Ehm, I am blown away here. Have we heard this before?
ETA: Yes we have. I have been reliably informed by Servetus that this is actually old stuff and first surfaced on June 9, 2018. (Must have passed me by because I was on holiday then.) Sorry for the confusion!
Anyway, it is a screenshot from an article on a blog called geektyrant about the forthcoming Batman movie: Matt Reeves’ THE BATMAN Will Reportedly Start Shooting in November So Expect Casting News in a Few Months (News actually courtesy of Julia Koksharova on Twitter. Spassiba!)
Sources say that Armitage has already been fitted with the outfit and is currently working on the physicality of the creature
Now, that’s all very interesting. I have to say that I have always been massively against RA taking on any of the big comic book roles – Batman himself, Superman, even Bond – but a supervillain or baddie? Oh yes, I think that would be GREAT! I love the idea of this dapper looking Emperor penguin Armitage. Although it is really quite amusing that not only is Armitage typecast as a baddie, but also as a *small* creature 😂. Ok, so world’s tallest penguin then?
Ok, and while I am at it, here is also another piece of news – and it truly *is* from this evening: RA on what spies do in RL.
True, or is he being cheeky??? I love that giggly undertone… Good to see him laugh!
Guylty Pleasure 
That Matt Reeves thing is months old, not sure why it’s resurfacing now as new. In the general sense, have we heard this before? Yes, we have, and it went nowhere.
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Ooops – LOL – my enthusiasm got the better of me. I’ll make a note in the post. Thanks for letting me know!
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I honestly think now this was a red herring. I doubt Armitage would think of a role like this as a Ford Fiesta.
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😂
And I agree – there may occasionally be a touch of hubris there, but I don’t think he’d be that dismissive of a major role in a superhero franchise.
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Just checked. June 9, 2018, was when I ran across it, and it was a few days old by then.
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Ah – that explains why it was new to me – I was on holidays in June and I must have missed it. Thanks for finding the date. I’ll amend the post now.
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There’s a sense in which I feel like lately we’re often experiencing recycled news. I’m probably especially alert to it at the moment, because today for class I covered errors in making inductive inferences, but all this talk is based on one news article, with a value judgment made by one person who claimed to have seen the pictures.
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In the absence of real news, I think we are also grasping at straws. Or *I* am. Hence I didn’t even check the date on the geektyrant article.
But yeah, in the race for news reporting, there is also a tendency to jump to conclusions.
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Well, much of the fun of fandom is speculating about what ifs and over analyzing minute details that nobody else cares about. 😉
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Totally. (Although I am not even that keen on speculating. I sometimes engage in it, but usually feel either uncomfortable about it or I think it is just pointless and irrelevant.)
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I’m with you here — I don’t enjoy speculation at all. But there are evidentiary rules; it’s not like “anything goes,” even in speculation. Speculation is not the same thing as making up rumors out of whole cloth, which is what a lot of fans seem to do.
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That’s true. There is speculating – and there is rumor mongering.
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I don’t know what nefarious things you two are imagining, but I just meant something like “wouldn’t it be great if he played xx at some point” or “do you think he might make an appearance at blabla con” not idk, character assassination. 😉 Most fans engage in these kind of what-if scenarios from time to time, don’t they?
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Yes, they do. I don’t enjoy them, I rarely mention them, and I try to ignore them as much as possible. That said, we regularly have situations where people state something they have made up as fact. Two days ago someone told me that Armitage is going to be the next Wolverine. There’s not even a hint of a rumor that there will be a new Wolverine standalone movie. It was just someone shooting his mouth off. Which is fine, people are allowed to say what they please. But it’s one thing if there are actually data points, and another entirely if someone is trying to get other people to believe it. This whole Penguin thing is a good example. Somebody said somebody else saw a picture who thought the drawing looked like Richard Armitage. Now people who apparently can’t evaluate evidence are chatting about it like it’s a real thing. That’s their privilege, but IMO it’s irresponsible and frankly, wrong. However, as it’s not illegal and only mildly immoral to spread lies, I try to ignore it rather than going on the offensive.
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I clearly wasn’t talking about outright lies.
