What The James Gunn Guardians 3 News Means For The Suicide Squad

What The James Gunn Guardians 3 News Means For The Suicide Squad

In a surprising bombshell, it has been reported that James Gunn will be returning to direct Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after being fired from the project last summer. This is great news for the film and Marvel fans, but is it bad news for Suicide Squad 2, the DC film Gunn signed on to write and direct after his firing? Thankfully, no, James Gunn’s return to Guardians 3 will not impact The Suicide Squad.

In the report from Deadline about James Gunn’s reinstatement as director for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it is revealed that James Gunn will still write and direct The Suicide Squad as planned. This complicates the time table for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but Marvel Studios has agreed to wait to begin production on the threequel until after James Gunn finishes The Suicide Squad for Warner Bros. and DC.

This was all made possible because Marvel never even met with or considered other filmmakers to replace James Gunn. The studio seemingly knew that there was nobody else who could do the job and infuse the same personality James Gunn did that would appease the fans and the cast. So Marvel was willing to wait for him to do Suicide Squad 2 first.

It would have been easy for DC fans and those excited to see what James Gunn could do with The Suicide Squad to get worried upon reading headlines about his Marvel return, but those fears are unfounded. Essentially, James Gunn’s return to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 means nothing for The Suicide Squad other than that we’ll be getting two James Gunn comic book movies, in two different universes, back to back.

This is one of those rare situations that is pretty much a win-win all around. James Gunn gets a second chance and those who felt he was unfairly fired see that situation righted, DC still gets a great filmmaker to come in and put his stamp on the universe with some exciting characters in The Suicide Squad, and we get James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Sure, we aren’t getting Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as soon as we once expected, but up until today it seemed like the best we could hope for was that James Gunn’s script would be used. Now James Gunn will return to both write and direct. Dave Bautista and the rest of the cast have to be ecstatic.

Speaking of casts, we still don’t know exactly who will and won’t be returning for Suicide Squad 2, but we do know that Idris Elba will be replacing Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie is expected to reprise her role as Harley Quinn.

The Suicide Squad is set to hit theaters on August 6, 2021. A new release date for James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has not been set. For release dates we do know, check out our premiere guide to see what’s headed to theaters this year.

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Dark Phoenix's Jessica Chastain Told Sophie Turner To Stand Up For Herself To Co-Star

Dark Phoenix's Jessica Chastain Told Sophie Turner To Stand Up For Herself To Co-Star

Sophie Turner will soon reprise her badass roles as Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones in the highly-anticipated final season and as an ultra-powerful Jean Grey in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The 23-year-old actress isn’t immune to moments of timidity, and recently spoke of a time when she was lifted up by one of her co-stars on the Dark Phoenix set. One actor apparently "walked off set" just as it became time for her to say her lines and a writer had to stand in for him for the scene. Here's what Turner said of the situation:

I actually have a really big problem with not being able to stand up for myself. Especially if I’m arguing against a man. Jessica Chastain is the one that said it to me, ‘You need to stand up for yourself more!’ She said, ‘Just go and talk to him, go and say something to him!’ I’m a bit of a shy, pushover person, but I’m getting there, I’m working on it.

Jessica Chastain, who also stars in Dark Phoenix, must have witnessed the awkward and disrespectful exchange between Sophie Turner and an undisclosed male actor and encouraged her to engage in a discussion with him about it.

In Sophie Turner’s cover interview with Glamour, the actress expressed that she sometimes struggles with speaking up for herself, but thanks to amazing co-workers such as Jessica Chastain, she is starting to improve. While we’re of course wondering who had the nerve to walk out on Turner in the middle of a scene, what’s important here is the moment of encouragement between her and Chastain.

