“The first draft that Christina [Hodson] wrote of Birds of Prey, the villain was the Penguin. And then Matt Reeves said, ‘Don’t use the Penguin. I’m going to use him in my thing [The Batman].’ And so we swapped it to Black Mask,” Robbie explained.
Robbie’s chat was a joint interview with her A Big Bold Beautiful Journey co-star Colin Farrell, who just so happened to play the Penguin/Oswald Cobb in Reeve’s 2022 noir crime-action film The Batman, as well as its Emmy-nominated HBO spinoff show The Penguin.
Robbie added that the early Birds of Prey script featuring the Penguin was “amazing.”
“We’ve done so much talking, and I don’t think we’ve ever [discussed playing Batman characters]. That’s so weird,” she told Farrell, who in turn admitted he’d “love to” read the early draft featuring the Gotham City crime lord.
Released in 2020, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) sees Harley on the run after her breakup with the Joker makes her vulnerable to all the enemies she’s made in the criminal underbelly of Gotham City. As vicious crime boss Black Mask, played by Ewan McGregor, turns his attention to her, she teams up with a group of unexpected allies to take him down for good.
Following her most recent appearance in 2021’s pre-DCU film The Suicide Squad, Robbie’s future as Harley Quinn remains unclear. However, earlier this month DC Studios co-head James Gunn hinted that Robbie’s potential role in the new DCU “will be revealed down the line.”
There’s no word yet on whether or not HBO’s The Penguin spinoff show will receive a second season, though it’s unlikely as it was billed as a limited series.
The Biggest DC Movie Bombs
These movies may have featured some of the biggest superheroes in history, but they were also big flops.
The future of Superman is looking brighter than a Kryptonian-supercharging yellow sun.
Speaking on The Viall Files With Nick Viall podcast, James Gunn revealed just how many films he envisions for the new DC Universe’s Superman saga, and it may be more than fans previously expected.
Superman won’t receive a traditional trilogy, but rather four movies centered on the Man of Steel’s story.
“I am like thinking, ‘What is the long-term story I’m telling here? What is the story that I’m gonna tell about Superman over four movies?’” the DC Studios co-CEO shared during an appearance on Viall’s podcast.
Plus, fans won’t have to wait too long for the 2025 superhero movie’s highly anticipated follow-up, as Gunn says the treatment for the next film in the series is already complete.
“I’ve already finished the treatment for the next story in what I’ll call the ‘Superman Saga.’ The treatment is done, which means a very, very worked out treatment. I’m working on that and hopefully going into production on that not too far away from today,” the filmmaker teased.
Earlier this week, Gunn confirmed on the I Think You’re Overthinking It podcast that the “next movie we’re [DC Studios] gonna be making is the follow-up to Superman.”
While plot details are still under wraps (obviously), Gunn did drop a few cryptic hints about Superman 2 on the Crew Call With Anthony D’Alessandro podcast. “It’s within the group of characters we’ve already met, and Superman’s an important element of it. So, that’s what I’ll say, but like that movie, that treatment is done,” he said.
From that little soundbite we can only assume that means the so-called Justice Gang — Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mister Terrific — could play an even bigger role in the next Superman installment.
Superman, which kicked off Chapter One of the new cinematic DC Universe, hit theaters on July 11. The film grossed $598 million against an estimated $225 million budget.
In a new chat with Interview magazine, Gunn explained the DCU isn’t like the MCU because the DCU will be focusing more on “telling individual stories” from a greater shared cinematic universe, among other reasons that set the two comic book movie and media franchises apart.
“People say, ‘Oh, the DCU is doing what MCU is.’ But I think it really is a lot more to me what the Game of Thrones world is like or what Star Wars is like, because we’re building a universe and then picking out little pieces of it and telling individual stories from that universe,” he said.
In addition, the filmmaker and DC Studios co-head explained that while many movies in the MCU take place in real-world locations, the DCU comprises its entirely own, unique world and environment.
“There is not a New York City in our DCU. There is not a Los Angeles in our DCU. There is Metropolis, Evergreen, and Coast City. It’s a different map. It’s a world in which some form of superheroes, which we call Metahumans, have existed for at least 300 years, and they’ve been a part of our life,” he said.