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But the status of this “rumor” is hardly above that of outright lie, or in any case, we have no reason to consider it more likely probable than an outright lie. Person B reports that person A saw something that he thought looked a certain way, and months someone else resurrects it. It’s a complete black box unless you know the people involved. There’s nothing to say that it isn’t someone lying to pull the fans’ chains, which happens a lot and not just in this fandom. Armitage does it, too, in his own way, and he has to be aware of how fans respond.
It’s one thing if a fan says “I wish Armitage would play ________” but another thing entirely if someone makes up evidence to support their point of view. This particular incidence is somewhere in between — a game of telephone that puts the source in obscurity. For some that will be the source of greater interest in the rumor; it’s one of the things I like least about fandom.
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Haha, not really nefarious. What I meant was – there is fun speculating where it is clear that people are dream-casting or creating what-if scenarios. And then there are speculations that have been dressed up as fact – and they feel as if they are deliberately misleading. I don’t really think that any of us have done that anywhere, and most of us are probably also quite aware of the difference between speculation and fact. To bring it back to this post itself – it’s unfortunate that I didn’t check the date of the article because I posted it here as news. But well, that’s a lesson learnt. (And I do not want to pull an Armitage on my post 😂)
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And that is exactly what I was talking about. I certainly don’t condone lies—big or small. But there’s no harm in a little dreaming/gushing about what might be. 😇
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Yes. Happy to engage in that.
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Other than fairly constant disappointment.
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Well, that’s up to each individual. I enjoy the fandom my way, others are free to do it their way. 🤷🏻♀️
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No harm at all , quite the contrary healthy and enlightening!!!!
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(in general, I feel like fandom is one solid practicum in dealing with problems in cognition)
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LOL – yep.
(And I am just reminded of my own rule that I actually wanted to stay away from news reporting 😂. Tonight’s a classic example…)
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Guylty, I like when you news report. I also like your commentary on Richarding. Look at the volume of comments and chatter/banter we engage in from those commentaries and reports!!
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Aw, sweet of you to say Michele. Well, I usually stay away from news because others tend to be faster in reporting. And because my Armitage memory is pretty poor, which means I do not automatically remember whether things are new, or how the news relate to other, earlier news items. So I leave the news to my fellow fans who have a better memory and are closer to the news than I am :-). Exceptions prove the rule, of course…
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Well what is news today anyway? That is a good thing to ponder to your readers, I mean who really knows what Richard is doing until he announces on his best friend Twitter. I think dreamcasting is fun and I think pondering what would be good roles for him is healthy. I certainly have gained a lot of knowledge from you all doing that and also there are new movies and miniseries to explore for me that I never would have before (ie Lost in Austen, Broadchurch, The Split)
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LOL – in times of drought, what else can we do, eh?
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Yep exactly and I think opening up a question or a blog post like this to your readers is fantastic. Just look at the type of responses you got with the OTP (I’m learning the lingo!!) Different perspectives and different ideas create banter and discussion and what’s wrong with that !
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Well, the OTP post was not speculation. There’s nothing controversial about that one. I am talking specifically about news items, i.e. new pieces of information about RA. Whether it be a role he has been cast in, a sighting, an appearance at an event, a review, an interview – anything that is a new fact and reported in the media in some shape or form. Ideally, before posting and discussing such news items, they should be (at least vaguely) checked whether they are worth reporting. But anyway, my blog has never been and will never be a news blog. I don’t think it has a particular focus at all, except to provide entertainment. There’s plenty of opportunity for discussion even when not reporting news 🙂
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OMG, he’s SO cute in that BS promo! (And yes, I would think it is true that spies do that.) You can defo hear the giggles about to spring out in his voice. I wonder exactly why this tickled him so much? Maybe because he has the same ambivalence about his own selfies as we do?
I know I’ve said this before but it has come up again for me recently so I will return to this positively useless soapbox: Why wasn’t RA cast as Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts franchise instead of Johnny Depp?! I have no knowledge that he was considered for the role or that he wanted it, but damn, he would have been perfect. Virtually all of the industry reviews (i.e. Variety, Hollywood Reporter, etc., as opposed to some rando), agree that casting Depp was a big mistake.
