see the light of day in 2020, looks to be a bounty-hunter-fueled adventure story. (Are these premises not original enough? It’s an interesting question, and one we wrestle with right here.)

PRESSING RESET ON THE TELEVISION FRONT

Although the Star Wars cinematic outings were canceled by George Lucas, that still left the medium of television wide open for future cultivation – particularly in animation, an area which Lucasfilm had no corporate experience with whatsoever. This gave birth to The Clone Wars, which loosely explored the three-year gap in between Episodes II and III and which was in its fifth season when the Disney deal went through, and Detours, a comedy sketch show overseen by Seth Green, which was already in production and moving closer to an air date. There was even an untitled live-action series that would have been an adult-oriented exploration of the various crime families in the SW galaxy, though it had been indefinitely shelved by Lucas by October 2012.

The Disney Company moved quickly to pull the plug on all these projects, stating that it wanted any new productions to be under the direction of the new Lucasfilm leadership team (and to tie into the upcoming films, even if loosely). Clone Wars received a truncated, Netflix-only sixth season – just to try and wrap up some of its myriad story threads – and was replaced on the air by Rebels, a new show that exchanged the prequels for the original trilogy in both tone and setting.

As of right now, Disney has said it’s “reevaluating” both Detours, specifically, and the concept of a big-budget, live-action series, generally. Given the rumors of several possible Star Wars Netflix shows, perhaps they will finally come to fruition on the streaming service.

SHUTTING DOWN LUCASARTS

LucasArts, the videogame division of George Lucas’s multimedia empire, was, at one point in its 31-year history, considered to be at the pinnacle of game development, having produced the likes of Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Grim Fandango. Then it got buried under a never-ending tidal wave of Star Wars titles – though some, such as TIE Fighter and, more recently, The Force Unleashed, were quite good – and became the victim of a wanton corporate leadership, headed by Lucas himself. The result was, essentially, a hollowed-out developer.

So hollow, in fact, that Disney apparently never seriously considered keeping the company around as anything other than a name – it was deemed to be more profitable to license LucasArts’s SW products out to other publishers than to continue to invest several millions of dollars into each new, probably-poorly-reviewed game. This month’s Star Wars: Battlefront (read our review here) was the first release of a new 10-year deal with Electronic Arts on the console/PC side of the equation, and on the mobile side, developer Kabam has already provided Star Wars: Uprising. Both have at least certain elements that help fill in the 30-year backstory between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

PURGING – AND RESTARTING – THE EXPANDED UNIVERSE

It had all started innocently enough: a publisher wrote Lucasfilm in the late ‘80s asking for its permission to license a trilogy of books set after Episode VI, thinking it would be a best-seller. It had no idea. Since the 1991 release of Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, an entire sub-industry of literally several hundred novels, comic books, short stories, videogames and action figures has flooded store shelves.

Right from day one, the new leadership at Lucasfilm knew it wanted to handle this so-called Star WarsExpanded Universe in a decidedly different way. After several months’ worth of preparatory steps, it finally pulled the trigger on what could arguably be called the single biggest shakeup in the franchise’s history – the wiping out of the EU’s convoluted (and occasionally contradictory) continuity and starting anew, with a completely blank canvas in front of it and a whole lot of experience behind it.

Although (unsurprisingly) controversial, the move has allowed Lucasfilm to synthesize the elements of both trilogies together – which was impossible prior to the prequels’ 1999 debut, of course – but also, perhaps more importantly, to drop in clues to the future story that the new sequels and Anthologies will unleash on audiences starting next month.

CREATION OF THE LUCASFILM STORY GROUP

Just in case rebooting the Expanded Universe wasn’t drastic enough, Lucasfilm and Disney have added another wrinkle to the narrative formula, something which has never before been attempted in Star Wars’s 38-year history: unified storytelling.

The Lucasfilm Story Group is an advisory body that consists of several different individuals, ranging from the long-time keepers of the most obscure SW continuity to the company’s brand-new management team. Its singular job is to assist whatever writer, editor, or director is toiling away on a new chapter of the suddenly-overarching mythos, whether that be a new novel, comic, videogame, or, even, one of the new films. In this way, everything is interconnected, fully canon, and, hopefully, cogent (as opposed to the schizophrenic mess that largely defined the EU’s original iteration) – as Lucasfilm itself has noted, every single release potentially marks a new fan’s entry into the teeming universe that is Star Wars, and the Story Group wants to ensure that each experience is “meaningful.”

