It’s the start of another week, here’s your collection of headlines that are making some waves today:
– There was never any doubt that Jennifer Lawrence‘s future with the X-Men franchise was on borrowed time; she’s one of the world’s biggest movie stars in a part that thus far has been pretty thankless. The same could probably be said for Michael Fassbender and some of her other cast-mates, many of whom also see their contracts with Fox end after X-Men: Apocalypse. But it’s Lawrence who has made it clear that this third outing will be her last when speaking with MTV News.
Given that the attention of the franchise is shifting away from the core four of X-Men: First Class (Mystique, Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Beast) and onto the recently cast Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm and Nightcrawler, Apocalypse looks to be a fairly graceful close out for the previous era.
– Gal Gadot, upon being cast as Wonder Woman in the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, received a ton of unfair (and in some cases, disgusting) criticism from some segments of the online community related to her body type and physical attributes. In a recent interview translated by RobotUnderdog, Gadot addressed some of this discussion:
They said that I was too skinny and my boobs were too small. [Laughs] I’m really lucky nothing in my life was instantaneous. When I was younger I would take criticism really hard. But now it mostly amused me. The true Amazons had one boob so it won’t bother them in their archery. So it’s not going to be like real Amazons. We always try to make everyone happy but we can’t.
She also went on to describe her excitement in playing the first big screen portrayal of Diana:
Playing Wonder Women is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can’t describe to you how much I wanted to play this character without even knowing I wanted to play her. I met a lot of people from the industry in LA for meetings. They always asked me ‘what’s your dream role?’, and I never could define it. I always answered that I wanted to play a women that is strong and will be a source for women empowerment. I don’t want to play a damsel in distress that needs to be saved. I don’t like it when women in the movies are shown as the victims. I always thought that if I could send out a massage I want to show the strong side of a woman and how she can handle tough situations. Yes, I get to play the strongest most empowering woman ever – Wonder Woman. I’m so grateful and I thank god every day. I want to devour it and enjoy every bite. She has unbelievable endurance. She is exceptionally strong. she can jump really high and practically fly. She know tons of martial arts styles. She is a strong and serious Woman.
– Toss this last one into the rumor pile for now, but Badass Digest is reporting that Marvel secretly auditioned 16 year old Weeds‘ actor Mateus Ward for the role of Peter Parker. If true, it means Marvel is indeed going very young for the role and are clearly trying to recast Peter Parker rather than aiming for Miles Morales as some might have hoped. With shooting for Captain America: Civil War only about a week away, if Spider-Man is going to make some kind of appearance be it a cameo or something more substantial, they’ll need to get this role squared away fairly quickly.