Welcome to the MCU Weekly Pulse, a rundown of all the stories throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe that we didn’t cover in News or Features this past week.

Agent Carter Bank Heist Breakdown, BTS Set Photos

This week saw the return of Agent Carter with the two-part premier of Season 2. The epsiode started with a bang, as Peggy (Hayley Atwell) and the SSR thwarted a bank robbery perpetrated by Dottie Underwood (Bridget Regan). Marvel tweeted out a video detailing the fight choreography that went on behind-the-scenes to bring the sequence to life.

And along with that, one of the Carter crew has been sharing a number of photos from the set.

Head to his Twitter below for more and catch Agent Carter when she returns next week on ABC with Epiosde 3 titled “Better Angels.”

Source: Marvel on Twitter and Brant Englestein on Twitter

Guardians 2 Director On Thanos’s Role

While Thanos played a sizable role in the plot of Guardians Of The Galaxy, it looks like his part in Vol. 2 will be diminished. Director and writer James Gunn took to twitter this week to reply to a snarky fan tweet about whether we’d see Thanos in action in the sequel.

As you can see from the above tweet, Thanos won’t be a major player in the film, but from what Gunn says, it seems he will feature in it. Chances are, the role will be a small part used to set up the following year’s major event film, Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1.

And from behind-the-scenes, Yondu himself, Michael Rooker posted a photo on Instagram of him with Sean Gunn, the director’s brother who also fills in for Rocket on set as well as playing ravager Kraglin, and Nebula actor Karen Gillan.

Trouble x3…

A photo posted by Michael Rooker (@michael_rooker) on

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters May 5th, 2017.

Source: James Gunn on Twitter and Michael Rooker on Instagram

Elizabeth Henstridge On FitzSimmons In Season 3 Of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

With the chaotic events of last year’s “Maveth,” Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) has had a devastating loss. EW asked the actor what the death of Will (Dillon Casey) means for FitzSimmons when Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns in March.

It’s been roughly three months since the events that happened on Maveth, but Simmons is “still in the grieving process,” Elizabeth Henstridge tells me. “She’s experiencing some survivor’s guilt. Fitz has been so supportive throughout the whole thing. She’s going further down that path with him and her feelings. She loves him and wants to be with him. She hasn’t forgotten about Will, but it’s more the guilt she’s carrying. They’re taking things slowly on whether they’re going to get together or not.”

We’ll have to wait until Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns to ABC on March 8th to see how it all unfolds.

Source: EW

Jessica Jones Cast And Crew On Assault And Sexuality

One of the most refreshing and praised aspects of Season 1 of Jessica Jones was how the show not only used Jessica’s (Krysten Ritter) experiences and Kilgrave’s (David Tennant) powers as an allegory for sexual assault and rape, but how the creative team chose to tell those stories and portray them on screen. Variety spoke with showrunner/writer Melissa Rosenberg about the series’s unique take on sexuality and violence.

“We never walked into the writing room going, ‘We are now going to take on rape and abuse and feminism,’” Rosenberg said at the TCA panel for the Netflix drama. “We walked in telling a story for this character. And by being true to her character, it was true to the issues.”

Rosenberg then spoke about writing the show and how the crew’s feminism led to the approach they took.

“Everyone who walks into that writers room — men and women — we’re all feminists. We bring that perspective to any story we’re telling,” Rosenberg said. “The way those conversations would often happen is, someone would pitch a story and then one of us would go, ‘Wait a minute, that’s really rape-y.’ Or ‘Wait a minute, that really goes against what she would allow or what she would consent to.’ We were all on the same page with our points of view on these issues”

A female hero’s sexuality is often used as a plot device, whether it’s duping a mark or distracting a foe. Rosenberg made clear that when it comes to Jessica, that trope was never a possibility.

“She is never going to put on a pair of heels and a bandage dress and go seduce the guy,” Rosenberg said. “One, that’s just not true to her character. Two, it’s just such a go-to for female characters in any kind of cop show, or any show. ‘Let’s use her sexuality… just because.’”

Hit the link below for more from Rosenberg and the cast and check out some fantastic promo art the show tweeted out this week.

You can watch Season 1 of Jessica Jones anywhere in the world on Netflix now.

Source: Variety and Jessica Jones on Twitter

Agent Carter Nominated For VFX Award, BTS Photos Shared

Agent Carter and crew relocated to Hollywood this season, and the 1940’s pulp and glamour was ratcheted up to a new level accordingly. To achieve this, the crew of the show had to incorporate a lot more visual effects than you might think considering the relatively low-key scale of the show. But even small details like getting the backgrounds of LA looking like they did 70 years ago is no small thing. Luckily, the team had a great deal of experience accomplishing a similar feat back in season one when they had to add in a whole lot of New York that doesn’t exist anymore. And it looks like all that hard work paid off as the visual effects team of the show was nominated for a VES Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects In A Photoreal Episode.

