Fantastic Four

These movies killed off their franchises before they even began.

The anthology nature has prevented Black Mirror fans from ascertaining many details of the upcoming 12-episode Season 3, at least apart from the talent involved. We now have another notable name to add to the list, as Boardwalk Empire and Trainspotting star Kelly Macdonald will appear in one of the new season’s technology parables.

Flame off? After Fantastic Four’s hugely disappointing opening earlier this year, Fox initially claimed they were still moving ahead with a sequel, keeping the planned June 9, 2017 release date. But, after a closer look at the situation and perhaps a good dose of common sense, Fox has removed Fantastic Four 2 from their release schedule.

Yesterday, we learned that 20th Century Fox had worked out a new accord with Marvel permitting the studio to ferry one of its hottest properties into the lucrative land of milk and honey that is television. Fox has announced plans to develop two shows spun off from their X-Men franchise, one about an elite organization of mega-rich mutants called Hellfire and another about David Haller, a.k.a. the son of Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Legion. A new report from Den of Geek (still awaiting confirmation from Marvel) suggests that there may be an unknown flip side to this deal that would place The Fantastic Four, one of Marvel’s most iconic properties, back in their portfolio with another big-screen project to follow.

Straight Outta Compton dominated the box office for the second weekend in a row, ensuring that every other movie in the top 10 that doesn’t feature Tom Cruise trembled in its mighty wake. Anyone with their finger on the cultural pulse foresaw the N.W.A. biopic doing well, but it’s performing above and beyond all expectations.

Increasingly the Fast and Furious franchise has felt like a superhero franchise. A group of heroes with seemingly infinite strength and abilities taking on the bad guys and becoming a family in the process. It's like Avengers meets the Fantastic Four, but with a lot of cars. With the movies already up to Part 7 and Paul Walker sadly gone, the series can't go on forever. So, how do they continue the brand? Just like the superheroes do: with spinoffs.

In an age where audiences are inundated with superhero movies and superhero movie news, Josh Trank’s upcoming Fantastic Four reboot has distinguished itself from the pack by being the movie that no one knows anything about. Aside from that vague, Interstellar-inspired teaser trailer, most of what we know about this film comes from hearsay and gossip. Depending on who you talk to, the film is either coming along fine or it’s an incomprehensible disaster. Could the brand new poster for the film give us anything new to chew on?

It wasn’t that long ago that we learned Channing Tatum would be playing the role of Cajun mutant Gambit in an upcoming ‘X-Men’ spinoff film. To make the news a bit better, we also learned that ‘RoboCop’ remake writer Josh Zeteumer was working on the script, which is based on a treatment by ‘X-Men’ comics writer Chris Claremont, who also co-created the original character. And today, in even better news, Tatum has announced the release date for ‘Gambit,’ which will be coming to a theater near you in 2016.

Last night, we reported that 20th Century Fox was shaking up its schedule, maneuvering sequels to ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ into new positions. However, one of the films given a new release date is a project that continues to perplex us: the adaptation of the popular video game ‘Assassin’s Creed,’ which was first announced ages ago as a franchise for Michael Fassbender. Will we ever see this movie or will it continue to keep shifting further and further backwards on Fox’s schedule until it vanishes altogether?

It’s a debate that has literally raged on for decades. Who would win in a fight: the heroes of the Marvel comic book universe or the heroes of DC Comics? It’s mostly been a theoretical debate. Even a handful of special events over the years that saw both companies come together to pit their characters against one another have done little to solve things. This eternal, burning question is the inspiration behind a new fan-made trailer for a movie that will never, ever exist: ‘Marvel vs DC.’