“But I think that we’re reaching a point in the DCU where there’s three factions. There’s the Metahumans, the governments, and then the corporations. And the corporations are equally important. There’s Luthor Corp, there’s Lord Tech and Stagg Industries and Wayne Enterprises, which are the four big companies that are vying for another type of domination … And they aren’t evil corporations, really. They’re just f—ing amoral corporations,” Gunn added.
Gunn shared he was drawn to DC for their vast world-building, revealing he takes inspiration from Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin: “I think it’s the reason I agreed to the job. You talk about George R.R. Martin, and he is really one of the guys who I love and look up to. I’m an enormous fan of his.”
Unlike the MCU’s cinematic phases, the DCU will tell its greater story in chapters, the first being Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.
The DCU launched with the animated series Creature Commandos in 2024, with Gunn’s 2025 film Superman marking the official beginning of the DCU’s new cinematic franchise.
Venom: The Last Dance is here, and with it is the big-screen debut of Knull, one of the biggest villains in the Marvel (comics) Universe in the last few years. Knull has the potential to be a Thanos-level threat, and to anchor a whole slew of superhero movies.
So how did The Last Dance treat Knull? Is this the first of many appearances in movies, or will this be the last we see of the God of the Symbiotes? In our latest Venomvideo, ScreenCrush’s Matt Singer and Ryan Arey give their full review of the film. How does it compare to the previous two Venom movies? Is Knull the bad guy this franchise has been waiting for? Can there ever be a great Spider-Man spinoff movie if Spider-Man isn’t legally allowed to appear in it? Watch their discussion of those topics and a whole lot more below:
If you liked that video reviewing Venom: The Last Dance and discussing how it used Marvel mega-bad Knull, check out more of our videos below, including one recapping everything you need to know about Venom and his movie franchise prior to Venom: The Last Dance, one about all of the Marvel Easter eggs in the new Thunderbolts* trailer, and one comparing Venom and Joker. Plus, there’s tons more videos over at ScreenCrush’s YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to catch all our future episodes. Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters everywhere.
Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best
It started with Iron Man and it’s continued and expanded ever since. It’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with 34 movies and counting. But what’s the best and the worst? We ranked them all.
Venom: The Last Dance concludes the trilogy of films featuring Tom Hardy as Marvel’s lethal protector and Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis (who, in the movies, he never actually meets). Sony has made it clear, this is the end of the line for Hardy’s Eddie Brock.
If you’ve missed any of the steps along the way, our recap is here to help. Rather than watch multiple hours of movies, the video below will get you up to speed in just 13 minutes. It recaps the events of Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and it also discusses Hardy’s cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and what it means for the future of this franchise and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Watch our full recap of everything Venom below…
If you liked that video recapping everything you need to know about Venom and his movie franchise prior to Venom: The Last Dance, check out more of our videos below, including one about all of the Marvel Easter eggs in the new Thunderbolts* trailer, one comparing Venom and Joker, and one on Venom: The Last Dance and how it will set up Spider-Man’s role in Avengers: Secret Wars. Plus, there’s tons more videos over at ScreenCrush’s YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to catch all our future episodes. Venom: The Last Dance opens in theaters everywhere this weekend.
Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best
It started with Iron Man and it’s continued and expanded ever since. It’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with 34 movies and counting. But what’s the best and the worst? We ranked them all.
HOUSTON, TX — The rumble is back. Monster Jam is returning to Houston’s NRG Stadium! Don’t miss the U.S. debut of the Marvel Monster Trucks, Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther and the Amazing Spiderman.
“I grew up as a little kid watching Monster Jam and I dressed up as Spiderman, so having the two come together is absolutely wild. I’m just a big kid driving a 12,000 pound Monster Truck flying high through the sky,” Monster Truck driver Camden Murphy says with a smile.
Monster Jam is an edge-of-your-seat experience for both the drivers and the fans. Add in the Marvel Superheroes and it takes the ride to a whole new level!
“We all grew up watching superheroes, to be behind the wheel of Iron Man is a dream come true,” said Iron Man Monster Truck driver Brandon Arthur. “We are doing stuff in the trucks we shouldn’t be doing. You pay for the whole seat, but you’ll only be using the edge.”
It’s fun for the entire family, so buckle up for a Monster Jam Marvel weekend spin!
