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A.J. Focht

The biggest news of the month is that J.J. Abrams, director of the recent Star Trek films, is now set to take us to a galaxy far far away. Disney has signed Abrams on to direct the 2015 Star Wars: Episode VII. While many fans were thrilled to hear this news, there are those who fear this move crosses the streams. Either way, the internet is already being plagued with bad jokes about light sabers and lens flares.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation was abruptly delayed last year, but you can now catch a four minute preview of the movie in theaters. There’s a four minute 3D preview at the start of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. The teaser is just a taste of things to come when the movie releases on March 29.

More information is coming out about the 2015 Justice League movie. It looks like only five members have made the final cut, and it’s just about who everyone would expect. Superman, Batman, the Green Lantern, the Flash, and Wonder Woman are rumored to be the core group of heroes. There is still a slight chance Aquaman or the Martian Manhunter could make an appearance, but most likely only as cameos. The one hero with the least possibility of making a cameo appearance would be Hawkman.

The Batman franchise is DC’s hottest property, and there has been talk of rebooting the series since before Christopher Nolan had a chance to even wrap up his trilogy. Now that Nolan’s Batman series has ended, DC and Warner Bros. are working Batman into their upcoming Justice League movie. Whispers of a series reboot haven’t gone away, though. Batman On Film speculates that the Batman series reboot could be in theaters as early as 2017.

Sequel to X-Men: First Class, the X-Men: Days of Futures Past will be following one of the most famous X-Men comic story arcs. The comic storyline involves an older Kitty Pride from a dystopic future transferring her consciousness to her past self to stop the events that lead to the Sentinels hunting down the mutants. This being the case, director Bryan Singer has the opportunity to combine the characters from the 1960’s storyline in X-Men: First Class with the original X-Men trilogy. Both Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart signed on to play the elder counterparts of Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy. Now, Singer has announced that three more members from the cast of the original X-Men trilogy have joined the fray. Appeasing comic fans everywhere, Ellen Page as Kitty Pride was one of those three. The other two returning characters are Anna Paquin as Rogue and Shawn Ashmore as Iceman. Days of Future Past is set to hit theaters on July 18, 2014.

Possibly the oddest gossip to fall into the rumor mill this month is that both Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey have been asked about their availability for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy project. They may both be in line for the role of Rocket Raccoon, or one may be in line for the gun-toting raccoon and the other for his partner the sentient tree, Groot. Guardians of the Galaxy is set to hit theaters August 1, 2014.

Marvel may just be entering their ‘Phase 2’, but they are already planning for the future beyond that. Guardians of the Galaxy is the only new title being released during Phase 2, the rest being sequels. Marvel plans to expand their properties during ‘Phase 3’ and have confirmed that both the long awaited Edgar Wright Ant-Man movie and the Doctor Strange film Stan Lee has been pushing to have made for years are on the docket. Kevin Feige noted that Phase 3 is when things are going to get strange, which means who knows what else Marvel has in store for us once they wrap up their current cinematic ventures.

The CW’s Arrow keeps adding classic DC icons to the show’s lineup. To make things even better, many of the actors they have chosen to go with have other sci-fi and nerd roots. John Barrowman who plays Malcom Merlyn on Arrow and Captain Jack on Doctor Who and its spinoff Torchwood is now being joined by another former Doctor Who cast member, Alex Kingston, who played the Doctor’s wife, River Song. Kingston will be playing the part of Laurel Dinah Lance’s mother on Arrow. Kingston isn’t the only new addition. Spartacus actor Manu Bennett has been cast in the major role of Slade Wilson. Wilson’s alter ego, Death Stroke, has already appeared on the show, but it looks like Manu Bennett will be the man behind the orange and blue mask.

I don’t think anyone would disagree that we could replace some of these teenage vampire shows on television with more zombie action. Walking Dead is one of the best shows on, but it alone doesn’t satisfy my craving for brain eaters. Well it looks like we may all be in luck. After being passed up by CBS and Syfy, Amazon is in negotiations to distribute a Zombieland TV show via its streaming platform. Better yet, director of acclaimed B-movie Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Eli Craig is in talks to direct the series.

Finally, Doctor Who fans can now get back to their roots, since BBC America will being airing classic episodes of the show. They are going through the Doctors in order, airing a serial special each month. They have already begun with the four-part serial, “The Aztecs” that aired last weekend.