Just when you thought that you could sleep soundly at night, knowing exactly how and where you favorite Marvel characters will appear on the big screen, along comes Bryan Singer to throw a spanner in the works.

When we work up this morning, everything was just as it was when we went to bed the night before. We could be confident that the first appearance of Marvel’s Quicksilver would be during Avengers 2. After all, Joss Whedon officially confirmed that the speedy mutant and his sister Scarlet Witch were part of his first draft of the sequel last week and he seemed very exited to bring them to the big screen.

It also seemed like we had an answer to our who owned the rights to the disputed characters. As any old school comic book reader could tell you, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are the son and daughter of the mutant terrorist, Magneto, who is the main enemy of the X-Men, which firmly ensconces the characters in the mutant universe, whose rights are owned by 20th Century Fox. However, the characters have spent more time as members of, or often times an opponents for, the comic book Avengers, which would mean that Disney/Marvel Studios also has a strong claim to them. Even though Kevin Feige had said that both studios would have equal right to the characters, surely Whedon staking claim to them would cause Fox to stay away from them, right?

Um, well, about that…

Before he was an #Avenger, he was just a REALLY fast kid. Thrilled to say #EvanPeters is joining #XMen #DaysOfFuturePast as #Quicksilver.

— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) May 23, 2013

Okay. Let’s not panic. Let’s try to talk through this.

Let’s start with what is rumbling across the internet as a pleasant bit of wishful thinking: that this is the first step to establish continuity between all Marvel properties at every studio that has them. This is certainly an exciting idea, like winning the lottery or dating a supermodel. But probably just as likely.

You can’t blame fans for going there. After all, look at the way Singer phrases his tweet. But let’s talk logistics. From what we know about Days of Future Past, it takes place in the 1970s and a dystopian present and/or future. It seems like the Quicksilver Singer is using is a teen (because the 26-year-old Evan Peters is a bit long in the tooth to play a grade school aged kid). If Quicksilver is in the 70s part of the film, that would make him in his 50s in the present day. A little too old to be Saoirse Ronan’s brother in Avengers 2.

If Quicksilver appears in the present/future portion of Days of Future Past, then him being the twin brother of Ronan is definitely more plausible. But this part of Singer’s film appears to be smaller than the part set in the past, and, in my opinion, would be waste of  actor with Peters’ talents. And, as anyone who saw his work in American Horror Story can attest, Peters can do the edgy with the best of them. However, the American actor might have more difficulty pulling off rumored the “Euro” requirement of the role, especially in comparison with the Irish Ronan.  This leads me to believe Singer did not consult Whedon on his casting choices.

Of course, there could be another reason for Quicksilver being added to Days of Future Past–it’s a way for Fox to screw with Marvel/Disney. Perhaps its residual bad blood over Marvel trying to get Galactus off them last year.

The film has been in production for over a month, which is an odd time for them to be announcing new characters/cast members. Not completely unheard of, as there are many reasons why it could be done. Maybe Quicksilver was in the script all along and they had a hard time casting it. Or maybe they were just waiting for Peters’ schedule to clear up. But it’s highly unlikely that Marvel would not know about Quicksilver being in the film before they made their own announcement if that were the case. .

So it seems like it was a late addition to the film. Perhaps even after Whedon hinted Quicksilver was part of Avengers 2 at the Iron Man 3 premiere? If so, you can’t help but see a little bit of malice in that move.

This will be problematic for Marvel in many ways. One, there is a rumor sometimes associated to the rights for these characters that which ever studio uses them first is the one that ends up owning the rights to them. While Marvel ANNOUNCED their use of Quicksilver first, Fox’s Days of Future Past will be in theaters months before Avengers 2. If that rumor is true, Quicksilver might be be Fox’s and Marvel will have to rearrange their plans.