“If you’ve never been to Monster Jam, you have to come,” said Murphy. “I guarantee you, I promise you, if it’s your first time, it will never be your last.”
HOUSTON, TX — The rumble is back. Monster Jam is returning to Houston’s NRG Stadium. Don’t miss the U.S. debut of the Marvel Monster Trucks, Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther and the Amazing Spiderman.
“I grew up as a little kid watching Monster Jam and I dressed up as Spiderman so having the two come together is absolutely wild. I’m just a big kid driving a 12,000 pound Monster Truck flying high through the sky,” Monster Truck driver Camden Murphy says with a smile.
Monster Jam is an edge-of-your-seat experience for the drivers and the fans. Add in the Marvel Superheroes and it takes the ride to a whole new level!
“We all grew up watching superheroes, to be behind the wheel of Iron Man is a dream come true,” said Iron Man Monster Truck driver Brandon Arthur, “We are doing stuff in the trucks we shouldn’t be doing. You pay for the whole seat, but you’ll only be using the edge.”
It’s fun for the entire family, so buckle up for a Monster Jam Marvel weekend spin!
“If you’ve never been to Monster Jam, you have to come,” said Murphy. “I guarantee you, I promise you, if it’s your first time, it will never be your last.”
There is a script for Marvel’s fourth Spider-Man film and Tom Holland says he has seen it — but at least in his opinion, it still “needs work.”
That’s what he told The Rich Roll Podcast in a recent interview promoting, among other things, his new non-alcoholic beer, Bero. But Holland did add that “the writers are doing a great job” on the project.
“I read it three weeks ago,” Holland explained, “and it really lit a fire in me. Zendaya and I sat down and read it together and we at times were bouncing around the living room.”
Holland said part of the challenge of this particular Spider-Man is fitting into the “large machine” that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“That machine has got to keep running. You have to make sure you can fit into that timeline at the right time to benefit the bigger picture. That’s one of the challenges we’re facing,” Holland explained.
Marvel is approaching several major films, including its first Fantastic Four and two new Avengers sequels, both of which will feature Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. Those projects, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, will — if they are at all faithful to Marvel Comics — potentially break (and inevitably repair) the entire MCU. That could conceivably be what Holland’s referring to; trying to find a place to tell a standalone Spider-Man story amidst the literal destruction and reformulation of a cinematic universe could be pretty tough.
At present it looks like the fourth Spider-Man movie with Holland will be directed by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Destin Daniel Cretton. The prior three Spider-Man films featuring Holland were all directed by Jon Watts.
Holland also said the idea they have for the project is “a real movie worthy of the fans’ respect” and he is “really, really excited about it.”
Spider-Man 4 doesn’t have an official release date yet. You can watch Holland’s full interview with the Rich Roll Podcast below.
12 Hit Movies That People Mistakenly Call Cult Films
Despite what people write about them, these movies were hits — they were not cult films.
Joker: Folie à Deuxis a bomb. And in the words of Batman, some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb.
Right now, Warner Bros. might be wishing it could. Folie à Deux grossed less than half of the original Joker in its opening weekend in theaters; an estimated $40 million compared to the $96.2 million opening for Todd Phillips’ 2019 film. That’s below estimates from even a few days ago, when it was predicted the movie would make $50 or $60 million in its opening weekend. (A few weeks ago, that number was as high as $70 million according to some experts.) At the same time, the film received a lowly “D” score from paying customers who did fork over their hard-earned dough to see the movie.
This is not the outcome anyone would have predicted. (Certainly Warner Bros. didn’t; they reportedly spent some $200 million on Joker: Folie à Deux.) When the movie was first announced it was greeted with a lot of excitement; Phillips, who turned the first Joker into the biggest R-rated film ever at that time, would re-team with Joaquin Phoenix, who won an Oscar for playing the title character — and they would be joined by Lady Gaga, playing a new version of fan favorite character Harley Quinn. On paper, that was a can’t-miss team.
But then they missed — big time. So what went wrong? Here’s a few of the key reasons Joker: Folie à Deux turned into such a misfire (a deux).
Why Did ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Flop So Badly?
Joker grossed $1 billion and became a massive smash. The sequel, from many of the same creators, is looking like one of the costliest sequels ever. So what went wrong?