THE CHANGING OF THE COMIC BOOK GUARD

Dark Horse Comics, which has long been associated with licensed titles, made a mark for itself in 1991 when it released the four-issue Dark Empire miniseries, a storyline that was not only set after the original trilogy, but that was also tied into Zahn’s new Heir to the Empire novel that had released only six months previously. In one stroke, the company had essentially created the Expanded Universe and simultaneously ensured that it would be able to continuously publish Star Wars comics for the next 23 years.

Keeping all facets of SW’s development in-house was a major priority for The Walt Disney Company, however, and just as The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network (which is owned by rival Warner Bros.) was axed in favor of Rebels on Disney XD, the comic book license was pulled from Dark Horse and instead given over to Marvel, another one of Disney’s many corporate subsidiaries.

It should be noted that the move is actually something of a homecoming, as Marvel was the very first company to publish stories set in George Lucas’s universe all the way back in 1977, when A New Hopefirst came out. Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?

THE DIGITAL EDITIONS OF THE FILMS

In addition to the never-ending flow of merchandise and the Expanded Universe, Star Wars has long been dominated by the constant re-releases of the movies on various home media, from VHS to LaserDisc to DVD and Blu-ray. Most of these saw different packing, assorted special features (which were, back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, short interviews with Lucas that would introduce each of the original films), and various marketing efforts, making SW the first – if not the only – series for most consumers to purchase on multiple occasions across multiple years.

Disney has similarly jumped on the bandwagon, releasing a digital version of all six movies (replete with new bonus features!) on April 10, 2015. Beyond simply maintaining tradition, the new (re)release is noteworthy for what Disney didn’t do – continue to tweak with the actual content of the movies, a Pandora’s Box Lucas himself had opened with the 1997 Special Editions of the original trilogy and which had never managed to be closed until Disney’s ownership; even the recent Blu-ray release in 2011 saw a plethora of (admittedly minor) edits, from the addition of new background elements to the (slight) re-editing of specific scenes.

FORCE FRIDAY

It has been estimated that Star Wars has raked in somewhere around $38 billion from the first film’s release in May 1977 to Lucas’s handing of his company over in October 2012. At least $975 million of that has come from its myriad and copious merchandising, ranging from bed sheets to fruit snacks to the now-ubiquitous action figures and Lego sets.

What’s even more staggering is just how much more money the brand has made under Disney’s watchful eye; already, just three years after the deal, the company has made back all $4 billion of its investment – and The Force Awakens has yet to even hit theaters. This has been accomplished by expanding the Force-powered wares available (a trip to your local Target will yield at least a few Star Wars items in nearly every single department) and, much more significantly, by rewriting the marketing book in the build-up to Episode VII. The epitome of this approach was seen on September 4, 2015 – called “Force Friday” – when the first Force Awakens-related materials (from novels to toys to Halloween costumes) went on sale. The day essentially functioned as a Star Wars-only Black Friday.

Needless to say, Hollywood marketing will never be the same again.

STAR WARS LAND

The Disney Company has long held Star Wars-themed experiences in its various parks around the world; the motion-simulator Star Tours originally opened in Disneyland in the distant year of 1987. Still, the property holds more than enough material to furnish an entire theme park out of, let alone a handful of attractions, and while George Lucas could never come to an agreement with Disney Parks and Resorts’s management (he wanted to spend more money on the rides’ technology and theming, whereas the previous executives wanted to simply coast on the franchise’s very long coattails to maximize profit), all that has now been rendered irrelevant.

The result is a full-fledged Star Wars Land that is currently scheduled to go into Disneyland in Anaheim and Hollywood Studios (one of four parks at Walt Disney World) in Orlando. Revolving around a brand-new, never-before-seen planet in the Star Wars lore, guests will be able to hop aboard the Millennium Falcon and interact with an assortment of aliens once it opens. The only downside? Construction doesn’t start until next year, and the land won’t debut until sometime around 2021.

In the meantime, however, Star Wars theme park fans can experience “Season of the Force” at both Disneyland and Disney World Resorts. The marketing tie-in with The Force Awakens consists of exclusive food and beverages, character meet-‘n-greets, and a special overlay of Space Mountain (in California) and a fireworks show (in Florida). The event runs from now until the end of January.

CONCLUSION

Do you like the new direction that Disney has put Lucasfilm – and all of Star Wars – down? Are there other alterations that you think are more important to make? Let all the galactic citizens know in the comments below.

