In the cinematic world of Marvel, there are some exciting announcements that have come up today. Disney and Marvel have announced several titles and release dates on future films. Here’s the lineup:
May 1, 2015, Avengers: Age of Ultron
July 17, 2015, Ant-Man
May 6, 2016, Captain America: Civil War
November 4, 2016, Doctor Strange
May 5, 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (previously dated July 28, 2017)
July 28, 2017, Thor: Ragnarok
November 3, 2017, Black Panther
May 4, 2018, Avengers: Infinity War Part I
July 6, 2018, Captain Marvel
November 2, 2018, Inhumans
May 3, 2019, Avengers: Infinity War Part II
I could speculate on every one of them, but I’m just going to touch on some highlights. I’ll try to go in order too.
Captain America 3: Civil War
It’s been rumored, very recently, that the Marvel films would be plunged into civil war, citing the great Marvel event as its source. What the surprise is, to me, is why this seems to be one movie, and especially not an Avengers one? I’m not thinking of a big build up with several films, but why not have the setup be in Cap and Avengers be the actual event?
Nonetheless, I’m not disappointed with the film. This is, perhaps, my favorite Marvel event ever. One thing that I may not be excited about is the end of Chris Evans as Captain America. Steve Rogers met death (and came back later) at the end of Civil War in the comics. I’m willing to bet the same will happen in the film.
The other thing seen is cameos. This is a war between heroes. And it’s about freedom of heroes. In all, it’s an epic story. I can’t see this not being an epic movie.
Captain Marvel
First, she is not the character for which the comics gets their name. But, she does take on a lot of the persona of what makes the publications great. Why is this such a highlight? Well, it’s the only stand alone female lead movie in the lineup. The other half of that is they could have done a Black Widow film with that same purpose.
This will be an important film because it can bridge the Marvel space films to the more terra based ones. This Captain’s powers have their roots in aliens. But, it’s hard to say what route this character will take.
I’m anticipating the film to be action packed and exciting. I’m wondering if it’ll even touch on being a strong woman hero in a more male hero universe.
Inhumans
This was the most surprising for me to see. It wasn’t that it could never come about as a film, but that it would be this soon. The inhumans are a “what if” race. Aliens modified ancient human ancestors to take a different evolutionary path that resulted in super powered beings.
They usually stick to themselves, but take part as allies when needed. Their leader has gone toe to toe with Thanos, whom I’ll talk about in a bit.
What it may introduce is a more recent story in Marvel Comics where it’s discovered that descendants of the original inhumans are able to transform because of something called terrigen mist. When they become inhuman, they are supposed to go with the Inhuman nation…almost forced to go.
In any case, the Inhumans come across as the Marvel Game of Thrones in my opinion. They have a kingdom, and there are battles over who will be king. Even Black Bolt, the long lasting king, takes wives just to keep peace. It’s an interesting world within the Marvel universe.
Where I think this is an important piece of Marvel films is that it will introduce a different type of super powered people. It also ties into the more galactic part of Marvel history. To be honest, though, I don’t know how interesting a full movie will be with the characters, rather than an Avengers one with the Inhuman event I was talking about. Still, Marvel does a great job, so I’m not very turned off by the idea.
Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2
Now this is pretty exciting! The Infinity War was an event that took earth heroes and galactic ones and had them try to keep the Infinity Gems from evil. Heroes changed, even perished. It was a galactic event, and I was hoping for a huge version of it in film form. It looks like it’ll happen.
Splitting the story in two means they will be dealing with it as a bigger deal than any other typical Marvel event and story. It’s taking up two phases. This is a comics event that is always “the big one”. It’s what all others are compared to. It may be the same in the cinematic universe.
Before it happens, there may be some key characters introduced, like Adam Warlock. Thanos will be drawn out more as the main guy vying for the gems.
I’ll end talking about this dual film by pointing out that in Infinity Gauntlet, which precedes War, all heroes died. They came back, but still, the Infinity stories are huge and always astonishing. Even the recent just plain Infinity comics event had the fall of the Inhumans kingdom, which makes sense why that film may proceed the second part of the Infinity movies.
The few films I highlighted are not necessarily the best. It’s hard to say which will be the best. What I do think is Marvel Studios is on the right track for some epic films. They have a good slate lined up, and I’m looking forward to every film!
And, until next time, have a Marvel-ous day!