The Amazing Spider-Man star — who made a crossover appearance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe during Spider-Man: No Way Home — has revealed that he would return as Peter Parker’s web-slinging alter ego if it was the right project for him.
Speaking to Esquire about his potential return, he said: “For sure, I would 100 percent come back if it was the right thing, if it’s additive to the culture, if there’s a great concept or something that hasn’t been done before that’s unique and odd and exciting and that you can sink your teeth into.”
The star, who used to date Emma Stone, added: “I love that character, and it brings joy. If part of what I bring is joy, then I’m joyful in return.”
Meanwhile, Garfield shared he is “excited” to work again.
The 41-year-old actor can next be seen opposite Florence Pugh in We Live in Time, his first film in three years, and he admitted his sabbatical has given him a fresh enthusiasm for making movies.
Asked if he is out of his sabbatical now, he told The Hollywood Reporter: “I think so. Yeah, I think I’m excited to work again in a different way. I feel looser, I feel less precious. I feel more joyful. I feel more aware.”
“I feel established enough as a person in the world, as an actor within myself and within the world. I know myself well enough now to feel more enjoyment… I’m still a head case — when I’m on a set, I’m like a dog with a bone and get taken over by some weird spirit that is never satisfied — but that’s never going to change, and I don’t want it to, but within that, I can feel a lot more pleasure and a lot more enjoyment, play and freedom.”
Garfield’s We Live in Time is scheduled to open in theaters on October 11.
The following post contains SPOILERS for Deadpool & Wolverine. The movie came out more than two months ago, guys.
Deadpool & Wolverine might be the first movie I have seen in my entire life that made less sense on a second viewing.
The first time through, I was so busy keeping track of the endless parade of cameos and nonstop Ryan Reynolds one-liners, that I didn’t fully register just how nonsensical the plot is from top to bottom. Deadpool quits being a superhero because he wanted to be an Avenger, and they rejected him — but the Avengers don’t even exist in his reality, so why should he even care? The Fox X-Men universe is in danger of collapsing because its “anchor being” died — but if that’s the case how did it exist for the billions of years before that being was born? Cassandra Nova creates a portal out of the Void because the heroes tell her that her brother, Charles Xavier, loved her and would have saved her if he knew about her — but Cassandra already told them Xavier tried to kill her in the womb. Did he love her or hate her? And on and on and on.
There really is just one thing holding this film together, and it ain’t Ryan Reynolds calling himself Marvel Jesus over and over. It’s Hugh Jackman, giving an incredibly emotional performance that is all the more impressive because it comes in Deadpool & Wolverine, a film that otherwise exists to mock superhero movies in general and itself specifically.
Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised Jackman is so good in this movie. For a quarter of a century, Fox put this man in movies that, with very few exceptions, ranged from so-so to absolute garbage. Time and again, he elevated the material he was handed with conspicuous dedication and fiery intensity. He brought authenticity to one X-Men sequel after another. At this point, I think it can be stated as fact: No one has been a better actor in superhero movies for longer than Hugh Jackman.
Jackman has appeared in a couple good X-Men films through the years. The first two X-Men from the early 2000s were really the first Marvel movies in history to capture even a fraction of the flavor of their popular source material. Jackman was also the lynchpin of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the solid crossover sequel that united the two X-Men moviefranchises. And he was sensational in his first swan song to Wolverine, 2017’s Logan, where he was finally given an R-rated venue to showcase the character’s full range of emotions and penchant for bloody violence.
But more often than not Jackman was the highlight of otherwise disappointing movies, like X-Men: The Last Stand, an ugly and muddled adaptation of the classic “Dark Phoenix Saga” that’s occasionally kind of watchable because Jackman is so locked in on Logan’s doomed relationship with Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey. Jackman somehow kept a straight face marching through one of the worst Marvel movies in history; his grizzled gravitas is the only thing that disaster has going for it.
He even brightened up maybe the worst of the main X-Men movies, X-Men: Apocalypse, in an unannounced cameo where he recreated Wolverine’s famous “Weapon X” origin story from Marvel Comics. Jackman had already attempted one version of this story in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. (That would be the aforementioned Marvel movie that was maybe the worst ever made.)Given a second chance to adapt this popular storyline, Jackman made the most of it.
