Marvel’s quick response to DC
October 29, 2014
It seems that Marvel heard DC and Warner Bros. announcement last week and decided to come right out with their news to show what they’ve got slated for the coming years. The list included a few shocking names such as “Black Panther” and “Inhumans,” and a few updates on films we already knew about for phase 3.
The first name drop to come was the name of the 2016 Captain America film, which is titled “Captain America: Civil War.” The name definitely seems to fit the expected darker tone of Phase 3, where we’ll see our heroes somewhat disassemble. The film is set for a May release date that year. Along with that came “Thor 3: Ragnarok,” which will bring Chris Hemsworth’s character back to the screen on July 28, 2017.
The next update they gave was for the highly debated Doctor Strange film that they’ve been struggling to find a lead for. They pushed the release date to November 4, 2016, after negotiations with Joaquin Phoenix fell through and Benedict Cumberbatch coming through as the possible lead.
Another one of the big surprises is that not only are they making one more Avengers film, but TWO. The two films will be two parts of one story: “Avengers: Infinity War” with Parts 1 and 2. Part 1 is looking at a May 4, 2018 release and Part 2 for May 2019.
The three films that were not as expected to join Marvel’s arsenal were “Black Panther,” “Captain Marvel” and “Inhumans.” “Black Panther” will be coming in November of 2017 and will have Chadwick Boseman as the lead. Boseman is most noted for his lead roles in “42,” the story of Jackie Robinson, and “Get On Up,” the chronicle of James Brown’s life. Far less is known about the “Inhumans” and “Captain Marvel” movies, other than their release dates. “Captain Marvel” will be out in July of 2018 and “Inhumans” is set to come November the same year. Marvel chose the fictional character Carol Danvers to be Captain Marvel in their film, which will make it one of the first female-centered superhero films for Marvel, alongside Scarlet Johansson’s “Black Widow.”
All of those titles are still quite a ways off, but remember that “Avengers: Age of Ultron” will be capping off Phase 2 in May, and Paul Rudd’s “Ant-Man” will be hitting theaters this summer to kick off Phase 3 of Marvel’s universe story.
Regardless of what true comic book fans or Oscar committee voters think, Marvel is clearly doing something right. Phase 1 of Marvel’s story grossed $3.8 billion worldwide and Phase 2 has made $3.3 billion already, and Age of Ultron hasn’t even come out yet. If the second Avengers film succeeds like the first Avengers movie (grossing over $1 billion) then it’s going to set the tone for Marvel to do a complete takeover of superhero movies, even beyond Phase 3.