This was a long and exciting weekend with all the news coming from Comic-Con. There are a few things we want to share with you in case you missed it. Let’s start off with all the Marvel Movie News.
The biggest announcement concerns the subtitle for the second Captain America film. It was officially announced to be ‘The Winter Soldier.’ This is a huge spoiler for the plot for comic fans. I think it’s a great move on Marvel’s part. It is a very interesting story that will put a lot of heart into the film. Most importantly it will be something that Captain America will want to do alone, a common thread with the news.
‘Iron Man’ continues it’s subtitleless streak, but confirmed Ben Kingsly as The Mandarin. The film will definitely connect to Iron Man’s origins ensuring that Stark keeps the rest of the Avengers out of his business. They’ve been hinting at Mandarin since the first film and I’m happy to see him included. The most important part is not making the character come off racist, like many comic versions of him, but also not stupidly foreign like Mickey Rourke.
Thor has been given the subtitle ‘The Dark World.’ This sounds very dumb but basically Thor won’t be on Earth, thus no other Avengers and just Asgardians in this one. Mad Mikkelsen sadly has left the film and they are currently looking for a new villain.
Edgar Wright made an appearance and showed some Ant-Man test footage to basically sell the character since no one believes it could work on screen. So far reactions have been great and we should be seeing a Ant-Man film next year. It also looks like it will be Scott Lang and not Hank Pym. Which is good because we already have 2 scientists in the Avengers in Stark and Banner, no need to jam in a third. A slightly roguish character will work best.
Guardians of the Galaxy got a logo and a basic line up. Not much to say here except watch out for Rocket Raccoon being the break out star of 2013. I’m especially excited for their involvement in the second Avengers film because a scene between him an Hulk could be the best thing ever.
Apart from announcing a Black Panther movie or getting some rights back from Fox, I literally can’t think of how Marvel could have done better. I can’t wait for the big Phase 2 box set in 5 years (I just preordered Phase 1)!