In an announcement that is no surprise to anyone, Deadline reports that Disney CEO Bob Iger announced today that the company is developing a sequel to the major box office hit ‘The Avengers’. In addition to stating that ‘The Avengers’ merchandise sales have been strong, he also said the film’s commercial success “is a great illustration of why we like Marvel so much.”
Fans and investors will surely embrace this news. No estimated time of release for the movie has been talked about yet, but I don’t see it happening until after ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Thor 2’, ‘Captain America 2’, a new Hulk movie, and Edgar Wright’s ‘Ant-Man’ are completed. My money for a release date is on 2016 or 2017 at the earliest.
In a previous article of mine, I speculated as to who could appear in the sequel. Judging by how great a job he did and how well received the movie was, we can only assume that Joss Whedon will return to direct the next installment. In terms of heroes, I said before that I was hoping for Ant-Man, The Wasp, Black Panther, Luke Cage, Doctor Strange, and She-Hulk to join the team or make cameos. But now that I’ve seen the first one, I have a few to add to the list.
First of all, if you were one of the few who have not seen ‘The Avengers’, then you might want to steer clear of what follows because things are bound to contain spoilers. Again, I say **SPOILERS SWEETIE!!**
Great. Now that I got that out of the way, my first choice for a new member of The Avengers is The Vision, an android originally created by the evil robot Ultron to destroy Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. In order to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I think that Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Hank Pym (given that ‘Ant-Man’ is a thing by then), in an attempt to save Agent Phil Coulson from death, could develop a variation of the Iron Man armor that turns Coulson into a cyborg. That cyborg can be codenamed “Vision” since Coulson always had that vision of heroes being a real thing. Not only do we get the introduction of a great character, but also we get to keep Clark Gregg in the MCU, so everybody wins.
Another addition could be Adam Warlock. He’s a hero that I don’t know too much about, but I do know that he has a history with Thanos, who appears in the first post-credits scene at the end of ‘The Avengers’. Additionally, Warlock has a history with the Guardians of the Galaxy, a property that has been talked about previously by Marvel Studios execs as a potential addition to the upcoming film slate.
Finally, I think that Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) would be a great addition to the team. In addition to the cosmic additions of the Guardians, Mar-Vell provides another strong cosmic presence to the team. He also brings with him an easy way to allude to the Kree and the Skrull, two alien races that would be integral to the Marvel Cinematic Universe if they decide to move forward with ‘Civil War’, but more importantly, ‘Secret Invasion’, which could make for a pretty great movie. Along with Captain Marvel, Miss Marvel (Carol Danvers) could be easily introduced as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who gains powers similar to a Kree warrior, which is what Mar-Vell is. The team definitely needs more girls, so Jan and/or Carol would be great additions.
For more picks of heroes that we might like to see in the sequel to ‘The Avengers’, check out an article by my colleague Jason titled “Top 10 Avengers We Want To See In The Sequel”.
