Weekly Round Up: Elisabeth Moss, Finn Wolfhard, Idris Elba

11th March 2019

While news is still thin on the ground as to what Marvel Studios plan to do with the Guardians of the Galaxy following James Gunn’s departure (seriously, that’s still some of the dumbest decision making I’ve ever seen), it seems Gunn himself is wasting no time moving on to other things.

In a surprise move, admittedly a smart one on behalf of Warner/DC, Gunn switched teams and was brought on to write and maybe direct the follow-up to total mess of a movie Suicide Squad. Anyone who has followed Gunn’s career and seen at least the Guardians films knows that this is a pretty decent choice, with the concept of a ragtag group of misfit “villains” coming together for the greater good being something that Gunn has done to impressive results before.

Now it would seem that we have our first bit of casting news for what is now being called The Suicide Squad. We know already that Gunn’s sequel plans to jettison pretty much all of the existing cast, but it was unclear whether that would mean seeing new faces in terms of characters or simply the actors playing them.

Well, it looks like we have an answer to that question now, as this week saw the announcement that everyone’s favourite would-be Bond, Idris Elba, has signed on to take over the role of Deadshot from actor Will Smith, who appeared in the original.

We also learned that Harley Quinn will be returning, presumably played by Margot Robbie, as she has become almost iconic in the role, while we also got an interesting list of new villains who will join the Squad. These include Ratcatcher, who will be gender swapped to be a woman, Peacemaker, who was the basis for The Comedian in Alan Moore’s Watchmen, King Shark, one of the more outlandish of the group, and Batman villain Polka Dot Man.

Who will be playing these characters is anyone’s guess at the moment, but since this is a James Gunn joint then we can expect to see Michael Rooker pop up in some capacity, while it has been rumoured that Gunn is eyeing Dave Batista, whom he worked with on Guardians, for one of the roles. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

While we’re on the topic of superhero movies, Marvel Studios announced this week that their upcoming The Eternals movie will feature an openly gay superhero, making another first for the studio, who this week saw the release of their first female led movie, Captain Marvel (go see it, it’s great).

While not much is known about The Eternals movie (seriously, like, we don’t even have a release date for this one, although it’s an educated guess to assume it’s the untitled project scheduled for a November release date next year), but the studio put a call out for an openly gay actor who “physically looks like a superhero” for one of the leads, with Marvel production chief Victoria Alonso being quoted as saying “the world is ready”.

Marvel have a pretty decent output so I’m down for whatever they decide to do at this point, and I’ll admit I am very much looking forward to reading all the comments from whiny babies who dislike anything that shatters their little bubble. Always fun.

And, speaking of whiny babies, the new Ghostbusters movie, which will be directed by Jason Reitman (son of Ivan) had some casting news this week.

We already know that the film will take place within the original movie’s continuity, and not that of the 2016 reboot, while it has been scheduled for a Summer release of next year and will reportedly focus on a younger cast in a “passing of the torch” style story.

Well, it appears that that is, in fact true, at least in part, with this week’s news being that Finn Wolfhard – who most people will recognise from Netflix’s 80s set sci-fi show Stranger Things – has been cast in a role central to the new film, while Carrie Coon – who appeared in Infinity War and TVs Fargo – has been cast as his mother. How they fit into this all I don’t know, but to seems that the film will definitely be focusing on a younger cast.

And now, the most important news of all time, ever. Leigh Whannel’s The Invisible Man reboot is still happening, with confirmation now that he will be directing the film as well as writing it. However, whether or not it will be The Invisible Man has been somewhat thrown into question, with news breaking this week that actress Elisabeth Moss, who made waves with The Handmaid’s Tale, is in early talks to star.

What that means, I don’t know. Will she be The Invisible Woman instead, or will she be playing a character who doesn’t turn invisible? So many questions. I can’t wait to see what Whannell has up his sleeve for this one. I’m pumped for it.

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