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It’s day two of our D23 Expo coverage. My spine hurts and I inhaled roughly 800 calories of Chewy bars this morning to my constant sugar buzz. More importantly: the expo’s biggest presentation, detailing Disney’s future live action films (that includes Marvel and Star Wars), has just wrapped up.
Here’s the ooey-gooey, hot-out-the-oven news from the Marvel chunk of the presentation, which covered 2016’s Marvel entries: Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange.
1. Doctor Strange Looks Exactly Like You’d Expect
Doctor Strange was first out of the gate, presumably because it doesn’t shoot until November and there’s no footage to present (that way, Cap 3 ends the presentation with a bang). But Kevin Feige, hosting the presentation’s Marvel segment, still had some goodies to display.
First was a video greeting from Benedict Cumberbatch, who’s doing a play in England and couldn’t be in Anaheim this weekend. It’s fairly standard. He opens with the Vulcan salute (“Wait, wrong movie”), and hints at a lot of “multiple dimensions” to be seen in Doctor Strange. “Multiple dimensions,” dropped multiple times throughout the presentation, is definitely the official Doctor Strange D23 buzzword.
Then, a sizzle reel of concept art (which Feige states will all be included in an eventual “The Art of Doctor Strange” book). I’ll get to the rest later, but first: Cumberbatch is the spitting image of comic book Stephen Strange.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
As a surgeon, he’s got a Tony Stark-like goatee and his hair up in a gelled-looking coif. By the end, he’s in full comic regalia: red cloak, blue tunic, streak of grey in the hair. I honestly can’t remember if concept art Cumberbatch has just the mustache instead of the goatee, but his facial hair style definitely changes from mild-mannered surgeon to master of the mystic arts.
2. Everything Else In Doctor Strange Will Look Weird as Hell
Now, the rest of the concept art. There’s a glimpse of Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo (short-cropped hair, salt-and-pepper stubble, green cloak) and Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One (seen only from a distance, but she’s got grey hair that’s almost like a pixie cut).
Then, the inter-dimensional stuff starts up. A city scene with cars suddenly levitating off the street. Another shot of the cars, being sucked upward at an angle in great multi-car streams. A chunk of city street suddenly corkscrewing around (very much like something out of Inception). A lot of multicolor atom-looking structures like this:
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
And a room that’s plain wood on the left side, and transforms into an otherworldly dimension on the left (some kind of astral projection, maybe?). Also a quick bit of sword fighting; what looks like Strange and Mordo allied against an evil-looking white guy.
3. Falcon Will Have Redwing in Captain America: Civil War
This one was rumored before, but consider this the official confirmation. Early on in the Civil War footage shown (Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie onstage, presenting with Feige), we get our first look at the MCU’s version of Redwing, Falcon’s psychically-linked bird sidekick.
Given that Captain America: Civil War has been touted as a Cap vs. Iron Man movie, we just kind of assumed Tony Stark would be the one pushing hardest for “the Accords” – Cap 3’s name for the Superhero Registration Act that forces powered people’s to register their powers (and secret identities).
In the footage shown today… not so much. There’s actually very little Iron Man at all. Just a shot of him in the Iron Man suit, sporting a nasty shiner (which I’m assuming he got in a tussle with Cap). The real man in charge seems to be Thunderbolt Ross, played by William Hurt in The Incredible Hulk and reprising his role in Cap 3. We’re shown multiple shots of Ross talking about the Accords, looking vaguely antagonistic and even standing front and center addressing a board of some kind- Tony standing behind him, looking more like muscle than a policy maker.
It could just be the way the footage was cut. Or it could be a potent plot detail.
5. Captain America: Civil War’s Fight Scenes Look Just As Spectacular As Winter Soldier’s
Captain America: The Winter Soldier set a high bar for Marvel movie fight choreography, and Civil War, bless its heart, looks just as bone-crunching. The Cap-vs-Crossbones fight is marvelous. As seen in those set photos, Crossbones has some kind of weird power armor/gauntlets- in action, the gauntlets work much like Winter Soldier’s arm, charging up to deliver can-punch-through-solid-metal blows. They also hide nasty-looking trench spikes, which Crossbones deploys after Cap rips off one of the gauntlets. Crossbones also knows about the whole Bucky situation- taunting Cap about “your pal, your buddy, your Bucky.”
Seen later, in snippets: Cap, one hand on the edge of a building, the other gripping a helicopter (single-handedly keeping it from taking off), Bucky trapped in some kind of stasis chamber (labeled D23 as a today-only easter egg), Scott Lang geeking out over meeting Cap (“I’m shaking your hand too long. This is great.”) and Black Widow and Hawkeye agreeing to stay friends as they kick each other’s asses. “Depends on how hard you hit me,” quips Hawkeye.
No Spider-Man, sadly, but Black Panther makes an appearance! In precisely two shots. The first is a close-up of his claws unsheathing (thinner than you’d expect, and very shiny). The second is a pretty standard hero shot, making a muscle-popping pose. He’s the spitting image of that old concept art (and in recent set photos).
And that’s it. Marvel’s chunk of the presentation was by far the shortest (booooo), but that Civil War footage was absolutely worth it. I’m surprised they only showed it once.
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Related Topics: Marvel
