Marvel announces post-Avengers movie plans: Ant-Man IN, Dr Strange OUT – for now
The new issue of Entertainment Weekly unveiled new photos from “The Avengers,” including some details about the movie. But after looking deeper, it turns out that the magazine also did an interview with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, who revealed the slate of films that are planned to be released after “The Avengers.” And both “Dr. Strange” and “Luke Cage” didn’t make the list, but here is what did:
* Iron Man 3: Robert Downey Jr is reprising the role of Tony Stark. Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) is directing. The release date is set for May 3rd, 2013.
* Thor 2: Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston are both returning. “Monster” director Patty Jenkins is in talks to helm. The release date is set for July 26th, 2013.
* Ant-Man: Feige said that the film is definitely in the works and that Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) has “developed an excellent draft recently.” However, the movie has yet to be greenlit.
* Guardians of the Galaxy: The story begins in the far-future, and revolves around a group of alien beings – each the last of their kind – who eventually travel back in time to protect the earth froman alien invasion. “There’s an opportunity to do a big space epic, which ‘Thor’ sort of hints at, in the cosmic side of the [Marvel] universe,” said Feige.
* The Inhumans: Millions of years ago, the alien species Kree started experimenting on early humans lookingto build a race of super soldiers they could use to fight The Skrulls (the rumored alien villains in “The Avengers”).After the aliens abandoned their human test subjects, the mutants eventually formed their own society, and are now called The Inhumans.
Feige said that if “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “The Inhumans” become reality, to expect the result to be an ensemble film like “X-Men” or “The Avengers.”
Now comes word that Disney has registered several domain names for upcoming Marvel Studios projects.
Among them are ironman3soundtrack.com, thor2soundtrack.com, avengers-soundtrack.com, doctorstrangesoundtrack.com and drstrangesoundtrack.com.
This doesn’t mean that Marvel is ready to begin work on a “Doctor Strange” movie, but it’s pretty obvious that the studio is planning something. There are two undisclosed projects that Marvel has slated for 2014.