Yes, Depp is a great actor, but this role needed more than just another of his bizarre characterizations, esp with Jude Law cast as the young (HOT!) Dumbledore. We needed an actor who could out-hot Law and go toe-to-toe with him as far as both gravitas and charisma. And our beautiful man would have been so ideal that it makes me gnash my teeth in frustration. IMHO, it’s truly one of the most annoying casting mistakes of the past few years. The franchise certainly didn’t need someone of Depp’s star power in that role, and RA has exactly the right amount. He has plenty but would have not overwhelmed the role like Depp does and he could have sunk into it. Whereas now you just sit there thinking, “oh look, Johnny Depp is playing Grindelwald.” The *only* slight possible drawback is RA’s voice, which might (?) remind people too much of the beloved Alan Rickman as Professor Snape.
Oh, why am I so het up about this? Because I know the good it would have done RA’s career to be in another huge franchise? Because I KNOW for 100% sure that he would have loved the hell out of playing such a dynamic, conflicted, grandiose character? Because he would have created a truly memorable piece of work? Or maybe I’m just nuts and need to get back to work.
Anyway, off I go to think about a penguin with gloriously long legs. No, I mean, back to work. Hugs to all.
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Lolo I really understand your frustration. Time and time again parts come up that Armitage was made to play ( e.g. Poldark imo!, Matthew Claimont, Batman) roles in which he would have been remarkable and stamped a lasting impression. It seems such a waste that I gnash my teeth. I was so pleased when he was cast as Dolahyde, a distinctive adversary, and I would love for him to play the Penguin (and if so, that he keeps his height!).
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Thank you for the support. I honestly don’t know why this particular role bothers me so much. Maybe because I’m so deeply invested in the Potterverse, which of course was one of my main frames of reference for the book I wrote for kids about how to write their own fantasy fiction. But oh, you’re so right about Poldark!!
I’m so eager to watch RA as Dolly and am glad that Guylty selected Hannibal for our first community RAwatch. He just plays the hell out of conflicted, whether it be villain or hero or somewhere in between. It would be awesome if he could be the Penguin, a gloriously tall, gorgeous villain with complications to spare. Well, we fangirls live in hope of the next juicy role for our beautiful man. (And definitely in hope of one that will bare his assets.)
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LoLo the operative term being BARE his assets!!!
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That’s an interesting thought re. the reason for his giggling. Although I actually think that he has no problems with selfies at all. After all, they are his usual go-to when he tweets. So he obviously *likes* to take pictures of himself and share them online, otherwise he wouldn’t do it. Maybe then he giggles because he would *NEVER* try to avoid being in a selfie *hahaha*
As for RA as Grindelwald – well, I recently saw the second film in the Fantastic Beasts series. I had not watched the first one, and I must say I was slightly bored by the second film. Was there any proper story in it, actually? And am I the only one who thought that there wasn’t much story, and the little they had, they stretched as much as they could? In any case, I came out of it, scratching my head why everyone is raving about this series at all. I love Eddie Redmayne – a really fine actor – but Depp? Sorry, but I have never understood why he is such a star. I think his acting abilities are average at best. I am trying not to bring his RL persona into the evaluation, but I always find that there is too much Depp in his roles and too little of the actual character.
So yeah, even though it had never occurred to me when I watched the film, but now that you mention it: RA would’ve made a fantastic Grindelwald. And as you say, he’d also provide a much more attractive villain than this peroxide blonde, pasty baddie who looks like Depp. If the point of Grindelwald’s and Dumbledore’s dynamic as enemies is that they actually used to be lovers, then Depp doesn’t give me any sense of sexual attraction at all…
So no, you are not nuts at all. And it is fun to do these dreamcasts.
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LoLo I am not a Depp fan (sorry please don’t hate me) and not a HP fan either (gosh a double whammy) but if Richard got the penguin role or even Superman that would help his name recognition a lot. But is that what he wants? I mean he finally starts this long awaited production company hopefully to create some interesting and challenging projects (please not Bridget Cleary though) and maybe a big time movie like a super hero movie even as a villain (Danny DeVito was the last Penguin I remember from 1989 Keaton’s Batman) would go a long way toward achieving whatever goal he wants.. My question would be can he have the best of both worlds?
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Thanks for sharing the tweet!!
Would it kill them to use the goddamn hashtag THEY created??? How friggin’ hard can it be? 🤬
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Well, we have all commented on their inept marketing before, haven’t we? Damn, the money I could make if I turned to the dark side! I’d be so good at it!!
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Oh, I forgot to ask, what’s your theory on why this tickles him so much?
