The Future of Marvels Cinematic Universe post-Avengers

With the worlds first ever superhero crossover movie event -The Avengers - set to release tonight here in India (special midnight premier screening, don't bother we tried and it's sold out!), everyone is already talking about future marvel projects

The current line-up for Marvel Studios post avengers are as follows:

Iron Man 3 on May 3rd, 2013

Thor 2 on November 15th, 2013

Captain America 2 on April 4th 2014

Unnamed Marvel movie on May 16th 2014

The only spot left for Marvel Studios is May 16^th 2014 so it would be interesting to see what is more to come up. It may be possible that they go with Incredible Hulk 2 as he is really stealing the spotlight in trailers and other clips.

There are other films in development at Marvel Studios as well - Dr Strange, Luke Cage/Heroes for Hire, Black Panther and of course Edgar Write being firmly attached to an Ant Man movie. Word came out on various websites that Marvel and Disney may go with three films a year, with a two of them releasing in summer and one releasing in the fall. Thor 2’s date was pushed forward because of the same reason and if the experiment is successful they can go ahead with three films per year.

Now let’s talk about the confirmed movies and speculation/rumours

Iron Man 3 (May 3^rd 2013)

The Mandarin!!

Right now not much is clear about rest of the cast of for the film apart from the star – Robert Downey Jr, Mr. Tony Stark himself – and Ben Kingsley confirmed as an unnamed villain. Fans are seriously demanding to see Iron Man’s arch nemesis, the Mandarin in the three-quel and after being teased about “Ten Rings” for 2 films, it would be time to meet the Mandarin at this point. When Jon Favreau left and Shane Black was attached to the project, he said that Mandarin was a racist caricature. But while he called the character a racist creation, he never said that we may or may not see a less racist version of the Mandarin in the film.

Now you see him...

Black also seemed interested in keeping Ghost (currently in the Thunderbolts comic series) as one of the villains in the film. To those who have watched the Iron Man - Armoured Adventures animated series, Ghost is an industrial villain who sabotages corporations and steals secrets from them through computer technology, unlike the previous armoured and action/fighting oriented Iron Man villains. A storyline involving the Simon Williams/Wonder-man saga also surfaced sometimes back, but it was never confirmed or debunked. Simon Williams was a rival industrialist who was kind of destroyed by Stark Industries. Simon swore revenge on Tony Stark and went under an experiment that changed him into a being of pure ionic energy.

If an Ant Man film is scheduled then it’s possible that this rumour be true because Ultron created Vision based on Wonder Man’s mind. Vision is also a fan favourite and likely to be introduced sooner or later.

Later, the rumour surfaced that the Iron Man 3 movie storyline would be based on the popular and critically-acclaimed Extremis storyline. Extremis is one of the most acclaimed storyline's from the Iron Man books and it seems that the idea is planted in Stark’s head during Avengers. The Extremis Armour was made up of Nanobots, while the primary villain was a character named Mallen. The Mandarin was later involved in it when he tried to unleashed a virus to reshape the human race. Plus it does mean that The Avengers will directly lead into Iron Man 3, in keeping with the ongoing style of how one Marvel movie leads into later.

The news about Ben Kingsley being in talks to play a villain in the film surfaced recently and he may play another version of Mandarin or someone else entirely - we don’t know, but he is a good casting choice by Studios.

Thor 2 (November 15^th 2013)

The Lion of Olympus!

It is being marketed as a part of the release time-table experimentation by Disney and Marvel Studios, but for now a potential release is slated for next fall. Alan Taylor of Game Of Thrones fame will be directing the movie and its shooting will start in London this summer. Marvel Studios' producer Kevin Feige said earlier that Thor 2 willventure into other realms.

In December rumours surfaced about the movie being based on Asgardian vs Olympian wars. In Marvel comics, Olympus is the home of the Greek pantheon and Hercules (hard-drinking and fun-loving son of Zeus) is a superhero on earth. Again, at the same time rumours came out about Beta Ray Bill as well. Both these rumours have received no confirmation till now. More realms definitely mean less time on Earth and that more realms will be explored. Fans want to see Surtur and he could be a marvellous villain for the film. We will have to wait until further official announcements come from Marvel Studios.

Surtur! Fire Demon-lord of Muspelheim!

Captain America 2 (April 4^th 2014)

Just a couple of weeks ago there was an announcement about the release date for Captain America 2 with a brief synopsis.

The synopsis they issued was as follows:

The Walt Disney Studios has announced a release date for Marvel Studios’ sequel to the blockbuster “Captain America: The First Avenger” on April 4, 2014. The second instalment will pick-up where the highly anticipated Marvel’s The Avengers (May 4, 2012) leaves off, as Steve Rogers continues his affiliation with Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D and struggles to embrace his role in the modern world.

Fear the Falcon!

The synopsis as it suggests will involve S.H.I.E.L.D as well. The movie is said to be taking place between flashbacks and in the modern world. Winter Soldier is definitely the most demanded character for the sequel among the fanboys, along with Crossbones. What we may see is a modern version of HYDRA and the fate of Bucky could be revealed. After Captain America came out the screenwriters wanted to add Falcon in the film and they also were interested in keeping M.O.D.O.K as one of the villains. The movie script is still in the works and for any official statement we will have to wait till next year.
A major rumour doing the rounds right now is about Black Panther making cameos throughout these movies and he may be introduced directly in The Avengers sequel.

The Future

A slot for a 2014 release is still empty and there is no word about movies slated for a 2015 release.

By their planned timeline, we should get Avengers 2 as the 2^nd film of 2015 or in 2016 and introducing two more characters in 2015. There are talks about Avengers 2 and 3 happening one after another, in which case they make take some time more. Cult favourite writer/director Joss Whedon wants Avengers 2 to be more personal and conflicted and it may mean a Masters of Evil storyline taking place. The Ultron saga is personal for Ant Man and the rest of the Avengers as well and he seems to be another popular choice as the primary villain in Avengers 2.

We can see Dr Strange, Black Panther, Ant Man or maybe a Guardians of the Galaxy movie on the silver screen, there are The Inhumans and The Runaways in the work as well, so whatever plans Marvel Studios has, they must be big and we will just have to wait and watch.