Henry thought for a moment. "Clark. Superman has enormous presence because of what he can do. Clark still has to walk into a room, talk to people, feel uncertain, care about his family, and live with abilities nobody around him can really understand."
Another fan called out, "How powerful is he?"
Henry smiled toward Zack.
Zack leaned into his microphone. "Powerful enough."
The crowd groaned.
Alex laughed. "That answer was worse than mine."
Zack shrugged. "I learned from you."
A journalist asked whether Man of Steel happened before or after Supergirl.
Alex answered that one directly. "At roughly the same time. The events overlap."
That immediately generated another question.
"Does Kara appear?"
Henry looked toward Alex. Alex looked toward Zack. Zack looked toward Henry.
Henry finally laughed. "Looks like nobody wants this question."
Alex smiled. "Moving on."
Angelina Jolie was asked what attracted her to Wonder Woman after Maleficent.
"Diana has strength without losing compassion," Angelina replied. "She can enter a battlefield and become the most dangerous person there while still caring deeply about the people around her."
"How physically demanding has Gods & Wonders been?"
Angelina laughed softly. "Enough that I've discovered muscles I wasn't aware existed."
Alex smiled toward her. "She's doing incredibly well."
The reporter followed up by mentioning the Golden Eagle Armor footage.
"Is the whole series really operating at that scale?"
Angelina glanced toward Alex before answering. "That scene isn't even the largest thing we've discussed."
The audience responded instantly.
Alex raised his microphone. "And that's exactly why actors aren't supposed to answer certain questions."
Angelina smiled innocently. "I didn't reveal anything."
"You revealed enough to create six months of theories."
The next questions went to Scarlett Johansson and Alien 2.
"The first Alien was intensely claustrophobic. How do you go bigger without losing that fear?"
Scarlett leaned forward. "By remembering that bigger environments don't make the creature less dangerous. Ripley understands more this time, but understanding something doesn't automatically mean you can survive it."
A journalist mentioned rumors that the sequel would explore Xenomorph biology.
Scarlett smiled carefully. "I'm allowed to confirm that we learn more."
"Different kinds of Xenomorphs?"
"I enjoy having a career, so I'm stopping there."
Alex laughed from farther down the row.
Another reporter asked how much more physically demanding the sequel had become.
"A lot," Scarlett admitted. "Ripley is more prepared now, so she moves differently. She isn't spending the entire movie learning that something impossible exists. She knows exactly what those things can do, which means the fear comes from knowing what happens if she makes one mistake."
Evangeline Lilly was asked whether she had already seen Smaug.
She immediately grinned. "Yes."
The room erupted.
"What does he look like?"
"No idea. Kinda forgot... I got a bad memory."
The audience laughed.
"How much bigger is the second Hobbit movie?"
"Much bigger," Evangeline replied. "Peter has expanded almost everything, including the environments, the danger, and the scale. The first movie still feels like part of the same journey, but you can feel the world becoming more dangerous as everybody gets closer."
Eventually, the microphones returned to Alex.
"You created Star Wars as a novel years ago. Why wait this long to make the film?"
"Technology," Alex replied. "There were limitations when the book came out. I could've made a version of Star Wars years ago, but it wouldn't have been the version in my head. We've developed technologies now that make the scale much easier to achieve."
"Are you directing?"
"Yes."
That alone earned cheers.
"Has casting started?"
"No."
"Will it follow the first novel exactly?"
Alex shook his head. "No. The movie will be bigger and better. Books and films communicate differently, and I'm not going to pretend copying every page automatically creates the strongest adaptation."
"How many Star Wars movies are you planning?"
Alex shrugged. "Six to ten. Who knows?"
Robert leaned toward him. "That's an alarmingly large range."
Alex glanced over. "You're one to talk after agreeing to fifteen."
Robert laughed. "I walked into that one."
Resident Evil followed quickly.
"We seen from Titan's official page that Resident Evil is going to be a franchise. You've never built a proper zombie franchise. Why start now?"
"Because I like the concept," Alex replied. "Umbrella gives us more than zombies. You've got corporate secrecy, biological experimentation, containment failure, survival, mystery, and people realizing the disaster they're trapped inside is only one part of something much larger."
"Straight horror or action?"
"The first movie leans horror. If the universe grows, the action can grow with it."
The Q&A was about Megan Fox and Richard Castle. They talked about how their show became more popular than they expected during season 1. They also discussed the growth of the character Nikki Heat, who changed from a rookie to a professional. Megan mentioned that she does her own stunts for the series. She loves the physical demands of her role because it lets her give her all.
The final portion of the Q&A became increasingly chaotic once a journalist asked how many actors had auditioned for completely different roles.
Several hands went up across the stage.
Jensen immediately raised his.
Mary Elizabeth lifted hers halfway.
A few others laughed and pointed at one another.
Joe Russo took the microphone. "Casting this movie became dangerous because every time somebody gave us a good audition, we started wondering whether they belonged somewhere else."
"Who was most surprised by the role they got?"
Anthony pointed directly toward Jensen.
Jensen nodded. "Absolutely me."
"Did anybody audition for a tiny role and become a lead?"
Joe gestured toward Jensen again.
The audience laughed.
Jensen raised both hands. "Yep. I'm the answer to this entire section."
A fan asked the next question.
"Would you let one of these directors kill one of your most popular heroes?"
Several actors immediately turned toward Alex.
Robert raised his eyebrows.
Henry looked amused.
Jensen looked toward the Russos with sudden suspicion.
Alex noticed everybody watching him and laughed.
"If the story earns it, absolutely."
Robert leaned slowly toward his microphone. "I suddenly dislike how quickly you answered that."
The audience roared.
Alex laughed and put one hand on Robert's shoulder. "Relax. We've got fifteen movies to survive first."
"Good save."
The final journalist stood near the back.
"With Titan's budgets, actors, technology, marketing, and fanbase, can one of your superhero movies actually fail anymore?"
Alex sat back and thought about the question for several seconds.
Then he smiled.
"Oh, anything can fail. Spending more money just gives you a more expensive way to embarrass yourself."
Robert immediately started laughing beside him while Zack nodded approvingly from across the stage.
Joe leaned toward Anthony and said something that made both brothers laugh as well.
The auditorium erupted into applause.
Alex looked down the enormous row of actors and filmmakers surrounding him. Robert and Rachel were still talking quietly beside him. Don was laughing at something Jeff Bridges had said. Jensen had turned toward Joe and Anthony, while Patrick and Ian continued their own conversation. Henry and Zack were watching the crowd, and Angelina, Scarlett, Halle, and Evangeline were waving toward different sections of the audience.
None of those characters existed on film a few years earlier.
Now thousands of people were arguing over who should play Batman, wondering whether Wolverine would receive another movie, debating how powerful Superman might be, and waiting impatiently to see Tony Stark put on red-and-gold armor.
Alex stood and raised his microphone one final time.
"Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you for caring enough about these stories to interrogate us for this long, and please remember that everybody you just questioned has contracts preventing them from answering half the things you're yelling."
The cast laughed while another round of questions immediately came from the audience anyway.
Robert stood beside him and looked across the shouting fans. "You realize they're completely ignoring that request."
"I know. That's why I like them," Alex said.
The Titan logo appeared across the enormous screen behind the stage as the auditorium lights gradually brightened, ending the formal presentation while actors and directors remained behind for photographs and shorter interviews.
For Titan, the evening had been an announcement event.
For everyone watching, it felt more like the beginning of an entirely new era of movies.
--
--[POWERSTONES & REVIEWS]--
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