Heroes Forever: The Stone of Death

Heroes Forever: The Stone of Death is an upcoming American superhero film directed by Gary Ross and distributed by Paramount Pictures. A sequel to Heroes Forever: The New Resolution, it will serve as the third installment in the Heroes Forever franchise, produced and written by Rita Christensen in her screenplay debut inspired by her book with the same title, as well as the 11th film in Rita Christensen's Superhero World, which begin a extended franchise starting with the Jane Hoop Elementary film series. The plot follows Devin and the gang attempts to stop Wolfman's new plan that he bares to succeed.

The film features and ensemble cast including Cameron Boyce, G Hannelius, Mika Abdalla, Marcus Scribner, Chloe Csengery, Jake Short, Greyson Chance and Jeremy Piven. Blake Brown, Amy Tammie, Ben Linkin, Brandon Simpson, Bloom Dee and Barbara Blue will all return in the film as well as some few cast members from the Jane Hoop Elementary films. Orlando Bloom, Andrew Garfield and Emma Watson will all be starring as the new characters in this film.

Filming took place around June 2017, and concluded on November 2017. The film will held it's world premiere in New York City on November 1, 2018, and is scheduled for a November 9, 2018 worldwide release in 2-D, 3-D and IMAX.

Premise
Following the events from the last film, Zayne Waters (Howard) has murdered his father Kirk Waters and now is dealing with revenge on Wolfman (Piven) for putting him under a spell and killing his father. Devin (Boyce), Brooke (Hannelius), Kurtis (Scribner), Erica (Abdalla), Kyle (Short) and now new member of the team Zayne are now will be facing to one of their most difficult challenges in their lives like they never had before. As they are graduating from high school and off to college, their friendship are fading, with Devin developing a romantic interest with Wolfman's daughter Katie, but also their enemy Wolfman and his gang are once again up to no good as they are now facing with their toughest challenge they will ever face.

The villains has once again chosen as their high school enemies as one of their sides that can lead to destroy the gang with Wolfman's daughter Kate joining the gang, as well as him discovering a new object, called the Stone of Death, that can bring back people from the dead as his idea on bringing Catwoman back from the dead. It is seen to be broken into three pieces, as the heroes' are all on a journey to stop Wolfman from finding the missing before it's too late, with their parents Danny (Brown), Rebecca (Tammie), Alec (Linkin), Cory (Simpson) and friend Jaquille (Dee) in charge during the gang's absences.

