Kevin Smith Previews 2016 Comic Book Movies, Is Most Excited for 'Deadpool,' 'BvS' and 'Cap 3'
You’d think Kevin Smith, one of America’s foremost fanboys, would be heavily partial to DC Comics when it comes to assessing this year’s slate of superhero movies. The Clerks filmmaker once wrote a script for a Superman movie that would have starred Nicolas Cage, and just two weeks ago co-hosted the TV special DC Films Presents: Dawn of the Justice League, which teased early looks at Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman.
Related: ‘Suicide Squad’ Trailer Introduces ‘Worst of the Worst’
But asked what comic-book movies he’s most excited about in 2016, Smith showed some serious love for the Marvel side, citing Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War, along with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice as the year’s “Big Three.”
“Right away coming up, I think Deadpool’s gonna shock the s–t out of everybody,” Smith said of the R-rated Ryan Reynolds starrer (opening Feb. 13) when we talked to him at last week’s Sundance Film Festival, where he was premiering and promoting his new film, Yoga Hosers. “Although those of us who know comics know the character and know it well, but it’s gonna surprise a lot of people who go, ‘This is a f–king comic book movie?’ And it might break open the door for more R-rated comic book movies.”
He does see DC’s Dawn of Justice (March 25), which pits Ben Affleck’s Batman against Henry Cavill’s Superman (while also introducing Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman), raking in the green. “Batman v. Superman is the one that’s gonna get everybody and their grandma into a theater, because nothing captures your mother’s imagination more than like, 'Batman and Superman are fighting? I thought they were friends.’ So they’re going to get that audience as well. That movie’s going to be f–king huge.”
And of course there’s no denying the intrigue of Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War (May 6), which not only assembles and then divides Chris Evan’s Cap, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Scarlett Johannson’s Black Widow, Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, and more, but also recruits Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther and offers Tom Holland’s fresh take on Spider-Man. “Captain America, dude, Civil War, we’re getting an Avengers 3 before the Avengers 3 begins in space [with 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1],” he said. “All of this s–t is gold.
"So those are the Big Three. I mean there are a bunch of other things coming, obviously, but come on, with those three, it’s going to be a huge year for comic-book movies. ”
Smith did not mention the other two major Marvel-based superhero movies opening, X-Men: Apocalypse (May 27) and Doctor Strange (Nov. 4) – nor did he acknowledge Suicide Squad (Aug. 5), but there’s no doubt he’s a fan of DC’s band of antiheroes. In fact he named his 16-year-old daughter Harley Quinn after the supervillainess being played by Margot Robbie in Squad.
Not only has the younger Smith taken to the name, she’s caught the acting bug (she costars in her father’s family-friendly horror movie Yoga Hosers alongside her best friend and Johnny Depp’s daughter, Lily Rose Depp) and told us that one day she wants to play the character whose famous name she bears.
Related: Sundance Report: How 'Famous Daughters’ Lily-Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith Became the Unlikely Stars of 'Yoga Hosers’
Kevin Smith said that a few days before the family made their way to Park City, Utah, for Sundance, he received a thank-you card from Warner Bros. for hosting the DC special, along with the actual bat Robbie used in Suicide Squad.
“I loved it, but I’ve got a kid who lives right under my office, who, this is her f–king religion,” he said. “She saw it and she f–king broke down bawling. She put a picture of herself on Instagram, f–king crying and s–t. It was everything. I’ve never been as happy to receive anything in my life as she was to receive that f–king bat, dude. She cried for two hours.”
The director admitted that at first he was skeptical of her dream of playing the character Harley Quinn one day, but is now a believer after seeing how dialed-in she got on Yoga Hosers. “Now I’m like, 'Maybe Harley Quinn could play Harley Quinn.”
“I’ll tell you what, the a–hole from Fashionable Male is playing Batman,” he said, referencing Ben Affleck’s smarmy character Shannon from Smith’s 1995 comedy Mallrats. “So anything could happen.”