Wearing a goofy hi-tech headband and wolfish wig while stripped to the waist and covered in cables, Jackman is somehow absolutely terrifying as this savage animal of a man who tears apart a whole legion of goons with his bare hands (and claws). Jackman appears in X-Men: Apocalypse for about three minutes, never says a single word, and is still the only memorable part of the movie.
Jackman’s Marvel filmography is all the more admirable because his movies were so often disappointing; he was as impervious to bad material as his signature character is to bullets and stab wounds. He always brought his A game, even in B (or, let’s be honest, C or D) material. He’s the movie equivalent of Walter Johnson, the Hall of Fame pitcher who repeatedly led the Major Leagues in strikeouts despite pitching for the hapless Washington Senators. (Johnson’s plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame notes that he “won 414 games with losing team behind him many years.” Way to roast the Washington Senators, Baseball Hall of Fame plaque writer.)
To be clear, Deadpool & Wolverine is a much more entertaining movie than X-Men: Apocalypse or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But on a rewatch, with the novelty of its slew of unpredictable cameos thoroughly worn off, its first 35 minutes are awfully slow-going — until the exact moment Jackman’s Wolverine joins the story.
Even after Jackman shows up, Deadpool & Wolverine is still about characters who cannot be killed; the title heroes both possess mutant healing abilities, and they have several extended fight scenes where they hack and shoot each other repeatedly with zero long-term effects. Thanks to the concept of the multiverse, which contains infinite variations of every Marvel character, death is also utterly meaningless. After all, the fundamental premiseof Deadpool & Wolverine is that Wolverine is dead and Deadpool must find another Wolverine to take his place.
Deadpool & Wolverine asks a ton of Jackman: Most centrally, it needs to make us care about a character who already got one heroic death and ending to his story. The script (credited to five writers, including Reynolds) tells us — but never shows us — this new Wolverine’s tragic backstory: Humans stormed the Xavier School and killed all of the other X-Men while he wasn’t there, in response to Wolverine going on an unexplained human killing spree of his own. (Wait, human were so angry at Wolverine that they killed all the X-Men except Wolverine? This is yet another part of the movie that gets more confusing the longer you think about it. Anyway, we’re getting off track.)
The film wants us to feel something about the murders of characters who never appear onscreen — and who exist in countless other variants all throughout the Marvel multiverse. And yet, in a movie where there are essentially no stakes because the heroes can be reborn or plucked from alternate timelines as long as Marvel is willing to pay a popular actor their quote, we do come to care about this “worst” Wolverine and his pain. The only reason is Jackman, who injects so much pathos into this tortured man’s broken soul. Death should be irrelevant in Deadpool & Wolverine, but Jackman makes us feel the scar this loss left on this man.
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Marvel
Jackman’s work in Deadpool & Wolverine makes it the perfect coda for and tribute to the Fox X-Men universe. So many of those films were silly, yet Jackman remained devoutly committed to the reality of Wolverine’s arduous psychological journey. (He also remained devoutly committed to eating nothing but brown rice and chicken for years on end to maintain the reality of Wolverine’s swole physique.) Deadpool & Wolverine is maybe the silliest of all the X-Men movies — intentionally so — and yet Jackman gives maybe his single best performance as Wolverine in it.
Deadpool & Wolverine’s box office proves how excited audiences were to see Jackman back in this role, and he generally got solid reviews. I still don’t think he’s gotten enough credit for how great he is in this and all these movies. He’s never treated any of them like a paycheck. He’s never phoned in a moment. The guy truly is the best there is at what he does.
Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best
It started with Iron Man and it’s continued and expanded ever since. It’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with 34 movies and counting. But what’s the best and the worst? We ranked them all.
Marvel’sAgatha All Along finally premieres on Disney+ this week, and while this is the series premiere, there are literally dozens of hours of stories from the Marvel Cinematic Universe that all lead into this show: Films and TV shows about the history of magic and how they set up the events of this new series.
That’s what our latest Marvel video is all about. We’ll tell you everything you need to know that happened in Eternals, Doctor Strange, WandaVision, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Multiverse of Madness, and more, so that you are totally caught up in time for the big Agatha All Along premiere. Instead of dozens of hours, this will only take about 20 minutes. (You’re welcome.)