But even if that rumor isn’t true, Marvel might be forced to rethink including Quicksilver in their film. The Quicksilver “brand” will be diluted if a different version of the character comes from each studio, which would deter any spin off films or merchandising. And Marvel/Disney likes their merchandising! Add to that the fact that you’ll have to cast and write the character so that there is enough difference the Avengers version and the X-Men version. But even with that, there will be people confused if they have to Quicksilvers in two different Marvel superhero films.

The best case scenario is the one where Marvel’s film kingdom is united. However, cynic that I am, I get the feeling this might be the first salvo in a war between the kingdoms instead.

Developing.

UPDATE: Drew McWeeney at HitFix addressed/confirmed the “war of the kingdom” theory of mine. He also adds that Singer has “designed a sequence” that would “only work with Quicksilver.” I would love to know what that sequence entails. Hopefully it is an emotional tête-à-tête between father (Magneto) and son (Quicksilver) and not just a special effects shot involving super speed. Because that would work with at least two other mutants (Northstar/Super Sabre) that I know of.

Marvel’s casting agency? Get in touch with Saoirse Ronan’s agents. Saoirse Ronan’s agents? Give Marvel’s casting agents a call. Let’s get this done.

Joss Whedon made quite a statement when rumors said that Irish actress Saoirse Ronan was his inspiration for the Scarlet Witch in his Avengers 2 script, but we really didn’t know what she thought about it. That is, until now.

The actress is making the rounds promoting her latest film, Violet & Daisy, and spoke with “Geek Girl Culture” site The Mary Sue about it. Being that The Mary Sue is one of the best geek journalism sites on the web, of course they asked Ronan about being Whedon’s muse:

The Mary Sue: You worked with Eric Bana in Hanna and he played the Hulk for Marvel. There was a rumor going around you’re Joss Whedon’s “prototype” for the character Scarlet Witch in The Avengers sequel. Did you hear anything about that and second, would you be interested in doing a superhero film ever?

Ronan: I have heard about it and yes, I would. Yeah, of course I would. I love Joss and I love those films, and I love his handle on them and how he portrayed these kinds of superheroes. I think it’s very different from what anyone else has done. So yeah, I’d love to be in it.”

The Mary Sue: Awesome, I hope it happens.

Ronan: So do I!

So there you have it, Whedon’s prototype sounding almost giddy with the prospect of taking on the role of Scarlet Witch. How can this not happen?

Well, as far as I can tell, Whedon has never officially come out and confirmed the “Ronan as prototype” rumor. And my one hitch with the rumor is that it seems unlikely that a director with so much experience in Hollywood as Whedon has would go out of his way to single out one actor for any part. Unless, of course, he was trying to retroactively force Marvel’s hand with the casting decision.

Which brings up another potential roadblock in the proceedings. Marvel might have their hearts set on another actress for the role. Usually, Marvel is very selective in the actors they have playing their heroes, and like to take a hands on role in their casting. However, Ronan’s interest should shift any preconceived notions Marvel might have had. She is the type of actress Marvel loves to cast. She has an Academy Award nomination (garnered back in 2008 when she was 13 –13!–for her work in Atonement) and action movie props (in the vastly underrated Hanna). She is young but looks wise beyond her years, which helps if they want her to play the role for the next few years. She is just at the cusp of making a name for herself, but not such a star that she’s out of Marvel’s price range.

Or, at least, she shouldn’t be. However, this brings up another potential roadblock. If Whedon in fact did single out Ronan by name, her representation might use this to try to get the most money out of Marvel as possible. As we have seen with Jason Momoa and Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel’s typical reaction to agents asking too much money for their clients is to simply move on to other actors.

Of course, I have to mention that there is a chance that the character might not even make it to the final draft of the film.

Personally, I think Ronan is a great choice for the role. But will she get it? We shall see, won’t we?

Two were educated guesses that paid off. One was a no-brainer but yet still was in doubt. And the other was absolutely, positively not going to be involved and apparently, is.