It’s fascinating to see what it looks like behind the curtain on a period show like this. And thanks to Visual Effects Supervisor Sheena Duggal, we’ve also got some comparison shots of how the team worked their magic for the new season.

Agent Carter returns next Tuesday on ABC with “Better Angels.”

Source: Agent Carter on Twitter and Sheena Duggal on Twitter

Luke Cage Star Talks Series

Part of the appeal of the Marvel/Netflix shows so far has been their distinct palettes. Jessica Jones and Daredevil made their mark not only with their fantastic casts and crews, but the look and sound of the shows set them apart from the crowd. Even more than feeling unique from the usual fare, they distinguished themselves even within their own universe by feeling like two very different shows in appearance and tone. According to Luke Cage star Mike Colter, his show will follow the same trend.

“We pride ourselves in all being unique shows, and Luke Cage is definitely not a sequel to Jessica Jones or a spin-off, because it was already originally was supposed to be a show, and it so happens that you can’t tell her story without telling Luke Cage’s story,” he told IGN and a small group of reporters.

One of the big differences between the Luke Cage of Jessica Jones and the Cage of his own series will be the location. Colter went on to describe how the Harlem setting would help differentiate the two series.

“The show that we’re filming now, Marvel’s Luke Cage as opposed to Marvel’s Jessica Jones, is completely different. He goes off to uptown and he does his own thing, and there will be some of that. The time lapse is not that long, and so it’s not like Jessica Jones never happened. I think in the world of Jessica Jones, what I enjoyed about being in that world as Luke Cage is that I wasn’t front and center.

Colter then touched on what it was like for Luke to be controlled by Kilgrave and if we can expect that to play in to the psychology of the character in his own show.

“We’re all finding and discovering ourselves as superheroes as much as we’re finding ourselves as humans. Every time someone takes over your mind and you go through this situation, I don’t think you can walk away from it without having some of the same feelings that Jessica had,” he said. “Especially for someone like Luke, I think he’s a very strong individual and he’s not used to having someone completely take over and dominate him like that. I think that was something that was emasculating, probably. I can’t get into where he goes from there.”

Finally, he spoke a little bit about everyone’s favorite street-level duo: Power Man and Iron Fist.

“I am, for the main reason that I get a nice little break because I’m like, ‘Jessica, Luke — there is an Iron Fist, right?'” he said. “I’m really excited about it. Whether I’ll be in it, I don’t know, but it will be nice to see.”

Luke Cage will premier later this year but for now you can see Colter as Cage in Season 1 of Jessica Jones on Netflix.

Source: IGN

Spider-Man Actor Tom Holland Still Training

It looks like new Spider-Man Tom Holland is continuing his training for his take on the hero. Whether it’s for Captain America: Civil War re-shoots or for his July 7th, 2017 solo film, which should begin filming soon, we can only guess.

Training hard with @ymkpt. #chestdaybestday

A photo posted by ✌️ (@tomholland2013) on

Holland will debut as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War on May 6th before headlining his as-yet-untitled solo film on July 7th, 2017.

Source: Tom Holland on Twitter

Will Patton Oswalt Return To Agents of SHIELD?

The short answer: no one knows. But here’s what the actor told zap2it when they asked.

“I have a theory [about my character], and I’ve heard other people’s theories and they’re all correct!” says Oswalt with a laugh. As for when fans can look forward to seeing his return on the show, Oswalt laughs again and teases, “I can’t say and that’s all I can say. I’m sorry, I don’t want to be a pain in the butt, I just can’t say.”

Generally speaking, when actors are this coy about reprising roles, it tends to mean there’s something in the works that they can’t comment on. Given the popularity of Oswalt’s character(s) and the ease with which a new version could be explained, it seems highly likely that he will return to the show.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns to ABC on March 8th.

Source: zap2it

Stan Lee’s Doctor Strange Cameo Rumor

This is almost a ghost of a rumor, but according to Latino Review, Stan Lee will cameo in Doctor Strange (itself a sure bet) during a surgical scene featuring Benedict Cumberbatch under the knife of Rachel McAdams‘s character.

They offer no further information so like with most of Lee’s cameos, we’ll just have to wait until the movie premiers to see it. In the case of Doctor Strange, that will be November 4th of this year.

Source: Latino Review

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