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After a week of uncertainty, The CW has finally revealed when its most popular series, including several DC TV favorites, will resume airing their respective seasons.

The Flash and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will both return with new episodes at their usual times on Tuesday, April 21, while Batwoman and Supergirl will return a few days later on Sunday, April 26. 

While Legends of Tomorrow had already completed work on its fifth season (and will presumably be able to air all seven remaining episodes, finishing its current season), production on The Flash season six, Supergirl season five and Batwoman season one were all halted due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. It now remains to be seen whether the cast and crew will actually be able to get back to work on completing the current seasons or if the finales will be pushed to the fall.

In Supergirl‘s case, the show’s future status is even more uncertain as series star Melissa Benoist recently announced her first pregnancy and was expected to take extended time off this summer when the series normally begins production on a new season. To accommodate her delivery timeline, The CW was slated to begin production on Supergirl season six in just a few short weeks, in an effort to bank a few episodes before Benoist went on maternity leave.

As for the rest of their lineup, Nancy Drew will return on Wednesday, April 8, Riverdale will return Wednesday, April 15, and Katy Keene will return on Thursday, April 16.

Unfortunately, the final season of Supernatural and Legacies season two will both remain sidelined for now. Supernatural aired its final completed episode last week and, despite shooting up to episode 18, will be unable to air any further installments due to unfinished visual and sound effects. The show was filming its penultimate episode when production was halted due to the pandemic and had yet to begin work on its hotly awaited series finale. Legacies is essentially in the same boat as it had aired every completed episode and their remaining episodes also have uncompleted effects.

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Despite not quite living up to its mothership franchise, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw was still mostly well-received by audiences, revving its way all the way to a $760.4 million worldwide haul ($173.9M domestic; $585.1M foreign) on an estimated $200 million production budget. 

The David Leitch-directed action blockbuster, which starred Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in the titular roles, finished its summer box office run as the fourth-highest grossing movie in the entire Fast & Furious franchise and the eleventh-highest grossing film of 2019.

While the film did more or less set up a sequel (well, multiple sequels), it wasn’t necessarily a sure thing as Universal seemed to shift its attention back over to the primary series of films, ramping up promotions for the upcoming Fast & Furious 9 rather than offering any sort of update on whether Luke Hobbs & Deckard Shaw would ride again anytime soon.

Now, with a vast majority of the film industry shut down for the foreseeable future due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has offered a promising update during a recent Instagram Live session. When asked, he confirms to fans that the sequel is indeed in development, but it seems as though it may be a little further out than anticipated. 

“We are developing now the next film, the next [Hobbs & Shaw] movie, and I’m pretty excited about it… Just gotta figure out the creative right now, and the direction we’re going to go.“

While Johnson’s comments do seem to indicate the sequel may have a new writer and possibly a new director, it’s probably too early to say whether either will actually come to fruition. Considering Chris Morgan’s ties to molding the entire franchise, it’s highly probable he’ll be back in some capacity. David Leitch has Undying Love, The Division and maybe Deadpool 3 on his docket for this year and beyond, so there is a possibility he may not return to helm the next installment, but again, it’s too early to say.

Ever since hulking lawman Hobbs (Johnson), a loyal agent of America’s Diplomatic Security Service, and lawless outcast Shaw (Statham), a former British military elite operative, first faced off in 2015’s Furious 7, the duo have swapped smack talk and body blows as they’ve tried to take each other down.

But when cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton (Idris Elba) gains control of an insidious bio-threat that could alter humanity forever — and bests a brilliant and fearless rogue MI6 agent (The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby), who just happens to be Shaw’s sister — these two sworn enemies will have to partner up to bring down the only guy who might be badder than themselves.

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Michael Bay (Transformers, 6 Underground) will soon be bringing his explosive directorial style to Sony Pictures.

The divisive filmmaker has signed a multiyear first look deal with the studio to produce both film and TV projects. Deadline’s report doesn’t mention whether he would also direct, but we assume it’s a strong possibility.

Bay made his directorial debut, Bad Boys, with Sony before returning to helm the sequel. His next project for the studio will be ensemble drama Black Five from a script by Top Gun: Maverick‘s Ehren Kruger.