Let’s start at the beginning. IGN happened to speak to Joss Whedon at the ABC upfronts, where he was promoting Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. They asked him point blank if the mutant siblings were the brother/sister act that he was referring to be appearing in Avengers 2 and the director confirmed that they were. Then he went on to tell us what he thought their appeal was.

You know, they had a rough beginning. They’re interesting to me because they sort of represent the part of the world that wouldn’t necessarily agree with The Avengers. So they’re not there to make things easier. I’m not putting any characters in the movie that will make things easier.

Add this to the rumor reported by SuperheroHype that Quicksilver is described as “Euro” and “edgy” by the studio and that Irish actress Saoirse Ronan is the prototype for the Scarlet Witch (which is probably causing Ronan’s agents to wonder why Marvel hasn’t called yet), it appears that the film version of the pair will be true to their European roots, although not quite as far to the east as the comics.

Whedon also spoke on Iron Man’s presence in the film. As you may know, the ending of Iron Man 3 left Tony Stark’s future quite up in the air. I’ll let Whedon spoil the ending to that film, and ease your fears about the character appearing in Avengers 2.

Well, I feel like in Iron Man 3, even though he said, ‘I’ve changed’ — he blew up his remote suits, but I don’t think anybody thinks he doesn’t have one anymore. The question is, if The Avengers are called, does he show up? And the answer is, ‘Yes!

So, there you have it. No word on who will be playing the character, however.

Finally, we have a rumor debunked by an unlikely source of comic book rumor debunking–Perez Hilton.

Last week, we reported on the rumor that Jeremy Renner’s complaining had gotten him dropped by Marvel. Hilton states that his sources say that rumor isn’t true and that Renner is still “very much a part of the Marvel family.”

I’m not a follower of Mr. Hilton, so I don’t know how good his sources are.  But the “Renner is gone” rumor should be consider to be in a holding pattern for the time being.

If you were to pick up any of the 50 comic books in the Avengers family that Marvel currently publishes, you’ll find a lot of mutants. There’s Havok, Wolverine, Beast, even Rogue in various line-ups.  But the first two mutants in the comic book Avengers were the brother and sister act of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, first joining the team in issue #16. While it might be unlikely to see Lucas Till, Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Hoult, Kelsey Grammer, or Anna Paquin in Avengers 2, it seems that the Maximoff siblings might be included in that films line-up.

Yahoo! caught up with Joss Whedon at the Iron Man 3 premiere. Here is a video of it.

For those of you unable or unwilling to view that video, let me give you the salient points. 1. Whedon finished the first draft of the Avengers 2 script, 2. He’s meeting with actors and 3.:

I’ve got these two characters, two of my favorite characters from the comic book, a brother-sister act.

Now that is how an evil genius teases audiences! Good show man!

But wait! If Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are mutants, wouldn’t they be covered by Fox’s “We own the rights to anything mutant” contract that Marvel signed with that studio, way back when the thought of them owning their own studio was a pipe dream? Yes. But as we covered back in August, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are characters that Kevin Feige believes were shared by both Fox and Marvel Films. We’ll see what Fox’s interpretation of the character’s rights really are if there is any forthcoming legal action if or when they appear in the sequel. However, considering that Fox has yet to include them in any of their X-Men films and we’ve already seen  characters such as Azazel, Blink and Warpath, odds are they weren’t going to use them anyway.

Of course, that is if Whedon was talking about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I mean, they are far and away the most notable brother and sister to operate within the Avengers, being focal parts of the team when a young Whedon most likely would have started reading the title,

Bleeding Cool has some other possibilities, such as Fenris and Captain Britain/Psylocke (who has already appeared in the X-Men film universe). I’ll throw another possibility–Captain Marvel. The original Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell, was a big ally of Avengers in the comics. He is the “father” of Genis-Vell and Phyla-Vell (father in the sense that his genetic material was used in the creation of the two in two separate realities). The former has experience with the comic book Avengers, the latter with the comic book Guardians of the Galaxy. All are “cosmic” characters and would fit in with Phase II very well. And there are rumors that Ms. Marvel will be making an appearance. Just throwing that out there.