As the interview notes, she really is getting better at speaking up for herself. Back in January, Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan agreed with a statement about celebrities trying to make mental health "fashionable." Sophie Turner took to Twitter to fiercely respond to his comments. Check it out:

Not so much of a pushover now! She not only clapped back, she did so with some alarming mental health statistics, and ended with a simple burn of "twat." The young actress is having a strong character arc of her own from the on-set incident to this Twitter call out – though face-to-face confrontation and typing out a tweet aren’t quite the same.

In Dark Phoenix, Jessica Chastain will play an alien shapeshifter who will be the sort of "devil on Jean’s shoulder" as Jean is faced with incredible new power she doesn’t know what to do with or control. From the footage we’ve seen thus far, the pair seem to share quite a few scenes together as Professor X, Magneto, and the mutants try to figure out how to stop their dangerous friend.

Sophie Turner will first return as her iconic Game of Thrones character on April 14 in a six-episode finale that’s sure to get the world talking. X-Men: Dark Phoenix comes to theaters on June 7, 2019.

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Armie Hammer Hasn’t Been Approached About The Batman, But He’s Down

Armie Hammer Hasn’t Been Approached About The Batman, But He’s Down

The DC live-action universe has had a fascinating tenure in theaters, full of peaks and valleys. As such, Warner Bros. is constantly adjusting their plans, with surprise news often hitting the general public after the fact. Following the poor performance of Justice League, the DCEU is pivoting away from serialized storytelling, with movies like Aquaman and Shazam! focusing on their title character, void of crossovers.

In some ways it feels like the DCEU we knew had ended, although the shared universe seems to have hit its stride in the process. But that puts the plans for the Justice League members in jeopardy, especially Superman, Cyborg, Flash, and Batman. The latter was played by Ben Affleck in three movies, but he's officially hung up his cowl and cape for good. Matt Reeves will have to recast for his developing movie The Batman, with names like Armie Hammer on the top of fan lists. Now Hammer has spoken to these rumors, saying:

Yeah, that’s the problem: I’ve never been approached, but if I was, I would jump at the opportunity. You can only say 'no' or 'yes' to projects you’re offered.

Well, that's certainly exciting. While shutting down rumors that he's been approached to play DC's new Bruce Wayne, Armie Hammer also revealed that he's absolutely interested. So if he gets the call, Hammer would be down to don the iconic suit and use all of Batman's wonderful toys.

Armie Hammer's comments to USA Today are sure to illicit plenty of reactions from comic book fans. Batman is one of the most popular superheroes ever, so there's a ton of pressure associated with the casting of the Dark Knight. There was plenty of backlash when Ben Affleck was first announced in the role, although he ended up proving himself, bringing a jaded and experienced adaptation to the silver screen. Hammer is at the top of fan lists for possible Batman replacements, so his excitement over the potential role is going to get heads spinning.

From what we've heard about Matt Reeves' The Batman, the project is going to star a younger version of Batman, and focus on his detective work in Gotham City. Armie Hammer seems like a solid choice, as Ben Affleck is 14 years his senior. There would certainly be a juxtaposition between the two actors, which might be exactly what Reeves is hoping for.

The latest news about The Batman also reveal that Matt Reeves is reportedly looking for a big name to play his Caped Crusader. Armie Hammer's star power has been steadily growing over the past few years, so he might be the tier of fame that Reeves is hoping for. He got action experience in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., starred in Oscar bait Call Me By Your Name, and even voiced a superhero in Stan Lee's Mighty 7. So it might be the perfect time for Hammer to step into a full on superhero role of his own in live-action.

Armie Hammer has a history with Batman, as he was cast as the role in George Miller's failed Justice League Mortal movie. He's ultimately glad his role didn't come to fruition, but I guess he's still got his eye on the cowl.

