Author: Simon Andrews

The cast list for Season 2 of Marvel’s The Punisher has been steadily growing since the second season was announced last year. As with the other Netflix shows, the full detail and identity of the new characters who are being unveiled remains firmly under wraps, with the showrunners fully dedicated to springing various narrative shocks and surprises on their unsuspecting audience at key points in the series. This week has seen two more new faces joining the show, and both are familiar faces. In terms of returning cast, there’s no indication that Deborah Ann Woll will be making an appearance…

As Avengers: Infinity War brings Phase 3 of the MCU to a close, we already know from a recent interview with Marvel supremo Kevin Feige that the company has a further 20 movies mapped out to continue the franchise’s next decade. This will doubtless also include a large number of new TV shows and comic book tie-ins, and information has emerged this week that has also now revealed that some of these planned movies may even be the start of an ENTIRELY NEW Marvel franchise.  Even before the explosive events of Infinity War, it was obvious that the MCU’s next…

As traumatic and upsetting as the closing scenes of Avengers: Infinity War are proving to be, it’s probably worth everybody calming the hell down here, and putting some things into perspective for a moment. The reality of all this is that in twelve months time, the as-yet unnamed fourth Avengers movie (Apparently the film’s tagline remains under wraps because it’s too spoilerific…) will ultimately undo all of this tragedy, bringing a significant percentage of those deceased heroes back to life again in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although a selection of key players such as Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans…

At some point you’ve most likely walked out of a movie theater, replaying what you’ve just seen in your head and trying to figure out if you’d be able to survive the traumatic events you just watched. Could you last for any significant length of time during a zombie outbreak? Would you be able to escape the landing zone of a marauding alien invasion?  What about the events at the end of Avengers: Infinity War?  Lacking the military/spy training or mutant superpowers that the lead characters in any average Hollywood blockbuster almost certainly possess, as a member of Joe Public…

Pornography. It’s not what it used to be. Once typified by woeful production efforts on worn-out VHS tapes, the porn industry has spent the last couple of years raising its game. Anything that’s remotely current or relevant in the public eye is now highly likely to receive a glossy (and slightly grotty) parody, with the budgets of some projects sometimes comparable to a standard movie offering. Nothing is safe. Not even the stars of Avengers: Infinity War. These days, the top porn stars are as likely to make the jump to the mainstream as top WWE wrestlers, helped in no…

Marvel’s televisual output has always been somewhat of a mixed bag. Hits such as Daredevil and Jessica Jones are counterbalanced by failures like Inhumans and Iron Fist. The TV shows just can’t quite seem to reach the same levels of consistency and audience engagement as the movies, but there are some standout successes. Agents of SHIELD now appears assured to return for a sixth season,  and the runaway success of The Punisher immediately earned the show a quick renewal, with the first photos from filming arriving online this week. Season One ended with Frank Castle having finally achieved the vengeance…

With the ongoing ten year storyline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe spread across 19 movies and numerous supporting TV shows and comic books, it’s hardly surprising that the odd plot hole or continuity error will occasionally crop up. Despite the huge amount of money, time and effort that the company plow into ensuring that they don’t let anything happen that undermines or contradicts the existing material, there’s simply too much already in circulation to keep an effective track of. And it’s just such an irritation, one that dates all the way back to 2012’s The Avengers, that Avengers: Infinity War…

Few franchises can boast a success rate comparable to that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As the iconic movie series celebrates it’s tenth birthday, you can genuinely only count on one hand the number of missteps and unwise decisions that the company has made during its first decade. Even these, when compared to the high-profile mistakes made by the likes of DC and the Star Wars franchise, are relatively harmless when taken in the context of Marvel’s overwhelming track-record of success. Which is why, when mistakes on the scale of Iron Man 3 happen, they’re hard to forget and even…

Rarely has the ending to a movie packed the emotional punch that the concluding five minutes of Avengers: Infinity War smashes home into its audience. As Thanos coolly and causally circumvents Wanda’s concerted  efforts to destroy the Mind Stone, and then goes on to save himself from being killed by a vengeful Thor, it’s clear that the Avengers aren’t going to win this fight. But the manner of their defeat and the full nature of the Mad Titan’s victory are on a scale of tragedy that literally nobody can have been expecting.  You see, Thanos has a theory. The universe…

There’s no better place for an actor to be right now than in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The massive success of The Avengers has given vast amounts of work to many of them, and the key stars have to be proud of what they’ve accomplished – and the amount of work they’ve gotten from it. After all – that’s the point isn’t it? No matter how successful they are, any actor will have something cringe worthy stashed away somewhere in the depths of their Curriculum Vitae. Very few performers have ever been lucky enough to achieve overnight success to the…