In the genre of superhero movies, there has been more date swapping lately than a swingers’ club in the seventies. It all started with Zack Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel’ sequel, which is still being referred to as ‘Batman Vs. Superman’. Originally, it was scheduled to be released on July 17, 2015. Then, Warner Bros. decided to move it to May 6, 2016 in order to give “the filmmakers time to realize fully their vision, given the complex visual nature of the story”. Shortly after the 2015 date was vacated, ‘Ant-Man’ moved into the spot from their July 31, 2015 release.

However, that new date for the DC Comics adaptation was already occupied by an unnamed Marvel movie since June 2013, thus lining up a fantasy match up at the box office that weekend between two of the biggest names in comic books. Earlier this week, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told /Film that they would not be backing down from the date because they had it first. Now, it appears that the House of Ideas has announced which of their champions will face the Dark Knight and the Last Son of Krypton.

Previously, rumors began to circulate that Anthony and Joe Russo were already in talks to return for the Cap threequel and were already hashing out the story with Feige back in January despite ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ not hitting theaters yet. Around the same time, there was also chatter about sequels for ‘Thor: The Dark World’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ as potential candidates for a 2016 release. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel appears to be putting their eggs in the Sentinel of Liberty’s basket as they will be rolling out ‘Captain America 3’ on May 6, 2016, which creates a rematch between Steve Rogers and Bruce Wayne from the 1996 limited series ‘DC vs. Marvel’ by Ron Marz and Peter David.

While it’s admirable for Marvel to stand their ground on a date that has historically belonged to them, one has to wonder if they’ll change their minds down the line. Snyder is gearing up to film his movie within the next couple of months in order to make that date, whereas the Russos probably wouldn’t begin shooting until late this year or early next year because a script isn’t ready yet. Unless Marvel has been secretly working on the third Captain America film for some time now (basically right after the second one wrapped) and the news didn’t get out until earlier this year, then I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Marvel will move late in the game because they’ve always valued the quality of their movies and would take the necessary precautions to put out the best work they possibly could whether if it involved reshoots, rewrites, or a new release date.

That being said, Captain America did come out on top of that battle back in 96 and I wouldn’t doubt that he could do it again. From what we’ve been hearing about ‘Batman Vs. Superman’, there is a whole lot going on in that film. One might wonder if WB and DC are overloading it with too many characters. Of course, it’s hard to judge since there’s no synopsis or trailer available yet, but history also tells us that Marvel usually has their stuff more together than DC does when it comes to live action movies.

What do you think about Marvel Studios announcing ‘Captain America 3’ to go head to head with ‘Batman Vs. Superman’ on May 6, 2016? Which comic book juggernaut will come out the winner of this box office brawl? And which one are you making plans to see that weekend? It’s okay if your answer is both, but just share it in the comments below.