Star Wars: The 10 Biggest Changes Disney Has Made

Deadpool characters charted in not-innuendo-at-all Venn diagram

There are a ton of new characters in 20th Century Fox‘s upcoming Deadpool movie that fans will be meeting for the first time, and to help you better understand who the good and bad guys are, Ryan Reynolds has debuted a very shapely Venn diagram offering some tips. You can check out the completely normal and not-innuendo-at-all diagram featuring the Deadpool characters below.

Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, Deadpool tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.

Ryan Reynolds stars as the title character alongside T.J. Miller as Weasel, Gina Carano as Angel Dust, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Morena Baccarin as Copycat and Ed Skrein as Ajax. The film will also feature the mutant Colossus, voiced by Serbian actor Stefan Kapicic. Reynolds has expressed a desire that Hugh Jackman might cameo as Wolverine, though it remains unconfirmed as to whether or not he will actually appear.

Tim Miller is directing the movie from a script by Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Confirmed to be rated R, Deadpool is scheduled for a release on February 12, 2016.

Last year we had the opportunity to chat with Reynolds on the Vancouver set of the film. If you haven’t already had a chance, check out our Deadpool set visit report. We’ve also got spotlights on the Deadpool characters as well as behind-the-scenes looks at films featuring Ryan Reynolds and Gina Carano.

Confused About the Deadpool Characters? There’s a Diagram for That

Josh Brolin on playing Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Josh Brolin is starring in the new Coen brothers film Hail, Caesar! which opens on February 5. While chatting with him for the comedy about the golden age of Hollywood, he talked a little bit about another role he’s playing; Thanos, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We’ve already seen his face and heard his voice, but we’re going to see more of him in the films leading up to the two Infinity War films. Brolin gave us a quick look into doing the motion capture for the Marvel villain, the number of cameras filming him and how he feels about the decision to take the role.

Brolin said, “It’s not voice work, it’s mo-cap. I’m there. I’m there and I’m not in a booth. I’m being filmed. I have a bunch of crap on my face. [laughs] I’m being filmed by like thirty-four cameras? Thirty-six cameras? Something like that. Every movement, everything. So, it’s very new to me, it’s very exciting, it’s very unnerving. But I sure trust these guys! You know? We’re supposed to get together very soon to talk about the trajectory of Thanos in the next few years and it’s very exciting. It’s one of the better decisions I think I’ve made.”

Avengers: Infinity War Part I will hit theaters on May 4, 2018 and Infinity War Part II on May 3, 2019. Brolin stars as Hollywood fixer Eddie Mannix in Hail, Caesar! alongside Channing Tatum, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Jonah Hill and Alden Ehrenreich.

Josh Brolin on Playing Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

WHY THE WARCRAFT MOVIE WILL UPSET PLAYERS

Blizzard finally dropped the full theatrical trailer for Warcraft, the story that takes place before the World of Warcraft game. The film seems like it’ll depict the arrival of the brutal orc-race on the world of Azeroth. It looks as though it’s mostly centered on the orc and human races, but you can be sure we’ll be seeing some dwarves and trolls in there, and, with any luck, a few more notable races as well. And you can also be sure a big contingent of gamers are absolutely going to hate it.

LORE CHANGES
Hardcore WoW gamers love their lore, and when it comes to the story of how orcs came to Azeroth, there’s more than enough to occupy you for hours. Which means it simply can’t all make it into the movie. Will the film feature the same Dark Portal? Probably. Will we meet the human sorcerer Medivh who helped the orcs come to Azeroth? Yep, he’s played by Ben Foster. Will we get really in depth into the Burning Legion and Gul’Dan and drinking demon blood and orcs changing colors and Sargeras and other words we couldn’t fit into this paragraph because they make no sense to you if you’ve never played the game? Maybe not so much.

RACES AND CLASSES
This movie will tell the story before the story, and that’s a significant thing for fans to remember. If all you know is World of Warcraft, you may expect this movie to be brimming with panda bears and goblins. However, the movie is likely much closer to the original PC game, which involved a lot of resource-gathering and town-building, and was much lighter on story and characters than WoW. The result is that you can probably expect a total lack of Undead, since they shouldn’t even exist yet, no Night Elves, no Blood Elves, no Death Knights, no Worgen, no Horde Paladins, no Draenei, and also very few of the characters that exist in current lore, since this movie is mostly about their forefathers. That said, maybe we’ll get an easter egg or two.

