Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange had it’s North American premiere this past Friday and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton were excellent in their roles as Stephen Strange and the Ancient One, respectively, and believe it or not, there was a certain level of wit and humor added to the film thanks to Strange’s Cloak of Levitation.

Without getting into too many details to keep the Pulse spoiler-free, we’re introduced to the Cloak of Levitation at a crucial point in the movie and it instantly shows us it has a temperament of its own.

The Cloak of Levitation was brought to life on the silver screen thanks to costume designer Alexandra Byrne. Byrne, an Oscar-winning designer who has also worked on other Marvel Properties such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy told Vanity Fair they went through nearly a dozen different ideas before settling on the final cape design.

“It has huge history and expectations,” Byrne admits. “I wanted very much the flavor of the cloak and Strange’s costume to be not over-embellished and decorative, but for the detail to be subtle and draw you into the costume the way it draws you into the comic books. On the cloak, we go from hand embroidery to flocking to printing to machine embroidery to all kinds of finishes in the one piece.”

It’s no secret that a Marvel production is huge and involves hundreds of actors and extras. In addition to the main cast, one actress with a minor role of note is Amy Landecker. Landecker, who is best known for starring in the Emmy-winning Transparent had a brief role in the movie, and even though she had a scene with Cumberbatch, she wasn’t too sure she’d make the final cut of the film.

“I have to preface this by saying I was at an event and someone said that I was in the credits. So, it’s possible that I’m still in this film,” Landecker said. “But to my knowledge, I was cut out of this film. But I don’t know. [Laughs.] So basically, the way Marvel works is, you don’t get to read the script at all. And I did audition for this part, so I knew it was a doctor in a surgical kind of scene, and I knew it was with Benedict, and she flirts with him a little and it was kind of fun. And there was a take where they had me put a mask on. But I thought that was just to kind of see what I looked like in a mask. Which is one of those funny Hollywood things, as if it was going to change whether or not I got cast. [Laughs.]”

Sources: Comicbook.com and Vanity Fair.

The Defenders

The Defenders, one of Netflix’s three Marvel shows premiering in 2017, has started filming in New York City. The show will see Daredevil, Luke Cake, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist team up for the first time on a live-action Marvel property.

Being that all of the members of the Defenders are street-level heroes, practical stunts are a big part of the production of the shows. As you’ll see in the Instagram posts below, the stunt crews are hard at work training the stunt doubles. Mainly of note, you’ll see stunt double Lauren Mary Kim, who has stunt work for MCU actresses Elodie Young and Chloe Bennett, who play Elektra on Daredevil and Daisy Johnson/Quake on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., respectively.

Source: Instagram.

Jessica Jones

Fans of Jessica Jones and can finally rejoice: the series’ titular character is getting her own Funko POP! bobblehead. Announced in a tweet by the popular toymaker this past week, a Jessica Jones figure will be released in the coming months.

The Jones bobblehead will join two Luke Cage figures previously teased by the company in new releases soon. Funko has previously released four Daredevil pops: Daredevil as a Masked Vigilante, Daredevil in his season two costume, Matthew Murdock in his attorney attire, and Wilson Fisk.

Source: Twitter.