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Maybe somebody told him a joke or Mina said The Armitage to him which makes me giggle all the time now. Maybe he was in a good mood that day!!
Ah LoLo would be a great “RA in RL” episode!!!
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Amateur marketing. Either all of Epix is made by amateurs, or the lack of a proper marketing strategy shows how important they find their own show…
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No question — but that approach isn’t really applicable to the problem of (intentionally) false speculations that spread themselves beyond the boundaries of the individual. I don’t think we can deny that fans influence the fan experiences of other fans through their own choices and behaviors. No one who comments on a blog is fangirling in isolation.
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Thank heavens we don’t have to fangirl in isolation. It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. But deliberately spreading false information is unacceptable in the fandom or in RL. I don’t understand why fans do it. What’s in it for them?
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Wishful thinking? Kind of like a scared child in the cellar, singing loudly to keep the monsters at bay? Or hoping to create facts by throwing out rumours? I mean, I neither do that sort of thing nor do I like it, but I can see why it might look worth-while to some. And especially to small, niche websites who hope to garner clicks that way. Certainly worked with this particular piece of non-news…
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I have come to the conclusion that there are a lot of fans who really enjoy the whole surge of emotional ups and downs — i.e., not just the up, but also the experience of constantly changing emotions. I am not one of them, though, lol.
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Well I’m not quite sure what you mean by ups and downs, I mean he’s in a lull right now so does that mean a down? Many people here didn’t particular like BS 1or 2 with him which is fine but we can still chat about it and why does there always have to be an up? Life isn’t all ups, there are downs. One of the blessings for me from finding these blogs about him is that people can be open and honest and if they are down there are people here to comfort and advise them that they are not alone. I find that very appealing and honest. If someone (hmmm) doesn’t like Thornton then that is fine, down to earth and real conversation can come from that. I see nothing wrong at all with showing good and bad in things. He’s certainly got good and bad traits just like the rest of us..
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People can do what they want; I am not prescribing their behavior. Also I am talking about the fan experience, not about life in general. It seems clear after years of observing this fandom, however, that there are people who enjoy consuming rumors not only because the rumor creates euphoria, but also because the unmasking of the rumor creates a slide in mood. They enjoy the sadness over the failure of the role to materialize just as much as they enjoy the euphoria over the contemplation. I am not one of these people. I enjoy the euphoria over a great role, but I do not want to create situations for myself or others to be disappointed. I do not enjoy feeling sad that Armitage was yet again not cast in a role that someone was spreading rumors about.
It’s a bit like the periodic discussion over his relationships. Even though it was absolutely clear that Armitage was never in a romantic relationship with Samantha Colley and the rumor was probably generated by a bot in the first place, there were people who believed it, spread it, and enjoyed talking about it. Then when further evidence failed to materialize, they enjoyed the feelings they got while talking about his allegedly failed love life and how sad it must be for him to be alone. Everything they were talking about was false, and yet they enjoyed every feeling they got from the entire trajectory.
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Ok but where is this behavior happening is what I am confused about. Are you talking about Twitter? I mean here, your blog, Zees, Sues, Kate’s there are commenters who are respectful and engage in harmless chatter. I’m missing something… The past is the past. I mean if it was destructive and ill willed then it’s time to move on from that. Who cares if he was dating Colley or not? I mean let people chat and discuss here. This is an escape place, a safe place where we can say what we think. I think everybody here comes from a place of positivity so if the past was that bad be glad that those people have moved on. If it’s on Twitter then get off of Twitter or ignore it. You should be happy that commenters seek your blog out for info and want to engage with you on Richard’s stuff and other topics that you post. I find it refreshing to analyze movies and his selfies and books and potential production company names…
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I’m not letting, or not letting, people do anything. I’m commenting on a repeated phenomenon in the fandom, which is much bigger than what people say on our blogs, where discourse is very heavily selective and controlled. Surely the fact that i have an opinion doesn’t endanger anyone else’s. I, too, am discussing. As far as erasing the past — I’m a historian. The trajectory of things is important to me. I don’t demand that it be for anyone else; but neither are facts about the past irrelevant to what happens in the present.
