Comic Strip: ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot, ‘Iron Man 4′ and ‘Thor 2′ Trailer News

ScreenCrush’s Comic Strip is a weekly roundup of the hottest superhero movie news items. From Marvel to D.C. and points in between, if it pertains to costumed comic-book heroes, we’re covering it here, bringing you our expert analysis. This week, we have start dates for ‘The Fantastic Four’ and ‘The Avengers 2,’ tons of ‘Spider-Man 2’ images and more ‘Iron Man’ news than you can shake a repulsor blast at.

’The Amazing Spider-Man 2’

Did you see the above photo Marc Webb Tweeted out on Sunday afternoon? It’s the first official image of Oscar winner Jamie Foxx as put-upon Max Dillon in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2.’ We know this meek character is going to go on to play the villainous Electro in Webb’s sequel. How he changes remains a mystery.

Earlier in the week, several people captured on-set photos and video of Foxx playing a blue-skinned Electro during a Times Square shoot in Manhattan. If you missed that, click here.

And ComicBookMovie posted new images of Dillon’s apartment (or the interiors used for Dillon’s apartment) on the set. Safe to say the character has a bit of a Spider-Man obsession.

Meanwhile, ‘Chronicle’ star Dane DeHaan Tweeted his own photograph stepping into an automobile, dressed to the nines. According to his Tweet, this is DeHaan’s look for Harry Osborn in the sequel. Are we seeing a future Goblin for the first time? As Webb puts his Spidey universe together, anything is possible.

Finally, the YouTube user SevenWebHeads built a montage of images snapped during Webb’s shoot at SUNY Maritime College, where DeHaan’s character visited Ravencroft Institute.

’The Fantastic Four’

According to Production Weekly, Josh Trank’s planned reboot of ‘The Fantastic Four’ will begin filming on June 17 in Vancouver under the working title ‘Henry Street.’ Does this mean we’re going to start hearing casting news shortly?

Marvel

So many Marvel stories broke over the past week, we hardly know where to begin.

Let’s kick the Marvel section off with this electrified one-sheet for ‘Thor: The Dark World.’

USA Today also posted two brand new ‘Thor’ stills in Monday morning’s paper. [UPDATE: Marvel Studios released hi-res version of the photos. Click them below for the larger sizes.]

And here’s even better news. You only have to wait until Tuesday, April 23 for the first official ‘Thor’ trailer to arrive online. We’ll dig into that footage once we see it.

- James Gunn attended the UK premiere of ‘Iron Man 3’ last week, where he opened up about his adaptation of Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy. Talking to the guys at HeyUGuys, Gunn explained that Rocket Raccoon is the “heart” of his story, saying that we’ll likely know who’s playing the hero in the coming weeks. He said that his take on the material is “very, very different” from ‘Star Wars.’ And while we reported earlier that Michael Rooker would play Yondu Udonta in the upcoming film, Gunn stopped short of confirming that fact. Stay tuned.

- These Marvel Phase Two standalone films, of course, are building towards ‘The Avengers 2,’ which Joss Whedon says should begin filming in February, according to Entertainment Tonight. Whedon also let on to the fact that he had seeds of an idea for the ‘Avengers’ sequel before he started filming the first movie. Give this interview a listen.

- We honestly could have done an entire Comic Strip column on ‘Iron Man 3’ this week, what with the sequel heading to theaters on May 2. The film held multiple press stops around the world this week, including a U.S. junket in Los Angeles over the weekend. There are reactions to the film out there, if you want to read them ahead of time.

In the meantime, I wanted to single out a few pieces of information that I found interesting about ‘Iron Man’ at this moment. For example, writer-director Shane Black talked about how he wished he could have touched on the famous “Demon in a Bottle” storyline in this ‘Iron Man’ film … and why he believes it’s too difficult for Marvel to tackle that particular plot.

Black also says that he has not been asked to direct ‘Iron Man 4’ … yet. But he admits that he really wanted to call this sequel ‘The Iron Man.’ Is that a dig at ‘The Wolverine?’

’Captain America: The Winter Soldier’

Cap gets separated from his Marvel brethren because he has more than one or two stories to share.

- The usually reliable On-Location Vacations has the complete rundown of Cleveland locations where Anthony and Joe Russo will be filming the anticipated sequel 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' in Cleveland. Now you can plan a vacation to lovely downtown Cleveland and hope to spot Chris Evans in action.

- Meanwhile, Frank Grillo has been Tweeting photos of the results of his rigorous training to play Crossbones, the man who hopes to beat Cap to a bloody pulp in ‘The Winter Soldier.’

- Anthony Mackie has been busy promoting Michael Bay’s ‘Pain & Gain,’ but he took the time to talk ‘Winter Soldier’ with a few media outlets. He opened up to BlackFilm.com about Falcon, saying that the new hero will be “integral” to the plot.

“I’m happy to say that I’m in a good deal of the movie and I play an integral part with Captain America taking down the Winter Soldier. It’s great. They started the shoot 2 1/2 weeks ago and once I finished doing press for ‘Pain & Gain,’ I go in and join them. I’ve been doing combat training and fitness training just to get prepared. It’s going to be something and I’m excited for it.”

- And finally, what is this ‘Cap’ spinoff that Hayley Atwell has been teasing for this summer’s Comic-Con?

’Man of Steel’

The big news at the start of last week was the arrival of a long-awaited ‘Man of Steel’ trailer, which expanded on the paternal themes of the first two Superman spots, which either focused on Pa Kent (Kevin Costner) or Jor-El (Russell Crowe).

And why not? I mean, the third official trailer for Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot was an ideal marriage of noble origin story and fist-slamming action. It established Superman (Henry Cavill) as a savior Earth’s citizens should strive to emulate. It instantly elevated ‘Man of Steel’ to the top of our Must-See list this summer.

Did you miss it? Oh man, you have to check it out right here:

Now watch it again and look for the subtle Lex Luthor hint that Snyder reportedly worked into his footage.

- This ‘Man of Steel’ promotional imagery shared on GBPosters is official, and it is gorgeous.

- And if you want to see ‘Man of Steel’ before everybody else, this Facebook posting claims you might have to camp out at Walmart:

’The Wolverine’

- SuperHeroHype says that a new trailer for James Mangold’s ‘The Wolverine’ screened in Las Vegas this week during CinemaCon. They describe it as “lots of quick shots and no dialogue with on-screen text that reads ‘The Hero, The Fugitive, The Warrior, The Survivor, The Legend.” They also say that the clip gives us our first good look at The Silver Samurai. Hopefully we’ll see this cut of ‘Wolverine’ footage online soon.

- Meanwhile, has ‘The Following’ co-star Adan Canto joined the cast of Bryan Singer’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past?’ And which character might he play? His Twitter posts suggest that he’s part of the ensemble, and is ready for some … hockey?

’R.I.P.D.’

Two weeks ago, we were able to share a poster for ‘R.I.P.D.,’ a high-concept cop comedy that has Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds playing dead cops working to solve crimes from beyond the grave.

If it sounds like a tough concept to wrap your brain around, the first official trailer for the summer crime-comedy fills in a few of the major gaps.

’The Crow’

And finally, Tom Hiddleston is doing whatever he can to make sure he doesn’t get pigeonholed as Loki from ‘The Avengers.’ This would help.

The charismatic actor is in talks to play Eric Draven, the musician who’s turned into a spirit of vengeance, in the planned reboot of ‘The Crow.’ I think he’d make for an inspired choice, and could help get this long-gestating thriller off the ground. Do you agree?