Marvel Could Be Planning Hulk Movie After All, Iron Man 3 the "Antidote" for The Avengers, and Tom Hiddleston Talks Thor 2
Posted 04.30.12 by Ryan
Audiences will soon see how writer-director Joss Whedon has done with the character of the Hulk in The Avengers this weekend, but early reviews have been very positive about Whedon's use of the "enormous green rage monster." Mark Ruffalo, the third actor to play the role of Dr. Bruce Banner and the first to play his alter ego in motion capture, recently admitted that he would "love" to make a solo Hulk movie, but Marvel President of Production Kevin Feige was more practical. "I love that people are saying that and are feeling that way about Hulk, but mission accomplished at this point," said Feige of a possible Hulk sequel.
Feige may be cautious about another outing, but another Marvel executive, Paul Gitter, isn't. The President of Consumer Products for North America told Forbes that the studio has been "pleasantly surprised by the phenomenal response" to the Hulk, and that Marvel plans to "spin him off to a stand-alone TV program next year," followed by a big-budget franchise movie in 2015. Guess when you have a movie that almost makes back your $220 million budget in just five days of release in only 70% of foreign markets, strategies have a tendency to change.
So far, Marvel hasn't announced anything for 2015, but the studio does have Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 arriving next year, followed by Captain America 2 in 2014. Marvel already has a second, unannounced movie scheduled for a May 16, 2014 release date, but could give that slot over to projects that have already been in development, such as Ant-Man, Runaways, The Inhumans, or The Guardians of the Galaxy. Considering the movie's aforementioned early success, there's also the possibility of The Avengers 2 as well.
While Marvel plots out 2014, it's already set to start shooting Iron Man 3, which Feige recently told Empire will be the "antidote" to The Avengers as Marvel goes back to sequels that focus on the individual characters.
So Iron Man 3 has been structured specifically to be the antidote to The Avengers... Circumstances in the story separate Tony from having access to anything. We wanted to take Tony back to, metaphorically speaking, the cave from Iron Man, the first half of Iron Man, when he's cut off from the world and needs just focus on his intellects to get himself out of his situation. So he's not calling Thor, he's not calling Captain America, he can't press a special button to have the helicarrier come rescue him, so I think that'll be a nice complement to the team up of Avengers.
Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) is preparing to direct Iron Man 3 starting next month, while Thor 2 won't start shooting until August, according to what the movie's star, Chris Hemsworth, said earlier this month. Hemsworth's Thor and Avengers nemesis Loki (Tom Hiddleston) will return, but, as Feige has already revealed, Thor will have to tackle another big villain in the sequel. How Loki will figure into that is unknown, but Hiddleston told Collider that what he's most excited about is to explore "the relationship between Loki and Thor."
It’s probably time [for another villain]. I’m most excited about really taking the relationship between Loki and Thor to another level, because obviously the action of Thor 2 will have to begin where Avengers leaves off and what interests me — and I think Chris [Hemsworth] too — is what’s Odin going to say about all of this and about what happened in Avengers? Can Odin and Thor find forgiveness for Loki in their own hearts? Can Loki accept that forgiveness; can he forgive himself? What will it take to bring Loki back from the brink of the dark side? And then Thor will have to deal with everything that’s been going down up in Asgard during his absence.
The Avengers opens this Friday, while Iron Man 3 is scheduled for release on May 3, 2013, and Thor 2 is scheduled for November 15, 2013.