Cast

 * Cameron Boyce as Devin Gorden, Brooke's brother (son of Danny and Rebecca), a member of JHE and a leader of the team.
 * G Hannelius as Brooke Gorden, Devin's sister (daughter of Danny and Rebecca), a member of JHE. Her significant color is Pink.
 * Marcus Scribner as Kurtis Gutzwiller, Erica's brother (son of Alec and Naudia), a member of JHE. His significant color is Blue, who is Alec's replacement.
 * Mika Abdalla as Erica Gutzwiller, Kurtis's sister (daughter of Alec and Naudia), a member of JHE.
 * Noah Ryan Scott as Kyle Berning, Kayla's brother (son of Cory and Stephanie), Devin and Kurtis' best friend, and a member of JHE.
 * Leo Howard as Zayne Waters, a son of Melissa and deceased Kirk, a new member of JHE and Brooke's love interest.
 * Chloe Csengery as Kayla Berning, Kyle's sister (daughter of Cory and Stephanie), Brooke and Erica's best friend chosen as assistant for the heroes, and mentor of JHE.
 * Jon Hamm as |Mayor Don Kingston, The new mayor of Cincinnati and now owner of the superheroes Jane Hoop Elementary, following Mayor James Watson's death from the events of Turbo of Catland.
 * Amanda Peet as Lisa Kingston, Don's new wife, and secretary of Jane Hoop Elementary, replacement for Mrs. Bella Watson after her retirement, after the murder of his other wife.
 * Jeremy Piven as Joseph White / Wolfman, Catwoman's brother who seeks on revenge on destroying the original heroes' children. He is happen to be mentally ill, and is in prison for quite some time for murder.
 * Blake Brown as Danny Gorden, Devin and Brooke's father, who is a retired original member of Jane Hoop Elementary known as the leader, but now a SWAT assistance of JHE.
 * Amy Tammie as Rebecca Gorden, Danny's wife, Devin and Brooke's mother, who is a retired original member of Jane Hoop Elementary, but now a co-assistance of JHE.
 * Ben Linkin as Alec Gutzwiller, Danny and Rebecca's brother-in-law, father of Erica and Kurtis, who is a retired original member of Jane Hoop Elementary, who is now a SWAT assistance of JHE.
 * Lisa Black as Alice Kingston, Don's daughter, as well as Alice's new step mom after her mom's murder, who is currently in college and engaged to Hunter.
 * Greyson Chance as Hunter Suggs, Alice's fiancé, who attends same college Alice attends.
 * Heather Graham as Chloe White / Miss Mysterious, wife of Joseph. She supports him on wanting to destroy the original heroes, who will be absent for the film, on killing her husband's sister Catwoman.
 * Chris O'Donnell as Mark O'Neil / Spyman, Joseph's best friend, who supports him on wanting revenge on the new heroes' parents, who killed Joseph's sister.
 * Mackenzie Foy as Katlyn "Kate" White, daughter of Joseph (Wolfman) and Chole (Mysterious), who went missing, and Devin's love interest.
 * Barbara Blue as Naudia Gutzwiller, Alec's wife, Danny's cousin, Rebecca's sister-in-law, mother of Kurtis and Erica, who is a retired original member of Jane Hoop Elementary, and now co-assistance of JHE.
 * Brandon Simpson as Cory Berning, the original heroes' good friend, Kayla and Kyle's father, who is a retired original Jane Hoop Elementary member, and SWAT member for JHE.
 * Bloom Dee as Jaquille Short, the original heroes' good friend, who is a retired original Jane Hoop Elementary member, and SWAT member of JHE.
 * Anna Johnson as Stephanie Berning, the original heroes' friend, Cory's wife, Kayla and Kyle's mother, who is a retired original Jane Hoop Elementary member.
 * Dakota Fanning as Melissa Waters, Zayne's mother.
 * Kiersey Clemons as Tanya Williams, Jaquille's girlfriend.
 * Aramis Knight as Butch, a high school bully who still a enemy to Devin and his team, which lead to jealousy on becoming superheroes.
 * Kwesi Boakye as Leonard, Butch's best friend, who supports him on picking on Devin, and sometimes his siblings and friends.
 * Amanda Pace as Sarah, Rachel's twin sister and Butch's girlfriend, who is still a enemy Brooke, and jealous of her being a superhero.
 * Rachel Pace as Rachel, Sarah's twin sister, girlfriend of Leonard, who supports her for picking on Brooke.
 * Bea Miller as Sarah Baxton, a beautiful girl who attends high school with Devin. He has a huge crush on her, and she possibly is in love with him back.
 * Emma Watson as Cera, daughter of Dacia and a new owner of Morphin the Power. It is revealed that Dacia has died and replaced her as owner of the land.
 * Orlando Bloom as Issac, a warrior and older brother of Elijah. He is revenant from the Stone of Death, a powerful object that brings people back from the dead. He also joins Cera as defender of Morphin the Power following the death of her mother Dacia.
 * Andrew Garfield as Elijah, a warior and younger brother of Issac. He is revenant from the Stone of Death, a powerful object that brings people back from the dead. Him, alongside his broher, helped their friend Cera as they defend Morphin the Power following the death of her mother Dacia.
 * Logan Lerman as Kirk Waters, a deceased father of Zayne and deceased husband of Melissa.
 * Brooke Timer as Salma White / Dr. Catwoman, Wolfman's deceased sister and the original heroes' enemy.

Development
A spin-off series was confirmed secrectly by Christensen on June 2014 to be in the works. She admits that the series will be based on her own spin-off book, Heroes Forever: The New Beginning. It was confirmed that the spin-off will be a trilogy. Film distributor Paramount Pictures dated the first film to be released on November 11, 2016. This film has confirmed a November 10, 2017 release date, and third and final for November 9, 2018. The series will be more of a sequel/spin-off series from the Jane Hoop Elementary film series.

The franchise will be based on the series spin-off, Jane Hoop Elementary: The New Heroes taking place about ten years after the events from Jane Hoop Elementary: The Final Rush - Part 2, focusing on teenagers, who happen to be children of the original superheroes before they were born, defending the world. It was revealed that the enemy will be the brother of late sister Dr. Catwoman, the original heroes' enemy, who is trying to kill the heroes as to take revenge for the heroes who retired by destroying their kids.

Producers of the original film series, Derek Todd and Drake Jones both decided to come back and work on Christensen's project. Jones admits "Rita's plans is completely brilliant". Christen also got involved being producer for the film, making it the debut of working for films. Gary Ross, who directs the last four Hoop films, confirms that he will be directing the film.

Pre-production
The original cast members from the first film will all reprise their roles as the Jane Hoop Elementary superheroes. Boyce (Devon), Hannelius (Brooke), Scribner (Kurtis), Abdalla (Erica) and Scott (Kyle) will all reprise their roles, respectively. Dakota Fanning is cast as Melissa Waters, a wife of Kirk Waters. Fanning had a role in the previous film, but her role will be bigger in this film. Christensen completed the scripts for the third film and now is pushing filming to begin in mid June.

