Disney This Week: Black Panther, Spider-Man, Beauty and the Beast & More!

By Max Evry

Disney This Week: Black Panther, Beauty and the Beast & More!

Welcome to another edition of our new regular weekly feature Disney This Week here at ComingSoon.net. We’re rounding up the latest news on all things Disney, including movies, TV, Blu-ray/DVD, Marvel Studios, theme parks, fan art and Disney history. Let us know what you like or want to see more out of in Disney This Week in the comments below!

RELATED: Star Wars News: Episodes VIII & IX, Han Solo Movie and More

Movies

Black Panther Movie Set to Flashback to T’Challa’s American Education

A new report reveals an interesting development about Marvel‘s upcoming Black Panther movie, as the outlet reveals the production has secured the rights to a 1990s-era model of one of the area’s public transit buses for a scene set in T’Challa’s past. They go on to report that the scene will show off the young hero’s American education at Saint Mary’s College High School in Berkeley.

Part of the character’s origin in the comic books is him leaving his home of Wakanda to attend the best schools in America and the UK, having graduated from Oxford University with a Ph.D. in Physics, though it seems his schooling in the film will be more of a fun Easter egg as it’s the alma mater of director Ryan Coogler.

Michael Keaton Talks The Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming

Michael Keaton took time out to talk about his role as Adrian Toomes — a.k.a. The Vulture — in Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios‘ upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming.

“Not to give too much away, but interestingly, he is and he isn’t, that character,” Keaton said of The Vulture being a villain. “He’s a really interesting — and more interesting than I thought — villain because there’s parts of him that you go, ‘You know what? I might see his point.’ Really, really. It makes it interesting to play.”

The actor broke big in the late ’80s/early ’90s playing Batman, and then later skewered superhero culture in the Oscar-winning Birdman. However, he seemed to have no hesitation in diving back into the comic book movie well.

“No, I mean, not at all. It’s just a thing. A gig,” Keaton stated. “I don’t mean it’s just a gig, it’s the next job. And you think you can do it or want to do it and in fact I said no, because I couldn’t, it didn’t work in my schedule. Then I’m glad to say, they kind of shifted the scheduling and it worked out. So it fit in and I’m glad I did it.”

Karen Gillan Talks Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Teases Avengers Appearance

Actress Karen Gillan is set to return to the cosmos of the Marvel Universe with this year’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as the cyborg assassin Nebula, and she previewed a bit of what we can expect from her character in the sequel.

“What I love about the second movie for Nebula in particular is that we get — We know that she’s a pretty angry woman with some daddy issues. [But] in the second movie, we’re going to start to see how much pain her father actually caused her, and we’re going to delve right into the relationship with her sister Gamora. I think we might even feel a tinge of sympathy towards Nebula this time, because we really start to see the emotional crack in her character,” she added. “I was just allowed to completely explore that and take it to a completely different dimension with her. I was really happy about that.”

In related news, she offered a tidbit for the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, saying, “I’ll be making a little appearance in the next Avengers movies.”

Celine Dion to Perform All-New Song for Beauty and the Beast

Five-time Grammy winning and best-selling recording artist Celine Dion will perform an all-new original song, “How Does A Moment Last Forever,” for Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast. The song will also be included on the film’s soundtrack. Check out the soundtrack cover in the gallery below, along with a new triptych poster and international posters!

Written by eight-time Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin) and veteran lyricist and three-time Oscar winner Tim Rice (The Lion King, Evita), “How Does A Moment Last Forever” is an emotional ballad about holding onto life’s precious moments. Portions of the song are performed throughout the film and interpolated into the underscore before Dion’s full-length version debuts in the film’s custom main-on-end title design.

Says Dion, “Being a part of the original ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was such a magical experience in my life, and I’m truly honored to be a part of this film again.”