No word on what Bay and Sony have lined up for the small screen, but he is currently serving as executive producer on Amazon’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and USA Network’s The Purge.

Could we see Bay get involved with any of Sony’s planned Spider-Man movies? His films do tend to rake in the cash, so there’s nothing to say the studio wouldn’t at least consider handing him the reigns of one of the multiple Spidey spinoffs currently in the early stages of development. That’s pure speculation, of course.

Assuming you’re a Michael Bay fan (they are out there!), what sort of projects would you like to see him tackle for Sony Pictures? Let us know in the comments section below.

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After another exciting installment, Westworld continues its roller coaster of a third season next week with an installment that promises to up the mystery even further as Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) continues to put new pieces of her master plan in motion.

As per usual, the plot synopsis for the next episode of the acclaimed HBO series isn’t particularly revealing, but it does seem to indicate some sort of major truth will finally be revealed to one of the main characters, presumably the Man in Black (Ed Harris), but that doesn’t neccessarily mean it’ll be good news for the involved parties.

The Mother of Exiles

Debut date: SUNDAY, APRIL 5 (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

The truth doesn’t always set you free.

Written by Jordan Goldberg & Lisa Joy; directed by Paul Cameron.

Westworld features:
Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy
Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay
Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe/Arnold Weber
Tessa Thompson as Charlotte Hale
Ed Harris as William/The Man in Black
Luke Hemsworth as Ashley Stubbs
Simon Quarterman as Lee Sizemore
Rodrigo Santoro as Hector Escaton
Aaron Paul as Caleb Nichols
Lena Waithe as Ash 
Vincent Cassel as Serac
Scott Mescudi as Francis
Marshawn Lynch as Giggles
Jefferson Mays as Liam Dempsey Sr. 
John Gallagher Jr. as Liam
Michael Ealy as Jake 
Tommy Flanagan as Conells

Westworld returns with a brand new episode April 5

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God of War art director Raf Grassetti has added another villain to his series of Batman: The Animated Series character designs: The Dark Knight’s ferocious feline foe, Catwoman.

Selina Kyle has gone through many interpretations over the years, but her BTAS look has remained a favorite among fans. After previously being portrayed on the big-screen by Michelle Pfeiffer, Anne Hathaway and Halle Berry (well, she played a Catwoman), the iconic DC Comics femme fatale will be brought to life in Matt Reeves’ The Batman by Zoe Kravitz.

We haven’t seen her suited-up yet, but fans will be hoping her costume will be at least somewhat comic-accurate.

Check out the artwork below and let us know what you think. Grassetti has only features villains thus far, but he reveals that heroes are on the way in his Instagram post.

View this post on Instagram

🦇BTAS 11 – Catwoman Continuing on the villains. A few more to do before we start some heroes 🐈 #dc #batman #joker #catwoman #harleyquinn #comics

A post shared by Raf Grassetti (@rafagrassetti) on Mar 27, 2020 at 9:14am PDT

Batman: The Animated Series is an American superhero animated television series based on the DC Comics superhero Batman. Developed by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Mitch Brian, and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, it originally aired on Fox Kids from September 5, 1992, to September 15, 1995, with a total of 85 episodes. For the final fifteen episodes, the series was given the on-screen title The Adventures of Batman & Robin, which was also used for reruns of earlier episodes. The series became the first in the continuity of the shared DC animated universe; spawning further animated TV series, feature films, comic books and video games with most of the same creative talent.

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We recently got the bad news that Marvel’s Black Widow had been pushed back from its original May 1st release, and although we were assured that the movie would still be given a theatrical debut, there’s still a lot of speculation that Disney may decide to send the Fallen Avenger’s first solo adventure directly to Digital or Disney+. 

The other day, Grace Randolph sent out a Tweet which got the rumor mill going again. The Beyond the Trailer host said she did some digging and found out that Disney is considering sending Black Widow and Mulan straight to streaming, but that price points, purchase vs rental etc were “all still up in the air.” 

Well, we’ve reached out to a contact at Disney and they’ve confirmed that the film is definitely still set for a theatrical release at some point. We weren’t given any indication of when that might be, but chances are the studio isn’t completely certain about that themselves given the current situation.