Armie Hammer's Hotel Mumbai opens in theaters this weekend. Be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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Terminator: Dark Fate's Sarah Connor Is A 'Bad Grandma With A Shotgun,’ According To James Cameron

Terminator: Dark Fate's Sarah Connor Is A 'Bad Grandma With A Shotgun,’ According To James Cameron

There are plenty of reasons to bring back a character as memorable and important as Sarah Connor is to the Terminator franchise. Among the typical reasons of bringing original franchise fans back under the tent, as well as erasing the series of the franchise’s more questionable follow-ups, there’s one in particular that appealed to series creator James Cameron when he sat down to help craft what we’ve come to know recently as Terminator: Dark Fate.

For him, Sarah Connor not only represents the good old days of his franchise’s vision, she’s also a counterpart to some male actors who have been given the chance she has now to become what he calls a, “bad grandma with a shotgun.” Cameron explained this in the following remarks from a recent interview:

Sure, there are lots of female empowerment characters -- you've got Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman and Black Widow. There's quite a list. How many of them are over 40? Not too many. Gets to be a very short list. Talking about action empowered, action females. There are all these dewy young things. How many of them are over 60? Big fat zero. And now you start looking back through history and how many female action hero prototypical characters that were over 60. Lots of guys. Lots of midlife crisis guys -- you know, Bruce Wilis, Liam Neeson, Clint Eastwood, they're still packing guns into their 80s. How many ladies? Not too many. So I thought, 'This is worth doing, this is a great thing to do.'

Much like the return of James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Terminator franchise in Terminator: Dark Fate, bringing back Linda Hamilton’s female bad ass from the original two films signals the return of the original team that made The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day so memorable. But in addition, Hamilton can now claim herself as a role model in the same vein as Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson, and Clint Eastwood before her, as Sarah Connor’s return is key to the story that James Cameron helped set out to tell in Terminator: Dark Fate.

This information from James Cameron, who serves as not only a producer but a writer on Terminator: Dark Fate, came from a now-pulled interview that he’d done with Flicks and the City. And in that same interview, in-between mentioning how this new film would be a continuation of John Connor’s story from Terminator 2, Cameron continued to lay down just why Sarah Connor’s inclusion in this latest film, alongside co-stars Mackenzie Davis’ Grace and Natalia Reyes’ Dani, is so important.

As it turns out, in his eyes, Sarah Connor is part of a trinity of the following archetypes he wanted to use in the film’s story:

In the Greek mythology, you have the three female archetypes -- there's the virgin, the mother, and the grandmother. Well, in our society, we discount the grandmother. But in ancient societies, the grandmother was the keeper of wisdom, the judge, the keeper of the values, sometimes the witch, the sorceress, the seer of the future. ... So this is a powerful archetypal figure. You put that together with a known great kickass action hero I think you've got something special and something you haven't seen before. ... She's bad grandma with a shotgun, and you'd better watch your ass.

Information such as this starts to help decode just what Terminator: Dark Fate may be about, as Linda Hamilton is squarely cast in the role of “grandmother” Sarah Connor, bringing new light to a Greek archetype that gets overlooked quite often. Which means that newcomers Grace and Dani are probably the “Mother” and the “Virgin” respectively, as Grace looks to come from an embattled future in order to protect Dani, a virgin in the sense that this is her first foray into the world of Skynet’s covert war against humanity.

How these respective roles will play out, and whether or not Sarah Connor will survive her return to the party in Terminator: Dark Fate are both up in the air. But if James Cameron keeps giving interviews such as this one, we’ll probably get just enough clues to start asking some specific questions pertaining to that very subject.

Terminator: Dark Fate will be released into theaters on November 1, so let the self-ass watching commence!

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Game Of Thrones’ Richard Madden May Be Joining Marvel’s The Eternals

Game Of Thrones’ Richard Madden May Be Joining Marvel’s The Eternals

Two of the biggest pop culture topics of conversation right now are Marvel and Game of Thrones, thanks to the former delivering Avengers: Endgame and the latter airing its final season. Richard Madden was part of Game of Thrones once upon a time as Robb Stark, and now it’s looking like he could lend his talent to Marvel as well via The Eternals.