If you liked that video recapping Agatha Harkness, WandaVision, and everything magic in the MCU, check out more of our videos below, including one on Venom: The Last Dance, and how it will set up Spider-Man’s role in Avengers: Secret Wars, one on the latest updates about Marvel’s Armor Wars, and one on why James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender should continue to play Professor X and Magneto in the MCU. Plus, there’s tons more videos over at ScreenCrush’s YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to catch all our future episodes. Agatha All Along premieres this Wednesday on Disney+, with new episodes weekly after that.
Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best
It started with Iron Man and it’s continued and expanded ever since. It’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with 34 movies and counting. But what’s the best and the worst? We ranked them all.
Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch has been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a decade now. It hasn’t always been the smoothest ride. Introduced as an ally of Ultron, she then joined the Avengers, fought in the MCU Civil War, fell in love with a robot, lost her mind when said robot croaked, then seemingly got over her trauma only to break really bad in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where her character arguably became a full-blown super-villain.
Olsen hasn’t appeared in the MCU since, and it’s not entirely clear when she’ll be back. Promoting her new movie, the actress said she would return … under the right circumstances.
As she told FM104 (via The Hollywood Reporter), “If there’s a good way to use her I’m always happy to come back, however they can make that make sense.”
Olsen did acknowledge her character’s wild swings haven’t always worked, noting that Wanda is “a character that I love going back to when there’s a way to use her well” and adding that while she had a strong introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron, “I think people didn’t know what to do with me for a second there.”
Or maybe a few seconds. Olsen always brought a lot of presence and emotional conflict to Wanda, no matter what Marvel had her do, but she hasn’t exactly been the most consistent Marvel character through the years. WandaVision was seemingly about her character learning to process and move beyond her grief about the death of Paul Bettany’s Vision, yet the very next time audiences saw her, in Multiverse of Madness, she was even more angry, bitter, and violent. She wanted to find her “missing” kids (who were actually just inventions of her magical powers), she was ready to kill anyone and everyone who stood in her way, including Doctor Strange and the rest of his magical allies.
In fact, Wanda’s muddled character development is the subject of one of our recent ScreenCrush videos.
Olsen will next be seen in His Three Daughters (which is excellent, by the way), which premieres on Netflix on September 20.
20 Movies That Should Have Flopped That Became Massive Hits
These movies didn’t look like much on paper, then became some of the biggest hits ever.
The DC superhero blockbuster — which starred Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader — is due to receive a sequel in 2026, and now the 58-year-old director has confirmed the story will continue in a future third installment.
When Collider asked Reeves if a trilogy was still on the cards, he said: “Yes, that is still the plan. I mean, it’s sticking very closely to the path we envisioned.”
The filmmaker is currently gearing up for the release of the HBO spinoff show The Penguin, which sees Colin Farrell, 48, reprise his role as the titular mob boss — who is also known as Oz Cobb — as he rises through the ranks of Gotham City’s criminal underworld.
Reeves explained that while “things kind of shifted” with his superhero universe due to the new program, the director emphasized that the overarching story being told in the upcoming movies would remain the same.
He said: “When we came up with the idea to do The Penguin, that was something where I had always intended to continue Penguin’s story, and wanted to tell this story of his beginning of rise to power … Because we know that he’s introduced in The Batman as a kind of mid-level, sort of overlooked, mocked figure, who’s not yet in anyone’s eyes the kingpin we come to know him as in the lore.”
“And so, that was deliberate because I wanted— whereas it wasn’t Batman’s origin story, I wanted the origin stories of these other characters, of the Rogues Gallery and that story was originally going to be the entrée into the next movie.”
The filmmaker added the show — which debuts on HBO on September 19 — will move the Penguin’s character forward so that the mob boss is a more established villain by the time he appears again in The Batman — Part II.
Reeves said: “It’s still the same kind of trajectory of story, but the entry point for where Oz is is now that he’s further along as we enter that story than he would have been if we had started that story in the movie instead of by doing a series.”
The Batman — Part II is currently scheduled for release on October 2, 2026
Every Batman Movie Ranked From Worst to Best
Which Batman movie reigns supreme? We ranked them all.
Joker: Folie à Deuxjust made its premiere at the Venice Film Festival — to less than enthusiastic reviews.
