Genre Flick News

Madame Hydra

TO BE CONSIDERED: Jennifer Connelly As Madame Hydra

Madame Hydra is Baron Strucker’s (new Hydra leader) second in command and the leader of the HYDRA sub-group The Serpent Seven. The role has been filled by many different women including Viper and former SHIELD agent Contessa Valentina Allegro De Fontaine. It could be an interesting to see SHIELD infiltrated by HYDRA having them trying to take the group down by covert methods. The villain had been rumored for The First Avenger but was used in the film’s game tie-in instead. Her involvement in Winter Soldier hasn’t been confirmed but a cameo could help setup a third film.

Oscar winning actress Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) would be my choice to take on the villainess. Her credits include Blood Diamond, Requiem For A Dream, Little Children, Dark City, Labyrinth and Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming bible epic Noah. Not to mention the love interest in Joe Johnston’s (First Avenger) adventurous Rockeeter. Yes, she played Betty in the original Hulk film but that has no direct connections with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ray Stevenson has played both The Punisher and Volstagg, so Connelly playing another Marvel character isn’t hard to imagine.

Russian actress Svetlana Khodchenkova (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) is portraying Fox’s version of the character in The Wolverine who also goes by Viper. However, she won’t have ties with either Hydra or Captain America.

Oscar nominated Argentine-French actress Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) is another person I’d love to see in the role.


DREAM CAST: CAPTAIN AMERICA 2

We’ve already been given hints that Captain America 2 will likely include Nick Fury, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Maria Hill as supporting characters. However, I feel like we could see a couple more staple characters from the Cap comics join the ranks of SHIELD possibly creating a new unit The Invaders. Not to mention some iconic villains that were supposed to be included in First Avenger. Those villains may or may not end up as wranglers of Winter Soldier.

RALPH FIENNES AS BARON WOLFGANG VAN STRUCKER

DANIEL BRUHL AS BARON ZEMO

RUTH WILSON AS MADAME HYDRA

MICHAEL EALY AS SAM WILSON/FALCON

ALICE EVE AS SHARON CARTER/AGENT 13

SULLIVAN STAPLETON AS JOEY CHAPMAN/UNION JACK


Rundown Of Possible Villains And Allies For Captain America 2

Marvel Studios is currently on a search to find a director to helm Captain America 2. As ten names are in the running but only four of those have been revealed. Kevin Feige, Chris Evans and the writers have stated that the sequel could be set in the present and may also include WWII flashbacks. There have been hints to what villains we can expect for the second installment but it’s sort up in the air when it comes supporting heroes. Director Joe Johnston mentioned that Marvel could be saving Winter Soldier for his own spin-off, so he could be excluded until that happens. I’ve come up with some ideas of what the new additions should be along with previous hints to who the villains could be. I’m hoping that Marvel is smart enough to hold off bringing back Red Skull and Zola until later on in the franchise.

CAP’S NEW TEAM MEMBERS

SHARON CARTER: The niece (grand niece more likely) of Peggy Carter, Sharon was inspired by the WWII adventures of her Aunt Peggy alongside Captain America. This lead her decide to follow a similar path into the military eventually becoming an elite SHIELD Agent. While nothing has been confirmed there is speculation that Amanda Righetti was playing this character at the end of The First Avenger. I’m sure this will be cleared up in Avengers if not there is still hope that Sharon Carter will indeed end up Cap’s new love interest. Perhaps also helping fill in the blanks of what happened to Peggy.

FALCON: Sam Wilson better known as The Falcon was a protege of sorts of Cap and the two had series of team-up comics. If Cap assembles a present time team I would expect Marvel to include one of Steve’s best friends. I’m not sure if his costume from the comics would translate well but it could be interesting to see him re-imagined as a fighter pilot/SHIElD Agent. I could see the sequel becoming a buddy superhero film if Falcon does show up.

CONTESSA: The SHIELD agent was one of the few actual female characters without powers in the Marvel universe that’s been able to stick around for decades. Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine would eventually exit SHIELD to become the new Madame Hydra replacing Viper. It would be interesting to see one of these agents turn out to be a sleeper for HYDRA or to for her to just switch sides over jealously or money. One of my biggest problems with the Marvel films is that they rarely have more than one female heroine in their films. Avengers is going to up that with Maria Hill and Black Widow in the same movie but it’s unknown how much “action” Hill will actually see. This is another character that Amanda Righetti could have playing at the end of First Avenger.

UNION JACK: Joey Chapman is the current iteration of the British legacy hero Union Jack. Joey got his own Easter Egg in Iron Man 2 as one of the drivers listed in the race, so Marvel has established he exists in the film universe. The masked hero wears a bulletproof costume, is a knife/sword expert along with exceptional training in martial arts and other weapons (guns ect). James Montgomery Falsworth of the Howling Commandos played by JJ Field was also a shout-out to Union Jack in the First Avenger. Falsworth and his family took up the Union Jack persona before passing it down to Chapman. Union Jack is also a member of The Invaders and if we don’t see the return of Howling Commandos in present time (ala Infinity Formula) the Invaders could be a great replacement team name.

VILLAINS

BARON ZEMO: Zemo had been rumored since the casting of First Avenger and it was revealed by the screenwriters that he indeed was in early drafts of the script. Zemo is easily Cap’s second most popular villain and needs to be front and center if he is used. If he ends up in the sequel he’s costume will need some remodeling and I doubt an actor will be hidden by a mask for the whole film.