It was confirmed in June 2017 that Christensen will be adding new characters in the third film, which they appeared in the Heroes Forever: The New Beginning book, but they never make an appearance in the films. Christensen reveals that none of the characters appeared in the first Heroes Forever film, and may not be appearing in the second film, but will make an appearance in the third film. In October 2017, Orlando Bloom was cast to star in the film as a new character, and Andrew Garfield is cast to portray as Bloom's character's younger brother.

Filming
Filming for the film took place on June 30, 2017, with production heading to Cincinnati, Ohio, like it was previous took place for the first two Heroes Forever films. Filming concluded on November 15, 2017.

Music
John Williams, who scored the first two films, announced that he will be back to record songs for Heroes Forever: The Stone of Death. It will be released on November 9, 2018, the same day as the film's theatrical release.

Release
Heroes Forever: The Stone of Death will be released nationwide on November 9, 2018 one year after the release of Heroes Forever: The New Resolution. Like the first two films, it will also have a IMAX release, as well as 3-D, becoming the second film after The New Resolution for a 3-D release. On November 1, 2018, a week before the film's release, the film will held it's world premiere in New York City. Tickets for the film went on sale starting on October 19, 2018, three weeks before the film's theatrical release. From November 1 to November 7, all of the Jane Hoop Elementary films will premiere for a special Superhero World Event including the first two Heroes Forever films before the Thursday night premiere of the film on November 8.

Marketing
The film's 40 second teaser was released during the Thursday night showings of Justice League. The film's first teaser was released on February 2018. The second trailer was released during the premieres of Mission: Impossible - Fallout and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Titans_Go!_To_the_Movies ''Teen Titans Go! To the Movies''] on July 27, 2018. It is later released online a day later. The film's new poster is released on August 4, 2018. On October 4, 2018, the final trailer for the film was released and also screened during the premiere of Venom the following day. The film's theatrical poster is released on October 11, 2018.

Critical reception
Before it's release, Heroes Forever: The Stone of Death is ranked as the second most anticipated film of fall 2018 just behind Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald. It also is ranked as one of 2018's most anticipated film ever.

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Heroes Forever: The Stone of Death has an approval 100% based on 75 reviews with a rating of 9.5/10. Meatacritic gave the film a approval 86 percent out of 100 percent based on 51 reviews, generating a "favorable reviews". IGN gave the film a good 9.5/10 score praising it "more fun, but darker tone, but still even better than the first two movies."

Top Critics scored the film 97%, based on 27 reviews, giving it a positive feedback. It also scored 69 from Materic, and scored a A- from Yahoo! Movie based of 10 reviews from critics. CinemaScore score the film a A on the A+ to F chart, making it the fourth film in the Jane Hoop Elementary universe that can score that grade on the chart.

Many critics are separated between mixed and positive. Some say that this film is "brings back more exciting adventures". Critic Robert Crawford praises a mixed review stating: "a must seen movie all children and teens are dying to see even better than the first movie", and also "but for a movie that is PG-13 seems to be in the middle on being too dark for children or not as bad for children, but must be with at least a parent."

Other critics also praised on the actors' performances and the characters. Joey Grace of The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars.

Movie critic Jonathan Ferrall gave it a positive review praising: "more mind blowing than the first, and a nice return of our favorite colors, that brings you into the new generation of the superhero world of five young children becoming superheroes." Alyssa Thomas score the film a A+ praising it "probably the next most anticipated movie in my book, even more interesting than Heroes Forever: The New Resolution."

Kevin Smith of The Guardian ranked the film a positive 4.0/5 stars and calling the film "fun and fulfilled with spectacular excitement". Robert Buckley of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a a positive review: "Devin is becoming more like his father everyday. Bravely and courage, it is all that matters that "braveness and courageous" makes it fell like we are coming back home so many years since we first saw Danny and the gang on the big screen."

Box office projections
Heroes Forever: The Stone of Death will be released alongside The Grinch, The Girl in the Spider's Web and Overload and is projected to gross around $90 million to $100 million in its opening weekend.

Sequels
On October 29, 2016, Paramount Pictures scheduled the release date for the fourth film for November 22, 2019 and the fifth and final film for November 13, 2020. After completing the script for the third film, she is already working on writing a script for the fourth film, and has ideas for the fifth and final film. The fourth film is scheduled to begin filming around the summer of 2018, and will most likely to be finished by spring or summer of 2019. Filming took place on June 8, 2018.

On January 2018, it was announced that the fourth film will be the last one by splitting it into two parts; scheduling Part 1 to be released on November 22, 2019 and Part 2 on November 13, 2020.