Tag Archives: Marvel

Meeting the Cast of Thor: Ragnarok

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Meeting the Cast of Thor: Ragnarok

By Devon Biroczky

The newest addition into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Thor: Ragnarok, the next story in which our beloved God of Thunder is trying to save Asgard from complete and utter chaos. I had the pleasure of sitting down and interviewing the cast from this flashy movie and talking with them all about how it came to be.

·         Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”)

·         Mark Ruffalo (“Bruce Banner / The Hulk”)

·         Cate Blanchett (“Hela”)

·         Tom Hiddleston (“Loki”)

·         Jeff Goldblum (“Grandmaster”)

·         Tessa Thompson (“Valkyrie”)

·         Karl Urban (“Skurge”)

·         Rachel House (“Topaz”)

·         Director Taika Waititi (also “Korg”)

·         Producer Kevin Feige

Immediately into the press junket, it already started lightheartedly as the host was introducing everybody, and saved Chris Hemsworth for last, joking about how he skipped over him as we watched Chris try to squeeze himself in between everybody and the tables to get to his seat in the middle.

When you go see this movie, which opens in theaters everywhere November 3rd, you will notice what exactly I meant when I said this movie was flashy. I will be going over that more on Friday in my review, but for right now, just trust me when I tell you how lively it really is. Everybody in the cast had wonderful things to say about Taika Waititi’s style of directing and how he was able to take their shared vision and transfer it the way he did. Chris Hemsworth said it best when he was explaining it, “it all came from his crazy, wonderful brain, and his inspiration, and him pushing us every day on set, and constantly encouraging us to improvise, and explore, and take risks.”

Kevin Fiege also agreed when it came to everybody wanting to reinvent the series, taking everything that they knew about Thor and wanting to give it a new sensibility. You’ll notice that in this movie, there is more humor than in the Thor movies prior, and Kevin credits Taika again with giving the actors the confidence to be able to explore that side of them.

Especially looking at The Hulk and the role he plays in this movie. We see him much more in this movie and it inspired somebody to ask Mark Ruffalo on his thoughts about doing a stand-alone Hulk movie. Mark explained to us that he and Kevin had a discussion “well over a year ago” where Kevin had asked him what he would want to do if he had a stand-alone movie. They went back and forth and created these ideas, which they ended up implementing into Thor: Ragnarok and will be in the next two Avengers movies. Kevin goes on to explain that they’re all very excited about the upcoming character arc for The Hulk in these next three movies, so they’re going to take it one step at a time.

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

By Erin

The long-awaited day is here. I am very excited to say that Marvel Studios’ Guardians of  the Galaxy Vol. 2 is now playing in theaters everywhere! Easily the funniest film of the year, it makes for an awesome start to the summer moviegoing season, which I am so ready for! The story follows the team as they fight to keep their newfound family together while traversing the outer reaches of the cosmos to unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage.

Having now saved the galaxy once, the half-human intergalactic adventurer known as Star-Lord is newly famous and keenly aware of it. When the Guardians’ newfound notoriety brings Quill’s long-lost father back into his life, his bond with the other Guardians will be put to the test. So why should you be so excited to run out and go see it? I’ve got plenty of reasons for you!

All-Star-Cast

The chemistry between the cast from the first film is what really made it shine and become the huge hit it has turned into. I am happy to say they they’re all back! Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn and Karen Gillan are all back with the Guardians. New talent to the crew includes: Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Elizabeth Debicki and Pom Klementieff. James Gunn and the cast know how to make this crew work, the relationships built between the crew is fantastic and continue to grow and evolve.

Baby Groot

Baby Groot is the cutest most adorable thing that has ever happened on a movie screen. At the heart of some very touching and moving scenes and he provides some great comic relief, just watch him dance. Need I say more?

Awesome Mix Vol. 2

The music continues to be awesome. If you loved Awesome Mix Vol. 1 from the first Guardians of the Galaxy, then you will love this one too! Awesome Mix Vol. 1 is more than a great soundtrack, it is the mixtape that Peter Quill’s mother gave to him before she died and he was abducted. Full of nostalgic ’70s and ’80s tunes, each song is carefully dropped into the plot.

ALL the FEELS!

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 sends viewers on an emotional rollercoaster. You have all of the witty, clever comedy thrown in there of course. Drax’s one-liners  will have you cracking up. There are so many different relationships to pay attention to as we go deeper with the characters that are now well known. We watch Peter Quill and Gamora’s interesting ‘romantic’ relationship grow. Gamora and Nebula’s special sister relationship unfolds before us. Also Yondu and Quill have their moments. Love, loyalty, family and friends. You will become a part of the family in as you get sucked into the story. Not to spoil anything, but you may want to bring the tissues!