Richard Madden is currently in talks for a major role in The Eternals. The Wrap, which broke the news, didn’t provide any details about who Madden would play, but THR has heard that he’s being eyed to bring Ikaris to life. Since the Eternals were introduced to the pages of Marvel Comics in 1976, Ikaris has been one of the principal players of that property, so if Madden is cast in that role, he’ll certainly have a lot to do.

The former Game of Thrones star, who more recently starred in The Bodyguard and can be seen in Rocketman later this month, is the fourth actor to be associated with The Eternals. Angelina Jolie has reportedly been confirmed to play Sersei, Train to Busan actor Ma Dong-seok has boarded and Kumail Nanjiani has been in talks to join the cast.

Marvel didn’t comment on Richard Madden being in consideration, nor has it provided any official plot details about The Eternals yet. However, supposedly the movie will follow the love story between Ikaris and Sersei, meaning we’d be seeing Madden and Angelina Jolie getting quite cozy with one another.

Like the other Eternals, Ikaris is long-lived and boasts incredible power. His life force is augmented by cosmic energy, allowing him total control over his physical form, to the point he’s able to regenerate tissue, levitate, shoot cosmic beams and psychically scan minds less evolved then his own, among numerous other abilities. Outside of the comics, Ikaris’ only appearance has been in the video game Marvel Heroes, but if The Eternals is anything like Guardians of the Galaxy, then he and his fellow Eternals will skyrocket in popularity once their movie is out.

Although we’re still in the dark about what The Eternals will specifically be about, earlier this year, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige talked about how the movie could stretch across many millennia, just like the original Jack Kirby stories did. It could also give us more insight into Thanos’ background, and if some, if not most of The Eternals is set in the past, maybe the Mad Titan could even pop in!

Directed by Chloe Zhao, The Eternals doesn’t have an assigned release date yet, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for that information and more updates on its development. For now, you can look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what else the MCU has coming down the pipeline.

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Emilia Clarke Almost Appeared In Iron Man 3

Emilia Clarke Almost Appeared In Iron Man 3

With credits on her resume like Game of Thrones, Terminator Genisys and Solo: A Star Wars Story, Emilia Clarke has become a well-known actress in the Hollywood sphere, but one thing she has yet to do is appear in a superhero movie. That said, apparently she almost had the chance to do so with 2013’s Iron Man 3.

Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Pearce recently shared a picture of a name card showing that during an early table read for the movie in 2012, he was reading for JARVIS, the role that belonged to Paul Bettany before he became The Vision. However, the bigger reveal in this Instagram post was that Emilia Clarke was present for this table read alongside Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle.

As for why Emilia Clarke didn’t end up appearing in Iron Man 3, Drew Pearce simply said:

long story, the script changed

Drew Pearce didn’t specify exactly when in 2012 this Iron Man 3 table read occurred, but filming began in May 23, so we can assume that these actors gathered together at least several weeks beforehand. At that point in time, Game of Thrones Season 1 had already been long out and Season 2 was either about to premiere or was a few episodes deep, so Emilia Clarke had taken her first steps to stardom, and Iron Man 3 surely would have propelled her further.

Alas, sometimes a story is altered even after folks have been cast, and while Drew Pearce didn’t provide any additional information on Emilia Clarke’s involvement in Iron Man 3, ultimately she had to depart the project. While it is interesting to imagine what Iron Man 3 would have been like had Clarke appeared, clearly her career didn’t suffer or stall as a result of not taking part in it.

Obviously the big question is who Emilia Clarke would have played in Iron Man 3, but there’s another thing to consider. Drew Pearce said Clarke had to depart because the script changed, so was she playing a character cut from the movie or was she playing someone that still showed up in the finalized story and she was simply recast.

