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.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. EP On SkyeWard

Considering Agent Skye (Chloe Bennet) now goes by her birth name of Daisy Johnson on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the shipping name SkyeWard might have to be revised. Plus, the fact that they’ve both tried to kill each other a few times doesn’t exactly help. But that doesn’t mean fans of the faux-couple aren’t still interested in a possible future between the two. While we wait for the return of the show in the spring, EW sat down with executive producer and showrunner Jed Whedon and asked what Daisy and Ward’s (Brett Dalton) relationship status will be.

“Now she’s not Skye and he’s not Ward,” executive producer Jed Whedon says with a laugh. He has changed, but just as we saw with Will, there was still some of Will left in him. They’re both altered humans at this point. I don’t know. I feel like the chances are greater than ever.”

On whether we can expect to seem Ward find some sort of redemption:

“While he’s done terrible things, you have to want to be forgiven to be forgiven,” Whedon says. “I don’t know if that’s something he wants. By the same token, our team, their hands are dirtier than they’ve ever been. The thing that’s so fun to me is that people are still talking about it. Some of his actions at the end of this first half of the season, I can’t imagine how people still think that he’s going to be redeemed, but the fact that they’re still talking about it, that makes me super happy. We are such fans of his character and of Brett’s portrayal of it. We love the debate. We can’t believe it’s still going.”

Seasons 1 and 2 of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. are streaming now on Netflix. The show returns to ABC on March 8th.

Source: EW

Phase 1 & 2 Gag Reels

Marvel has always stood out from the pack of superhero films by injecting lots of levity into their drama and action and by casting actors who can handle the comedy, so naturally there’s going to be some funny stuff hitting the cutting room floor. As Marvel promote their Phase 2 Collection box set, they’ve uploaded short clips of the gag reels for both Phase 1 and 2. Check them out below.

The Marvel Phase 2 Collection is available on home video now.

Source: Marvel on YouTube.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Editor Talks Film and Sequel

With Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 set to begin filming in February, lots of news about the highly anticipated sequel is likely forthcoming. Until then, Collider recently sat down with the editor of the first film, Fred Raskin, to talk about his love of comics and what it was like to work on the surprise hit and the upcoming sequel.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 releases on May 5th, 2017.

Source: Collider

Elizabeth Henstridge Discusses Making “4,722 Hours”

One of the biggest surprises of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 was the bottle episode “4,722 Hours” which focused almost entirely on Elizabeth Henstridge’s Jemma Simmons. While the show takes a breather for its mid-season break and cedes its time-slot to Season 2 of Agent Carter, the actor recently spoke with EW about the making of one of the show’s most acclaimed episodes.

On what she knew about ahead of filming the episode:

“I knew this was something in the pipeline… ideas were being pitched around and there was nothing concrete, but this is what they had in mind. And I was so excited by the idea that I just didn’t think it would happen. This season was just so strong and I felt like, why would any of the big cheeses up top want to change the formula when it’s working so well?”

She then spoke a bit about working closer with the writer and director than usual as so much of the focus was on her.

“I spoke a lot more with [episode writer] Craig Titley and [director] Jesse Bochco than I have on any other episode, because I had a lot more to do,” she says. “The thing that kind of surprised me in a way, when we started filming… we were off in this quarry desert and then we were way, way off in God knows where. The sense of isolation and fatigue and being exhausted was there. We were freaking hot!”

And of course, she had to address her surprise new love interest, stranded astronaut Will Daniels (Dillion Casey) and what that means for FitzSimmons shippers.

“As soon as I read the script, I was like, ‘What about the FitzSimmons people!?’ Because they’re going to be mad. And I was worried!” She says. “In the lead-up to their exit, she was kind of crushing on Fitz again…she was in a very complicated situation, and as an actor you try not to judge your character. But I was just thinking, God, she’s really putting herself into a tight spot here.”

Hit the link below to read more from Henstridge and catch Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. when it returns on March 8th.

Source: EW.

Yellowjacket Special Effects Breakdown

One of the most exciting things about Ant-Man was the incredible design of main villain Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll) which, unlike Paul Rudd and much of his Ant-Man suit, was rendered entirely in CG. One of the studios behind the film’s VFX was Cinesite who recently posted a video breaking down how they designed the scene of Yellowjacket emerging from the water.

“One of the most challenging shots involved the creation of a fully CG Yellow Jacket emerging from the water. Cinesite began with assets supplied by the production, developing them to completion of final shots. The surface of the suit has a honey comb texture, which needed to be matched with shots by other vendors in the film. The bespoke shader was built in three stages. Masks were used to control the specular roughness along with an inverted facing ratio to get less reflection on the glancing angle on a random set of honey comb faces. When the three layers were combined a multi-faceted breakup effect was achieved. Rivulets of water flow from Yellow Jacket’s suit, dripping from the surface as he exits the pool. A custom microsolver was developed in Houdini SideFX, to ensure that water clung realistically to the suit surface. The water elements were rendered in Mantra before being passed to the compositors.”

Now that you’ve seen it broken down and read about all the work that went into, why not go back and watch the scene in all its glory? Ant-Man is out now on home video and will return with or without Yellowjacket in 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Source: Screenrant

Jessica Jones Costume Designer On Creating Hero’s Look

Given the darker tone of the Marvel/Netflix shows, seeing Kyrsten Ritter don Jessica Jones‘s Jewel costume from the comics was an unlikely scenario. Though the show does reference it in a flashback scene, for most of the show Jessica is shown in her street clothes. But it wasn’t simply a matter of throwing on jeans and a t-shirt when it came to giving the character a worn-in look. Costume designer Stephanie Maslansky recently spoke with EW about creating the various looks for the street-level hero.

“She has so much to struggle with on a day-to-day basis that for her, it’s just a matter of survival,” explains Maslansky. “She struggles with PTSD and her memories, she closes herself off from relationships with most people, she really has this attitude of ‘Leave me alone, let me get my work done, don’t cross me,’ and the last thing that she really cares about is how she looks. That’s something she doesn’t ever want to have to think about. For her, the easiest solution would have been, ‘I’m just going to wear the same thing every day.’ And that’s not necessarily the same pair of jeans or same t-shirt and same jacket, but when she went to buy her jeans, she bought four pairs. When she went to buy her tank top, she bought six of them. When she went to buy sweaters, she bought two of them. She probably has one pair of boots that she wears until they’re dead, and she buys another pair just like them.”

But that doesn’t mean the show didn’t get to put Jessica in a crazy costume during a heroic moment. It just wasn’t what we expected. In one of the most memorable moments of the show, Jessica saves a kid from being hit by a car…while wearing a giant sandwich costume.

“That was something we kind of created. It started when I read the script that she had to be a sandwich, so we went online and ordered a variety of sandwiches you were able to wear. We took this one and we ended up changing it so much it was a mere shadow of its former sandwich self — it really wound up being more of a hoagie than a sandwich,” Maslansky says with a laugh. “It became sort of a bun with sesame seeds, and we distressed it and made it look dirty and old. It was hard to know how the joke would land, but it really did.”

There’s a lot more from Maslansky at the link below and check out her work for yourself as the entire first season of Jessica Jones is now streaming on Netflix.

Source: EW

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