For all the Tom Hiddleston fans who need another Loki fix, you’re going to have to make due with Thor: The Dark World, because the baddie won’t be making a return in The Avengers 2.  Speaking to Empire on their podcast, writer-director Joss Whedon explained, “Everyone is going to be looking for the Loki-Hulk smash moment and you’ll be looking for [a quim moment]. First of all, imitating what I did before is the surest way to do it not as well. Second of all, Loki’s not there to say those terrible things. Although I do think we should bring the word back, not as an insult, it’s just a nice word.”  Obviously, he’s right—both about the dangers of repeating himself and the quality of the word.  Also, if you want to raise the stakes, it’s best to go with a villain where failure isn’t in his nature.

If you need more Hiddleston in your life, keep an eye out for his upcoming movies Only Lovers Left Alive and Close Enough.  The Avengers 2 opens May 1, 2015.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share this evening.  First up, Deadline reports that Sam Worthington has joined the cast of the Civil War drama The Keeping Room.  Set in the final days of the Civil War, the story centers on three southern women—two sisters and one African American slave—who are forced to defend their home against an onslaught of soldiers who have broken off from the approaching Union Army.  Brit Marling (Sound of My Voice), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), and Nicole Beharie (Shame) are set to star as the female leads, with Marling filling the elder sister role that was previously occupied by Olivia Wilde.

Daniel Barber (Harry Brown) is directing from a script by Julia Hart, and production is set to get underway in June.  Details regarding Worthington’s character aren’t given, but the actor most recently wrapped David Ayer’s thriller Ten.  Hit the jump to find out who may be toplining the remake of The Crow instead of Tom Hiddleston.

And Phase Two is off and running.  With the release of Iron Man 3 just over a week away, Disney and Marvel unveiled the first teaser trailer for this fall’s sequel Thor: The Dark World this morning.  While Marvel dipped its toe into the fantastical realm with the first Thor, it’s clear from this debut trailer that director Alan Taylor’s (Game of Thrones) follow-up is very heavy on the fantasy.  We’ve gone through the new trailer and screengrabbed a batch of images, giving us a better look at the world of Thor 2 and its characters.  Christopher Eccleston’s villain Malekith looks especially sinister, and I can’t get enough of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki reveal.

Hit the jump to check out the images, and if you somehow missed the trailer click here.  The film also stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Jaimie Alexander, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins.  Thor: The Dark World opens in 3D on November 8th.

Marvel has released the first trailer for director Alan Taylor’s (Game of Thrones) sequel Thor: The Dark World and it looks great.  Like every well cut trailer, it showcases a ton of impressive looking action, while revealing new details about the story.  I especially liked the reveal of how Loki (Tom Hiddleston) will be involved in the sequel.   If you dug the first Thor, you’re going to love this trailer.  Hit the jump to watch and let me know what you think in the comments.  

Thor: The Dark World stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christopher Eccleston,Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins.  Thor: The Dark World opens in 3D on November 8th.

We’ve got some new casting news for you:

• Ophelia Lovibond (No Strings Attached) has just joined the upcoming Marvel superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy alongside cast members Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and Dave Bautista.
• Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers) and Hayley Atwell (Captain America) joined director Paul Andrew Williams’s (Song for Marion) Close Enough, the upcoming romantic war drama about lovers in France during the height of the Spanish Civil War.
• James Caviezel (Person of Interest) and Michael Chiklis (The Shield) have just signed onto Sony Pictures’s inspirational high school football film When the Game Stands Tall, and they will star alongside Laura Dern and Alexander Ludwig.

Hit the jump for more information on each new casting bit.

When he’s not antagonizing The Avengers, Tom Hiddleston might become a dark avenger himself in the remake of The Crow.  Reports have Hiddleston in early talks to star as Eric Draven, a resurrected murder victim who rises from the grave a year after his death in order to exact revenge on the thugs who killed him and his fiance.  The 1994 cult classic directed by Alex Proyas starred Brandon Lee in the title role and was based on a James O’Barr comic series.  Director F. Javier Gutierrez (Before the Fall) is helming from a script by Cliff Dorfman (Warrior) and expects to start production this fall.  Hit the jump for more.

We have a couple of casting stories for you this morning.  First up, Vince Vaughn is in talks to star in the comedy Business Trip written by Steven Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness).  No director is currently attached, and THR reports that the vague logline is simply “the story centers on a man who flies to Europe for business. Travel mayhem ensues.”  We also don’t know much about Vaughn’s character, but I’m willing to bet it’s the same one he almost always plays.  He’ll probably keep playing it in the comedies he has coming later this year, The Internship (June 7th) and The Delivery Man (October 4th).

Hit the jump for some Tom Hiddleston casting news.

Marvel finally released the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One box set earlier this week, and included in the collection is a bounty of extras from the studio’s past and future films.  We’ve already shared a collection of images, video, and concept art for a few of the Phase Two films, and today quite a few deleted scenes from The Avengers and Iron Man 2 have surfaced online.  The Avengers scenes are minor bits and pieces that were nipped out of the finished film, but the Iron Man 2 footage is fascinating because it reveals an alternate ending for the film that involves Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash kidnapping Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper.  It’s rather anticlimactic and it’s not hard to see why Jon Favreau went back and reshot the ending that now concludes the final iteration of the film.

