What Will Happen to Superman After ‘Batman vs. Superman’?

ScreenCrush’s Comic Strip is a weekly roundup of the hottest superhero movie/TV news items. From Marvel to DC and points in between, if it pertains to costumed comic book heroes, we’re covering it here, bringing you our expert analysis. This week, get your best look yet at Oscar Isaac as an iconic X-Men villain, learn the status of the Man of Steel sequel, and check out the latest Marvel Studios chatter.

Here’s Our Best Look Yet at Apocalypse

Someone in the X-Men: Apocalypse editing bay snapped a few pictures of a screen. Those pictures have ended up online. Someone in the X-Men: Apocalypse editing bay has probably been fired. After all, these photos, shot from a low angle, were definitely taken by someone who knew they shouldn’t be doing what they were doing.

But hey, at least we have a great new look at several key players in the new movie in full costume. Thank you, anonymous photographer. Your sacrifice was only in semi-vain.

First up is a shot of the new, young X-Men team in full costume, including Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Nightcrawler, Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey, and Tye Sheridan’s Cyclops. Although this franchise continues to dress its heroes in black leather when it should be putting them in crazy and colorful outfits, they look fine. They certainly look like they belong in the Bryan Singer X-Men universe, but this feels like a missed opportunity. This movie is set in the ‘80s! Let them dress like it! A splash of color has never hurt a superhero costume.

But now turn your attention to our best look yet at Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse. Specifically, it’s our first look at the iconic villain’s cinematic interpretation where he doesn’t look like he stepped out of a Power Rangers episode. In fact, he looks really good, with Isaac himself unrecognizable under those prosthetics.

These photos are being yanked down left and right, so if the embedded tweet above is no longer working, you can try here and here.

So What’s the Deal With Man of Steel 2?

Man of Steel did okay at the box office, but it didn’t do Batman numbers. That’s why the sequel to Zack Snyder’s Superman movie got an injection of the Dark Knight, transforming into Batman vs. Superman. That’s also why the sequel is currently being reshaped to add more Batman into the movie, as Snyder himself confirmed:

Only in that because it’s a different Batman than the Batman that was in the Chris Nolan movies, so we have a little bit more explaining to do—and you just had a whole Superman movie. But I think only in that way, because you need to understand where Batman is with everything. And that’s more toward the beginning, but it evens back out as it goes on.

Like Marvel, DC and Warner Bros. have announced a whole bunch of movies running through the early ‘20s. Justice League. Wonder Woman. Aquaman. A new stand-alone Batman movie, that will presumably be directed by Ben Affleck himself. Noticeably missing from the line-up is Superman. Sure, he’ll be a member of the ensemble in Justice League, but he’ll be one of six heroes sharing the spotlight. So here’s the question(s): what does Warner Bros. plan to do with Superman and will there be a Man of Steel 2?

According to a new report on Heroic Hollywood, the answers to those questions are “Who knows?” and “Maybe.”

The article confirms what we’ve long suspected – that Warner Bros. knows is well aware that Man of Steel was a disappointment (but not a disaster) at the box office and they aren’t sure how to proceed. Maybe they’re hoping Batman vs. Superman and Justice League will reinvigorate audiences on the subject of Superman. Maybe they’re willing to let Batman lead the DC movie universe for the foreseeable future. The only sure thing is that there is no sure thing. Man of Steel 2 isn’t on the schedule. In fact, Heroic Hollywood says that the rumors of Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller being offered the reins of the sequel are true. If he says yes, they’ll figure it out from there.

So that’s the news that’s fit to print. It’s disappointing that the world’s most famous superhero is being sidelined like this, but we’d rather wait for a good movie than see a sequel rushed into theaters made by people who don’t know what to do with the character.

Marvel Actors Speak!

When asked about Captain America: Civil War at the premiere of The Martian, Sebastian Stan (aka, Bucky Barnes, aka, the Winter Soldier) said exactly what you want to hear about a movie where various Marvel superheroes throw down:

Some brutal fighting, some serious, serious fighting like you haven’t really seen before in any of the other films. Which I’m really proud to say. And a whole lot of character and heart, because there’s a lot of people that are in the film, but you’re going to get a lot of character from everybody.

We know he wasn’t going to walk out onto a red carpet and say “Eh, the fighting it going to okay,” but let us have our enthusiasm. Civil War really does sound like it’s going to be something else.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth “The Scarlet Witch” Olsen chatted about Civil War, saying that it’s going to be the best Marvel movie yet because that’s what you say when people ask you about your new movie. More importantly, she spoke about Daniel Bruhl’s Baron Zemo, confirming that he’s the main villain in the movie, not a side character:

I think it’s going to be the best one, no, no, but for real, I am very excited to see it for myself. I only worked on set for five weeks, so I wasn’t there for the majority of it, but Daniel Brühl is an incredible actor and he’s playing the main villain in it. He’s incredible. It’s a movie about people as opposed to robots this time, so it’s darker and it’s allowed to be darker because it gets more in the mindset of humans rather than machines.

If Olsen has seen enough of Bruhl’s performance to praise it so specifically, does that mean Scarlet Witch is going to spend some time hanging around Zemo in the movie? After all, she was mysteriously absent from those Team Iron Man/Team Captain American group shots...