One of the biggest and most surprising announcements out of San Diego Comic-Con this year was the return of Star Wars: The Clone Wars for a seventh and final season. The Clone Wars was canceled in 2013 after five seasons (a sixth abbreviated season was released on Netflix after cancellation). The Clone Wars animated series was arguably the biggest thing to happen in the Star Wars Universe between the prequel and sequel trilogies. It did a lot of expansion of the roles and stories introduced and left unexplained in the prequel trilogy and probably helped to salvage (or mitigate the damage of) those movies for a large portion of the fanbase. While many of SWCW’s plotlines continued into Star Wars: Rebels, many of the series most important questions were left unanswered. Now that Rebels has finished, SW animation guru Dave Filoni will have the chance to go back and properly finish out Clone Wars. Disney will be premiering a new streaming service next year and 12 final episodes of The Clone Wars are expected to premiere there sometime in 2019.
The DCEU will have one film this year (Aquaman) and three next year (Shazam, Joker, Wonder Woman 1984). After the failure of Justice League last year, WB has put a lot of effort into getting their uneven film universe back on track. Captain Marvel and Aquaman are an unlikely one-two punch back to being on track, but they’re also characters that have no film history and little pop culture footprint. The first look at Shazam is really promising and seems to validate the casting of Zachary Levi (Chuck) in the role. Full synopsis from Coming Soon below. Shazam will hit theaters in April 2019.
We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong).
The cast includes Asher Angel (Andi Mack) as Billy Batson, Djimon Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy) as The Wizard, and Mark Strong (Kingsman) in the role of Super-Villain Dr. Thaddeus Sivana. The film also stars Jack Dylan Grazer (IT) as Billy’s best friend and ultimate superhero enthusiast, Freddy, part of the foster family that includes Mary, played by Grace Fulton (Annabelle: Creation); Darla, played by Faithe Herman (This is Us); Eugene, played by Ian Chen (Fresh Off the Boat); and Pedro, played by Jovan Armand (Hawaii Five-0). Cooper Andrews (The Walking Dead) and Marta Milans (Killer Women) play foster parents Victor and Rosa Vasquez.
WB’s film panel at Comic-Con continued Saturday with the first look at one of summer’s 2019’s big films. Godzilla: King of the Monsters continues the story of Monarch begun in Godzilla and last year’s Kong: Skull Island. Notes below from the panel from CBR as well as the official film synopsis from Coming Soon.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters took the stage proclaiming “Long Live the King” with a quick look at footage.
“I’m still a kid playing with Godzilla toys, they’re just bigger more expensive Godzilla toys,” said director Michael Dougherty.
Millie Bobbie Brown hadn’t seen any Godzilla movies prior to her casting, but once she got her role in the film she “dove in, I had too, I had too.”
Dougherty confirmed that he set a sound system up on set to allow him to play the monster’s roars for the actors in their scenes since they would predominantly be acting against CGI and visual effects.
“We’ve got the crown jewels of the Toho Monster kingdom in this movie. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and a few more surprises along the way,” Dougherty confirmed.
“You’ll finally hear Godzilla classic’s classic themes, and possibly some other themes,” Dougherty said, “with composer Bear McCreary.”
Directed by Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus), the Godzilla sequel stars Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Conjuring films), and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai) and Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine), both reprising their Godzilla roles, plus Kyle Chandler (The Wolf of Wall Street, Manchester by the Sea), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) in her feature film debut, Bradley Whitford (Get Out), Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley), Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), Aisha Hinds (Star Trek Into Darkness), and Zhang Ziyi (Memoirs of a Geisha, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).
The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species—thought to be mere myths—rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.
Dougherty directs from a script he wrote with Zach Shields. The film is being produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Brian Rogers and Thomas Tull, with Barry H. Waldman, Zach Shields, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira serving as executive producers and Alexandra Mendes co-producing for Legendary.
A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, the sequel is set to stomp into theaters on May 31, 2019
From Universal’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 comes the first look at 2019’s first blockbuster: M. Night Shaymalan’s sequel to Unbreakable and Split…GLASS! More from Coming Soon.
Returning for Glass are cast members Bruce Willis as David Dunn, Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, aka Mr. Glass, and James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb, aka The Horde. They’re joined by Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story series) as a psychiatrist who specializes in “individuals who believe they are superheroes” and who is treating the trio at a mental hospital.
Also starring in the film is Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with The Beast, who reprises her role from Split. Plus Unbreakable’s Spencer Treat Clark and Charlayne Woodard, who reprise their roles as Dunn’s son and Price’s mother.
This riveting culmination of his worldwide blockbusters will be produced by Shyamalan and Blumhouse Production’s Jason Blum, who also produced the writer/director’s previous two films for Universal. They produce again with Ashwin Rajan and Marc Bienstock, and Steven Schneider, who will executive produce.
A Blinding Edge Pictures and Blumhouse production, Glass will be released by Universal Pictures in North America on January 18, 2019, and by Buena Vista International abroad.
Though it exists in the same universe, Fear the Walking Dead is going to be a completely unique beast. The story sparks in Los Angeles during the handful of weeks that Rick is in his coma in Georgia. Rather than dropping us into the other end of the apocalypse, Fear will let us experience it happening along with these new characters. A heavy focus will be on the way the modern American views world-wide crisis, as those in the thick of it continue to deny that this will influence them until it is far too late.
On the smaller scale, it is the development of the group of survivors we follow that made Walking Dead so enjoyable. Fear the Walking Dead focuses on a high school English teacher and his two families: his new wife and teenage stepdaughter, and his ex-wife and estranged teenage son. The fall of civilization force these two families together and into the lives of a small business barber and his family.
A lot is still unknown about Fear the Walking Dead, but this panel has me very ready to see more! The show premieres August 23 on AMC,
