It's been almost a decade since Marvel's Iron Man made superhero movie skeptics sit up and
take notice, and the comic book movie craze isn't going away anytime soon.
There are a slew of superhero flicks scheduled to hit cinemas over the next few years, but
as franchises continue to expand, it becomes harder and harder to keep track of what's
happening and who's who.
"Wait a minute you guys aren't the real Avengers, Hulk gives it away."
This is everything you need to know about upcoming superhero movies through the end
of 2018.
Thor: Ragnarok
Chris Hemsworth will reprise his role as the hilariously heroic Asgardian god in Marvel's
Thor: Raganarok, and Tom Hiddleston will be back to make sure no new villains take over
his spot as number one fanboy villain, though he'll face stiff competition from Cate Blanchett.
The British Oscar winner comes on board as Hela, goddess of the underworld, who might
just be the best Marvel villain yet.
The film takes a cue from the surreal visuals of Doctor Strange, and looks like it's been
pulled right out of the comic pages, which is a good thing.
And with director Taika Waititi at the helm, Ragnarok's November 3rd, 2017 release date
can't come soon enough.
Thor agrees.
"I'm not up to much at the moment.
What are you doing later?"
Justice League
If the future of DC films relies on any one project, it's Justice League.
The eagerly awaited team-up of DC's greatest heroes could make or break the Extended Universe
after its rocky start.
Equaling the success of Marvel's Avengers is the basic goal for DC here, and director
Joss Whedon is on board to help make that happen.
Whedon has agreed to shepherd Justice League through post-production and will also shoot
some additional scenes, still aiming for the original November 17th, 2017 release date.
Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot will be joined by Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra
Miller as The Flash and Ray Fisher as Cyborg.
Irish actor Ciaran Hinds confirmed that he's playing classic villain Steppenwolf via motion
capture.
With one of Darkseid's main men finally onscreen, can Darkseid be far behind?
And will DC films finally lighten up a little?
"Dressed like a bat.
I dig it."
We hope so.
Black Panther
While we're not sure how the big screen version of Wakanda will differ from Stan Lee and Jack
Kirby's comic book vision of a high-tech jungle world, we'll find out on February 16th, 2018.
After a handful of screenplay edits and juggling directors, Marvel secured Creed director Ryan
Coogler, and the sizzle reel for Black Panther which recently screened at Marvel's Los Angeles
offices reportedly had everyone very excited.
Joining Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther will be Lupita Nyong'o, Forest Whitaker, Angela
Bassett, and Creed's Michael B. Jordan, who said that Black Panther will be a "very honest
and gritty" movie.
How that will fall in with comedic action fare like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man
is anyone's guess, but with Andy Serkis' evil Ulysses Klaw showing up, anything is possible.
New Mutants
Fox has handed the reins of their X-Men spinoff franchise to filmmaker Josh Boone, who admitted
to being "obsessed with Marvel Comics."
He took it upon himself to convince the studio to put the New Mutants on the big screen,
and alongside co-writer Knate Gwaltney, they put together their own New Mutants comic book
based on stories they wanted to adapt for Fox.
The studio loved it.
Fox recently confirmed a release date of April 2018, with Game of Thrones vet Maisie Williams
signed on to play the hairy mutant Wolfsbane, and The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy signed
on to star as Magik, sister of the X-Men's Colossus.
Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton will portray the jet-powered mutant Cannonball, 13 Reasons
Why actor Henry Zaga is signed on as Sunspot, and newcomer Blu Hunt will take on the part
of Native American mutant Moonstar.
Rumor has it that they'll be up against one of Marvel's weirdest villains, and one of
their early adversaries: the Demon Bear.
And everyone knows that bears are bad news.
"I'm sick of these constant bear attacks.
It's like a freakin country bear jamboroo around here!"
Avengers: Infinity War
Good news, impatient Marvel fans: Infinity War will be a standalone movie, and not broken
up into two films released an excruciating year apart as originally thought.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo cleared up the confusion, admitting that the working
titles were "misleading."
And we'll see it all on May 4th, 2018.
MCU fans know to expect to see just about every Marvel superhero appearing in a battle
against Thanos, and behind the scenes footage from Marvel as confirmed Star-Lord actor Chris
Pratt on set with Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland.
Brie Larson's Captain Marvel is also set to make her MCU debut.
Marvel is positioning the two upcoming Avengers flicks as the culmination of everything they've
been working toward since the first Iron Man movie dropped in 2008.
Marvel's Joe Russo confirms the hype.
"These next two Avengers films will be an event like no one has seen on film before."
Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige also addresses their well-documented villain issue.
"Thanos shows us why he is the biggest, the best, the baddest villain that we've ever
had."
What should we expect in Infinity War's sequel?
