by DARIUS LEWIS Staff Writer
With the explosive commercial and critical success of “The Avengers” and more recently “Iron Man 3”, it is no wonder Marvel Studios is hard at work producing their latest series of superhero-themed entertainment. As a means of expanding their franchise, many future Marvel movies are going to be based on characters not known to the general moviegoing public.
For starters, the Disney-owned Marvel “Cinematic Universe” has many feature films in store, which will set the stage for “The Avengers 2”. Thor’s “The Dark World”, scheduled for release on November 8, and Captain America’s “The Winter Soldier”, to be released on April 4, 2014, will be Marvel’s next films that hope to succeed “Iron Man 3”.
Junior Amir Elhaddad said, “I saw [Iron Man 3]. The movie was definitely awesome.”
However, it has also been confirmed that a television series called “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” is being produced by Joss Whedon (director of “The Avengers”), and will tie in with the Marvel movie continuity.
The series will revolve around Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who was a supporting character in the movies, and his assembled team of highly trained agents as they battle extraterrestrial beings. Marvel’s plan is to assault the entertainment industry on the forefront and produce a plethora of content on all fields of media, including television, movies, and comic books.
A Marvel movie in the works that has garnered extensive coverage is “Guardians of the Galaxy”, which will be based on a relatively obscure comic book series of the same name. It will require extensive use of CGI, including a fully animated gun-wielding raccoon (known as Rocket Raccoon).
The unusual characters in the franchise combined with it not being known to the average moviegoer lead many to doubt its success. However, if this does manage to succeed, it will be a major victory for Marvel and establish yet another lucrative franchise to add to their list.
Sony’s “The Amazing Spiderman” came to theaters last summer with high hopes and an equally high net gross; however, legally binding restrictions prevent Spiderman from making an appearance in the Avengers sequel, which is currently owned by Disney.
Yet, there are those who believe that Marc Webb, the director of “Amazing Spiderman”, is set on exploiting his own chunk of the Marvel Universe and mapping out his own world with Spiderman at the forefront.
Sean O’ Connell, author and staff writer of Cinema Blend, said, “Think bigger. The Avengers proved that you can, if you take the time to lay the foundation, cast properly, and spread your storyline out. I think that’s what Webb is doing with this immediate sequel.”
With Marvel dominating the movie industry, it would be a wise decision for Warner Bros. to expand their own DC universe. Marvel and DC are age old rivals in the comic book industry, but DC pales in comparison in terms of movie making.
With the new Superman movie “Man of Steel” to be released in June, the Dark Knight trilogy finally wrapped up, it seems Warner Bros. could be setting the stage for a Justice League movie to compete with the Avengers. That could be possible; however, it would take years to properly lay the foundation for such a movie, and if the critical and commercial failure “Green Lantern” is any indication, it is not likely.
The Marvel cinematic universe is one that has near-limitless potential if they continue this path. So what movie are you looking forward to?