Mark Wahlberg Passes The Rock to Become Highest-Paid Actor of 2017

Mark Wahlberg has surpassed Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to become the highest paid actor in 2017. Once known as the rapper Marky Mark, Wahlberg is without question the most successful musician-turned-actor working today, having amassed dozens of film credits since his debut in the Danny DeVito comedy drama Renaissance Man in 1994.

Along the way, Wahlberg has been willing to take risks and act in a slate of different genres, from fictional drama (Boogie Nights, Rock Star) and comedy (Ted, Daddy’s Home) to crime thrillers (The Departed, We Own the Night) and action/adventures (Three Kings, Shooter), as well as real-life dramas (The Fighter, Lone Survivor, Patriot’s Day) and sci-fi action (Transformers: Age of Extinction, Transformers: The Last Knight ).

Also among Wahlberg’s credits is Pain & Gain opposite Johnson, and now the actor has passed his friend and colleague on a very prestigious list. According to Forbes, Wahlberg’s earnings from June 1, 2016, to June 1, 2017, have made him the highest paid actor, having earned $68 million pre-tax in the publication’s 12-month scoring period. That amount bests Johnson (last year’s top-earner), who came in second on Forbes’ list at $65 million. Coming in at No. 3 on the list is Vin Diesel ($54.5 million), followed by Adam Sandler ($50.5 million) and Jackie Chan ($49 million).

While the numbers for Wahlberg, Johnson and Diesel make sense thanks to such high-budget films as The Fate of the Furious and Transformers: The Last Knight, the earnings for Sandler and Chan appear more baffling. Forbes pointed out, however, that Sandler has a lucrative deal with Netflix to produce his own movies, while Chan’s earning mostly come from his productions in China.

One telling sign about the Forbes list is that critical praise doesn’t matter when it comes an actor’s payday. While Wahlberg has been nominated for two Oscars in the past (for Best Supporting Actor for The Departed and as a producer on the Best Picture nominee The Fighter), his only major release to date in 2017, Transformers: The Last Knight, earned a dismal 15 percent “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Forbes says the numbers were compiled from data from Nielsen, ComScore, Box Office Mojo, IMDb and interviews with industry experts. The numbers don’t include fees for agents, managers and lawyers. The combined total for the top 20 actors on the Forbes 2017 list is $720 million.

Rounding out the Top 10 highest paid actors is Robert Downey Jr. ($48 million) at No. 6, followed by Tom Cruise ($43 million) and Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Kahn ($38 million) Salman Khan ($37 million) and Akshay Kumar ($35.5 million).

Captain Cold Will Be Very Different in Legends of Tomorrow Season 3

Captain Cold’s return to Legends of Tomorrow will be a decidedly different take on the fan-favorite character, who despite his death at the end of the superhero team up series’ first season, has been a surprisingly frequent presence in both Legends and The Flash.

Captain Cold (real name Leonard Snart) originated as one of the first villains to take on Barry Allen and his allies on The Flash, and Wentworth Miller’s scene chewing, over-the-top performance made him an instant fan favorite. After menacing the scarlet speedster for a couple seasons, Snart and his criminal partner, Mick Rory (also known as Heat Wave) joined the band of misfit heroes and villains who made up the cast of the time travel extravaganza that is Legends of Tomorrow. Snart heroically sacrificed himself to save his friends at the end of the first season, but he appeared last season as a time displaced member of the Legion of Doom, and the show’s not done with him yet.

It’s unclear how Snart will return once again, but it will be a new take on icy rogue. In an interview with DC Legends TV, executive producer Phil Klemmer offered some cryptic hints about what’s to come for Captain Cold and his former Legends allies.

“It will be about as polar opposite as the Snart that he’s played on our show. We’ve got a cool pitch to justify that version of him, which I don’t want to give away. But it’s going to be really traumatic for Mick Rory, because he has deified this version of his dead partner in his head, and in a way, Snart’s return is his greatest wish come true, but the fact that he doesn’t get the version that he’s held in the back of his mind is deeply unsettling. Rory’s made a lot of progress as well in the meantime, but he’s certainly not ready to call himself a hero.”

