Phoenix Force Five.

The cast for Order of the Phoenix is announced, with Helen McCrory as Bellatrix Lestrange, Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks, Kathryn Hunter as Mrs. Figg, and newcomer Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood. (Previously announced were George Harris and Imelda Staunton.) I have no sense of any of these actors, but they all seem to look the part.

Being Kingsley.

Joining Imelda Staunton for Year 5 at Hogwarts, veteran actor George Harris will play Kingsley Shacklebolt in the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (set to begin filming next month.) You may recognize him as Capt. Katanga in Raiders of the Lost Ark, or, more recently, as Morty in Layer Cake.

The Night Gwen Stacy…Returned?

Curiouser and curiouser…The Village‘s Bryce Dallas Howard joins Spiderman 3 as none other than Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker’s doomed childhood sweetheart. I find this somewhat strange, since they’d basically turned Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson into Gwen Stacy in the first film (#6). (Plus, they’ve switched hair-colors, but ah well.)

A Doctor in the House.

Program the Tardis and the TiVos: The Doctor Who revival will finally come to American shores this March, when the Sci-Fi Channel begins airing Season One. (Via Triptych Cryptic.) I guess this means I’ll have to give up the Sci-Fi boycott, but, then again, I guess I gave it up in principle when I bought the first season of the new Battlestar Galactica last weekend.

The Libertine (of Gotham).

And another spate of Batman casting rumors. This time ’round it’s Johnny Depp as the Joker and Rachel Weisz as Talia (Liam Neeson/Ras Al Ghul’s daughter.) With the Penguin (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Harvey Dent/Two-Face (Liev Schrieber) also purportedly in the mix, it sounds like something’s got to give.

Howlin’ Mad Murdock.

“There’s no going back. From that moment on, the series’ hero is in a morally untenable situation, and everything he does makes things worse. The only thing Murdock can do is to start lying, and make all of his allies lie for him, too…The second half of the Bendis-Maleev run fills in the gaps of the missing year bit by bit, and suggests what happens when a hero chooses to rule in hell (or its kitchen) rather than serve in heaven.” Salon‘s Douglas Wolk sings the praises of Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev’s work on Daredevil.