Marvel wins the news cycle today.
Last night they had an open house for some very lucky reporters before they all then got to go see a special press screening for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2. The film, if you were nervous, is getting some great advanced buzz, so wipe those brows and praise be to The Beyonder.
But, we can’t talk about that as we weren’t there. Not to mention, reviews are all under embargo until next week. What we can talk about, however, is what the reporters all got to see and what they’re all talking about today.
Let’s start with Black Panther. The reporters were all shown a sizzle reel for the film, which featured interviews with Kevin Feige, Chadwick Boseman, director Ryan Coogler and others. According to The Nerdist, in the reel we hear Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige say of T’Challa, “… going forward, Black Panther will be a big part of the cinematic universe.” This is an important thing to note because Phase Three marks the end of a lot of contracts for a lot of the bigger names in the MCU. We may see the likes of Chris Evans and Robert Downey, Jr. leaving the ranks of the Avengers, which will leave a very large vacancy. Characters like the Black Panther, who fight like Captain America and have the resources of Iron Man could be the future of the franchise. By the sound of what Feige is saying, that seems to be the case.
Along with this behind-the-scenes featurette they also showed some dailies to the reporters. Among the footage was Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, one of the Dora Milaje, arriving at Warrior Falls for the coronation of King T’Challa. At the same time, in another boat, we see Danai Gurira as Okoye arriving. T’Challa himself is shirtless and bears the marks of the panther on his shoulders, chest and back. There was also some badass footage of Nyong’o as Nakia kicking all sorts of ass while wearing nothing but a hooded cloak.
Finally, at the end of the presentation, they showed some tremendously badass footage of Klaw (Andy Serkis) and his entourage entering a casino in South Korea where he sits down to meet with Everett Ross (Martin Freeman). Freeman makes a few jokes, but Klaw is unreceptive. Throughout this entire scene we can hear T’Challa and his Dora Milaje communicating with each other to coordinate an attack. Once they pull the trigger on it, Ross grabs the briefcase and takes off. Our guess is this is what leads to that crazy car chase through South Korea that will involve over a hundred cars.
Moving on, they also showed some concept art for Captain Marvel, in which she’s reported to look very similar to how she does in the comics, as you can see below. The biggest difference in her uniform is that it has more armor to it, which would make total sense. Also, in the concept art we see Captain Marvel fighting a giant robot thing which some outlets have referred to as a Kree Sentry. This would go a long way in connecting her story to that of the Mar-Vell origin story where the Kree scientist and soldier had to fight one that awoke on Earth when the Fantastic Four showed up.
Also, reports are that she isn’t wearing the helmet. Sorry helmet fans. According to Slashfilm, the costume is very similar to this fan art of Brie Larson as Captain Marvel. One last thing — it seems that Marvel has a director in place for the film, but they’ve not announced anything just yet.
After Guardians, Thor: Ragnarok is the film most along the road to being completed as it comes out in November. Taika Waititi was on hand to talk about his film which will see Thor thrown into the storyline for Planet Hulk. As such, Waititi confirmed that we can expect to see some of the characters from that storyline making an appearance, such as the Kronan named Korg and the Sakaar native, Miek. In fact, Waititi is playing Korg, the alien made completely out of rock. If you’ve forgotten Thor: Dark World then let us remind you — you’ve already met a Kronan as Thor destroyed one with Mjolnir at the beginning of that film.
The reporters also told us that Waititi referred to Goldblum’s tournaments and fights as the “Contest of Champions,” which is the first time we’ve heard that reference.
He has two cats and knows all things about Doctor Strange but little else.
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