Leto's Joker, Star Wars the Last Jedi and more geekly News Round-Up!

A new look at Leto's Joker, Star Wars the Last Jedi, Black Panther and a trailer description of Avengers Infinity War! Alls this and more... here!

New Leto Joker Image

Suicide Squad has been a big success for DC Films in terms of fan reaction and box office haul, but the movie has also seen it's fair share of negative press, especially for removing most of Jared Leto's Joker, which was originally a way more important part of the plot.
His whole relationship towards Harley was supposed to be way more abusive and dark, going as far as that he pushes her out of the helicopter to kill her (because she pleaded to him to save the rest of the squad) before being shot down by Amanda Waller. The clown prince of crime then also returned during the climactic battle of the squad against the evil Enchantress, with a burnt face, to kill Harley and the squad (we saw a glimpse of that scene in a few of the trailers). Thanks to Roman Vasyanov, cinematographer of the movie, we now have another amazing look at Leto's Joker from that very scene, with his face burnt. Check it out above!
As much as I enjoyed Suicide Squad, seeing this again makes me shake my head in disbelieve. How could WB decide to take, arguably, the most well known and beloved character they had in the film out of it like this?! It has probably to do with the strong "BvS was too dark" complaints by the critics, which is also why they reshot most of the Joker/Harley scenes shortly before release, to paint the relationship in a more loving light.
What a shame. I hope we will someday see the real, first cut of the film, but I doubt that will happen before the DC Films are getting rebooted again.

Avengers Infinity War D23 Conference

With San Diego Comic Con coming our way this week, our geek hype levels couldn't be higher! But this isn't all, since Disney already had their own version of SDCC this weekend: D23, where the giant company shows off what they have planned in the next year to the most loyal of fans! Of course a huge part of that was their Marvel Studios slate, especially Avengers Infinity War, which will bring together ALL MCU heroes (Avengers, Guardians, Doctor Strange, etc) for the first time on screen next year! You can check out a part of the Avengers presentation above!
Marvel Studios also showed the first trailer of the next and probably biggest MCU movie ever, but did not release it online anywhere. Thanks to Io9 we do have a lengthy description of the trailer which you can read right here:

We’ll learn more about Thor and the Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok, but the Infinity War trailer opened with the Asgardian being flung against the windshield of the Milano, the ship commanded by Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) from Guardians of the Galaxy. “Get it off!” shouts Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), as though a particularly ugly bug had been smushed there. Mantis (Pom Klementieff) brings Thor back to life, and he promptly greets out Guardians with an unfriendly, “Who the hell are you?” (To be fair, Star-Lord had just told his fellow Guardians, “This might be dangerous, so let’s put on our mean faces.”) It then seems like Thor joins forces with the Guardians to guide them to Earth, where we see the following things go down, in quick succession:
Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) seems to cut a flaming car in half. It looks like her beau Vision (Paul Bethany) might be trapped nearby, and to judge from their faces, something sad and bad is going down.
“Death follows him like a shadow,” we hear, as Josh Brolin’s ultimate villain Thanos is teased. Suddenly, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki appears, cutting through flaming wreckage to grab the Tesseract, which holds one of the Infinity Stones. Is this what Scarlet Witch and Vision were trying to prevent?
Next, there’s a glimpse of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker on his school bus. The hair on his arms stands up. How’s that for some trouble-activated spider-sense?
“He’s come to us,” someone says, as some alien ships crash land on a wrecked Earth. A worried Mantis stands with Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, the Hulk, and the other heroes as the aircrafts approach. “This does put a smile on my face,” intones Thanos, as Gamora (Zoe Saldana) takes in the wreckage of the room kept by the Collector (Benicio del Toro). More Infinity Stones pillaged. And that’s when Thanos walks through a portal onto Earth — big and hulking and boasting a shit-eating grin. Star-Lord and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) leap into action, harnessing magic and airborne stepping stones. Even Spider-Man swings into action, wearing a cool new suit … perhaps the one teased at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming?
Briefly, we see Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), who’s blond now, and Captain America, who’s bearded. Listen, I know the fate of the universe is at stake, but don’t we all feel a little refreshed after spending valuable time on an undercover makeover? Talk to Wonder Woman about that, she knows what’s up.
In the final moments, things get truly heightened. Thanos grabs Thor’s head in his meaty paw and regards it like a grape he’s about to smush. Maybe he saw that scary black-and-white episode of Twin Peaks and wants to practice storming radio stations and breaking open heads?
“You can run from it,” growls Thanos, “but your destiny still arrives.” And then he holds up one hand and seemingly destroys a planet far away in the sky — or, if this scene is taking place on Earth, our freaking moon — and heaves the remains of it at our Avengers in a single shot.

Sounds like Thanos might actually be as good of a villain as Marvel wanted us to believe in the last few years. I am not digging the jokey Thor-Windshield scene, but apart from that it seems like this film is definitely on the right track. Let's just hope Disney decides to release the trailer online rather sooner than later!

Star Wars The Last Jedi Behind The Scenes

Disney also gave fans a new look at the next upcoming Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, at D23! While it wasn't a new trailer for the hotly anticipated movie, director Rian Johnson gave the fans a behind the scenes video, which gave a teasingly look into the making of the movie. The things the cast is saying about the movies story sounds really interesting, as they tease that this movie might really turn expectations on its head, which I can't wait for. Episode 7 has been fun but was a very safe bet story wise, so I think them moving stuff into a new direction could be fun!

First Punisher Poster

Entertainment Weekly revealed the first official poster of the upcoming MCU based Marvel Netflix show, which shows Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle as drawn by Joe Quesada.
The character had been introduced in season two of Daredevil on Netflix and will now get his own TV series before the end of the year. He might even appear in the upcoming Defenders series (that unites Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist for the first time) in August, but that is still only a rumor. I really enjoyed his take on the ultra brutal vigilante, so I can't wait to see more of him, especially since Bernthal has already been one of my favorite actors for years now.

Black Panther Director Talks Movie

Ryan Coogler already has an impressive directing career with his 31 years under his belt, thanks to the indy darling Fruitvale Station and the Rocky sequel/spin-off Creed. Now the super talented director moves up an echelon with his first mega budget blockbuster, Black Panther. While talking to Entertainment Weekly the director talked about why the character of Black Panther, T'Challa means so much to him.

“I’m a fan myself. And I find … I’m honored, man, to be on a project that people care about this much. When I first discovered comic books and superheroes, I remember falling in love with X-Men the first time I saw Bishop. I was like, ‘Holy smokes, there’s a black X-Man?’” Then I found out Stan Lee talked about how Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were some of his inspirations for Magneto and Professor X. So I was like, ‘Jeez, my culture is influencing this!’ And this is being referenced. But I always did long for that one [black] superhero who the whole book was around. The same way I could pick up a Captain America book or a Spider-Man book."

“I remember going in there saying ’You got any black superheroes? Got anybody who looks like me?’The first thing they did was walk me over to Black Panther.”

“The day I took the job was an out-of-body experience. [My wife] was like, let’s go to that same shop that you told me about. It’s on Piedmont Avenue.” We went in and I bought the two Black Panther comic books I could find. I was like, you got to take a picture of me. And I sent it to Kevin.”

I think there is probably not a better director for this project, especially when you look at the love Coogler has for the character. This going to be a great one, I bet!