On tonight’s Movie News After Dark, we start with a few words on the Netflix Streampocalypse that will undoubtedly be wreaking havoc on your life, then move on to this week’s big stories: Iron Man, Marvel, Iron Man, Marvel, Thai Iron Man.

We begin this evening’s Movie News After Dark shenanigans with Captain America stepping into the world of S.H.I.E.L.D for his tour in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It continues with plenty of movie chat, including great baseball flicks, Scary Movie 2, walking out of the theater and Vin Diesel driving a radio-controlled car. Or as we call it around here, just another Tuesday night.

If you haven’t had your coffee yet, now’s a good time to take it ocularly. For the most part, this Phase Two featurette from Marvel (via Superhero Hype) is a keen look into the world of Iron Man 3 with an eye to how they’re deepening the well while returning to it in order to make Tony Stark a richer character post-Avengers. The cast and crew, alongside Marvel head Kevin Feige, weigh in on how this trilogy entry is also a piece of a much larger puzzle. Then, they show some of the other pieces. The briefest of footage from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World is joined by test footage from Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man, concept footage from Guardians of the Galaxy and a few comments from the filmmakers. At any rate, let’s stop pretending that you’re reading this and get to the video:

What is Casting Couch? It’s obsessed with the future, and never dwells in the past. Who cares about what these actors have accomplished already, what are they going to be doing next? Today we have some real news along with some anonymous speculation about who could be the new Snake Plissken. Today’s big news concerns a major casting for Marvel’s upcoming star-spangled sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The Latino Review is reporting that UFC Champion and French-Canadian fellow, Georges St-Pierre, is going to be stepping out of the octagon and onto a movie set to play one of Cap’s villains. The obvious joke here, since St-Pierre is pseudo-French and a fighter, is that he would be playing super-lame Cap villain, Batroc the Leaper, whose only real powers are that he likes to do jump kicks and he’s got a French accent so strong that it triggers his gag reflex, but obviously a film version of Captain America would never…wait…he actually is going to be playing Batroc the Leaper? Oh, man. He grows the pencil-thin mustache or we riot.

What is Casting Couch? It’s a roundup of all the day’s most important casting news. Today we have a bunch of legit reports, and one of those dreaded short-lists. It’s a short-list concerning that much talked about Natalie Portman movie, Jane Got a Gun though, so it’s kind of a pressing matter. It looks like Captain America may be trading in his sidekick Bucky in order to team up with The Sundance Kid. Deadline is reporting that Robert Redford, the patron saint of independent cinema, is making a surprise move and negotiating to join the cast of Marvel’s very commercial superhero sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If he officially signs, he’ll reportedly be playing a high-ranking member of SHIELD, that government agency run by Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in all of the Marvel movies. I wonder if he gets his own flying aircraft carrier? If he does, that could be the thing that seals the deal.

Marvel and Joe Johnston did an incredible job with Captain America, making a fun film with a main character that eventually acted as a counterpoint to Tony Stark in The Avengers. Fingers should be crossed that they can manage the same kind of entertainment with The Winter Soldier, but it’s encouraging to see Marvel chief Kevin Feige talk about the movie in terms beyond the overused Superhero Action genre. In a conversation with Variety, he hinted that action won’t be the primary focus. Instead, the sequel will play out more like, say, House of Cards. “There’s an opportunity to graft almost sub-genres onto them. Our first Captain America film was a World War II picture, and the next is a political thriller. They all have their own textures and patinas, and that’s what is exciting about it.” Of course, if the first one was a WWII flick, it certainly had plenty of action to it as a result. A political thriller doesn’t immediately bring action to mind, but it might be a welcome ingredient. Think Captain America by way of The French Connection. Yes, it sounds awesome, and so does this news. Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be in theaters April 4, 2014.

What is Casting Couch? It’s a thing on the Internet that’s primarily concerned with which actors are going to be in what movies. Today it includes news regarding attractive folk like Colin Farrell and Lily Collins. For the last decade or so, Johnny Depp has largely been occupied with wearing makeup and putting on silly wigs, but once upon a time he used to play actual human beings in movies like Donnie Brasco and whatnot, and while it didn’t afford him the opportunity to use nearly as many crazy voices, things weren’t so bad. Things were so decent, in fact, that Cross Creek Pictures has announced [via ComingSoon] that they’ve cast Depp in another gangster story that’s based on real life events, just for old times’ sake. Depp will be playing infamous Boston gangster Whitey Bulger in director Barry Levinson’s (Toys, Jimmy Hollywood) new film Black Mass. Bulger, for the uninitiated, was a gangster who informed for and was later double-crossed by the FBI. Those cads.

What is Casting Couch? Currently its a column that reports on casting news, but it’s thinking about getting into directing. The last time we saw Toby Jones’ Captain America character, Dr. Arnim Zola, he was in captivity and giving up the goods on all of his boss, the Red Skull’s, super-secret plans. Fans of the comics know that Zola isn’t just some anonymous patsy who’s going to fade into the background, however. Mad scientists don’t go out like that. Instead, Zola has his mind put into a weird robot body that projects his face on his tummy and he continues to give Cap problems down through the ages. That’s in the comics. But now we’ve gotten some indication that we might be seeing some of this stuff play out in the upcoming Captain America movies as well. When giving an interview to Hey U Guys, Jones confirmed that he will indeed be returning for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though whether it will just be through flashbacks to the 40s or if we’re going to see him as his present-day tummy robot isn’t yet clear. You gotta root for tummy robot though, right?

