Movie news has been coming out all this week with Man of Steel news and J.J. being named director, so Marvel had to drop some announcements as well. Kevin Feige of Marvel sat down with MTV and gave some information about the upcoming Ant-Man and possible Doctor Strange films.
For fans wanting to see Marvel movies venture out of the most iconic characters (they have rights to) and delve into the lesser publicly known characters this could be big news. When Phase Three of the Marvel movies starts it won’t mirror the previous two but will start venturing out with characters as of now including Ant-Man and a possible Doctor Strange. Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man adaptation has been official for a while now but Feige talk a little about the only reason why it is being made and where it will fit inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Ant-Man is definitely part of Phase Three. Like Iron Man 3, it’s certainly set in the Marvel Universe, but it’s also through the lens of Edgar Wright – which is the only reason we’re making the movie.
I’ve known Edgar since our first lunch together at Comic-Con in 2004. He asked me what Marvel was doing with Ant-Man – we weren’t even a studio then; what a difference eight years makes! It’s very much an Ant-Man origin movie from the perspective of Edgar Wright and his co-writer Joe Cornish. It will of course be firmly planted in the MCU, but a different corner than we’ve seen before.
Feige goes on to talk about the shift we will start seeing after Avengers 2.
So much of the stories we’re telling [right now]is about the core ‘Avengers’ characters we’ve now met, and they’ll be evolving in big, surprising ways, in Cap’s next movie and Thor’s next movie and of course in ‘Iron Man 3,’ as we get them all into the next ‘Avengers’ film.
Ant-Man’ is the only one officially announced, but you probably don’t have to look too far to guess at the next list of characters we’re toying with and beginning to develop.
Another piece of the “corner we’ve never seen before” could contain the Doctor Strange film Feige talks up when mentioning possible directions for Phase Three.
Doctor Strange, which I’ve been talking about for years, is definitely one of them.
He’s a great, original character, and he checks the box off this criteria that I have: he’s totally different from anything else we have, just like Guardians Of The Galaxy. He’s totally different from anything we’ve done before, as is Ant-Man, which keeps us excited.
Phase Three won’t commence until after Avengers 2 in 2015, but Ant-Man will kick it off in the fall of the same year. With the pull away from the core of characters we have seen so far could hard times be headed for Iron Man, Captain, and Thor? Or are more heros needed to face a coming threat? Let the speculation and casting rumors commence!
7 Comments
That’s an awesome Doctor Strange picture Zach – where did you get it from?
Just a quick Google search for Doctor Strange should pull it up.
If only Bruce Campbell were 20 years younger.
Doctor Strange has always been one of my favorite characters and I think he is long overdue for a big-budget adaption. That said, they are going to have to be careful what sort of Doctor Strange tale they tell. A lot of his big villains are almost Lovecraftian entities and things so alien they are almost incomprehensible. I don’t want to see him end up fighting a cloud like what we saw in the second Fantastic Four movie or in Green Lantern. Keeping it to someone like Baron Mordu or even Dormammu will help that a lot I think.
There’s already a Doctor Strange movie from 1978. Why make a new one, that one’s so classic. lol. I’d be up for a Doctor Strange movie, I hope they think long and hard with how to present it. He’s a character that doesn’t have the instant appeal of an Iron Man. I’ll be there though.
Actually, I’d argue that he has EXACTLY the same appeal as Iron Man, at least as Iron Man did before the movie. Neither of them have been anything close to household names, nor had Thor. Captain America was known, but certainly not like Spider-Man or Batman…
I can see that. I guess they both have about as much familiarity amongst the general public (pre-Iron Man 1), but I guess I mean that a guy in a flying suit of armor might have an easier time appealing to an audience that a gray-templed cloak wearing sorcerer. I think they can do some amazing visuals with the magic and can certainly grip people, but we’re moving more into the direction past pseudo-scientific plausibility. Thor did that and while I still greatly enjoy it, I feel it was the weakest movie of the lot. Although I have found it more enjoyable on repeat viewings. I have some faith in Marvel though, so I look forward to it. I can’t wait until they make a Great Lakes Avengers movie, maybe get Joss for that one too.