WHO’S THE BOSS?
Every gamer takes a bit of pride and ownership of their adventures, and it’s no different in Warcraft. Ironically, this is part of the downfall of any movie based on a game, too. It tasks you with becoming the viewer instead of the hero, and you watch with a critical eye towards all the things that should have been different. Sure, this may be the story of Anduin Lothar, but if you were playing him you’d totally have better weapons and you’d absolutely hit up the Horde village with a badass raid from your guild and crush them all before the credits even finished rolling, so what the hell is the point of this movie anyway? Our point is that gamers like being in control of the story. The movie makes you watch someone else in control, and unless it’s on Twitch or YouTube, watching someone else play is always going to make hardcore gamers a little antsy.

EPICNESS
“Epic” is a regular part of our vocabulary these days thanks in large part to Warcraft, which set the standard for MMORPG’s and how you gear up. You have regular gear, you have good gear, and you have epic gear. Everyone wants to be epic. Everything must be epic, and this is true for a movie as well. Every fight must be more epic than the last, and every new character must be more epic than the one we just met. The movie must build in all things, and that means heading into the inevitable sequel, when everything has to be bigger and better and flashier—or WoW fans will be let down. Why? That’s simply the way the game works.

IS THAT AN ORC?
Quick, what color is an orc supposed to be? Brown? Grey? Green? Hell, red? “Yes” is sort of the answer, and so is “no” as far as Warcraft is concerned. Orcs started off green, and then that story got changed a little bit. Then the orcs were brown, and then someone drank some cursed blood and some orcs turned red and some turned green—and some orcs are more war-like than others as a result. And basically whatever the movie chooses to do—and it looks like they went both green and brown—some people are just going to say it’s wrong. Because when it comes to orcs, we just can’t see past skin color.

THE ADAPTATION BLUES
If you’ve ever heard “the book is better than the movie,” you know where this one is coming from. The original medium in which a story is presented to people is often the one they fall in love with. It’s not just the story, it’s how the story is told. In Warcraft, that’s via gameplay. That can never be replaced for some people and, in fact, can only be ruined by trying to translate it into anything else. You see this all the time with anything from TV to movies, or movies to video games. No matter what way the translation goes, something will be lost and fans of the original will curse it like it’s riddled with the plague.

TOO MUCH KNOWLEDGE
Warcraft fans are cursed with knowing the future of the franchise when it comes to this movie, and also with just how every character should be able to react to every other character. If Gul’dan is the first warlock, then we know he has a demon minion somewhere. If this guy is a paladin, we know he can heal himself and he should be able to bubble before the next round of attacks. And if there’s a mage in the fight, why isn’t he opening a portal so we can get reinforcements anyway? Just put the hunter’s pet on aggressive so it distracts everyone for a second.

When the movie deviates from what fans think the characters should do, it’ll just be met with scorn. Just look at how uppity fans get when Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings adaptations strayed from source material—and that was only a couple of stupid books. This is a video game. It’s serious.

WHY THE WARCRAFT MOVIE WILL UPSET PLAYERS

APOCALYPSE’S POWERS

Now that we’ve learned just how closely the origin of this take on Storm will stick to the comic books, one might think the same would be true for Apocalypse. As the post-credits scene of Days of Future Pastshowed, Apocalypse would still rise to power (along with his Four Horsemen) in the days of ancient Egypt, and be blessed with the telekinesis needed to assemble an entire pyramid. After that, his powers get a bit more… comic book-ish. In short, he can do just about anything a comic book reader could think of.

For the X-Men movie universe, some restrictions need to be applied. While that might sound disappointing to fans, Singer reveals a new origin for the villain – and an explanation for his immortality – that will have fans more curious than upset:

“He moves from body to body. Apocalypse himself is not a physical form, he’s an energy. I don’t know what he is. What he does is he accumulates powers over the millenia by moving from body to body, and what’s wonderful is he thinks in the beginning of the film he’s found this great body. I don’t want to give away what the power of the body this mutant has but it’s a familiar one that you’ve seen a number of very famous mutants have. It kind of ends up being the wrong one because he gets stuck in it for a long time, but then suddenly he has this opportunity and that becomes his agenda.

“He has a number of different powers that he’s acquired over the years as he’s moved from body to body, accumulating these various abilities. One of them is to imbue other mutants and to heighten their powers and abilities beyond anything they ever imagined. Secondly he can shield from psychic powers, he can form shields so that it makes it harder for a psychic like Xavier to tap in and get to them. He’s not a psychic himself though. He can amplify your power, transform you as a mutant but his ability to physically damage, destroy, or build is in the non-biological world. That’s in the physical world, he can change the inorganic molecules of things.