The End Credits

By now I think most Marvel fans know to stay until the very end of the credits or else you will miss out on some important information. So be sure to watch all the way until the end! 😉

The universe is expanding and it is extraordinary. What are you waiting for? Go out and see it!

Like GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/guardiansofthegalaxy/

Follow GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Guardians

Follow GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guardiansofthegalaxy/

Visit the official GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 website here: https://marvel.com/guardians

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 is in theaters NOW! 🙂

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2–Meet the Cast!

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2–Meet the Cast!

By Erin

In Marvel Studios’ latest adventure, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” the Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Picking up right where 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” left off, Marvel Studios’ “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” continues the action-packed, irreverent, epic space adventures of Peter Quill aka Star-Lord and his gang of eccentric characters as they patrol and protect the universe. We are introduced to Awesome Mixtape #2 where the story follows the team as they fight to stay together while traversing the outer reaches of the cosmos. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand.

Before the movie blasts into theaters everywhere this Friday, May 5th, we had the chance to meet the cast at a press conference last month. Take a look at some of the hilarious moments that were captured and what the cast had to share with us about the new film.

Moderated by Kara Warner from People Magazine, it was just one laugh after another. Look at all those smiles!

Press Conference #1 with the below talent:

  • Chris Pratt (“Peter Quill / Star-Lord”)
  • Kurt Russell (“Ego”)
  • Michael Rooker (“Yondu”)
  • Elizabeth Debicki (“Ayesha”)
  • Director James Gunn
  • Producer Kevin Feige

Press Conference #2 with the below talent:

  • Zoe Saldana (“Gamora”)
  • Dave Bautista (“Drax”)
  • Karen Gillan (“Nebula”)
  • Sean Gunn (“Kraglin”)
  • Pom Klementieff (“Mantis”)
  • Sylvester Stallone (“Member of Nova Corps”)
  • Producer Kevin Feige

The first question was directed at Elizabeth regarding her new role as Ayesha. Being a new member of the cast, what kind of initiation process was there, and what exactly convinced her to join this ragtag bunch.

Elizabeth: James convinced me obviously. He’s extremely persuasive, not that I needed convincing. My first day on set was when we were shooting in the throne room, and I was obviously terrified of playing this extremely powerful creature. I remember sitting up on the throne for a long time and all the Guardians were in front of me. It was so intimidating, and it was about two hours before we spoke to each other, I think. They all came up in this line to sort of come and say hello. I was like, please come and say hello to me! Someone say hello. And then that was fine after that.

Also new to the cast is Kurt Russell as Ego.

Kurt: They do this weird thing. I didn’t quite know what to make of it. You have to do this thing, you have to go to Chris’s house… I don’t know how much I can say. You have to bring over some food. The truth is that when I read the script I wanted to make sure I was kind of understanding it correctly and I hadn’t seen the first movie. All of a sudden, one day I was doing Hateful Eight stuff like this, and all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom, my phone and the people around me are saying, are you gonna do, oh that’s great, are you gonna be Star Lord’s dad? Are you gonna be Peter Quill’s father and are you gonna do Guardians of the Galaxy and I, I just was like, guys, I don’t really know what they’re talking about. And I saw the movie and when I saw the movie, I immediately started getting it. I also immediately started wanting to do it. That was immediately followed by, everybody loved the first movie. What you don’t want to do is do something that’s gonna make them not like the second one, right? I don’t know about you, but I said yeah. I told James that. I said, I don’t want to mess this thing up, so I need your help.

James Gunn was asked if there is one thing that he wanted to make sure not to mess up.

James: The movie? I don’t know. I just wanted to continue the film from the first movie. So many sequels are not good. The primary reason in studying them seemed to be that so many of them just kind of do the same thing the first movie did with different template, and so they say, oh people liked the dance-off in the first movie, so what’s our version of the dance-off? People liked “we are Groot” in the first movie, what’s our version of “we are Groot”? And instead of doing that, we really tried to let these characters grow and change. We want to watch them become new people and different people in every film that we come up with. I think allowing them to be themselves and do their thing, I know that sounds strange because I’m writing what they say, but sometimes I’m just letting it happen inside my own imagination and letting the characters go where they wanted to go. I think the thing that I didn’t want to mess up was just trying to be a rehash of the first movie. I think people were surprised by the first movie, people have been surprised by the second film, and to give people something new and something different from what they already had.

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