The Russos have revealed that they're considering as many as 67 well-known Marvel characters
to round out the film's incredible roster.
The title of the sequel was being kept under wraps at Marvel, though Guardians of the Galaxy
star Zoe Saldana recently dropped a huge hint by mistake.
"And we all have to go back for Gauntlet later this year."
Does that mean Avengers 4 will be called Infinity Gauntlet?
All we know is that one of those 67 Marvel characters had better be MODOK.
"Surrender to MODOK!"
"Seriously dude, you've got baby arms and legs!"
Deadpool 2
After 2016's Deadpool became the highest-grossing film in the X-Men franchise, keeping the creative
team together for the follow-up seemed essential.
But director Tim Miller has departed the sequel, allegedly because star Ryan Reynolds didn't
back his demands for a larger budget.
David Leitch of John Wick fame has since stepped up to direct, and Josh Brolin will be welcomed
into the fold as the Merc With a Mouth's time-traveling foil, Cable.
Jack Kesy, best known as philandering rocker Gabriel Bolivar in FX vampire series The Strain,
has reportedly signed on as the villainous mutant Black Tom Cassidy.
And because it wouldn't be Deadpool without his reluctant, accidental sidekicks, Stefan
Kapicic and Brianna Hildebrand will return as metallic X-Man Colossus and his understudy
Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
Prepare to be offended in the best possible way on June 1st, 2018.
The Incredibles 2
After veering off into live action, Pixar legend Brad Bird is set to return to his bread
and butter with a follow up to his 2004 animated superhero smash, The Incredibles.
A second outing with the Parr family was first announced in 2014, a decade after the original
film, with a 2019 release date penciled in.
When pressed for details, Bird said,
"I don't like unwrapping presents before Christmas.
[The film is] very actively moving, and we're excited about it.
[We're] trying to take it in some new directions."
Just a few months later, Frozone voice actor Samuel Jackson was posting photos to Instagram
from his Incredibles 2 recording session, and the film's much-anticipated release date
had been moved forward to June 2018, with Toy Story 4 pushed back to make way.
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Kevin Feige recently confirmed that the sequel to 2015's Ant-Man would go into production
in summer 2017, with the aim being to wrap in time for a release by July, 2018.
Michael Douglas confirmed that he'd be returning as Hank Pym, and he won't be the only returning
member of the supporting cast, with Michael Pena and David Dastmalchian also set to reprise
their roles, alongside Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly in the titular roles.
Returning director Peyton Reed seems excited about the film, particularly about introducing
The Wasp to the MCU, saying,
"For me as a comic nerd, I always thought of Ant-Man and Wasp as a team and that's a
lot of what the second movie is really about.
To show her finally fully formed in this movie is really exciting."
Venom
Sony has been trying to produce a Venom movie for over a decade, but we now finally have
confirmation that the studio is prioritizing the project, pushing for an October 2018 release.
Powerhouse Tom Hardy has signed on to play the lead role of Eddie Brock, the first villain
to take on the Venom symbiote suit in Marvel comics.
Sony confirmed the casting when they tweeted a photo of Hardy wearing a Venom t-shirt along
with a caption that revealed production is set to start this fall.
Directing duties have been offered to Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer.
Producers are hoping Hardy is better received by fans than Sony's previous Venom, played
by Topher Grace, as Hardy's set to play a central role in what they're calling the Sony
Marvel Universe.
Hardy will be working from a script penned by Scott Rosenberg and The Amazing Spider-Man
2 co-writer Jeff Pinkner.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Fox has announced the 12th film in their X-Franchise, based on the life and death of Jean Grey,
loosely centered on the events around the Uncanny X-Men story arc of the same name,
and the cosmic force responsible for Grey going a little crazy.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set to open in November 2018.
Few other details are known at this stage, though an Instagram post from James McAvoy
suggests that he'll be involved.
The Scot snapped himself having dinner with fellow Professor X actor Patrick Stewart and
long time franchise producer Simon Kinberg, captioning the pic "I can't wait for the summer,"
which is when production is scheduled to take place.
Aquaman
DC fans got their first glimpse of natural born badass Jason Momoa as Aquaman in Batman
versus Superman: Dawn of Justice last year, and they'll be seeing him again in next year's
Justice League before his first solo flick hits screens.
While the casting seems solid, question marks remain over Aquaman after a series of destabilizing
changes behind the scenes, and whether it will meet its December 21st, 2018 release
date.
DC Comics is already adjusting Aquaman's paper counterpart to look and act more like Momoa's
bigscreen King of the Sea, so we'll be getting a pretty good idea of what to expect when
he finally makes his real debut in Justice League.
One thing's for certain, however: no one's going to make fun of Aquaman after this.
No one.
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