Some news from Comic-Con on Marvel's upcoming post-
Avengers movie slate, dubbed "Phase Two" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (btw, I'm not at Comic-Con, but here's what I've been reading online)...
[attachment=21750:marvel_im3.jpg]
Iron Man 3: May 3, 2013
Directed by Shane Black and featuring Ben Kingsley, now confirmed to be playing The Mandarin.
[attachment=21751:marvel_thor2.jpg]
Thor: The Dark World: November 8, 2013
Directed by Alan Taylor with rumored villains including Enchantress and Executioner. Does the new subtitle also suggest the possibility of Dark Elves?
[attachment=21752:marvel_cap2.jpg]
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: April 4, 2014
Directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, who helmed some of the best episodes of NBC's
Community. Little else is known, but for those who know the true identity of the Winter Soldier from reading the comics (or watching season 2 of
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes), one can assume the return of a major supporting character from the first film.
[attachment=21753:marvel_gotg.jpg]
[attachment=21754:marvel_gotg_art.jpg]
Guardians of the Galaxy: August 1, 2014
Featuring cosmic characters Groot, Drax, Rocket Racoon, Gamora, and Star Lord. I think this will be Marvel's biggest gamble yet, as it involves the audience following a story that is a bit more out-there (heck, it features a talking racoon and a walking tree... but LOTR had walking trees, too). But hopefully, they will pull it off and the cosmic elements of the story will further establish the oncoming threat of Thanos in
Avengers 2.
[attachment=21755:marvel_antman.jpg]
Ant-Man: TBA
Directed by Edgar Wright, with very little else known and no release date at this time. This project has been long in-development and I'm surprised it's still on the table with Wright attached. Can't say I'm particularly interested in a solo
Ant-Man film, but if it involves several other
Avengers characters and tie-ins, I will be more intrigued.
The Avengers 2: (2015/2016?)
Still no word on whether Joss Whedon will helm the sequel (hopefully Marvel realizes how vital his writing was to the crowd-pleasing nature of the first
Avengers and signs him on soon), or when exactly the next installment will hit. Marvel's aggressive release slate with the "Phase Two" films would seem to indicate that they're aiming for a May 2015 release, as
Guardians hits August 2014 and will most likely help to pave that cosmic path to a possible Thanos appearance in
Avengers 2.
Despite the lack of details at the moment, the massive box office grosses have guaranteed
Avengers 2 and these recent announcements finally start to reveal Marvel's plans for the next wave of films. Bottom line is that this is great news for Marvel fans, as we'll continue to see new installments in this new cinematic universe for years to come!
EDITORIAL: I also like how Marvel seems to be ditching the numbering system for its sequels (I always felt it was uninspired to just slap a "2" after the title...
Iron Man 2,
Spider-Man 2,
Blade 2, etc... although I do see how it helps the casual movie-goer to keep track of the order in which each film takes place). The titles
Thor: The Dark World and
Captain America: The Winter Soldier are much cooler than simply
Thor 2 and
Captain America 2. Too bad the Iron Man films don't follow suit, but at least it's consistent... I still hate the erratic titles of the Blade films...
Blade, then the numbered
Blade 2 (which could have easily been
Blade: Bloodpack), then back to the number-less
Blade: Trinity, even though "trinity" does mean "three". My point being is that us, the fans, are capable of remembering the sequence of the films without having to brand each film with a number. Even after all these years, I think we all know that the Batman films went in this order:
Batman,
Batman Returns,
Batman Forever, and (ugh)
Batman and Robin. I'm just glad to see Marvel getting a bit more creative with their titles, so let's hope instead of just
Avengers 2, we get something like
Avengers: The Infinity War! So what do you think? Are you excited yet???
--
In DC News...
I got my midnight screening ticket to
The Dark Knight Rises for this coming Thursday night, which will reportedly feature a teaser trailer for next year's
Man of Steel! Looking forward to seeing how Nolan will wrap up his trilogy!

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.