If the folks at Marvel Studios love to do anything, it’s throw us (and by that we mean “the fans”, not just those of us who write on the Internet) a curveball in regards to what it has planned for future film events. No better was this demonstrated than in a seemingly random press event at the El Capitan in Los Angeles. During this event at the theater in Hollywood, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, along with friends such as Joss Whedon and the Russo Brothers shared some big Marvel movie news – and not necessarily the news we were expecting.
The event began with the previously released trailer to Avengers: Age of Ultron, which comes to theaters May 1st of next year.
Feige points out Whedon to the audience he is sitting among and mentions that he is hard at work at finishing up Phase Two. Feige also makes mention of Guardians of the Galaxy, thanking fans for making it a success while pointing out that it shows that they’re not only willing to support new and different projects – they want them. He then made mention to Ant-Man filming with Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and director Peyton Reed but “…we didn’t invite you here to tell you things you already know.”
““Here’s what you know about Phase 3,” Feige said regarding the list of Marvel Studio release dates without specific films attached to them, “You plant a lot of flags. You know you want to make a movie, but you’re not sure what the movie is, so you plant a flag on a weekend.” He also announced a subtitle for the next Captain America film – “Serpent Society” – which, and we’ll spoil for you right know, was horseshit. He also touched on the upcoming Doctor Strange, promising as of yet unseen visuals but stopping short of promising the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness, “Sherlock”) as the Sorcerer Supreme.
Stepping away temporarily from new properties, dates were confirmed for sequels to Guardians of the Galaxy – May 5, 2017 – as well as the next Thor movie – titled Thor: Ragnarok – for June 28 of the same year. Also confirmed was the return of Tom Hiddleston as Loki for the film.
Doctor Strange wasn’t the only new name tossed around for their his movie. Both Black Panther (the first black Marvel character since Blade – and the first black character in the current batch of Marvel Studios movies – to get his own film) and Captain Marvel (the first MCU film to revolve around a female hero) were both announced. Inhumans (another cosmic team along the lines of Guardians of the Galaxy) is also scheduled in 2018.
For those of you who weren’t buying that the next Captain America flick was going to be subtitled “Serpent Society”, give yourselves a pat on the back. The real subtitle is more or less what we were expecting:
Chadwick Boseman has made a name for himself recently in high profile biopics. In 2013, he portrayed the legendary Jackir Robinson in 42 and, this year, he played James Brown in Get On Up. He’s been cast by Marvel Studios to play Prince T’Challa of Wakanda in Black Panther. Mark Ruffalo has been signed to reprise his role of Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the upcoming Avengers films (wait for it), but at the moment, there’s no word on a stand-alone film for the character. Oh, and if you were waiting for news on if Marvel Studios and Sony had worked out an agreement regarding Spider-Man, well, no… no they haven’t.
Phase Three is scheduled to end with yet another adventure featuring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – this time split into two parts.
The subtitle, Infinity War, seems to be leading up to nearly everything fans have expected since Thanos made an appearance in a post-credits sequence during the first Avengers film. With the introduction of new heroes during Phase Three as well as those who are getting Netflix-exclusive shows (such as Daredevil) – not to mention whatever happens during Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (provided it doesn’t get canned), Infinity Wars could be the clusterf**** of epic proportions we’ve been waiting for. Considering that, until then, we have Civil War and whatever Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the rest of the decade should be a lot of fun.