Entertainment Weekly magazine presented a large article covering the new Marvel movie “The Avengers.” Within the article, it also listed the next five Marvel movies planned for production. Here is a listing of those movies and a description of what the characters are all about.
“Iron Man 3″
This movie is the continuation of the “Iron Man” franchise with Robert Downey Jr. returning for the role of the hero. However, the big change with this movie is that Jon Favreau is out as director and Shane Black is in. Black is best known as the screenwriter for “Lethal Weapon,” although his directorial debut was the Robert Downey Jr. movie “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” Little is known about the direction the movie will take, although Black has hinted that it will deal more with an espionage-style menace, taking Iron Man back to his comic origins.
“Thor 2″
Even less is known about the “Thor” sequel. At the end of the first movie, Thor was stranded in Asgard but, somehow, he gets back to earth for “The Avengers.” There is no word on where the movie will take place but Kenneth Branagh is stepping down as the director and rumors have Patty Jenkins (“Monster”) taking over the role.
“Ant-Man”
This movie has been in the pipeline for a long time. Edgar Wright holds the rights to the movie and has been working on a script for a long time. He actually started working on this script before he made “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.” Wright has said recently that he is happy with the direction the script is going but it is still not in production yet.
Ant-Man is a scientist who develops a serum that shrinks him down to ant-size to fight crime. In comics he was one of the founders of The Avengers but, since Wright has the rights, he isn’t part of the new movie.
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
This one is a huge surprise. This movie would give Marvel the chance to make a space opera-type movie, which keeps with its goals so far of making every movie feel different. The group includes a number of heroes who band together to protect the universe from catastrophes. It is a similar motivation as the Green Lantern Corps but a smaller group, all the last of their species, with more unique powers.
“The Inhumans”
I’m kind of surprised to see The Inhumans on this list. I assumed a Silver Surfer movie might come first, as The Inhumans are connected loosely to the “Fantastic Four.” These heroes live on the dark side of the Moon, beings genetically altered using scientific mutations before being abandoned by their creators. They leave earth and settle on the Moon, where they develop their own kingdom, ruled by their king Black Bolt. An interesting connection is that The Inhumans were created by the Kree Empire, the mortal enemies of the Skrulls, who are the rumored bad guys in “The Avengers.”
With these movies, Marvel fans have a lot to look forward to. There are some questions, such as where the next Captain America movie will end up, what happened to the Dr. Strange movie they spoke of recently, and whether or not the studio will work on a new Punisher movie now that the rights have reverted back. Another curious subject is whether Marvel will continue making shorts and attach them to future movies, like Pixar does in the animation world. Either way, more superheroes are coming and comic book fans couldn’t be happier.
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