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WIRE Buzz: Patrick Stewart met with Feige; Gretel & Hansel cooks up new clip; and more
Despite some promising rumors from over the last week, Sir Patrick Stewart will most likely not be reprising his iconic role of Professor Charles Xavier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"I met with [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige a couple of months ago and we had long, long conversations," the Picard actor recently told "And there have been moves and suggestions, which include Charles Xavier," the Star Trek: Picard actor recently told Digital Spy. "Here's the problem ... If we had not made Logan, then yes, I would probably be ready to get into that wheelchair one more time and be Charles Xavier. But Logan changed all that."
Directed and co-written by James Mangold, Logan closed out the cinematic X-Men stories for Stewart's Professor X and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, respectively. In particular, Charles, who was already going senile and losing control of his psychic abilities in the future, was murdered by an evil clone of James Howlett.
"In that sense, it was not just the deaths of those two men in the franchise, but it was also goodbye to our part in them as well," added Stewart during the aforementioned interview.
During a different chat with Variety, Stewart admitted that the masterful sendoff his X-Men character received in Logan partially inspired him to return as Jean-Luc Picard in the new Star Trek series that debuts on CBS All Access this Thursday, Jan. 23.
Since the MCU, which now has access to the X-Men and other classic Marvel properties, exists in a wholly different continuity than Fox's movies, there is definitely some way for Charles to still be alive. Much like J.K. Simmons' portrayal of J. Jonah Jameson, it's hard to imagine anyone other than Stewart playing the aged version of Professor X. If he can be persuaded to come back, even for one movie to bridge those worlds somehow, we can die happy nerds.
In an exclusive first clip from Gretel & Hansel, the titular brother-sister duo (Sophia Lillis and Seam Leakey) stumble upon the isolated house of a witch named Holda (Alice Krige).
Her woods-based domicile isn't made of gingerbread and candy in this terrifying take on the classic fairy tale, but it does have a nifty, Illuminati-shaped peephole and a table filled with a feast fit for a king. Distracted by hunger, Hansel breaks in and begins to partake of the nourishment, totally unaware that Holda is standing right behind him.
Check it out below:
Oz Perkins (The Blackcoat's Daughter) wrote and directed the film, which also stars Charles Babalola (Black Mirror) as The Hunter. Perkins was basically born to make horror flicks, as he is the son of Anthony Perkins, the actor who played Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchock's Psycho.
“I think younger audiences will be intrigued by [the movie]. Someone doesn’t need to be lunging at the camera for it to be really scary," the filmmaker recently told IndieWire.
Rated PG-13, Gretel & Hansel wanders into theaters on Friday, Jan. 31.
Jason Segel and friends uncover a strange conspiracy in the official trailer for Dispatches From Elsewhere, a new series coming to AMC in early March. Also produced by Segel, the series centers on Peter, a Philadelphia man (played by Segel) looking for more spice to his average life.
He gets his wish and then some when he is contacted by the mysterious Jejune Institute (led by Richard E. Grant's Octavio) and roped into a scavenger-hunt-like adventure across the City of Brotherly Love, looking for someone (or something) named Clara. With some help from Simone (Eve Lindley), Fredwynne (Andre Benjamin), and Janice (Sally Field), Peter discovers the bizarre forces raging behind the curtain of everyday existence.
Take a look at the trailer below:
Based on The Institute (a documentary from 2013), Dispatches From Elsewhere premieres on AMC Sunday, March 1.