Hit the jump to watch the deleted scenes from The Avengers and the alternate ending for Iron Man 2. [Update: We've added the "And Then Shawarma After" featurette after the jump, which takes a brief look behind the scenes of the Avengers tag.]

New images have been released for Michael Bay‘s Pain and Gain and Jim Jarmusch‘s Only Lovers Left Alive.  Pain and Gain is based on a true story, and stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson as two bodybuilders who get caught up in an extortion ring and kidnapping scheme that goes terribly wrong.  I wish this image was larger so I could turn it into desktop wallpaper.  As for Only Lovers Left Alive, it’s a crypto-vampire love story love story between Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), two vampires who have been in love for centuries.”  Indiewire adds that when they’re reunited, “their idyll is soon interrupted by Eve’s wild and uncontrollable younger sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska).”  Now imagine if these films switched directors.  That would be movie magic.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Pain and Gain also stars Anthony Mackie, Rob Corddry, Ed Harris, John Turturro, and Rebel Wilson.  Only Lovers Left Alive also stars John Hurt and Anton Yelchin.

New photos from the set of Thor: The Dark World have revealed the film’s baddies, the Dark Elves.  As we learned from the official synopsis, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has to stop the vengeful Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) from plunging the universe back into darkness, and no one likes darkness.  You just keep bumping into stuff.  As for the look of the Dark Elves, they’ve got the neat armor that fits well into the look of the supernatural realms established in the first movie.  The unmasked dark elf has a half-black, half-white face, which I thought was a sign of peace according to Jerry Seinfeld’s appraisal of black-and-white cookies.  Then again, that cookie ended up breaking his vomit streak, so perhaps this dark elf is the true face of terror. [Upon closer inspection, it looks like the elf's face has been burnt off, so that's much better]

Hit the jump to check out the images along with some quotes from Tom Hiddleston, and click here for other recent set photos.  The film also stars Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins.  Thor: The Dark World opens in 3D on November 8, 2013. [Update: We've added more images of the dark elves after the jump.]

Though Phase One of Marvel Studios’ film slate came to an end just a few months ago with The Avengers, production on Phase Two is already well underway.  The studio is currently in the midst of filming two upcoming sequels at the same time: Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.  The Iron Man production is winding down to a close ahead of that film’s May 2013 release date, but filming on Thor: The Dark World is still going strong in London and today the first official synopsis for the Asgardian pic has been revealed.

The logline essentially tells us what we already know: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) must fight against Maleketih (Christopher Eccleston) and his race of Dark Elves, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is back, the fate of the universe is in the balance, etc.  However, the synopsis does tease the film’s epic scope and the fact that Thor is forced to “sacrifice everything” in order to save us all (Thor dies?!).  Hit the jump to check out the full synopsis, which includes the full cast list.  Directed by Alan Taylor, Thor: The Dark World opens on November 8th, 2013.

The Avengers was 2012’s biggest hit, and is now the third highest grossing film of all time both domestically and worldwide (it’s hard to top James Cameron). And now that summer’s over, it’s fair to say it was the most entertaining blockbuster and the most entertaining superhero film of the summer. It’s also got huge problems, though they ultimately don’t matter. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlet Johansson, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo assemble here to fight an army of aliens led by Tom Hiddleston. Joss Whedon writes and directs, and our review of the four-disc 3D Blu-ray set follows after the jump.

Good news, everyone!  Though the Blu-ray/DVD release of Marvel’s The Avengers is less than a month away, the film is returning to theaters so fans can experience Joss Whedon’s brilliant superhero saga on the big screen one more time.  The announcement was made on the film’s Facebook page that The Avengers will be back in theaters this Labor Day weekend (ie. this coming weekend).  So round up your friends and carve out two hours this weekend to go see Hulk smash on the big screen, if you so please.

If you’ve missed any of the deleted scenes/featurettes that Marvel has been releasing over the past few weeks in anticipation of the home video release, you can catch up right here.  Be sure to check out the film’s alternate opening and a wonderful deleted scene between Mark Ruffalo and Harry Dean Stanton.  The Avengers will be available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download on September 25th.  Hit the jump to rewatch the first trailer for the film, and be sure to read what Whedon has to say about the film’s deleted scenes and the new S.H.I.E.L.D. series right here.

The upcoming Blu-ray of The Avengers will include a 90-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, and we’ve previously shown you parts of the doc focusing on Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, and the Helicarrier.  Today, a new clip showcases Robert Downey Jr. aka “The leader of the band,” according to Joss Whedon.  It’s light and fun, but it’s also one of those clips that makes me wonder how much of the documentary is just going to be the cast and crew complimenting each other.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  The Avengers hits Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download on September 25th.

Yesterday, we showed you a deleted scene that will be on the upcoming Blu-ray/DVD for The Avengers.  Today, the gag reel and a behind-the-scenes clip have gone online.  Cobie Smulders absolutely steals the gag reel, and it makes me wonder when we’ll get to see her in some comedic roles other than Robin Scherbatsky from How I Met Your Mother.  As for the behind-the-scenes clip, if you’ve ever wanted to hear famous people say nice things about Samuel L. Jackson, this is the clip for you.

Hit the jump to check out the special features.  The Avengers hits Blu-ray, DVD, and Digitial Download on September 25th.