At the end of The Avengers we got a tease about the direction the next ‘phase’ of the Marvel movie-verse would be heading. Seeing as how that film has currently made over $600 Million at the box office in the states alone, it is safe to openly discuss that Thanos was pulling the master strings in The Avengers.
That could have several different influences on the next phase of Marvel movies. We wont know for sure exactly what will happen in the next set of films, and the inevitable Avengers 2, but the new franchises Marvel sets in motion in this phase should give us some hints.
The guys over at Latino Review have allegedly figured out what one of those new franchise is going to be:
Marvel’s plan has been 2 superhero movies in their Unified Film Universe each year. Next year will bring us the new entries into the ‘Thor’ and ‘Iron Man’ and 2014 will bring us ‘Captain America 2′ and… GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.
You can expect official confirmation in a few weeks at Geek Mecca. In the mean time we can start to piece together what these clues mean for the next three years of the Marvel Movie-verse. For one, the subtle hints at the Infinity Gauntlet story line in the post credit sequence gets a little stronger.
One of the key members of the more recent incarnations of the Guardians is the character Adam Warlock, a key character in the Infinity Gauntlet saga. Introducing him in a pre-Avengers film will is exactly how you would set up his role in a gauntlet inspired story line.
Also this indicates that the next phase of films will focus on the cosmic spectrum of the Marvel Universe, as opposed to a more traditional earth based crisis, like Ultron, or a mystic arch that involves the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange.
One of the major theories about phase two involved an introduction of the magical arts with a Doctor Strange film. This could have been strengthened by persistent rumors that the Mandarin is sneakily a part of Iron Man 3. Now it seems like maybe the magic side of the Marvel experience is being held off until phase 3.
Of course this is all total and complete speculation. Expect the picture of Marvel’s phase two to become more clear after Comic-Con when actual things get announced. Also next year’s Iron Man and Thor sequels will be setting the stage for Phase two, so anyone keen to search out clues can look to those film’s as a starting point.
Oh and how did I go a whole article about a Guardians of the Galaxy movie without mentioning Rocket Raccoon? Yes, there will likely be a talking, bad-ass raccoon mask available in your local Target sometime in 2014.
