Guess what? Marvel’s cinematic universe is about get to get an infusion of some much, much, much needed diversity!
They’re planning on Captain Marvel!
And Black Panther!
Woo-fucking-Hoo!
During a “secret” event for fans and press today in Los Angeles at Disney’s El Capitan theater, Marvel Studios melted fans’ brains when it revealed titles and release dates for all nine Marvel Phase 3 films.
Following Avengers 2, the studio will be releasing:
- Captain America: Civil War (May 6th, 2016);
- Dr. Strange (Nov. 4th, 2016);
- Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (May 5th, 2017);
- Thor: Ragnarok (July 18th, 2017);
- Black Panther (November 3, 2017);
- Avengers: Infinity War, Part 1 (May 4th, 2018);
- Captain Marvel (July 6th, 2018);
- Inhumans (November 2nd, 2018);
- Avengers: Infinty War, Part 2 (May 3rd, 2019).
The presentation began with a deliberate and hilarious bit of misdirection, as it was first announced thatCaptain America 3 would be subtitled “Serpent Society.” Obviously, that would have contradicted all recent rumors suggesting a battle between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers influenced by Marvel’s Civil War crossover event. However, midway through the presentation, Marvel corrected itself, revealing “Civil War” as Robert Downey, Jr. and Chris Evans were brought out on stage for the announcement.
Meanwhile, 42 actor Chadwick Boseman was announced as the lead in Black Panther, introduced to fans formally by Robert Downey, Jr. and Chris Evans during a skit in which Downey, Jr. and Evans pretended to fight, then demanded Boseman pick sides. Cue wild speculation on how Black Panther will* officially debut in the MCU during Cap 3. It’s worth noting, by the way, that in the comics, Black Panther is from the fictional African nation of Wakanda, notable among other things for being the source of the Vibranium used to make Captain America’s shield.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wasn’t familiar with Chadwick Boseman, and I imagine others might be similarly in the dark, so here he is:
IMDB has a list of his movie and tv appearances to date.
Oh, and of course this means that Marvel will be putting one of its biggest black heroes on the screen before DC’s Cyborg in 2020. Yes, the fanboy in me is squeaming right now!
Huzzah!
I had heard hints about all of these, except the Inhumans. Curious what they’ll do with that.
So am I. From what little I’ve gathered, Marvel Studios really wants the X-Men (and Spider-Man) back. Some sort of deal was worked out way back before the first X-Men movie that apparently gives FOX the rights to mutant characters in the Marvel Universe (which is why I think Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch won’t be mutants in Avengers 2). As such, Marvel has told writers they cannot create new mutants. Even more, I read recently that Marvel may be planning to somehow transform their mutants into Inhumans (in the comics, Black Bolt recently released a Terrigen Bomb that affected latent Inhumans around the globe and gave them powers, which is eerily similar to mutants), so that they can control the movie properties. I have no idea how truthful this is, or how they could go about transforming all mutants into Inhumans without rebooting the Marvel Universe (something Marvel keeps saying they won’t do). So take that with 2 or 3 grains of salt.