You can take a lot of things from Warner Brothers’ President Jeff Robinov’s talk with Entertainment Weekly for their Summer Preview issue, which should hit subscriber’s mailboxes today and newsstands on Monday, but the main thing we’re taking from the interview is that we should never trust scoop from Latino Review’s El Mayimbe ever again.

Back in the beginning of March, El Mayimbe once again broke out the camcorder and gave us a video blog detailing some hot scoop regarding the tumultuous Justice League film. Unfortunately, that video has been taken down (surprise, surprise), but we reported on the contents of it here. Mayimbe stated emphatically that Christopher Nolan would be taking over a Joss Whedon-like supervisory role with Warner’s DC Comics films, that Zack Snyder would be on board as producer if not director for Justice League and that Christian Bale would be returning to the film as Batman.

Entertainment Weekly, which is part of the same Time Warner media conglomerate that Warner Brothers is, asked Robinov point blank about the rumor:

However, Robinov was unequivocal when asked if the rumor is true that Nolan will produce aJustice League movie, and bring Christian Bale back with him: “No, no it’s not.” (Nolan’s reps, who have previously declined to comment on that rumor, also confirmed Robinov’s statement and told EW that he definitely wasn’t involved with Justice League. Nolan is currently busy prepping his sci-fi film Interstellar.)

I’m sure Mayimbe will say these denials is just a smokescreen by the studio to throw people off the scent of his rumor. But Nolan is prepping Interstellar, and casting has already begun. It’s not logical that the director can have as hands on a role on the DC Comics film franchises that El Mayimbe claims while directing a new film at the same time, especially with a 2015 target date for the Justice League film.

This has come at the end of fairly bad stretch for El Mayimbe. How bad? Let’s roll out the “El Mayimbe Roll Call of Shame!”

•  June 5, 2012: El Mayimbe claims that four sources have told him that Black Panther will be the second film released by Marvel in 2014. We all know now that it is Guardians of the Galaxy.
• December 3, 2012: States Darkseid will be the villain in Justice League. And…
• December 13, 2012: States the movie will be based on three particular issues of the Justice League of America comic book. And…
• January 24, 2013: That the JL line-up will consist of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Flash. This version of the film was eventually scrapped, making these three rumors moot.
• January 29, 2013: Theorizes that Tony Stark will be headed into space at the end of Iron Man 3 based on a armor that showed up in a toy design. This has yet to be rejected, but as recent ads for the film show us, the armor could simply be part of the armor armada that Stark calls in during that big battle scene. UPDATE: We now know this one isn’t true either.
• February 4, 2013: A big one, where El Mayimbe states that Planet Hulk and World War Hulk will be the framework for Marvel’s Phase II and Phase III. This was shot down by Ain’t It Cool News and Joss Whedon. Mayimbe holds on to the idea that his version is still true, and gives reasons here.
• February 15, 2013: States Jason Momoa was offered the part of Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy. The part went to Dave Bautista. El Mayimbe states Momoa priced himself out of the role.
• March 3, 2013: The Nolan/Justice League thing we are talking about today.
• April 3, 2013: States the Controller will be a henchman for Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy. Rumor yet to be refuted.
• April 8, 2013: Stated Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez is developing a film for Marvel, most likely Doctor Strange. Rumor yet to be refuted.

El Mayimbe has become the film rumor version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. And like that fable, there will quickly come a time when film sites like us will simply refuse to listen to him anymore.

Why is he so wrong so often? Is it like he wants us to believe, that he is right and the studios are lying just to make him look bad? Dubious. Are the studios changing their plans after lets the cat out of the bag? Even more dubious. Or are his sources at Marvel and Warner Brothers deliberately feeding him incorrect information just to discredit him? That seems more likely.