The one restriction should be immediately obvious, since the comics saw Apocalypse able to reshape his own body, size, and density at will (making him a tough villain to actually beat). The same thinking is likely behind the decision to remove telepathy from his power suite, granting him the power to manipulate others to his cause, but not sense when they may be straying from the path – a pivotal point if Magneto, Storm, Angel or Psylocke are ever going to return to the side of our heroes.

Singer went on to tease more powers being explored, since the possibly infinite number of former hosts could offer plenty of tricks up his sleeve – and the question of where Apocalypse’s true origin lies, as a being of energy, isn’t going to be answered before the movie hits theaters. The core mystery seems to be the one body Apocalypse attempted to occupy, when a mutant ability he craved turned out to be more than he bargained for, and presumably saw him disappear for centuries.

If he’s been able to actually plot or plan that entire time, then the X-Men looking to stand against him will be in for a massive fight.

THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB

So, how do you find the right person to bring to life a mutant who is as old as time, perfectly equipped to manipulate minions, draw followers willingly to his cause, and attempt to rule the world with an iron fist? Apparently, it wasn’t a difficult question, since Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina) was their top pick:

“He was our first choice. When we started talking about Apocalypse, it was back when we were making Days of Future Past and we started talking about who could actually play the part from the standpoint of who could hold the screen and even dominate the screen with Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, all the actors we have.”

That’s a task that Isaac is more than up for, having earned critical acclaim in half a dozen movies in recent years. Ex Machina, Inside Llewyn Davis, Show Me a Hero, and A Most Violent Year may be targeted at a different audience than an X-Men adventure, but given what’s been said about Apocalypse, there’s enough character work to put Isaac’s skills to work. That’s assuming that Singer hopes to make him as nuanced and believable a villain as Magneto before him.

But talent wasn’t the only reason Isacc was a perfect choice. In a world where superhero franchises are regularly criticized for giving little representation to minority actors (or characters), Singer and his team made the decision to cast a non-Caucasian actor if they could. Their criteria wasn’t as explicit as Apocalypse’s presumed ethnicity – Egyptian? Arab? A blue-skinned alien mutant? – but it did play a role in their search:

“In terms of his ethnicity, we wanted it to be someone who wasn’t white so that was actually another part of the decision process, so that was a nice coincidence for us even though he’s not, as you say, Egyptian or Middle Eastern. But really it came from a place of who’s the best actor in the world to us who hasn’t already been in an X-Men movie [laughs] or some other superhero movie, because we couldn’t cast somebody from Avengers.”

Deadpool opens in theaters February 12, 2016; X-Men: Apocalypse on May 27, 2016; Gambit sometime in 2017; Wolverine 3 on March 3, 2017; and an unannounced X-Men film on July 13, 2018. The New Mutants is also in development.

X-Men: Apocalypse’s New Superpowers & Origin Explained

The Harry potter series is world famous and I’m sure that all of you would’ve read the books and would’ve watched the movies atleast a 100 times. But here are a few facts which you wouldn’t have noticed:

We all know that the deathly hallows were given to the three brothers by death. Well apparently the three brothers are The Dark Lord – Lord Voldemort with the Elder Wand, Professor Snape with the Resurrection stone and Harry Potter with the invisible cloak.

THE FAMOUS QUIDDITCH PLAYER PROFESSOR McGONAGALL:

 We all know that Professor Mcgonagall was a professor and the vice principal at Hogwarts. But apparently she was a very famous qudditch player. She played along with James Potter, Harry’s father.

TOM FELTON (DRACO MALFOY) AS HARRY POTTER

Tom Felton actually auditioned for the role of Harry Potter and for the role of Ronald Weasley also. But then he was ultimately selected for the role of Draco Malfoy.

SIRIUS BLACK COULD’VE BEEN ALIVE:

 Yes, you heard me right. It was actually Arthur Weasley who was supposed to die instead of Sirius Black in the fifth part. But then ultimately it was decided that Artthur Weasley must survive and Sirius Black must die.

THE FIRST AND LAST WORDS OF DOBBY:

The first and last words of Dobby were the same and it is “HARRY POTTER.” Well it turns out that Dobby is very faithful to Harry than what we think.

5 Facts You May Not Know About The Harry Potter Serie