Marvel Announces Phase 3 Of Their Cinematic Universe

Today, at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Marvel made their biggest announcement in sometime: the entire line up of their Phase 3 movies! This comes hot off the heels of Marvel’s trailer release for the final film in Phase 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron. Some of these movies announced for phase 3 were titles we were already familiar with and sequels we expected. There was also a character we were disappointed to find did not get a sequel in phase 3. But to make up for the loss of a new Iron Man film there were plenty of great new titles announced featuring character previously never seen in live action forms.

Kevin Fiege, Marvel Studios’ President and face of the cinematic universe, took the stage at the El Capitan Theatre today with a number of iconic actors from past Marvel films. Heroes, or the actors who played them, like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and others took the stage to add to the craziness of the event. But first we saw the Marvel logo to a great applause. The room was ecstatic, knowing major announcements were on the way. Yet first, Fiege had to joke about the recent leak of the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer, going online a week early, by blaming Nazi terrorist super-group, Hydra, for such. The full version of the trailer was then played, a slightly shorter version than was shared at San Diego Comic Con during the Hall H panel, before Joss Whedon came out on stage. There were the traditional thanks to the fans, appreciating the great following that made Guardians of the Galaxy #1 at the box office and hoping to see the same turn out for Avengers 2, before Fiege started dropping major news: titles and release dates!

Sharing what we already know, Fiege announced that Captain America 3 would be titled Captain America: Civil War (though Fiege teased us with slides that incorrectly/jokingly titled the film Captain America: Serpent Society, after the classic Cap group of villains founded by the serpentine antagonist, Sidewinder) and would release on May 6th of 2016, making us wait almost a full year from Avengers 2. I suppose that means we’ll have to rely on Agents of SHIELD and the new Netflix series to get our live action Marvel fix.

It was then announced that Doctor Strange would come next on November 4th of 2016. The movie will be directed by Scott Derrickson, who is no new face to films featuring horror and paranormal elements that the Sorcerer Supreme might run into, as he’s already directed films like Hellraiser, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and Sinister. Will this tie-in with the Netflix TV series, considering Doc Strange was a founding member of the Defenders? It’s unclear at this point, but Fiege stated this would open the cinematic universe to whole new worlds. We presume at least one, the Dark Dimension!

A truly exciting bit of news for Guardians of the Galaxy fans came from a video announcement featuring James Gunn, the director of this year’s unexpected hit Marvel blockbuster. We already were informed at San Diego Comic Con that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was on slate for Phase 3, but at the time we were told the film would be released on July 28th of 2017. The great news is that Guardians fans can cut that wait down by almost 3 months, as the film gets a new release date of May 5th, 2017!

Thor is also coming back for a third movie, joining Captain America in the game of catch up to Iron Man. This movie is hauntingly called Ragnarok, the term used for the Norse mythology version of the Apocalypse. We’ve seen comic storylines titled Ragnarok in Thor several time and they never seem to feature a happy ending. What will unfold in the cinematic apocalypse of Asgard? We’ll have to wait until Thor: Ragnarok hits theaters on July 28th of 2017 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2′s original release date). That said, of course we’ll be giving you all the news that comes up on the character leading up to the release. Who knows, maybe a female will pick up Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir.

Rounding out the triple threat of Marvel Studios films in 2017 will be Black Panther. This one really got the crowd fired up. Perhaps it is the excitement of Marvel’s first black protagonist in a Marvel Studios film, perhaps it was just a long awaited promise finally coming to life. Remember, we’ve been hearing word of a Black Panther film for over a decade now. Chadwick Boseman will be playing T’Challa, the Black Panther, and seems like the perfect choice after seeing his performance as Jackie Robinson in 42. Not only can he act, he looks like he’ll fit the part just fine. But we won’t have to wait until 2017 to find out, because Boseman will first take up the role of T’Challa/The Black Panther in 2016′s Captain America: Civil War! The release date for The Black Panther is November 3rd of 2017.

Now at this point in the presentation, Fiege skipped ahead of a special film release he has set for May 4th of 2018 to announce another big solo character movie that will come out that summer. This one surprised many fans, though rumors had been out there since the filming of Guardians of the Galaxy, and already has the internet a buzz whilst I write this. That solo character? Breaking the male-centric chain of Marvel films we now have someone who will unquestionably rival Black Widow’s cinematic following in the form of Carol Danvers, i.e. CAPTAIN MARVEL! Yes, I can see Carol Corps members exploding across twitter and tumblr over that news, that Captain Marvel is finally getting a film. More amazing is we’re skipping an infamous Kree male version (though who’s to say he won’t find a way in the film) to go straight to Ms. Danvers. I’m personally quite excited about this one, as I know many many others are. Captain Marvel will be hitting theaters on July 6th of 2018.