BARON STRUCKER: Strucker has a rather large presence as the contemporary head of HYDRA being it’s leader continuing the villainous terrorist group started by the Red Skull. We could see HYDRA becoming a world threat again with the classic green uniforms finally being used. I have to believe that both Strucker and Madame Hydra are strong candidates because they’ve been used in the Super Soldier video game and the current Avengers cartoon from Disney. Baron Strucker was also in the early drafts of the First Avenger script but was ultimately removed.

MADAME HYDRA: Madame Hydra is Strucker’s second in command and the leader of the HYDRA sub-group The Serpent Seven. The role has been filled by many different women including Viper and former SHIELD agent Contessa Valentina Allegro De Fontaine. It could be an interesting to see SHIELD infiltrated by HYDRA having them trying to take the group down by covert methods.

A.I.M.: Writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus have mentioned their affection for Modok who is the leader of the arms dealing terrorist group A.I.M. They even stated they wanted to include Modok in a sequel having Peter Dinklage (Games of Thrones) in the role. A.I.M. could just as easily fit in Iron Man 3 depending on the direction Marvel is going for with that. If Modok does end up in the film they’d have to make him a lot more realistic to be taken seriously as a villan.


Bond Inspired Fan Poster For SHIELD Movie


Could Zemo & Strucker Be The Villains In Captain America 2?

It’s been long rumored that Captain America villain and leader of the Masters of Evil, Baron Zemo would be featured in Captain America: The First Avenger. Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely confirmed to IFC that in early versions of the script Zemo and Baron Strucker indeed were involved. However, it seemed like a waste to use both so early in the franchise. It’s likely that the two villains could show up in Captain America 2 or future Marvel films.

There were a few classic villains that were planned for the first film, only to be removed in subsequent drafts. The pair previously revealed that evil despot Baron Zemo was in an early draft, but he wasn’t the only sinister side character in those versions of the script.

“Baron Strucker was in there for a while, but he wasn’t doing enough to justify wasting him in the film,” said McFeely. “We certainly tried things, and ended up settling on the more useful Red Skull and Arnim Zola. But they’re all still on the table,” he teased. 

“There wasn’t a sequence with Master Man that ended up on the cutting room floor or anything,” laughed Markus. “But there was an endless array of scenes we could’ve drawn from, and may draw from in the future. I’m not being cryptic when I say that, either – I’m just being a comic book geek. For example, some day, whether it be in an ‘Iron Man’ movie or a ‘Captain America’ movie or any other Marvel movie, I want to see M.O.D.O.K. float down the hall.” 

Zemo along with creating The Masters of Evil (a group of villains that fight The Avengers) is also responsible for putting together the original Thunderbolts group. The Thunderbolts were similar to the Dark Avengers as they are villains posing as heroes to gain the world’s trust and plan to eventually take it over. Other incarnations of the group included villains released from super prisons to reduce their sentences working for SHIELD on different missions. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Zemo become a baddie in Avengers 2.

Strucker on the other hand is heavily involved with both Hydra and A.I.M. which could mean that he might be a modern villain that could resurrect Hydra or bring A.I.M. into the forefront. Considering Modok a known member of A.I.M. has been mentioned a few times by the screenwriters. He seems a good bet for Captain America 2 or the Nick Fury film. Hopefully we’ll see Madame Hydra ends up alongside Strucker.


Marvel Studios Moving Forward With Captain America 2?

We recently heard news on movement on Iron Man 3 with Shane Black meeting with Marvel Studios. Now there is word from LatinoReview that Marvel is already working on Captain America 2. They’ve hired screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus who worked on First Avenger. It’s expected that the sequel would be set during present time and after the events of Avengers.

There are plenty of characters and villains to be explored in future films now that HYDRA will be established in First Avenger. This could be an excellent film to introduce Cap stables like Winter Soldier (Bucky), Union Jack (modern), Baron Zemo, Crossbones, Viper/Madame Hydra and Baron von Strucker. It would also be a great opportunity to bring in Sharon Carter and Falcon into the mix.

I wouldn’t be shocked to see the SHIELD/Nicky Fury film end up being combined into the Captain America sequel and to be honest I think it would end up a stronger movie.


Captain America Game Reveals Arnim Zola & Madame Hydra?

Sega just announced their plans to release a video game based on the Captain America movie. The game titled Captain America: Super Soldier seems to give us glimpses of possible designs from the film itself. DailyBlam was able to post concept artwork from the game. The artwork shows HYDRA bases, soldiers, weapons and vehicles. They even have artwork for villains Madame Hydra and Arnim Zola.

This is the first time I’ve caught wind that Madame Hydra could be in the film. It’s likely she’s just being thrown in similar to villains in the Iron Man 2 game. Yet I do believe Viper who one of the many Madame Hydras is owned by Fox because of her connections with Wolverine. So they could have used another character like Private Lorraine to fill in. DCMarvelFreshman over at ComicBookMovie helped correct me with the affiliation (Nazi/HYDRA) of Private Lorraine who is being played by Tudor’s actress Natalie Dormer. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Dormer become Madame Hydra.


Arnim Zola on the other is known to be in the film and is being played by Tobey Jones. I’m really hoping the artwork is being used for the film because they are very close to the comics. Beyond the coolness of the character design it looks practical enough that it wouldn’t look ridiculous on camera.