Comic Strip: ‘Avengers 2’ Casting, New Electro Photos and ‘Secret Service’ Set Pics

ScreenCrush’s Comic Strip is a weekly roundup of the hottest superhero movie 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, castings for Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver in 'The Avengers 2' are confirmed, while an ‘Expendable’ action star makes his pitch to play The Thing in the ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot.

‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’

Joss Whedon has talked in depth about how important newcomers Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver will be to his upcoming sequel, ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron.’ Now we know which actors will play them.

Over the course of a couple of days, Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were confirmed to have landed the plum roles in Whedon’s film. At the moment, they’re currently best known for ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ and the ‘Kick-Ass’ franchise, respectively. But as you can see in this image, the two also are co-stars on Gareth Edwards’ 2014 ‘Godzilla,’ a reboot of the classic monster movie series.

‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’ blasts into theaters on May 1, 2015.

‘Wonder Woman’

Casting Elizabeth Olsen continues the drum-beat call for more female superheroes, women building off the success of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and/or the female mutant fighters in Fox’s ‘X-Men’ franchise. But honestly, if there’s one female superhero who absolutely deserves the proper big-screen treatment – and it’s beyond confusing why it hasn’t happened yet – it’s Wonder Woman.

But she’s on the radar at Warner Bros., which is gradually developing its DC cinematic universe.

Warner Bros. Entertainment CEO Kevin Tsujihara spoke over the weekend at the USC Gould School of Law, where he talked briefly about the studio’s DC Comics properties. Tsujihara told the crowd that the lack of superhero movies outside of the ongoing Superman/Batman franchise has been a "missed opportunity," but quickly added that Warner has "huge plans for a number of other DC properties on TV."

Specifically, when it comes to Wonder Woman, he admitted, "We need to get Wonder Woman on the big screen or TV."

There has been a rumor about Wonder Woman possibly showing up in Zack Snyder’s Superman-Batman team up. Maybe she could be introduced, then spun off into her own standalone film? This isn’t concrete, but at least it sounds like Diana is on track to get her own story ahead of Aquaman or other members of the Justice League of America ... except for The Flash, who's potentially getting his own TV series on The CW.

While we wait, check out this awesome fan-made Wonder Woman trailer. Hey, Hollywood. This is how it should be done!

‘Thor: The Dark World’

DC Comics and Warner Bros. have Amazonians. Marvel and Disney have Asgardians – specifically, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his dysfunctional family of Shakespearean gods. We’re inching closer to director Alan Taylor’s sequel, ‘Thor: The Dark World,’ and a couple of cool promotional clips reached the web over the past week.

Fandango shared an exclusive scene from the film, a confrontation between Thor and an imprisoned Loki (Tom Hiddleston), that finds our hero having to ask his maniacal half-brother for help.

Meanwhile, a new TV spot dropped over the weekend, with new footage of Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) bringing the pain to downtown London:

‘Fantastic Four’

Is this good news for the planned ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot, or bad news? We reported over the weekend that Josh Trank’s film is going to get a “substantial” rewrite from new screenwriter Simon Kinberg, whose credits include ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’ the first ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movie, and ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith.’ As we reported earlier, Kinberg becomes the fifth different writer to try and crack the ‘Fantastic Four’ nut. That doesn’t breed confidence.

That doesn’t stop actors from wanting to participate in this new ‘Four’ film. In an interview with Newsarama, ‘The Expendanbles’ co-star Terry Crews threw his name into the ring to play Ben Grimm and his rocky alter ego (or, you know, a metallic X-Men, while we’re at it).

One character I always thought I could play is the Thing from Fantastic Four ... Another character I’ve always loved as a fan is Colossus. If there was a way to make that happen that worked, I would love to be Colossus.

Given the fact that Michael B. Jordan is in the running to play Human Torch, why don’t we just make this an African-American take on the classic FF story, and commit fully to that vision. It would be one distinct way to spark interest in a big-screen franchise that has failed to generate much interest over the years.

‘The Secret Service’

Matthew Vaughn passed on ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ so he could adapt Mark Millar’s ‘The Secret Service,’ instead. It’s the story of a young street rat recruited to serve as a spy in a lethal organization. We get our first shot of Taron Egerton as Gary, the fledgling spy. And in more set pics acquired by The Daily Mail, we see Colin Firth as Uncle Jack, the man who pulls Gary into the mix. Click HERE to see them all.

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’

We know that Sony plans three more Spider-Man films, at least. Part two, directed by Marc Webb, will kick off the summer blockbuster season in 2014. Parts three and four will reach theaters in 2016 and ’18, respectively. There has been a ton of speculation that the studio is building to a Sinister Six movie. And now some vague (like, super vague) comments from Paul Giamatti suggest he’ll be in the third Spider-Man movie, but not the fourth.

Giamatti, who plays The Rhino in Webb’s upcoming sequel, told Collider that he expects to be part of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 3,’ but doesn’t think he’ll be back in part four. But he hesitates to confirm anything. So it’s all still very much up in the air.

Don’t forget, that the first ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ trailer is expected to be attached to ‘Thor: The Dark World’ in November.