The final big solo-movie, before we get to the team that helped mark Marvel on the map of the stars, is hardly a solo-character film at all. This film doesn’t feature a single character lead or even a team, but rather an entire race of people. No, Marvel didn’t get their mutants back, but they got something close. The Inhumans will be making their major motion picture debut in late 2018. Who will be in it has yet to be announced, but you can likely imagine characters like Black Bolt, Medusa, and Crystal will see screen time. But that said, it is a way off before the films release on November 2nd of 2018, so plenty of time for casting and leaked secrets to come.

Fiege then segued to a rather nice cinematic trailer featuring clips and images from the past several years of Marvel movies that make up Phase 1 and 2 of the cinematic universe. It all seemed like a nice wrap up until the end…one colorful and powerful item appeared on screen: The Infinity Gauntlet. But it was not alone, it was being held by someone we’ve seen before.

For those of you not familiar with it, the Infinity Gauntlet is a powerful glove that holds each of the Infinity Gems. You’ve seen these gems before in various Marvel movies, with particular note and description in Guardians of the Galaxy. You’ve also seen the many holding the Gauntlet in both Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. He is Thanos, the Mad Titan, an alien who is in love with death and power and looks to obtain such by collecting all the Infinity Gems and completing the Infinity Gauntlet to give him ominpotence. The Infinity Gauntlet first appeared in the comic series of the same title (or rather the Silver Surfer issues leading up to it, to be precise) back in 1991, written by Jim Starlin. It is the most iconic Marvel storyline involving space characters and likely still within the top 3 of Marvel’s most iconic event books. What better way to bring all the Marvel movies together? Fiege intends to do just that!

Avengers: Infinity War will be the major team-up film to wrap Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it won’t be as simple as that, as the movie will actually be 2 films, released a year apart. Avengers: Infinity War part 1 will release on May 4th 2018, before Captain Marvel and Inhumans. Avengers: Infinity War part 2 will see release just south of a year later, on May 3rd of 2019, officially wrapping up Phase 3 of the MCU. The title comes from a sequel event to Marvel’s infamous Infinity Gauntlet, which was also written by Jim Starlin and came out the year after Infinity Gauntlet. The Infinity War comic spotlights the character Warlock and has the heroes fighting to stop his evil counterpart while battling evil alternate versions of themselves amidst an intergalactic space epic, with the Infinity Gauntlet and it’s pacification at the center of the story. The movie is more apt to follow the Infinity Gauntlet’s tale, but could perhaps hold aspects of the comic series’ sequel.

Fiege managed to top this announcement with another clip, this time from the end of Phase 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron. The clip shows Tony Stark and Steve Rogers chopping wood, or rather shows Captain America ripping blocks of wood in two with his bare hands, as they talk about the Maximoff twins, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. This preceded the actual actors, Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. entering the stage. We’re reminded that Captain America 3 will be the Civil War, and much like the Marvel comic of the same name, you’ll be forced to choose sides between Captain America and Iron Man. Thankfully Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther, steps in to help. As he is joked and teased about which side he’ll take, he responds wonderfully with “Black Panther is kind of his own guy”. Robert Downey Jr. welcomes him to “the fray” and tells him to get used to the applause he is currently receiving. Boseman then directs himself towards the crowd and says “I’m blessed to be apart of this Marvel Universe, to work with you both [Downey Jr. and Evans], and to make magic together”.

After this the crowded room of Marvel fans had to be cleared for a press only Q&A session. Here Fiege was able to answer a few more questions, but didn’t give us much in the way of true insight towards Phase 3′s over-arcing storyline. We learned that the event was in the works as far back as July of this year, with Fiege wanting to make announcements at San Diego Comic Con, but unfortunately not everything had fully come together at that point for official announcements. However as far as casting and other news, all that has been officially finalized has been announced, otherwise it will be announced in the future after being finalized and before the films are released. This led to some obvious responses to queries made by various individuals of the press, such as the finer details of Guardians 2 still needing to be worked out once the director, James Gunn, returns from Tokyo. We do know that Black Panther will appear in costume in Captain America: Civil War and that the writer and directors of Captain Marvel and other various, newly announced films will come before casting announcements. Fiege dodged questions about Hawkeye and Howard the Duck, which will undoubtedly lead to the rumor mill churning out quite a few theories over the next few months, but stated that while the Hulk and Black Widow aren’t currently seeing another solo-film in the works, they will be appearing amongst friends in other Marvel movies. And while we’re left waiting for announcements to become finalized for Captain Marvel and others, Fiege hints that “you may find out sooner than you were expecting” as far as Inhuman teasers go. On that note, we’ll leave you with a special preview of the Black Panther’s new costume, shown as movie concept art by Ryan Meinerding and exclusively handed out to those in attendance of the El Capitan Theatre Marvel event.