MOVIES – SUPERHERO BONANZA
BLACK PANTHER – 16 February At last Africa has its own Marvel superhero to give Captain America a run for his money. After the death of his father, King T’Chaka, in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Prince T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns home to the reclusive kingdom of Wakanda to take his place on the throne. When an old enemy threatens the safety of his people, T’Challa takes on the guise of the enigmatic Black Panther to save them. South African actor John Kani plays T’Chaka, while his son, Atandwa, plays the young king. X-MEN: THE NEW MUTANTS – 13 April Five young mutants kept in a secret institution start discovering their powers. It’s a new direction for the X-Men franchise – this is a spin-off and is more of a horror movie than the others. Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams plays Wolfsbane, a Scottish mutant who can turn into a wolf. Don’t expect old favourites to make an appearance. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR – 27 April Marvel superhero team the Avengers once again join forces to save the world. This time the threat emerges from the shadows of the cosmos in the form of Thanos (Josh Brolin). The intergalactic tyrant wants to collect all six Infinity Stones, which have the power to control reality. This might be the last time the heroes are together in a movie. The contracts of Robert Downey Jnr (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) are ending – and it remains to be seen if new ones will be negotiated. It’s also the first time The Guardians of the Galaxy enter the Avengers’ universe. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP – 6 July In this sequel our diminutive hero, Ant-Man aka Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), tries to fulfil his responsibilities as a father while being a superhero.
But it’s not long before the original Ant-Man, Dr Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), tasks Scott and Pym’s daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) aka The Wasp, to rescue her mother from an alternate universe. This is the 20th film by Marvel Studios in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. AQUAMAN – 21 December This superhero whose powers are water-based made his first big-screen appearance in the DC Comics movie Justice League last year and now he gets his own film.
Arthur Curry (Game of Thrones’ Jason Momoa) finds out he’s the successor to the throne of underwater kingdom Atlantis and is urgently needed there. The cast includes Nicole Kidman, Amber Heard and Dolph Lundgren, and king of horror James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring) is the director. X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX – 2 November Unlike The New Mutants, this X-Men film is a direct sequel of the previous films in the series. Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner reprises her role as powerful telepath Jean Grey, which she first played in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). In this instalment she loses control of the powers that corrupted her to become the Dark Phoenix, which leaves her team with the difficult decision: should they try to save her or destroy her to save the world?
This is the second movie in which Grey is seen turning into the evil character. In X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) the character was played by Famke Janssen, but X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) erased the events of Last Stand from the timeline, giving the filmmakers a chance to hopefully do the Dark Phoenix saga justice this time.