It’s unclear how this version of the character will differentiate from the season 2 version of Snart, who was pulled from earlier in his own timeline and was still in full on villain mode, helping Eobard Thawne, Malcolm Merlyn, and Damien Dahrk execute their reality altering plans using the Spear of Destiny. That version was returned to his rightful time and had his memory erased, so it’s unlikely we’re getting a retread of that particular version. Regardless, Miller’s Captain Cold is one of the brightest spots in The CW’s Arrowverse, and whatever version shows up, he’s always a welcome wild card among the Waverider crew.

Legends of Tomorrow season 3 premieres Tuesday, October 10, on The CW.

The Punisher First Look Image Reveals Jon Bernthal’s Full Costume

A first look image from The Punisher reveals Jon Bernthal’s full costume. Despite the highly-anticipated release of The Defenders having occurred just a few days ago, time marches on, and the steady stream of Marvel Studios’ Netflix dramas continues unabated. Next up on the Marvel/Netflix docket is The Punisher season 1, the solo small screen debut of emotionally-damaged badass Frank Castle, the titular crime-stopper and smasher of bad guys.

Castle was of course introduced to Marvel’s Netflix universe via a well-received supporting role in Daredevil season 2, which saw Matt Murdock’s heroic morals repeatedly clash with the take-no-prisoners philosophy espoused by The Punisher. While many would argue that Daredevil had it right with his desire to avoid killing people, it was hard not to feel for Frank, whose life was ruined by the brutal murder of his family right in front of his eyes. By all accounts, Frank was an honorable man prior to that event, and likely would have stayed one had it not happened.

Marvel/Netflix has released a new first look image for The Punisher season 1, which shines a spotlight on the titular anti-hero’s full costume. Gritty, grimy, and decked out entirely in black, Castle looks ready to hit the streets of New York City and assist various criminal scum with meeting their makers. By the time Frank gets done, NYC’s criminals will wish they had stayed home for a quiet night of binging TV shows. (Not on Netflix though, as that would create some type of paradox.) Check the image out below.

As of this writing, a premiere date for The Punisher’s solo Netflix debut still has yet to be revealed, although a 2017 arrival has been confirmed. With fall rapidly approaching, one assumes that an announcement will be forthcoming fairly soon, possibly for a late fall/early winter timeframe debut. This would put its arrival around the same time as when Jessica Jones season 1 premiered in 2015.

2017 represents the first time that three different Marvel/Netflix seasons have dropped in the same calendar year, with Iron Fist, The Defenders, and soon The Punisher. 2018 will establish this three seasons per year structure as the new normal, with Daredevil season 3, Jessica Jones season 2, and Luke Cage season 2 all expected to hit Netflix before the year wraps up.

The Punisher season 1 assaults Netflix sometime in 2017. Premiere dates for the new seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist have yet to be announced.

The Flash Officially Casts Katee Sackhoff as Blacksmith

It’s only been a day since Battlestar Galactica alum Katee Sackhoff teased social media with a tweet suggesting that she may be part of Season 4 of CW’s The Flash. And reports today do indeed confirm that the actress will be facing-off with Barry Allen, and she’ll be playing the established DC comics villain Blacksmith.

It was during Sunday that Sackhoff tweeted a picture of a script, indicating that she was currently memorising the dialogue for a project and that all would be revealed on Monday. Going by clues on the picture, which seemed to feature a lightning bolt and a possible reference to “Berlanti Productions”, it didn’t take long for people to calculate that this was likely a role in the upcoming season of The Flash. The tweet was later deleted, with the powers-that-be probably deciding that people were savvy enough to figure out the clues before a company announcement. However true to her word, the information about the role has been officially released today, and it’s good news for fans of Sackhoff and DC villains.

According to EW, Sackhoff is joining the cast of the show as the DC metahuman villain Blacksmith. Otherwise known as Amunet Black, she’s a tough and uncompromising boss of an underground black market for supervillains, using blackmail and subterfuge to bend them to her will. The character is due to first appear in episode 5 of the new season, which is intriguingly called “Girls Night Out”. This will also be a mini-crossover Arrowverse episode, as it will feature Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak. It’s also revealed that Blacksmith will be a recurring character, so we can expect an arc for her during the season and she won’t just be a villain-of-the-week.

