Yahoo News 9 superhero movies you didn't even realise were coming
Now that Marvel Studios is releasing three films a year and DC is gearing up to rival that, there's no doubt that we're waist deep into Hollywood's age of the superhero (how long that will last is another matter).
With all the comic book adaptations in the air, it's no wonder that some of flying below the radar. Here are some of the projects that might have passed you by. (Apologies in advance to the beautiful nerds who know this all already.)
1. Spawn
There are few comic book totems more inherently '90s than Spawn, the vengeful CIA agent resurrected as a demonic killing machine with absurdly huge muscles and no sense of irony. He already received a (famously awful) movie featuring Martin Sheen and OC legend Melinda Clarke.
After years gathering dust, a reboot is being directed (perhaps inadvisably) by Spawn's creator Todd McFarlane at Blumhouse Productions. Shooting will begin in early 2018. May God have mercy on our souls.
2. X-Force
You might have just about wrapped your heads around the other X-Men team, the New Mutants, getting their own spin-off movie. But there are actually tons of alternate X-Men teams (X-Factor, Excalibur, X-Statix) in the comics, and Fox has picked X-Force to be the next to follow New Mutants onto the big screen.
X-Force is usually portrayed as a black ops team that does the dirty work the X-Men aren't willing or able to do. It's been in development for years, but Cabin in the Woods director Drew Goddard has now signed on for the project, with Ryan Reynolds's Deadpool and (probably) Josh Brolin's Cable starring.
3. Nightwing
DC is having enough trouble getting moving on its solo Batman movie, but that doesn't mean that more bat-related spin-offs aren't already on the table.
Nightwing is the adult superhero identity of Dick Grayson, who was the first Robin. But don't worry, Chris O'Donnell won't be reprising that role. The LEGO Batman Movie's Chris McKay is on board to direct.
4. Justice League Dark
We're still waiting to see how the normal Justice League movie goes down, but if the DC movies can keep up momentum they will eventually move on to Justice League Dark, aka the magic Justice League. It's a horror-influenced comic about sorcerers and supernatural creatures fighting the forces of darkness.
John Constantine (rhymes with 'wine') is probably the only character you'll be familiar with unless you remember Wes Craven's 1982 movie adaptation of Swamp Thing (check out the best trailer ever made here). And Cara Delevingne could return as Enchantress if we're really... uh... lucky.
5. Bloodshot
Valiant Comics is a small but plucky superhero publisher that has clear ambitions at moving beyond the printed page. First up is its anti-hero Bloodshot, a mobster transformed into an amnesiac killer cyborg by the military.
The latest news on this was that Jared Leto was in talks to play the lead role.
6. Harbinger
Valiant has more than one movie in the works. Harbinger is their answer to the X-Men – a group of superpowered individuals in a world that hates and fears them. The story focuses on a powerful company of harbingers with shady intentions and the group of renegades who oppose them.
Sony has a five-picture deal with Valiant so expect more superhero movie you didn't realise were coming out in the future.
7. Batgirl
Joss Whedon isn't only on board to finish off Justice League. He also signed on to direct another Batman spin-off, Batgirl.
You may remember Barbara Gordon best as the extra sidekick in Adam West's '60s show whose shtick was looking for the nearest convenient thing to sit on and then kicking approaching goons. But in recent times (after years as the paraplegic crimefighter Oracle), she's had a bit of a renaissance as a technologically savvy, hipster hero.
Warner Bros are likely hoping to capture a bit of the old Buffy magic, though dare we say they might be 14-or-so years too late...?
8. Irredeemable
Comics have been regularly deconstructing the idea of the 'superhero' since the '80s (see Watchmen and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns). Mark Waid's BOOM! Studios series imagined what it would be like if a Superman-type hero snapped and turned against humanity. In short, nothing good.
Oscar-winning writer-director Adam McKay (The Big Short, Anchorman 2) is attached to the movie.
9. Silver & Black
We're confused enough by Sony's seemingly Spider-Man-less Spider-Man spin-off Venom, but the Tom Hardy-starring movie has a sister film in development starring two characters you've probably never heard of.
Well, Catwoman analogue Black Cat was in a minor character in the '90s Spider-Man cartoon, so you might vaguely remember her. Her pal Silver Sable is a mercenary from a fictional eastern European nation.
Still, with Gina Prince-Bythewood (the only director neither white nor male on this list) attached to an actual female-led superhero movie, consider us intrigued.
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