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Olivia Wilde, Kraven, and Batmen, Batmen, Everywhere

By Andrew Sanford | Film | August 21, 2020 |

By Andrew Sanford | Film | August 21, 2020 |


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A lot happened in the world of Comic Book movies this week! New Directors in the Marvel/Sony camp and more Batmen than you can shake a stick at. Here’s a rundown.

Marvel Gets Wilde-er

Actor and Director Olivia Wilde has signed on to helm a top secret Marvel movie for Sony. First reported by Deadline, the Book Smart director is said to be tackling a female centric film. Initially mentioned in the Deadline piece, the film is rumored to center around the character Spider-Woman. The character, created in an attempt to keep the rights to the name, is a super spy in the Marvel Universe.
Spider-Woman would make sense as Sony still owns the film rights to many Spider-Man characters, yet has a deal to co-finance films with Marvel to have them (occasionally) set in the MCU (it’s as confusing as it sounds). While just a rumor for now, Wilde added some fuel to the fire on Twitter.

This is the second time in recent weeks that Marvel has tapped a high profile female director, having first hired upcoming Candyman reboot director Nia DaCosta to take the reins on Captain Marvel 2.

Kraven The Hunter Gets a Director

In another story broken by Deadline, a film based on Spider-Man villain Kraven the Hunter has found a director in J.C. Chandor. The director of Triple Frontier will helm the Sony film. For now, its connections to the MCU appear to be minimal, as it will be joining a slate already full of Spider-Man villains (Venom 2, Morbius) but those films also have … confusing ties. In the trailer for Morbius, Michael Keaton appears, presumably, as his version of Vulture from the MCU film Spider-Man: Homecoming. Again it is all a bit (say it with me) confusing.

However, a film based on Kraven is very exciting. The character is a fierce and deadly foe for the web slinging, wall crawler. If handled well, the action scenes alone could be worth the price of admission.

Batmen, Batmen, Everywhere

Months ago the comic book fan community let out a collective squeal of excitement when it was rumored that Michael Keaton may be reprising his role as Batman in an upcoming film based on the DC character The Flash. Yesterday, that rumor was essentially confirmed with director of the film Andy Muschietti claiming Keaton will have a “substantial” role in the film as well as another familiar caped crusader: Ben Affleck.

Reported by Vanity Fair, Affleck will return as Batman for the third time in the upcoming Flash film that will deal with the DC Multiverse. We’ve seen examples of this recently in Spider-Man: Into The SpiderVerse and a crossover of the CW DC TV shows based on the DC comics story, Crisis on Infinite Earths. In that special, we saw Ezra Miller’s film Flash interact with Grant Gustin’s TV Flash.

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The television crossover also featured a mention of Keaton’s Batman and that, intentionally or not, set the stage for something bigger.

With the idea of a multiverse, everything is on the table. Every version of your favorite character can exist and, depending on the circumstances, interact with other versions. And, more than likely, the Flash will be the key to it all.

There will also still be room for new versions of Batman, like Robert Pattinson’s upcoming take on the Dark Knight. Could we see more Batmen in The Flash? Only time will tell. But man oh man I’d love to see Christian Bale make an appearance!



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