DVD/Blu-ray

The Light Between Oceans

Disney will release this unfairly overlooked drama to Blu-ray on January 24. It stars Michael Fassbender as a lighthouse keeper whose wife (Alicia Vikander) loses their baby in childbirth. Miraculously, a baby in a boat washes ashore and they decide to raise it as their own rather than report it, which causes complications once they discover the real mother (played by Rachel Weisz). This is an old fashioned weepie that is sure to tug at your heartstrings, although Fassbender’s character is something of a blank slate who’s a little hard to connect with.

The Blu-ray includes a making of doc, a feature about what a lighthouse keeper’s life was like, as well as an audio commentary with filmmaker Derek Cianfrance.

Click here to pre-order your Blu-ray copy of The Light Between Oceans!

TV

Roel Reiné Set as Inhumans Director

Marvel has found their first Inhumans director today as The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Roel Reiné is set to helm the two-part pilot. Produced in conjunction with ABC Studios and filmed entirely with IMAX digital cameras, the pilot will run worldwide exclusively in IMAX for two weeks at the beginning of September 2017. ABC plans to then premiere the weekly series this fall, offering additional exclusive content that can only be seen on the network.

It was recently revealed that Marvel’s Iron Fist showrunner Scott Buck has been tapped to serve as the Inhumans showrunner. Reiné, meanwhile, is best known for his direct-to-home video sequel fare with films like Death Race 2, Death Race 3: Inferno and The Man with the Iron Fists 2. He’s also known for his Dutch work, including the acclaimed features The Delivery and Admiral. Recently, Roel Reiné directed an episode of Black Sails that is set to air next month as part of the STARZ series’s final season.

The New Descendants 2 Poster and Tease

Disney Channel has debuted the Descendants 2 poster and a new teaser that you can both view below. Descendants 2 will premiere this summer.

The story deepens in the music-driven sequel to the global smash hit Descendants as the teenage sons and daughters of Disney’s most infamous villains — Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay (also known as Villain Kids or VKs) — try to find their place in idyllic Auradon. When the pressure to be royally perfect becomes too much for Mal, she returns to her rotten roots on the Isle of the Lost where her archenemy Uma, the daughter of Ursula, has taken her spot as self-proclaimed queen of the run-down town. Uma, still resentful over not being selected by Ben to go to Auradon Prep with the other Villain Kids, stirs her pirate gang including Captain Hook’s son Harry and Gaston’s son Gil, to break the barrier between the Isle of the Lost and Auradon, and unleash all the villains imprisoned on the Isle, once and for all.

Theme Parks

Toys

Ego the Living Planet from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Gets Cute Toys

Following the debut of the adorable line of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 toys from Funko, director James Gunn has taken to Facebook to reveal another new toy from the line – Kurt Russell’s Ego the Living Planet in his human form. Check out the full gallery at this link!

Fan Art of the Week

This week we chose this gorgeous pencil rendering of Beast from 1991’s Beauty and the Beast by Russian artist Gildhartt Einsiedler. Check out her full gallery at this link!

This Week in Disney History

This week in 1975, the Space Mountain attraction opened in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Colonel James Irwin, pilot of Apollo 15 lunar module, is first official rider of Space Mountain.

This week saw the openings of Son of Flubber in 1963, The Wild Country in 1971, Superdad in 1974, Good Morning, Vietnam in 1987, White Fang in 1991, Alive in 1993, Iron Will in 1994, Mr. Holland’s Opus in 1996, and Snow Dogs in 2002.

Disney Vault

Each week we highlight an underappreciated Disney classic. This week we’re remembering 1944’s The Three Caballeros, part of Walt Disney’s olive branch to Latin America that also included Saludos Amigos. It sends Donald Duck through an often colorfully psychedelic romp through Latin culture, music and history via his Brazilian pal José Carioca (a cigar smoking parrot) and a Mexican rooster named Panchito Pistoles. It’s a wild little movie with some amazing sequences, like the one below!

Click here to rent or buy a digital copy of The Three Caballeros today!

Max Evry
Max Evry

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