‘The Avengers’ isn’t even out yet, but Marvel Studios needs to start looking at life after the superhero team up extravaganza. Since everyone involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is out and about doing press for the May 4th release, many sites are taking the opportunity to ask about what’s next. For your convenience, I’ve put together some quotes to update you on ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Thor 2’, ‘Captain America 2’, and more. Read on to find out a bit about the future of the Marvel Universe!
First, in an interview with Collider, producer and head of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige shed some light on the next installments for Marvel’s big three: Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor.
‘Iron Man 3’ starts shooting in a few weeks under the direction of Shane Black in North Carolina. On what we can expect in terms of story, Feige says:
“ ‘Iron Man 3’ is a full-on Tony Stark-centric movie—and I’ll tell you because you’re a good guy—is very much inspired by the first half of ‘Iron Man 1’. Metaphorically, we’re not going back to the cave there’s nothing like that, but we’ve always said let’s get Tony back to the cave, which is he’s stripped of everything, he’s backed up against a wall, and he’s gotta use his intelligence to get out of it. He can’t call Thor, he can’t call Cap, he can’t call Nick Fury, and he can’t look for the Helicarrier in the sky.”
While ‘Captain America 2’ doesn’t have a director yet, Feige knows what direction the story is going in. On the next film for the Star-Spangled Avenger, he says:
“The primary storyline takes place post-Avengers, Steve figuring out his place in the world. Tony goes back to Malibu, Thor goes back to Asgard, but there are a number of people who stay in S.H.I.E.L.D. Steve, for the time being, is going to be one of them.”
‘Thor 2’ will be directed by ‘Game of Thrones’ director Alan Taylor. Filming is scheduled to begin in three months over in London. According to Feige, Loki will return, but he won’t be the main adversary for Thor this time around. He goes on to say:
“Well [Thor’s maturity] is sort of the crux of the whole sequel and it’s what Hemsworth is most excited about diving into, and it’s what is the heart of story; it’s Thor and Jane, to continue that dynamic. Really they were only together for three days, and do they love each other? Do they like each other? Do they know each other? We’re acknowledging that that love story in the first movie was sort of a quick crush, essentially, over the course of three quick days in the middle of the desert. And [the heart of the movie is also] the relationship between Thor and Odin, which does change drastically as it did over the course of the first movie, and picks up and continues from there.”
While doing press for both ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, which opened this weekend, and ‘The Avengers’, the God of Thunder sat down with /Film to talk about everything. It just so happened that ‘Thor 2’ came up, so here’s what Chris Hemsworth had to say about it:
“I have read a script and we start shooting in August. I met with Alan Taylor a couple of months ago and Natalie Portman and I and Alan and a couple of Marvel guys and it was hugely exciting. Ken [Branagh] did such a wonderful job and, with scheduling or what have you, he didn’t end up doing this one, but I’m a big fan of the ‘Game of Thrones’ series, which is Alan’s latest work, and I think that is what’s exciting about the second one: making it sort of more tangible and having a more organic feel to Asgard and that world. I think the science fiction element to ‘Thor’… the danger is it falls a little bit into the world of it’s “tough to throw a light to.” I think of big waterfalls and mountains and a Viking influence, where the Norse mythology kind of grew from. Having that in Asgard is going to make it all the more special and that’s what Alan wants to bring to it. I think that would be the new aspect to this one.”
Finally, we have the matter of the Marvel movie that has a release date but no title. It’ll definitely be a non-sequel movie, but this project could literally be anything. Marvel has many films in development right now, like ‘Doctor Strange’, ‘The Runaways’, and ‘The Inhumans’, but the two films that are more likely to take that slot are Edgar Wright’s ‘Ant-Man’ or ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’.
Superhero Hype is reporting that the Guardians movie “will be about the modern version of the team, which includes such intergalactic superheroes as Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Groot and Rocket Raccoon.” This team is a bit more obscure to me than any of Marvel’s other intergalactic teams, but Guardians of the Galaxy have quite a following, so the audience is there. Plus, after so many years of building towards the Avengers, maybe it’s time to get another team out there in the mainstream. I personally would love to see the Young Avengers or The Runaways get the big screen treatment before the Guardians, but there’s a reason why I’m not running Marvel Studios at the moment.
There you have it, kids. Life after ‘The Avengers’. How does it look to you? Which Marvel project are you most excited to see? Sound off in the comments section.