The first Joker, directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix as the iconic DC villain, also premiered at Venice, where it was received very positively by critics and won the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion. While subsequent reviews elsewhere were a bit more mixed, the film went on to become one of the highest-grossing R-rated films in history, and an Oscar winner.
We’ll see what happens when Folie à Deux premieres in theaters next month, but the early word out of Venice this time is extremely mixed, and in some cases, downright negative. Even some critics who loved the first Joker had harsh words for the sequel. The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney, for example, called the original Joker “arguably the best Batman-adjacent movie since The Dark Knight.” Of Folie à Deux, he said it “feels narratively a little thin and at times dull.”
Similarly, Screen’s Tim Grierson tweeted that he still thinks “the original Joker is terrific. And let the record show I think Joker: Folie à Deuxis most decidedly not.”
There were some positive reviews; Deadline’s Pete Hammond said it’s a musical unlike anything else he’d seen. Here’s a sampling of the Joker 2 reviews so far, the good at the bad.
It’s a sad, pensive, and impressively odd motion picture that uses the theatricality of movie musicals to undermine its hero’s ambitions instead of elevating them.
Tim Burton may have changed superhero movies forever with his Batman films. But he’s not interested in going back to make another superhero movie.
That’s what Burton told Variety, explaining that if he were asked to make a new superhero movie, at the movie he “would say no.”
“I come at things from different points of view,” he added, “so I would never say never to anything. But, at the moment, it’s not something I’d be interested in.”
Burton said his tenure directing Batman and then Batman Returns was “lucky” because “at that time, the word ‘franchise’ didn’t exist. So Batman felt slightly experimental at the time.” Burton added that he wasn’t even interested in making a Batman sequel back in the 1990s until he was “reenergized” by the thought of adding Penguin and Catwoman to the story.
After his two Batman films, Burton did almost direct a third DC movie: Superman Lives, which was set to star Nicolas Cage as the Man of Steel. Although it was never made, Burton spent a year developing the material before Warner Bros. finally canceled the project in 1998. (The whole sordid saga is chronicled in the documentary The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?)
Nicolas Cage made a cameo as his version of Superman in 2023’s The Flash (which also starred Burton’s Batman, Michael Keaton, in a supporting role). Burton was not flattered by the homage, though; in interviews last year he said he was in “quiet revolt” about the use of his characters in modern DC movies. (That might have something to do with his disinterest in a new superhero movie as well.)
Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is scheduled to open in theaters on September 6.
Movies That Are Shockingly Rated PG
These movies are filled with content that might not be suitable for younger kids. But they all received a PG rating anyway.
A previously planned entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not happening as originally scheduled.
Disney and Marvel announced a bunch of changes to their upcoming release calendar today. Among the moves they announced was the news that Marvel was no longer planning to release a film on July 24, 2026. The company never confirmed what title they had planned for that date, but whatever it was, it’s not happening.
Marvel did set release dates for two still-unrevealed projects in 2027: One on July 23 and one on November 5.
If these most recent schedule changes hold, they would mean Marvel would release just one movie in 2026 — the just-announced Avengers: Doomsday, which will feature the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU — but three films in 2027. They currently have four movies set for 2025, a high number for the studio, although given the number of delays and behind-the-scenes issues with Blade, it seems far from certain that movie comes out as originally planned.
The last time Marvel released back-to-back Avengers sequels, they actually pumped out two more MCU films between them: In the break between Infinity War and Endgame, they also released Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel, both of which became pretty sizable hits that were likely helped along at the box office by the immense curiosity surrounding the resolution of Infinity War’s massive cliffhanger. But at that point, Marvel also wasn’t making television series for Disney+.
Every Marvel Movie Ever Made, Ranked From Worst to First
From the Captain America serial to Deadpool & Wolverine, we ranked the entire history of Marvel at the movies.
The 60-year-old actor will make his return as Samuel Sterns in the upcoming movie Captain America: Brave New World and hit back at critics such as Martin Scorsese – who branded the superhero blockbusters as “theme parks” and “not cinema.”
Speaking to TheWrap at San Diego Comic-Con, Nelson said: “Marvel has become this phenomenon that’s unprecedented in the history of cinema.”
