Marvel’s Phase 3 Plans Announced

Marvel’s Phase 3 Plans Announced
Marc Strom — Marvel.com

The Marvel Cinematic Universe will grow even bigger than ever before with Phase 3!

At a special event held at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige took to the stage to announce the full slate for Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featuring a mix of fan-favorite characters along with a number of heroes set to make their big screen debut in the coming years.

And while the confirmation of upcoming sequels to the successful Captain America, Thor, Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises would have been enough to send fans into a frenzy of excitement, Feige also surprised guests with first details on upcoming films starring Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange and the Inhumans!

I haven’t had time to write about this since the announcement on Tuesday, but you can hardly have missed the news, I’m sure (I did retweet several items of interst from the @MovieByte account which you should be following!). But if you are living under a rock and have missed the news, here are the highlights:

Captain America: Serpent Society Civil War

May 6, 2016

There’s some weirdness going on with the title of the third Captain America film. From what I can tell, Kevin Feige stepped out on stage and threw all of us for a loop by announcing that the film would be titled Captain America: Serpent Society. And that was also the title on the slide shown at the event. Then later, they referred to it as Civil War. Feige had this to say:

“We had this great idea because Civil War‘s first up, right?” Feige told reporters at a Q&A after the presentation. “But we don’t blow our wad on the presentation with Civil War right at the front of it. A guy named Mike Pasciullo had the idea to put Serpent Society on there, and I thought it was awesome and hilarious. A part of me thought, ‘Are people going to love Serpent Society and think that’d be really cool?’”

He joked, “Now it’s on the radar.”

So, whatever, it’s Civil War, which is a pretty provocative title — and in fact, in the Age of Ultron teaser trailer, some of the Avengers definitely already seemed at odds with each other. Does this mean we’ll see the start of the civil war at the end of Age of Ultron, or will it just be hinted at? Who knows for sure, but Marvel has definitely taken a liking to really making our heads spin by the end of the various films they’ve been putting out so I suspect the former.

Doctor Strange

November 4, 2016

I know virtually nothing about Doctor Strange, and whatever I could tell you now would only be knowledge I have gleaned from this Wikipedia article, so I’m just linking to it instead.

We do know that Benedict Cumberbatch has been rumored quite heavily to play the strange sort of doctor, but Marvel made no announcement about this during the press event. In fact, Kevin Feige had this to say about it:

I can say that if it were confirmed, we would have introduced him. I like that Chadwick, for the most part — I think there’s always been speculation on lots of good actors for Black Panther — but I’m glad that didn’t leak in earnest, the way every single other actor in human history that is of a certain age has been for Doctor Strange. So along with everything else, [Doctor Strange] will be announced maybe this afternoon? Next week? Next month? Sometime before the release of the movie.

Marvel really blew it out of the water with Guardians of the Galaxy — another franchise I knew nothing about, so I have high hopes for this.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

May 5, 2017

To say that Marvel hit it out of the park with Guardians of the Galaxy is putting it mildly. With very few quibbles or missteps in my opinion, Guardians of the Galaxy is a fantastic film and demonstrates some of the best that Marvel has to offer us. I think it demonstrates what a great creative team they have over there right now. This makes me super excited for the second installment in this franchise.

Thor: Ragnarok

July 28, 2017

In Norse mythology, Ragnarok is a series of future events, a great battle that will result in the death of many major figures, (this includes Odin, Thor, Tyr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki). There are also various natural disasters and the submersion of earth in water. Basically, the appocalypse. After this appocalypse though, the earth is supposed to resurface new and fertile, and two human survivors are supposed to repopulate (sound familiar?). So the question: is the the title litteral or symbolic, or both?

Here’s the deal, from my perspective anyway: the first Thor film was one of the worst of the MCU films so far. That’s not to say I completely hate it or that it’s not enjoyable. But in my estimation, the only film I would rank lower is Iron Man 2 — and we know what a dud that was. Thor: The Dark World was certainly a major step up. If this film continues that trend I’ll be very happy. Plus we know that while these films that are note Avengers films do focus on specific characters, the entire MCU is more or less one big giant story with many characters and subplots related to the main plot.

I’m pretty excited but the possiblities here. And I sure want to know what’s up with Loki and if Thor finds out that he’s still alive. I don’t expect to find that out before this film.

Black Panther

November 3, 2017

Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther! I don’t know a whole lot about either Black Panther or Chadwick Boseman. I did see Boseman in one film which I quite liked: 42.

Captain Marvel

July 6, 2018

Like many of these films, I don’t know a thing about Captain Marvel, but I do know that currently, in the comics, Captain Marvel is a woman. I think it’s a little weird because we all want a woman super-hero film from Marvel — but a specific character comes to mind as someone who we all think would do quite well in her own film, and that’s Black Widow. I’d still like to see that, but assuming Marvel sticks with the basics of the current comic book incarnation, Captain Marvel will be the first woman super-hero to get her own film.

Inhumans

November 2, 2018

Yet again, I know nothing. I feel like someone should take my geek card from me, but I’ve just never been into the actual comic books even though I love the films.

Since I have nothing to say in my lack of knowlege here, I’ll let Feige do the speaking:

Well, obviously I know a lot about the Inhumans. Where they fit into the universe… you may find out sooner than you expect to, frankly. I already mentioned in the presentation that there are seeds leading to Black Panther, leading to Wakanda, starting very very soon in things you’ve already seen and will see soon. Likewise, with Inhumans, there may be easter eggs starting before you know it. Will those easter eggs include Fantastic Four? No. [The Inhumans] will be into the cinematic universe as it exists at Marvel Studios.

Avengers: Infinity Wars Parts 1 & 2

May 4, 2018, and May, 2019

Obviously, this is huge. We all know — or should know if we’ve been paying attention — that Marvel has been leading up to this infinity gem/stone business and building something big. It appears they are getting ready to pay it off in not one, but two Avengers films. I assume that means that the civil war of Captain America 3 will either somehow be resolved or suspended to fight the big bad.

It is unknown at present (at least as far as I know) whether Joss Whedon will return for these two Avengers installments, but I really hope he does. Maybe some day I will be happy to see other directors take a crack at Avengers but right now I know that there’s just not enough Joss Whedon films in the world and I want MORE! It’s of course entirely possible that neither Marvel nor Joss Whedon himself even know. It’s possible Whedon wants to see how worn down he feels and if he has another two films in him. We’ll see.

The teaser Marvel showed at the press event is mostly footage of the previous films, but there’s a goody at the end, and it should really get you pumped up and ready for what’s to come in the Marvel universe.

So, who’s excited? I sure am. Discuss below!