The truth will come out in the coming months and years. Maybe, flying in the face of all logic and all denials, El Mayimbe’s rumors will come true. We’ll see. But if that happens, I’ll be the first to apologize for being wrong, something El Mayimbe is reticent to do.

Well, now that that’s over, let’s go back to the Robinov interview. The other big news from the interview is that Robinov states that there will be an announcement coming in the next few weeks about Warner’s plans for films based on the DC characters, including what films they will be making. My guess this would come after The Man of Steel debuts on June 14th. No better time than than after a big weekend for your tentpole film to tell us where you’ll be going from there.

Robinov also states that starting with The Man of Steel and going forward all the DC films will not be standalone films but be open to be part of a shared universe. That goes for the new Batman films as well.

Be sure to check out this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly for more.

The Avengers will be heading to the UK early next year. When it comes time for cameras to roll on the sequel to last summer’s Marvel Studios blockbuster to start filming, it will be happening at Pinewood-Shepperton Studios outside of London. This isn’t the first time that Marvel has used the studio; November’s Thor: The Dark World has just wrapped filming there and next year’s Guardians Of The Galaxy is in active pre-production on the lot.

ScreenDaily was the one to break the news and they report that this should be good news to local crews and visual effects houses who have been seeing plenty of work over the last few years as films such as Maleficent, Jack Ryan and The Muppets…Again!.

It’s probably too early to begin speculating about what director Joss Whedon has in store for Avengers 2 in terms of story, but hopefully a London-based production isn’t precluding lots of location shooting. I would love to see a sequel take on a larger, more global scope.

The Avengers 2 is scheduled for a May 2015 release.

Earlier this week, as I watched the Veronica Mars movie Kickstarter campaign set records, I thought to myself, “Well, how long until someone starts calling for a Firefly/Serenity Kickstarter?” Now I do love Joss Whedon’s western-in-space tv series-turned-film and I thought that if there was any fandom out there that wopuld rally to try something similar, it would be the Browncoats.

Well, Whedon thought the same thing and he talked to Buzzfeed about why while he would love to go reunite the franchise’s cast for another film, it just isn’t in the cards right now.

I’ve said repeatedly that I would love to make another movie with these guys, and that remains the case. It also remains the case that I’m booked up by Marvel for the next three years, and that I haven’t even been able to get Dr. Horrible 2 off the ground because of that. So I don’t even entertain the notion of entertaining the notion of doing this, and won’t. Couple years from now, when Nathan [Fillion]‘s no longer [on] Castle and I’m no longer the Tom Hagen of the Marvel Universe and making a giant movie, we might look and see where the market is then. But right now, it’s a complete non-Kickstarter for me.

Whedon also goes on to discuss the cost differences between a Veronica Mars film and a Serenity one, as well as other practical considerations. The interview is worth a read, even outside of the Firefly/Serenity connection as it constitutes one of the first reactions from a major director about how the Veronica Mars film could possibly change how things are done in Hollywood.

One of the first big stories of the year came was that Marvel Studios’ Avengers 2 was going to climax with an incident that would lead the World’s Mightiest Superheroes to launch the Hulk into space, paving the way for a long form adaptation of the comic book storylines Planet Hulk and World War Hulk across a new Hulk film and the inevitable Avengers 3.

The story came from Latino Review, whose record on scoops like this is spotty, and it wasn’t before long that there were other sites who had their own sources refuting their claim.

But the time for anonymous sources is now past, as Avengers and Avengers 2 writer/director, and one of the creative masterminds of Marvels’ franchise direction, Joss Whedon has weighed in on the reports about

Speaking to IGN, Whedon rammed a stake through the heart of the Planet Hulk/World War Hulk rumor -

Well I’m really not supposed to comment, but no, that’s nonsense.

