DC certainly seems to have stolen the thunder over at the San Diego Comic Con by announcing that the next project on their slate will be a team up film featuring Batman and Superman. Following the success of Man of Steel, this first step towards the eventual Justice League will start building the larger DC universe. This is definitely an unexpected move considering that most were expecting a strict sequel in the form of Man of Steel 2 or a Justice League movie but no one really saw the two man super team up coming. This currently unnamed film will release in 2015, aka, the biggest year for movies in the history of histories (Star Wars 7, Avatar 2, The Avengers 2, etc.)

Man of Steel crew Henry Cavill, director Zack Snyder and writer David S. Goyer will all return but what is not clear is who exactly will be filling the batshoes. Christian Bale has said multiple times that he will not be donning the cowl again as Batman but, in his many insistent denials, he said always stated that he is not interested in it purely because Christopher Nolan, director of the Dark Knight trilogy wouldn’t be involved. But hold your horses Bale because Nolan is signed on as a producer here and will probably work in a similar capacity to his involvement with Man of Steel. Does that assure the return of Bale? Absolutely not but it is a step in the right direction.

While DC can probably get away with recasting Batman, there is obvious power in continuing the much beloved Dark Knight franchise and I can’t deny that I would be super-duper stoked if they did continue that particular iteration of the character.

After the Batman/Superman film releases, DC will push forward movie featuring Barry Allen, aka The Flash, which will release in 2016 followed by a Justice League movie in 2017. I’m glad to see that DC is willing to do some world building before launching right into Justice League and with Flash, Batman and Superman established, they will stand on pretty good ground in terms of mass familiarity with the characters. What is unclear is how Green Lantern will factor into the equation. Whether they omit him entire, reboot him or recast him, it’s clear that they need to scrub the bad taste that the Martin Campbell/Ryan Reynolds tanker in some way or another.

While I am naturally skeptical about any kind of superhero news, this is actually a pretty thrilling set up and one I’m hoping with pay off immensely. Luckily, we only have two years to wait to see the product. More casting news and other info is sure to follow.

Follow SmartFilm on Facebook.
Follow Smartfilm on Twitter.

Up until now, the follow up to The Avengers has been a largely unknown quality outside the fact that writer/director Joss Whedon would return but with the title treatment, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, legions of Marvel fans are taking to speculation as to what this next installment would entail.

Culled straight from the pages of Wikipedia Ultron is Marvel supervillian whose “common powers include superhuman levels of strength, speed, stamina, durability, and reflexes; flight at subsonic speeds; and various offensive weapons such as concussive blasts of energy fired from its optical sensors and hands, and an “encephalo-ray”, which places victims into a deathlike coma. The latter ray also allows Ultron to mesmerize and mind-control victims, or implant subliminal hypnotic commands within their minds to be enacted at a later time.”

The Ultron story arc is a limited comic series written by Brian Bendis but Whedon has insisted that this will be an original story and not adapted directly from the comic pages. Per Whedon,

“Well, because there was a book called ‘Age of Ultron’ quite recently, a lot of people have assumed that is what we’re doing, but that is not the case,” Whedon reportedly reveals in the interview. “We’re doing our own version of the origin story for Ultron. In the origin story, there was Hank Pym, so a lot of people assumed that he will be in the mix. He’s not. We’re basically taking the things from the comics for the movies that we need and can use. A lot of stuff has to fall by the wayside.”

“We’re crafting our own version of it where his origin comes more directly from The Avengers we already know about.” Whedon reportedly continues. “It’s a little bit darker than the other film because Ultron is in the house. There’s a science fiction theme that wasn’t there in the other one. Ultron is definitely something that evolves, so we’re going to get together a couple of different iterations. Nothing can be translated exactly as it was from the comics; particularly Ultron.”

As far as I’m concerned, I’ll trust the man but boy, oh boy is that a nerdy title.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is directed by Joss Whedon and stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo and Samuel L. Jackson. It hits theaters May 1, 2015.