As far as Colley, the point isn’t whether I care who dated him. The point was that you asked, what do you mean, people enjoy the downs, and I gave an example — the people who participated in that discussion (I saw it mostly on Twitter) enjoyed the feeling of sadness they got. I never said they shouldn’t talk about it, or enjoy the sadness — I simply said that they did, and remarked that i do not. So, please, don’t tell me how to feel about anything. Please don’t ever tell me how to feel about anything. I don’t believe that in any of this, I told anyone how they should feel. I have commented solely on what people have said, what I have observed, and my own reactions to it.
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Google search these days means the original rumour/misinformation never really disappears, a bit like a couple of very convincing photo manips out there which continue to be considered real. I’ve seen posts on Facebook and Tumblr within the last few months where someone (usually a newbie to the fandom but not always) either asks the question or gushes about RA being engaged to Samantha Colley, even though the rumour has been knocked on the head more times than I can remember by other fans.
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My post on the topic is edging up the list of most popular all-time posts and it was in the top ten most visited this year (even though I wrote it a year or two ago).
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Very valid point, Mezz – gone are the days where today’s news were tomorrow’s bin liners. It’s unfortunate that rumours take on longevity because of the internet.
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Which comment did this reply refer to, Serv?
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Sorry. Must’ve pushed the wrong button. Kate’s comment that everyone is free to fangirl as she wishes. Which sentiment I agree with generally, but not in the specific case of misinformation.
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Thanks for clarification.
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Dunkel war’s, der Mond schien helle,
schneebedeckt die grüne Flur,
als ein Wagen blitzesschnelle,
langsam um die Ecke fuhr.
Drinnen saßen stehend Leute,
schweigend ins Gespräch vertieft,
als ein totgeschoss’ner Hase
auf der Sandbank Schlittschuh lief.
Und ein blondgelockter Jüngling
mit kohlrabenschwarzem Haar
saß auf einer grünen Kiste,
die rot angestrichen war.
Neben ihm ’ne alte Schrulle,
zählte kaum erst sechzehn Jahr,
in der Hand ’ne Butterstulle,
die mit Schmalz bestrichen war.
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I am not sure what you’re saying here. That life is full of oxymorons? I guess you’ll have to explain.
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Ehm, completely OT, but I was just wondering whether WordPress has just changed its commentary outfit? Darker Prussian blue now as the menu background? And somehow the notifications thread looks different, too. Not as easy to see who is replying to whom. Or is it just me?
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WP.com was switching to a new editor called Gutenberg (I keep ignoring the messages), but I don’t see any visual differences here. I don’t use the reader, though.
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Hasn’t the Gutenberg thing been around for a while yet?
I am 100% sure that the reader has changed colour. And the notifications thread looks slightly different, too, in the way it shows who replied to whom.
Grah, I HATE having to get used to something new. I’m totally inflexible like that.
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I’m not sure about the timeline; I’m still using the editor previous to the current one, LOL. I love that interface, it does exactly what I want it to do. All these “improvements” are destructive to productivity.
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I couldn’t agree more. I am on the old editor, which I access via the “WP Admin” link. I have tried using the new editor on occasion, but I don’t find it more intuitive or better than the old one. Ah well.
I am sure now that the stats look different. They have definitely changed colour. The stats bars used to be sky blue and orange. Now they are Prussian blue and magenta.
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I’ve never tried adding a link before in one of my comments, so I’m not sure if this will work but thought this was a very interesting article about the future of Batman movies. Fangirl alert: It has absolutely nothing to do with RA, so read only if you are interested in the depiction of superheroes and how a book/comic/movie about a superhero can reflect the times in which it is created.
[P.S. I’m still in deadline hell. I’ve wangled another day but am existing on almost no sleep since…um…Tuesday morning…and doubt I’ll have time to sleep again until Friday night. Literally.]
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/batman-who-will-star-ben-affleck-exits-movie-1174178
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Link adding worked fine 🙂
And interesting – those characters are really timeless, and in away they are also blank canvasses, open to interpretation from directors and actors alike, as well as a reflection of contemporary society. And now let us imagine what an actor of RA’s capabilities could do with such a character… (And I’m not even arguing for RA to get the job as the next Batman. Imo he would be completely wasted on a role that demands he wears a mask for at least 50% of his screen time.)
Final meters in the deadline race, Lolo! Go on, you can do it. Eye on the prize: a weekend with lots of opportunity to watch RA in his many magnificent roles 😉 xx
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