Marvel is the leading brand in Hollywood and no other movie franchise has even come close to making what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made in the last 10 years. According to reports, MCU movies have earned over $14 Billion at the box office worldwide and counting. The two upcoming Avengers movies are expected to make in excess of $3 Billion give or take which will make MCU most profitable franchise in the entire Hollywood.
Everyone wants to work in a Marvel movie as these are the movies that give actors a solid push in their careers and many veteran actors have also joined Marvel now, and more and more keep coming in as the Universe keeps on expanding on the big screen.
Before 2008 nobody would have thought that a comic book universe can be established and become commercially viable. Marvel has created history and forced rival studios such as Sony, Fox or Warner Bros. to follow its suit and deploy resources to build their own cinematic universes. It was totally unfathomable for superhero movies to enter into Billion dollar club but Marvel now has plethora of movies who are right there.
The next movie in the MCU is Avengers Infinity War which will be the greatest comic book extravaganza the world has ever seen. It will mark the culmination of everything happened till now in all the Marvel movies. Everything has led to Avengers and their allies facing their most terrifying adversary ‘Thanos’ who is coming to Earth along with his Black Order to collect all the six Infinity stones in order to assemble the all powerful Infinity gauntlet that grants its wielder insane powers to control cosmic singularities that makes life possible.
After Infinity War, the MCU will go in full force in the upcoming decade or so and there is no stopping them from achieving even newer heights. 2017 was the first year where Disney/Marvel released 3 movies in one year, and now Marvel has set release dates for movies till 2022. According to these scheduled dates, we will get 3 movies each till 2022, and we are bound to have 4 MCU movies in some year after that for sure.
As announced by Marvel almost 2 years ago, we are going to have 3 movies in 2020, and the release dates scheduled by Marvel are May 1, 2020, August 7, 2020, and November 6, 2020. And, here are the release dates for 2021 – May 6, 2021, July 30, 2021, and November 5, 2021. And, here are the release dates for 2022 – February 18, 2022, May 6, 2022, and July 27, 2022.
Out of all other projects, the Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn revealed that we are going to get Vol. 3 for sure in 2020. Other than that, only Black Panther 2 and Spider-Man Homecoming 2 have been confirmed by the studios. Homecoming 2 has got a July 2019 release date, and since Guardians Vol. 2 came out in May, so Vol. 3 will also come out on May 1, 2020. Black Panther is a huge money maker for Marvel as we have seen recently, so it will get a May 6 release date in 2021 for sure. Other than these, no other project has been officially green lit.
We know that Marvel has sequels planned, so we could expect to see a Doctor Strange 2, a Captain Marvel 2, Ant-Man and The Wasp 3 and Spider-Man 3 in 2021 to 2022. Other than that, a Black Widow movie is officially under works and Jac Schaeffer has been hired to pen down the script of the movie. Since the movie has been announced to be under works so soon and we know that Marvel likes to try new projects in the August release spot, Black Widow could easily hit the theatres on August 7, 2020.
So, all the green lit projects currently have writers attached to them, and Marvel has now brought back ‘The Avengers writer Zak Penn to work on a mystery project for the MCU. Penn is not new to the Superhero genre as he has worked on several Marvel projects like Elektra, X-Men 2, The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers. And now, he will be working on possibly one last Marvel movie. In his recent interview with ‘Screenrant’, he revealed that he has been brought back for one final Marvel project before he is finally done with the Superhero genre. Here’s what he said:
“I think I’m probably gonna come back. I think I’m gonna do one more Marvel, one more project in the Marvel Universe. I’m about to start doing, but…I have to check and see if I’m allowed to say what it is. For the most part I had a long run on comic book movies and I was kind of eager to, you know, just cause it can be really crushing, you know, at times…”
Well, Penn has been out of the Superhero genre since 2012 because it seems as if the Superhero fatigue hit him pretty hard, but the last 1 or two years saw amazing diversity and range in the Superhero genre, and this is what has got him excited again to work on one more movie. Here’s what he shared:
“Here’s the thing. Give them credit; I remember Kevin Feige saying like 13 years ago that he wanted to do Guardians of the Galaxy so he could do something with a totally different tone and he hopefully would get there. When I was at Marvel, we were just trying to get..I mean they asked, ‘What movie do you want to write?’ and I said the Avengers and it was always just about getting to the Avengers, you know? So I agree that now…like I was getting sick of comic book movies, honestly, I was getting really sick of them, until this past year. I mean I thought Logan is the best X-Men movie that’s been made and I thought Deadpool was one of the better superhero adaptations ever and so I applaud them for spreading their wings.”
So it is good that we have such an accomplished writer working on a secret upcoming project, but Penn has not revealed the name of this particular movie. it is safe to assume that Ryan Coogler will be writing the script or Black Panther 2 as well, and Homecoming 2, Guardians Vol. 3 and Black Widow already have writers working on them. So, what project could Zak Penn be working on?
Since the Avengers was a great success, he could be brought back for writing another team-up flick, but we have 2 Avengers and a Guardians movie already in the upcoming roster, so it could be possible that Marvel may have brought him in for a new solo project rather than a team-up movie.
Moreover, Marvel is looking to launch a female Team-up movie as well, so that could be the mystery project as well. Who knows, only time will tell. Which project do you guys think Zak Penn is penning down? It really could be anything as Kevin Feige confirmed that there are atleast 20 movies post Avengers 4. He has been cryptic when it comes to revealing the details about MCU Phase 4 and there has been conspicuous silence maintained by the creative team of Marvel. Here is what Feige said when asked about MCU future phases:
“Well, all I’ll say is the films we are working on now — which take us through to the Avengers Untitled in May of ’19 — that’s really all we are focusing on. And we are focusing on bringing, by that point, an unprecedented, 22-movie, continuous shared fictional narrative to a conclusion in a satisfying way. I think you look at the comics as a guide, although some titles get rebooted or re-launched, the narrative exist on a never-ending continuum”.
He added “Marvel Studios has a new direction filled with “good stories” beyond Phase 3. How we start anew and wherever we go beyond that is a story for another time. This is really about 10 years on, bringing something to a head in a satisfying and unexpected way.”
We will most likely learn more about the next phase when the Infinity War fever has receded. But one thing is confirmed that we will see completely new superheroes as contracts of all the Avengers are coming to an end and unlikely to be renewed. Also, we will see more magic and mysticism in Marvel movies in future.
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