New Avengers Could Appear in Avengers 2 and More on Marvel's Expanding Movie Universe
Posted 10.19.11 by Ryan
Over the weekend, Marvel president of production Kevin Feige told the New York Comic-Con crowd that 2013's Iron Man 3 will be the start of "phase two" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which will culminate in Avengers 2. While these plans rest on the success of next year's The Avengers, Feige later revealed in an IGN interview that the possible Avengers sequel could involve a line-up change.
Absolutely. That's the fun of it — introducing new characters, seeing how will things change after Iron Man goes through his next adventure? After Thor goes through his next adventure? If we do another Cap adventure, how will things change? The dynamic between them? Their own worlds? So that the dynamic in Avengers 2 is actually quite different than it is in the first one.
The upcoming Avengers movie currently has a roster comprised of Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Bruce Banner aka The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). How that roster will change is unknown, but considering the ongoing franchises of the individual characters, Avengers 2 could see certain characters replaced with others depending on how those individual storylines evolve.
Some Avengers footage was shown at the New York Con, including an exchange between Iron Man (Downey) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston), and in a separate interview with IGN, Feige said the exchange hinted at the other villains included in The Avengers that were revealed only as stunt men in motion-capture suits in set photos taken during the Cleveland portion of the movie's production. While Feige doesn't reveal the identity of the other-worldly interlopers, he does say that their significance will be "extremely, extremely large" in future movies.
[Loki] does say to Tony Stark at the end of the footage we showed today, he tells Tony that he has an army, and that army is not just stuntmen in mocap suits. It'll be extremely, extremely large and something that links not only into the movies we've made but the movies we're going to make. So it's a big play that we're not quite ready to talk about.
Feige also explained what Marvel has planned after The Avengers opens next year and what "phase two" of the Avengers saga might include.
We've already announced Iron Man 3 and Thor 2; both of those will be spread out within 2013. We haven't announced yet the 2014 movies, but we are working on a draft of Captain America 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, and some of these other ones we've been talking about for a while. Ant-Man I'm hoping we can get off the ground sometime soon.
If these first group of films — "phase one" of this Avengers saga starting with Iron Man and ending with Avengers — has an overarching theme, which it does. As people sort of watch all the movies together and then watch The Avengers movie, they'll see this big picture we've been building towards... we have started working on the bones and structure and threading for a phase two. It does start with Iron Man 3 and if it all works — which we hope it does — culminates in another Avengers film.
The adaptation of Ant-Man has been in development for years, with writers-directors Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block). Wright revealing at this year's San Diego Comic-Con that the movie won't be tied to Marvel's Avengers-related movies. The adaptation of Guardians of the Galaxy is one that has been mentioned before, but is becoming a constant refrain from Feige of late. In the recent Avengers issue of Entertainment Weekly, Feige claimed that Guardians would be "an opportunity to do a big space epic, which Thor sort of hints at, in the cosmic side of the [Marvel] universe."
The Avengers was written and directed by Joss Whedon (Serenity) and will co-star Samuel L. Jackson as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson, Cobie Smulders as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Hill, and Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig.
Next Showing: The Avengers opens May 4, 2012