It’s been a pretty confusing couple of weeks. If needed, we could go ahead and expand that into the past year or so, but Marvel has so many rumored and confirmed films coming out of the woodwork that we figured it was about time we put them down on paper in order to figure out exactly what they’re trying to pull on us here.
First, a recap. Recall the five-film buildup that led to The Avengers. It was pretty sweet right? In just the first year of Marvel’s existence, we had Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, the former of which elevated the comic-book movie genre and the latter of which revealed exactly how powerful a crossover character (or six) can be.
It was at about this time that some big-wigged suits (namely Disney) sat at a table and decided that they needed to do this right. These movies couldn’t be produced at random and they needed to be planned from the start. They wanted to pepper these films with Easter eggs, clues, and little cameos by your favorite Marvel characters. Particularly the ones that are easily turned into toys.
It was then that Iron Man 2 was greenlit, along with Thor and Captain America, each solo outing providing an introduction to the characters that would eventually be found in The Avengers. If we’re working on the five-film phase system that Feige has already said that Marvel studios will be following, then that means the Phase One roster is as follows:
Phase One
Iron Man (May 2008)
The Incredible Hulk (June 2008)
Iron Man 2 (May 2010)
Thor (May 2011)
Captain America (July 2011)
The Avengers (May 2012)
It’s a no brainer right?
Here’s where it starts to get tricky. We only have four films officially confirmed by Marvel on the Phase 2 roster so far and a little less than half a dozen rumored projects. As it officially stands, here is the Phase Two roster.
Phase Two
Iron Man 3 (May 2013)
Thor 2 (November 2013)
Captain America 2 (April 2014)
Guardians (August 2014)
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Avengers 2 (??? ????)
No, we’re not insinuating that The Riddler is going to make a surprise DC/Marvel crossover, we just don’t have a confirmation yet about what will go there. What film could possibly fit in that slot? Before we get into that, let’s go ahead and think about a huge hint about Phase 2 that Joss Whedon and Captain America were so very kind to drop for us in The Avengers.
“Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons” – Captain America (The Avengers )
Wow. That was pretty straightforward. Given that Marvel studios has taken to calling their six-film sequences “phases,” and The Avengers took a pretty big detour through S.H.I.E.L.D’s shady motives, it certainly seems like a plot point that won’t be wasted in the end.
We know enough about Phase 2 to know that Iron Man 3 will take Stark away from his technology and put him back into the cave, we know that Cap will re-team with S.H.I.E.L.D. for Captain America 2, and we’re assuming that Beta Ray Bill (the only other creature worthy enough to wield Thor’s hammer) will make a Thor 2 appearance, but everything else is still technically up in the air.
Unless, of course, you take a closer look at the rumors and quasi-confirmations we’ve collected from around the net…
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