All aboard the R-rated superhero movie bandwagon! That seems to be the call that's going out in Hollywood right now, as studios scramble to find more mature comic book properties to bring to the big screen after the tremendous success of both Deadpool and Logan. We already know that 20th Century Fox intends on heading down a similar path with X-Force and perhaps even New Mutants, but no one else has come forward just yet with an R-rated property.
About six months ago, it was announced that British acting legend Jim Broadbent had joined that cast of HBO's Game of Thrones for its penultimate seventh season. At the time, no details were provided on which character Broadbent would be portraying, but fans immediately jumped to the conclusion that he'd be playing a maester of some description, and it looks like they were right on the money.
That's probably what 20th Century Fox is thinking right about now in regards to their latest project, as the studio has just announced an adaptation of Square Enix's video game, Just Cause. Despite the fact that both Warcraft and Assassin's Creed (which also came from Fox) bombed last year, they aren't giving up on cracking the code for how to make a good video game movie, and we sincerely hope that they've learned from their mistakes.
At this point, you're probably sick of reading about how Logan's a "different" kind of superhero film, but that really is the case, and one of the reasons for this is the fact that it tells a self-contained story (for the most part, anyways) that's unafraid to take risks with its characters in ways that we just don't see enough in the big comic book movie franchises these days.
The season 6 finale of The Walking Dead was a fairly miserable installment overall, as it saw the introduction of Negan and ended on a very controversial cliffhanger. Then, when the show returned for its season 7 premiere, we were treated to the gruesome sight of two beloved characters getting their heads bashed into oblivion.
With Logan proving to be a smashing success both with critics and at the box office, it seems that R-rated comic book movies are about to become very popular. Deadpool paved the way last year and now, with Hugh Jackman's final outing as Wolvie turning heads, studios are realizing that you can go darker and more mature and still make a killing at the box office.
While 20th Century Fox has been enjoying its time in the spotlight this weekend thanks to all the praise being showered on Logan, not to mention the awesome Deadpool 2 promo that arrived with it, the focus - as far as comic book movies go - will soon shift back to Warner Bros. and its DC Extended Universe when the next trailer for Wonder Woman lands, which might be this coming Friday. Along with Justice League, it represents a chance for the studio to get things back on track after failing to live up to expectations with Suicide Squad and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.
After a few concerning reports and some prolonged radio silence, Deadpool 2 is back in the spotlight thanks to an exciting new promo (seen above) which debuted in theaters this weekend with Logan. It didn't give us anything from the film itself, since the scene it featured won't be part of the sequel, but it did bring along with it a few easter eggs for fans to find. One of which is related to Cable.
As expected, James Mangold's Logan has clawed its way to the top of the box office this weekend, drawing in an estimated $85.3 million, domestically. Though that doesn't put it ahead of Deadpool, which opened to a whopping $132 million, it's still incredibly impressive for an R-rated comic book movie, especially one that strays so far from what we usually see in the genre.
Disney's Han Solo spinoff is now in production and it seems that the final piece of the casting puzzle has fallen into place. Earlier this week, we learned that Boardwalk Empire star Michael K. Williams had landed a pivotal role in the spinoff, joining a roster that already boasts Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke and more. Unfortunately, the report didn't provide too many details, but now we're hearing that Williams may actually be the villain of the film.