Looking at the version of Iron Man 3 released to the public, there were only two primary characters, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts and Rebecca Hall’s Maya Hansen, plus Stephanie Szostak getting some screen time as Extremis-powered henchwoman Ellen Brandt. Maybe Clarke was the original actress to play Maya Hansen, back when the character had a bigger role in the movie? It’s also possible that Clarke was the original actress tapped to play Ellen Brandt, although even though she wasn’t nearly as famous back then, that seems like it would have been too small a role for her.

I’m more inclined to think that Emilia Clarke was tapped to appear in Iron Man 3 as a character who was removed from the story, meaning that there’s no shortage of possibilities about who this individual was. One fan noted how on Drew Pearce’s post that Emilia Clarke had auditioned to play Sharon Carter in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and wondered if the character was supposed to show up in Iron Man 3 first, to which Pearce responded, “Good guess but no.”

In any case, Emilia Clarke missed out on appearing in Iron Man 3, but that doesn’t mean she won’t get another opportunity to appear in another superhero movie down the line. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has plenty of movies coming up that Clarke could score a leading role in. Or, maybe she could follow in the footsteps of Game of Thrones costar Jason Momoa and hop to the DC Extended Universe instead. We’ll just have to wait and see.

With Game of Thrones now over, Emilia Clarke will appear next in Netflix’s Last Christmas. As for the MCU, Avengers: Endgame is still going strong in theaters and Spider-Man: Far From Home will wrap up Phase 3 on July 2.

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Danny DeVito Teased Michael Keaton About Dumbo's Batman Returns Role Reversal

Danny DeVito Teased Michael Keaton About Dumbo's Batman Returns Role Reversal

For Tim Burton’s remake of the 1941 Disney classic Dumbo, the prolific filmmaker reassembled his Dark Knight and Penguin from Batman Returns to play alongside the soaring circus elephant. 27 years later, Burton opted to give Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito a different roles in his film to play this time around. Looks like DeVito couldn’t get enough of the role-reversal, per his recent words:

In Batman, [Keaton] plays the good guy. Now in Dumbo, I play the good guy and he plays the bad guy. I needle him about it all the time.

Insert DeVito’s penguin chuckle here. The character actor is well-known for playing a signature baddie, especially in 1992’s Batman Returns, alongside Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman, along with his other iconic roles of Mr. Wormwood in Matilda and his longtime mischief as Frank on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. He loved the idea of going back to playing a character of a softer, kind-hearted nature with Disney’s Dumbo, especially since Keaton would now be the one he gets to steal the good guy glory from.

In the family-friendly flick, Danny DeVito plays Max Medici, a ringmaster of a financially struggling circus who is approached by Michael Keaton’s V. A. Vandevere, a powerful entrepreneur who has bigger plans and dollar signs in his eyes for his popular spectacle Dumbo soon becomes.

Michael Keaton recently pulled off another villainous role in Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017, so it’s not a big surprise for audiences. Danny DeVito’s recent comments to Entertainment Weekly seem to indicate a fondness for how the tables have turned since their last movie together. Although, there’s another reason why he was attracted to taking on a more friendly role in Dumbo. In his words:

Sometimes I embarrass my kids. On Sunny, I do a lot of crazy things. Sometimes I cringe when I think about how this is gonna play with my kids. In Dumbo, I think they were all pretty happy. I’m in good shape with my kids.

In recent years, Danny Devito has been seen seldom on the big screen due to his hilarious 13 season stint as Frank on his FX comedy series, where the actor will do or say just about anything for a good bit. As you can imagine, the often twisted humor that’s a regular on the show doesn’t always play well with his children.

It’s certainly nice to see Danny DeVito back in a movie, and with Michael Keaton as they take on opposite dynamics from their Batman Returns roles. DeVito will also star in more family-friendly faire in the upcoming Jumanji sequel alongside Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black coming in December.

As far as Batman and Penguin go, the upcoming new iteration of the character from Matt Reeves is rumored to feature the two adversaries facing off once again, following Tim Burton’s 1992 take.

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