As if the casting situation regarding the lead role for James Gunn’s upcoming Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, needed to get even more heated, today brings news that yet another candidate has been reading for the lead role of Peter Quill: AKA the half-human, half-alien intergalactic cop called Star-Lord. Michael Rosenbaum, who’s no stranger to the comic book world given his many years playing Lex Luthor on TV’s Smallville, recently took to his Twitter account to inform his followers that, “Read for my pal @JamesGunn GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY for PETER QUILL. What a treat! Thanks Jimmy. @Marvel.” If you can’t read Twitterspeak, that means Rosenbaum now joins Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zachary Levi, and Jim Sturgess in the stable of actors we’ve heard are up for the role.

What is Casting Couch? Today it’s the way to get news regarding all of those upcoming super hero sequels. Tomorrow it might be something else. Though we’ve still yet to have the pleasure of taking in the first two installments of Marvel’s super hero movie Phase II, Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is already coming up in 2014, so it’s probably about time we started hearing some casting news. And, wouldn’t you know it, Variety brings us just that. Not only has the trade revealed that End of Watch, The Grey, and Warrior star Frank Grillo will be joining the cast as the Red Skull’s brutal henchman Crossbones, but they also have news that some familiar SHIELD faces from The Avengers will be showing back up in Cap’s second solo adventure. More specifically, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, Cobie Smulders’ Agent Maria Hill, and Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff will all be coming back. You remember them, right?

So, what are you guys doing on, oh, say November 6, 2015? Not booked yet? Your iCal is empty? Your day planner doesn’t go up that far? Well, we’ve got plans for you now. In one of the most innocuous press releases ever crafted, Disney has today sent around a listing of some new and updated release dates for some of their most anticipated features, sandwiching in Edgar Wright‘s Ant-Man release date (yup, it’s that November 2015 one listed above) between stuff like like “Disney Animation Untitled” and “Pixar Animation Untitled.” Oh, and also? Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World will both be in 3D. Dimensions and money and stuff! After the break, check out the full listing of new and updated dates for ten new Disney features (including, admittedly, some details we’ve long known). And, never fear, you’ll also soon learn the release date of that Phineas and Ferb feature we’ve all been dying for.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that isn’t so political. Unless you consider watching the Presidential Debate and imagining the candidates as Muppets to be political… We begin this evening with the nation’s top story — no, not Saturday Night Live — the Presidential Debate. That will undoubtedly be the reason why tonight’s column is coming in late. And because I love hyperbole, I’m not only watching the debate, but also reading Andrew Sullivan having an aneurism and watching CNN’s talking heads go crazy. Also, someone said Lincoln. That movie is out in November. But enough politics, lets do the movie news…

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly column about movies that may or may not be skimming the good stuff off the top of tonight’s news sundae because it needs to go get caught up on Breaking Bad. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty happening… We begin this evening with an image of Forest Whitaker as Eugene Allen in The Butler. The Lee Daniels directed film focuses on the long-time White House servant and will also star the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, John Cusack and Alan Rickman.

Those with comic book reading experience can tell you that Marvel’s recent announcement that Captain America 2 will be released under the title Captain America: The Winter Soldier points to the fact that the bulk of the film will be concerning a Russian secret agent who has ties to Cap’s World War II past. And yet, a new report coming out of THR seems to prove that secret Cold War projects aren’t the only ground this sequel is going to be covering. According to the trade,  the prolific and under-appreciated Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker, Gangster Squad) is currently in negotiations to join directors Joe and Anthony Russo’s film as the character of Sam “Snap” Wilson, A.K.A. The Falcon. This is noteworthy news because – holy crap – the Falcon is going to be in a movie! For those that need a little background, the Falcon – who debuted in Marvel Comics in 1969 as their first African-American superhero – is best known as being an associate of Captain America, but he’s also an accomplished hero and a card-carrying Avenger in his own right. Growing up in a tough part of Harlem, Sam Wilson watched both of his parents’ lives get claimed by street crime as he was growing up. He tried to fight back against said violence by being a community volunteer early in his life, but eventually his anger over his upbringing allowed the all consuming criminal culture to corrupt his soul, and he briefly took a job

The above image shows off Tony Stark’s latest creation, the Mark VII (I think that’s what we’re on) Iron Man armor that will be seen in use for the upcoming Marvel Studios film Iron Man 3. In the wee hours of the Comic-Con morning, it was unveiled at Marvel’s booth, where Stark’s Hall of Armor has been standing guard all weekend. Later in the day, the likes of director Shane Black, producer Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. took the stage to show off the first footage from their movie. They also brought Marvel’s Kevin Feige along with some other special announcements up his sleeve.