In DC comics Blacksmith first appeared in 2001, in the story Flash: Iron Heights. She definitely has metahuman abilities in that universe, being able to fuse organic and inorganic materials, which allows her to mutate her own body and create powerful weapons. She is primarily known however for organizing her own team of rogues and using her contacts to defeat Barry Allen and his companions – even if those are only fleeting victories. At the moment it’s unknown just how close the Arrowverse version will be to the comics, and whether she’ll have comparable metahuman powers, but you can bet that Sackhoff will be playing her as a formidable opponent.

Season four of The Flash seems intent on building up a new group of rogues for Team Flash to fight. We already know that Sugar Lyn Beard is Hazard, and that Neil Sandilands is The Thinker – with him almost definitely set up to be the “big bad”. Now that another powerful threat like Blacksmith is thrown into the mix, it should be interesting to see how it mixes things up with Barry and his colleagues. Coincidentally, Blacksmith and Thinker have clashed previously in the comics, so that could make things even more complicated if that possibility is also explored. At any rate, Sackhoff should be a strong and popular addition to the existing cast and we eagerly await further details.

The Flash returns to The CW on Tuesday, Oct. 10.

Arrow: Ragman Will Return in Season 6

After a prolonged absence, Ragman will be coming back to Arrow this season. After a rocky couple of seasons, Arrow snapped back into shape over the past year as it refocused its narrative and retooled Oliver. The results saw a hero less prone to self-flaggelation and more likely to seek assistance. Part of that new leaf resulted in Oliver building a fresh team around him, and many of them look to be back this year.

Despite what happened on Lian Yu in season 5, we know Arrow characters like the new Black Canary will return, along with Black Siren. They won’t be alone, however. While Artemis turned traitor, Mr. Terrific, Wild Dog, and Ragman have all stayed true. Still, Rory took off on his own after the events that decimated his hometown. Though he brought a certain lightness to the show, his more mystical abilities felt more at home in Arrow season 4 than season 5. That said, he’s a powerful hero and Team Arrow could always use his help. Now, it looks like they’ll be getting it.

The first few episodes of Arrow season 6 will likely focus on the events on Lian Yu and the fallout from what happened. Oliver and his team will likely be dealing with a lot, regardless of who did and die not survive the season 5 finale. As they are, Richard Dragon will come out of the shadows as the season’s new big bad. Arrow has proven that it does best with one overarching villain, and Dragon’s presence should help with the show’s continual growth.

With the team shaken and a new villain causing trouble in Star City, it’s no wonder that Ragman will be back 5 episodes into the new season. Oliver may be on a better path, but his team is sure to face trials of their own this year. As such, pulling in a heavy-hitter like Rory makes sense given the new threats the Green Arrow will be sure to face in the upcoming season.

Ragman might not be alone in his return, either. John Barrowman has said he has an open invitation to return as Malcolm Merlyn, in the future. Deathstroke will also be a factor again in Arrow season 6, with news suggesting that he’ll be getting an arc of his own (see the rumors about Deathstroke’s son being cast). With season 6 less than two months away, it won’t be much longer now until Arrow‘s next chapter unfolds.

Arrow season 6 premieres Thursday, October 12 at 9pm on The CW.

What Mike Colter Wants to Explore in Luke Cage Season 2

Mike Colter has shared his hopes for Luke Cage season 2. The actor is now back as the super-powered character in the Marvel TV/Netflix miniseries, The Defenders – where he joins Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) in their quest to foil the enigmatic Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) and the Hand’s evil plans – but he will eventually return to his own New York territory, with the sophomore outing of his solo series.

While official details for Luke Cage season 2 are still scant at the moment, we know that Luke’s penitentiary stint at Seagate Prison is rather short, since he is already back on the streets of New York with his fellow Defenders (a Luke Cage season 2 set video showing Luke casually strolling the streets of New York further backs this up). The Defenders sets things up for Luke Cage’s next solo adventure, but it’s still difficult to pinpoint precisely what Luke’s personal trajectory will be, moving forward. This, however, does not prevent Colter from sharing what he wants to see in the next chapter of his character’s hero journey.

