Marvel Cinematic Universe Running Thread

[MetalDog]

Grammer as Beast was just ridiculous.  I realize that making a movie is not a democratic process.  And I also realize that sometimes the studio knocks it out of the park on casting decisions.  However, could it hurt, even a little bit, if established literary characters, before they are cast, be put up for a vote?  It doesn't mean the vote has to be taken into account or viewed as gospel, but I think it might give the studios some kind of idea what fans are expecting. 

And a tidbit for anyone who is interested http://movies.yahoo.com/news/marvel-courts-johnny-depp-doctor-strange-180243615.html

[BanzaiCat]

Hmm. I can see Johnny Depp as Dr. Strange. Never was a fan of him but that might work.

[GDS_Starfury]

Most of the Marvel castings are meh to blah...but Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark...that was a slam-dunk.

its the Charlie Sheen effect.  find a person thats really like their character and youre golden.

[Martok]

This is kind of the same affront as casting Kelsey Grammar as The Beast in X-Men 3.

Oh, wait...that WAS X-Men 3. Nevermind, totally awful trainwreck of a movie.

I agree X-Men 3 was less-than-stellar, but I actually kind of liked that they cast Grammar as The Beast. 

Before you castrate me for saying that, my reasoning (if you can call it that) is that I watched a bit of the animated X-Men show that was on back in the 90's, and The Beast was one of the more interesting characters to me -- while he obviously could easily break heads when he needed to, I liked how he was still this brainy, cultured guy.  As a fan of both Cheers and Frasier, I remember thinking that if they ever did a live-action film, Grammar would be an obvious choice for the role. 

You can certainly argue that his actual performance as The Beast wound up falling flat, but I can easily see why they thought he would be a good fit. 

[BanzaiCat]

This is kind of the same affront as casting Kelsey Grammar as The Beast in X-Men 3.

Oh, wait...that WAS X-Men 3. Nevermind, totally awful trainwreck of a movie.

I agree X-Men 3 was less-than-stellar, but I actually kind of liked that they cast Grammar as The Beast. 

Before you castrate me for saying that, my reasoning (if you can call it that) is that I watched a bit of the animated X-Men show that was on back in the 90's, and The Beast was one of the more interesting characters to me -- while he obviously could easily break heads when he needed to, I liked how he was still this brainy, cultured guy.  As a fan of both Cheers and Frasier, I remember thinking that if they ever did a live-action film, Grammar would be an obvious choice for the role. 

You can certainly argue that his actual performance as The Beast wound up falling flat, but I can easily see why they thought he would be a good fit.

I'm not the castrating kind, Martok. I might have a (vocal) opinion on something but that doesn't mean I'd disparage you for thinking otherwise.

I agree that his Frasier persona made sense insofar as Beast is concerned, but usually actors with any kind of passion for their business want characters that make them step outside of their comfort zones. Not that wearing a blue furry suit is out of Grammer's comfort zone (who knows, he might be into furry stuff), but being the 'egghead' fits way too closely to Frasier in my mind, so he's basically Blue Frasier.

Plus yeah, X-Men 3 was just awful. The first movie was decent, the second not as much, and the third tanked. First Class, I must say, was the best out of those four, and what they've done with Wolverine on the side is highly enjoyable. But killing off Jean Grey before she could really become Phoenix and exploring that storyline...sigh. The "What If" Marvel comic that depicted "What If Dark Phoenix Did Not Die" was one of my favorite comics ever, even if she did destroy the universe at the end of it. :)

[Centurion40]

Hmm. I can see Johnny Depp as Dr. Strange... that might work.

Agreed.

[mirth]

Hmm. I can see Johnny Depp as Dr. Strange... that might work.

Agreed.

+1 That would be an excellent bit of casting.

[JasonPratt]

Hmm. I can see Johnny Depp as Dr. Strange... that might work.

Agreed.

+1 That would be an excellent bit of casting.

I'd hold out for Robert Downey Jr.  :D

[JasonPratt]

But then again, they made Nick Fury a black guy, so what do I know.

Would you have preferred David Hasselhoff back as Fury.

How about a black man playing Darth Vader?




;D

[JasonPratt]

Meanwhile, Baron Von Strucker has also most likely been cast: Thomas Kretschmann, who plays Abraham van Helsing on the recent (and completely psychotic) NBC series Dracula.

I own the PS3 version of the Captain America movie tie-in game, where Strucker happens to be one of the villains along with a number of other classic Cap foes (not including Baron Zemo, oddly, but he's still there in a way because he was kicked out of his castle by other Hydra goons and the player can pick up statues telling the story of how that happened). That's a great game, and acts as a fine Cap movie all by itself -- it looks like we may never get another WW2 Cap movie from this team, so this game is essentially the-movie-we'll-never-get. The game design borrows heavily from the Arkham games, and that's a good thing.

[MetalDog]

The Vision has been cast http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-news/paul-bettany-gets-upgraded-vision-avengers-age-ultron-195156829.html

[Martok]

Not sure how good a fit (or not) he is for the role, but I've always liked Bettany as an actor. 

[JasonPratt]

Least surprising Avengers news in a way, and yet I still didn't see it coming.

The Vision is so heavily made-up that the physicality won't matter much; and if (as seems extremely likely) they're going with the original version of Ultron as a robot without any overt connection to Henry Pym, who temporarily takes over Jarvis making Jarvis seem like a villain, this would mesh up very well with the Vision originally being an agent of Ultron. (It also backwards meshes well with Jarvis taking over Iron Man duties pretty much directly at the end of IM3.)

This also explains why they were so hot to get the Scarlet Witch introduced rather than one of the other women: she ended up marrying the Vision. Her powers might even be a key to breaking Jarvis free from Ultron's control.

[MetalDog]

The first Guardians of the Galaxy trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-news/guardians-of-the-galaxy-first-trailer-marvel-studios-chris-pratt-zoe-saldana-034858828.html?vp=1

[JasonPratt]

More potential/likely Phase 2 speculations:

We know Hugo Weaving isn't interested in coming back as the Red Skull. We also know his daughter in the comics takes over the role of Red Skull during the Winter Soldier plot, and is connected to Von Strucker, who is confirmed as an introductory Av2 villain. We also know that the Marvel Short guys have tossed around making a one-shot film about "Sin" (her nickname), and their short films always connect with larger films somewhere.

I'd say it's pretty likely we're going to see "Sin" show up in Winter Soldier to take over being the Red Skull, possibly in competition with Strucker who in comics continuity has turned out to be the guy behind several supervillain organizations not just keeping Hydra going -- including AIM (which in the comics is a rebel offshoot of Hyrda, but which so far doesn't have that connection in the movies).


Other recent news: the release of the Thor 2 Blu-Ray's short film about the Mandarin confirms that the "real" Mandarin hasn't been killed off yet (despite the guy from IM3's Extremis plot overtly declaring himself to be the Mandarin), and that he's someone different from Ben Kingsley's character but who was impressed and wants that guy to keep playing the role while he manipulates in secret.

This could end up tying into the ongoing SHIELD tv show, which is teasing a secret character who supposedly can see the future and is running the CENTIPEDE group behind the scenes. At any rate I'm glad the writers found a way to retcon Kingsley's portrayal of the Mandarin into in-universe canon while still keeping him as his own character AND teasing a more comic-proper character. I doubt we'll see this play out until Phase 3 or later, but I'll be checking to see if the tv show has hints leading in this direction. (We've really only seen half that season so far.)