The Star Late Edition

YOUR GUIDE TO THE SUPERHERO MOVIES OF 2020

Your guide to the superhero movies of 2020, from ‘Birds of Prey’ to ‘Eternals’

- DAVID BETANCOURT

THIS year won’t give us another Avengers movie, but there will still be plenty superhero action on the big screen.

Warner Bros and DC Comics are releasing films featuring their two most popular big-screen characters of the moment (Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn), Valiant Comics is finally seeing one of its heroes hit the big screen (Bloodshot) and Venom hopes to best its previous movie’s $856 million worldwide haul in a sequel that looks to be a lot bloodier.

Marvel Studios is looking to provide a mild Avengers flashback

(Black Widow) before it moves on to bigger out-of-this-world aspiration­s (Eternals).

Here’s the upcoming superhero movie slate for the year.

Birds of Prey (February)

Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) gets a new movie and a new team all in one in this post-Joker-breakup adventure (no Jared Leto, but no worries, he appears later on this list). Helping Quinn in the fight are lethal archer, the Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), ultrasonic-voiced Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), quickhande­d Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) and veteran Gotham City cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), as they go up against a Batman villain not commonly known by the general public (Ewan McGregor’s Black Mask).

Bloodshot (March)

Vin Diesel gets a superhero role with a lot more lines than when he played Groot in the Guardians

of the Galaxy series. He stars as an indestruct­ible soldier looking to put together the mystery of a past he can’t remember. This is the first live-action film from the Valiant Comics universe, which features other heroes hoping to make it to the movies, such as X-O Manowar and Shadowman.

The New Mutants (April)

Can a classic Marvel Comics series make for a good horror movie without the involvemen­t of Marvel Studios? There’s a scary thought.

The New Mutants is Twentieth Century Fox’s last stand with the X-Men universe as this film wrapped before it merged with Disney. Whether it will link to whatever Disney has planned for the X-Men is unknown. What we do know is this film features young mutants from that universe, as they get in touch with their powers for the first time while in a very creepy, prisonlike institutio­n of some kind. Magik’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) mystic sword looks cool, though. That’s a start.

Black Widow (May)

Scarlett Johansson finally gets a solo-starring turn as superhero/ Russian spy Natasha Romanoff. This movie obviously takes place before her death in Avengers: Endgame and involves her connecting some dots about her past. David Harbour also stars as Russia’s version of

Captain America, the Red Guardian.

Wonder Woman 1984 (June) Is this DC’s most anticipate­d sequel ever? Wonder Woman was DC’s first undisputed hit of the Justice League era and this follow-up, set in Washington, DC, in the 1980s, could be the biggest superhero hit of 2020. Going up against Gal Gadot’s Princess Diana is Pedro Pascal’s not-to-be-trusted Max Lord, and somehow Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor is back from the dead.

Morbius (July)

Jared Leto’s Joker didn’t work out at DC so he’s giving the role of Marvel’s second-most popular vampire a try (we see you, Blade). Morbius the Living Vampire is a classic Marvel character, known more by die-hard fans than a general moviegoer, and is another example of Sony trying to milk its rights to Spider-Man and any character connected to him. A rumoured appearance by JK Simmons as J Jonah Jameson could go a long way.

Venom 2 (October)

Speaking of Spider-Man villain movies, Tom Hardy’s Venom is back. This time, he’ll likely be up against the villain everyone wanted to see in the first movie (Carnage, played by Woody Harrelson). Both Hardy and Harrelson should get some top-notch CGI movement instructio­n from

Venom 2 director Andy Serkis, who’s no stranger to such performanc­es over his career.

Eternals (November)

So far all we know about

Eternals is that Kumail Nanjiani got super-swole for his role as Kingo, and that the film will also feature Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Brian Tyree Henry and a Game of Thrones reunion between Richard Madden and Kit Harington. The Eternals, created by the late comic-book legend Jack Kirby, are an advanced alien race with the power of apparently being Marvel Studios’ next big thing. | The Washington Post

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 ??  ?? RENEE Montoya (Rosie Perez), Huntress (Elizabeth Winstead), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) and Black Canary (Jurnee Smolett-Bell) in Birds of Prey. |
Warner Bros./DC Entertainm­ent
RENEE Montoya (Rosie Perez), Huntress (Elizabeth Winstead), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) and Black Canary (Jurnee Smolett-Bell) in Birds of Prey. | Warner Bros./DC Entertainm­ent

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