This could change, of course. If theaters don’t reopen before the end of the year (unlikely, but entirely possible) then Disney/Marvel may decide to release the movie to streaming rather than push it back to 2021, but, for the time being, Black Widow is still on track to hit theaters.

“In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller “Black Widow,” Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow, Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour portrays Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz is Melina. Directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige, “Black Widow”—the first film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—hits U.S. theaters on May 1, 2020.” –Marvel Studios.”

Black Widow stars Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz, David Harbour, William Hurt, Ray Winstone and Olivier Richters. Let us know if you’re looking forward to the movie in the comments

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X-Men franchise star James McAvoy has donated a whopping £275,000 (roughly $340,000) to a crowdfunding campaign which was launched by a group of UK doctors to help them raise money for vital protective equipment needed for NHS (National Health Service) staff treating COVID-19.

The page was launched on Thursday and appealed for donations so that masks, visors, and gloves are more readily available for those “going to war without armour and protection.”

The campaign’s original target was £200,000, but thanks to McAvoy’s generous donation, that’s been extended to £500,000. Dr. Salaj Masand tells The Guardian, “We are overwhelmed and speechless at the trust and faith people have put into us to deliver this. The number of very generous donations from everyone doubled our target within three days.”

Thanks to the Dark Phoenix star’s “mindblowing” contribution, Masand says an order for 75,000 masks and 75,000 visors can now be placed immediately. 

“The government is doing all it can but the NHS needs all the help it can get,” the doctor adds. “We are also competing with the commercial market who are trying to sell the same PPE for extraordinary prices. That is why we raised the capital ourselves and hope to help government distribute these supplies in the best possible way.”

In an Instagram post, McAvoy made just a brief statement saying, “Money donated today will save lives…Help us to help the government to help the NHS.”

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While Deadpool was very much standalone in nature (mostly because the X-Men movies were still set in the past when it came out), Colossus’ appearance provided a link to Fox’s wider Marvel Universe and gave the Merc with the Mouth a familiar face to interact with. 

It was made clear from the start that Colossus was a member of the X-Men, but his costume was a tad generic and not exactly what fans from the comic books were hoping to see.

Well, thanks to Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld, we have an early piece of concept art from the 2016 movie showing the hero wearing a costume which pays homage to his comic book counterpart’s classic appearance. It proves to be a clever way of bringing that to a live-action setting, especially in a world which never fully embraced the source material. 

Interestingly, this version of Colossus’ costume doesn’t seem to reference his links to the X-Men, so perhaps that wasn’t always the plan for the hero in this movie? 

Whatever the case may be, concept art from Deadpool (and the rest of Fox’s X-Men films) rarely finds its way online, so it’s a treat to get this look at what might have been. Now, the franchise is in the hands of Marvel Studios, and their plans for the Merc with the Mouth are currently unclear. 

What are your thoughts on this design?
 

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The Batman is a movie shrouded in secrecy, but a number of major characters who are set to appear in the movie have been revealed, including the villainous Carmine Falcone. A major part of the Dark Knight’s early adventures in Gotham City, the mob boss will be played by John Turturro, an expected but exciting casting decision on director Matt Reeves’ part. 

During a recent interview with The Inquirer, the actor was asked about joining the DC Extended Universe, and while he couldn’t reveal much, the Transformers star is clearly excited about the role.

“I’m playing the bad guy,” he revealed. “I loved Batman growing up, but I’m really a Zorro fan [Laughs]. So there’s no Batman without Zorro. When I was 5 years old, I thought I was Zorro with a sword. I had a stick that I hit my father with all the time. Then, when Batman came on TV, it was a big thrill.”

“I read some of the comics. My sons always read DC comics,” Turturro continued. “So I played with those for years. I like Matt Reeves, the director. It’s an interesting cast.”

Seeing what the actor brings to The Batman promises to be a lot of fun, and Falcone is definitely a character who deserves better on the big screen than what we’ve seen from previous versions. How much of a role he’ll play remains to be seen, though, especially with characters like The Riddler and The Penguin also set to factor into the upcoming reboot. 

In the comic books, Carmine “The Roman” Falcone was the head of organized crime in Gotham City during the early years of Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham.

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