Now of course there will be some who will insist that Whedon is deliberately stating falsehoods in order to preserve the film’s plotline. (I fully expect this to be the party line from Latino Review.) And he very well may be, but I tend to believe that if he were to lie about the upcoming film’s plot, he would do it a bit more artfully then this. Here he just sounds a bit irked that he has to address such a rumor at all.

El Mayimbe is like an bad girlfriend. She treats you wrong again and again, yet you feel compelled to believe her over and over again because what she tells you is so sweet.

The often wrong Latino Review reporter is back again, this time with big scoop from the DC Comics film franchise. Scoop so big that El Mayimbe broke out the video camera, found a location somewhat near DC’s Manhattan headquarters, and filmed another video blog about it (Which you can see embedded below).

For those of you who do not have the time nor inclination to watch a video right now, let me give you the Reader’s Digest version of what El Mayimbe said  He states that since Warner Brothers is so impressed with his Batman trilogy and the advance buzz from The Man of Steel, the studio has tapped Christopher Nolan to be the Joss Whedon/J.J. Abrams-esque creative overlord for all of Warner’s DC properties. El Mayimbe also says that Zack Snyder will be joining Nolan’s team as least as a producer, quite possibly as the director of Justice League film. And, personally, what I consider the biggest scoop of all, Christian Bale will be returning as Batman for wherever the DC heroes go in the future.

Here is the video. I do recommend that you find time to watch it, as El Mayimbe comes off as the high school jock trying to convince the class nerd that the head cheerleader has a crush on the geek. He used a similar hard sell while giving us the “Planet Hulk”scoop. We’ve seen how that worked out.

Now is the point in the post, as I always do with scoop from this source, where I say that El Mayimbe does not have all that good a run in spreading accurate rumors. He was wrong when he said that Black Panther was going to be coming from Marvel in 2014, he was wrong when he said Jason Momoa was a lock for Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy, and he was wrong when he said Marvel’s Phase III would be based on Planet Hulk and World War Hulk.

He lists all the DC rumors he got right in the post presenting the video blog. However, it is only fair to note that the freshest of those rumors is Three years old. He can only get an incomplete on his most recent DC related rumors–that Darkseid would be the villain, that the story would be taken from Justice League of America  #183-185, and that there would only be five main characters in the film–because that version of the script was apparently scrapped and will never come to pass.

El Mayimbe’s rumors get so much play because they are the perfect mix of wish fulfillment and plausibility. Having Nolan head up Warners’ superhero output makes sense. Having Christian Bale come back would be a film fan’s dream come true. But if Nolan was being tapped for this, wouldn’t we have heard it way before now? Wouldn’t it be in Warners’ best interest to have it become official as quickly as possible to cut into the Abrams news? Would they really let the negotiations lag enough so El Mayimbe could catch wind of it?

I don’t know. It is a developing situation, and we’ll see if El Mayimbe finally got one right soon enough.

Joss Whedon is one of the the go-to names among fans to direct any popular genre project. And with good reason as last summer’s The Avengers is a testament to.

But would you believe that there are some projects out there that even Joss Whedon would like to see Joss Whedon direct? Well there are and one such project is the upcoming new Star Wars films. CNN caught up with the director who confessed that he thought about the prospect of applying for the job telling new stories in a galaxy far, far away but then realized he already had a full time position over seeing Marvel Studios’ “Phase Two” of their superhero franchises.

When I heard that I was like, ‘I wonder… no, I really can’t do that. Oh, I already have a job.’ I wouldn’t clear the Avengers. I’m having so much fun with that sequel right now, just with the script, that I couldn’t imagine not doing it.

As to what Whedon thought he could have brought to the franchise he stated –

I’d like to see a little edge. We all missed the Han [Solo] of it. It got very portentous, which was justified by the story, but I think we’d all like to see a little anarchy in the mix.

Well, I suppose that Star Wars‘s loss is Marvel Studios’s gain.