Marvel, the now box office destroying studio behind Avengers Assemble and Iron Man 3, have been letting a few cats out of bags of late in regards to Avengers 2 and Phase 3 of the Marvel-verse. First up, Joss Whedon, the writer director behind the third biggest grossing movie of all time; The Avengers, has been talking about the proposed inclusion of the brother and sister superheroes he mentioned might be appearing in Avengers 2. It was revealed last week that said characters would be, as internet rumours suggested, Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch. Whedon said that he’s looking to introduce characters into The Avengers that make the other characters’ lives hard. While the pari are in Whedon’s current draft there is no guarantee they’ll still be there come production.
Elsewhere, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige was talking to Entertainment Weekly about Phase 3, which will begin with Edgar Wright’s long gestating Ant Man film. He talked in detail about the possibility of a Hulk movie but was swift to point out that it would not be Planet Hulk stating that at the moment their interest is in Mark Ruffalo’s incarnation of Bruce Banner, who does not appear at all in Planet Hulk. Ruffalo is the third big screen incarnation of Banner, after Eric Bana and Edward Norton, and he certainly hit a cord with fans in Avengers.
Finally Feige talked bout Robert Downey Jr. and those ongoing negotiations for him to return as Tony Stark, his contract having now been completed with Iron Man 3. It seems while he wants to return for Avengers 2 and potentially 3, he is reluctant to continue any stand-alone Iron Man movies. Crucially though Feige believes the character can be as ‘evergreen as James Bond’. The implication being he wants to see multiple Iron Man movies but of course Bond has been played by multiple actors so it’s more than likely we’ll see Iron Man played by a different actor in future films. For now we’ll anxiously look forward to Thor: The Dark World before Captain America: The Winter Solider hits screens in 2014 and the finally Avengers 2 in 2015. All this of course and the small matter of the launching of the new franchise in the shape of Guardians Of The Galaxy set for release in 2014. Like Tony Stark churning out endless Iron Man suite designs, Marvel are certainly keeping their productivity and output high. Source – IGN and Entertainment Weekly