“These scores of movies with characters moving in and out of one another’s storylines, coming together, going back apart, fighting against one another in a single universe; it’s never happened before in movies … When people attack these movies as, ‘Well, it’s not real cinema’ or, ‘It’s the death of cinema,’ I actually think it’s keeping cinema alive, and I really mean that.”
The forthcoming flick marks Nelson’s first MCU appearance since he featured in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and he confessed that he had “given up” on making a return to superhero tentpoles.
The Minority Report star said: “I have to say that I had given up on coming back as well, and not without a tremendous amount of despair. But I’m glad it took this long because the character I (play) actually, I think demands my own life experiences over the past 18 years. Because there’s a real depth and rage and pathos to this guy, and I needed 18 more years of life experience to try and pull that off.”
Nelson added that he reprised the part on the basis that his alter ego would transform into the villainous Leader.
He told Entertainment Weekly: “I had only one request, which was that we realise the character practically and they were willing to do that.
“Of course, if they’d said no, I still would have done it. But I wanted to really have the look and the weight of the character and look in the mirror and see the deformation of the character and have the other actors experience that.”
Captain America: Brave New World is scheduled to open in theaters on February 14, 2025.
The Worst X-Men Movie Moments
The Fox X-Men franchise spanned two decades and gave us 13 movies, plus these ten moments we’d rather forget.
At their big San Diego Comic-Con panel, Marvel Studios confirmed that the next film in the Avengers franchise is Avengers: Doomsday — the Avengers (and the Fantastic Four, apparently) versus Doctor Doom. And playing Doctor Doom in the film is … none other than Robert Downey Jr.
You can see (and hear) the reaction to Downey’s reveal below.
Downey is not the only person returning for Avengers 5 either. Marvel confirmed at the panel that Joe and Anthony Russo — the directors of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame — will be returning to direct both Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars.
The news marks a radical change of plans for the film from what Marvel initially intended. Marvel formally announced Avengers 5 two years ago, at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. At that time, the film was dubbed Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, indicating that the movie would focus on the time-traveling villain Kang, played by Jonathan Majors.
But then Majors got in trouble with the law, and was fired by Marvel in December of 2023. Marvel quietly dropped The Kang Dynasty subtitle from the film and began simply referring to the film informally as Avengers 5. During this period, the film also lost its original director, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Destin Daniel Cretton. Clearly, it is an entirely different project now.
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled for release on May 1, 2026. Avengers: Secert Wars is scheduled to follow on May 7, 2027. (It may be worth noting that in the Secret Wars comics of a few years ago, the main villain is … Doctor Doom.) I suspect that people are suddenly going to be a lot more interested in both of these films.
The following post contains SPOILERS for Deadpool & Wolverine. And maybe for Deadpool. And a little Deadpool 2. There’s probably some X-Men spoilers in there too. And Last Year at Marienbad for some reason. That’s a weird one.
There are so many Marvel Easter eggs in Deadpool & Wolverine. So many. In fact our Easter egg breakdown video for this movie might be our longest yet. It’s almost one full hour, and in it we break down all the secrets, hidden Marvel references and little details you might have missed.
Like, for example: Did you spot all of the props from previous Marvel movies in Happy Hogan’s office? There’s a photo from Avengers: Endgame, trading cards from Captain America: The First Avenger, the prototype Captain America shield from Iron Man and Iron Man 2, the “Proof That Tony Stark Has a Heart” paperweight from multiple Marvel movies, plus an Ultron head and the Iron Man 2 suitcase armor. And those are just some of the Easter eggs from one scene! There’s an hour of this crap! Watch them all below:
If you liked that video on all the Easter eggs and secrets in Deadpool & Wolverine (and hoo boy, in this movie, there are a lot of them) check out more of our videos below, including one on the ending of Deadpool & Wolverine and what it means for the future of the MCU, one on all the Easter eggs and secrets in the first trailer for Captain America: Brave New World, and our Easter egg trailer breakdown for Agatha All Along. Plus, there’s tons more videos over at ScreenCrush’s YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to catch all our future episodes. Deadpool & Wolverine is in theaters now.
Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best
It started with Iron Man and it’s continued and expanded ever since. It’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with 34 movies and counting. But what’s the best and the worst? We ranked them all.