Speaking to Moviefone while promoting The Defenders, Colter talked about his interest in exploring Luke’s approach on his new, and finally legitimate, freedom in Luke Cage season 2:

“So what I want to explore, and what’s going to be really interesting for the second season, is seeing how he handles these newfound freedoms. What does it open up for him? How does his life change from now on moving forward? And what is it like to sort of be a person that when you walk down the street, everybody knows who he is?”

Luke’s liberty brings with it more opportunities for him to be immersed in the outside world. Speaking at San Diego Comic-Con 2017, Colter indicated that Luke Cage season 2 infuses more pop culture concepts into its narrative. The actor did not elaborate on his statement beyond that, nor did he give any specific examples of what that refers to. Whether that means Luke Cage season 2 will be tackling more serious social/racial issues and/or more references to music/film/TV, it could be a great way to add layers to the show’s storytelling style.

Lucy Liu is directing the Luke Cage season 2 premiere, with the roster of returning characters including Misty Knight (Simone Missick) and Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson). Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard) and Shades (Theo Rossi) are also set to return, though it’s not clear yet if they will serve as the main antagonists in this new season. Also returning is Cheo Hodari Coker, who is once again serving as Luke Cage‘s showrunner.

The Defenders is now available on Netflix, with The Punisher arriving sometime this fall. Premiere dates for the new seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist have not yet been announced.

The Defenders Showrunner on The Hand’s Future on Netflix

Marco Ramirez discusses what future The Hand has on Netflix following the organization’s role in The Defenders. After years of waiting, Netflix and Marvel have finally delivered on the long-awaited team-up. The Defenders brings together characters, both leading and supporting, from Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. With the four street-level heroes crossing paths, so does each of their stories. For Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Danny Rand (Finn Jones), that includes a heavy dose of The Hand.

The mysterious group has been part of the Netflix corner of the MCU since the start, but played its largest roles in Daredevil (especially season 2) and Iron Fist. With Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) leading the charge, The Hand was as ready to go as ever, but they still came up short. As it turns out, The Defenders will be the end of The Hand for a while.

EW spoke with showrunner Marco Ramirez – who also helmed Daredevil season 2 – about all the burning questions audiences will have after they finish the eight episode story. By the end, the future of The Hand is put in extreme doubt with all of the organization’s leaders appearing to be killed off. Thanks to this, The Hand will be taking a break from the small screen, and would be very different if it ever returns.

Well, in the Marvel world, and as Jeph Loeb, the Marvel TV head, would say, in the comic-book world, you can always find a way. The story finds a way, so who knows? But we definitely felt like we wanted this to be the end of this specific show, so while I don’t know if it’s the end of the Hand forever — who knows what will happen in the future — it just felt like it’s the end of this story in the lore. Particularly for Iron Fist, we wanted to close that chapter [of the Hand’s story]. I don’t know what the future holds. That’s a Jeph Loeb question [laughs] but for me and for the writers’ room, it felt right to end the story here.

The fall of The Hand starts in episode five, when Stick (Scott Glenn) kills one of the group’s five leaders. Newcomer to fans, Sowande (Babs Olusanmokun), is the first to go, and it all goes downhill from there. Alexandra is betrayed and killed by Elektra (Elodie Yung) and Bakuto (Ramon Rodriguez) is decapitated by Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick). Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho) may have escaped in miraculous fashion, but Murakami (Yutaka Takeuchi) fell hundreds of feet, was pierced by a steel rod, and had a building collapse on him, so he’s probably gone.

Considering the usage of The Hand on the shows already, this feels like a fitting end to a chapter for the Netflix shows. With The Defenders said to kick off Netflix’s Phase 2 for their Marvel properties, it looks and sounds as though that will be without the presence of The Hand. That said, Ramirez astutely points out that this is a comic book show and people have been brought back from the dead before, so nothing is ever out of the question.

What this does mean for the long-term future of Netflix’s Marvel content is a third season of Daredevil that won’t focus on him battling other ninjas. Based on how this ends and the setup that has happened before, one of his more popular stories may be adapted for his next solo season. This could also make things easier for Danny and Colleen if their arch enemy is out of the picture, but if that is truly the case remains to be seen. All we know now is that this iteration of The Hand is done, but they could always come back in the future.

The Defenders is now available on Netflix, with The Punisher arriving sometime this fall. Premiere dates for the new seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist have not yet been announced.