User blog:Spencerz/May 16, 2014

With The Avengers looming ever closer, I figured it'd be a good time to bring this up. As many of you know, Marvel announced late last year that two new films would be released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2014, one on April 4, and the other and May 16. With the revelation last week that Captain America 2 would be taking the April date, it'd be interesting ot get opinions about what the second film could be.

Below I threw together a short list of movies that I feel have a shot. Keep in mind that these are prediction about those that would fall into the established continuity of the universe.

1. The Incredible Hulk 2: Marvel has said numerous times that The Incredible Hulk meet their expectations revenue-wise, and that a sequel would follow The Avengers. Seeing as Hulk is the only film in the series not to have an announced sequel, a second film for the green guy seems logical.

2. Ant-Man: Edgar Wright, director of 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, has been working on an Ant-Man film for quite some time now. Wright claims that the script is being finalized, but has been flip-flopping in interviews about whether or not the movie will be apart of the MCU. Seeing how Ant-Man is an Avenger in mainstream continuity, and how he's in no way a bankable, recognizable character to the Average, Non-Comic-Reading Joe, it seems like the MCU is the best option for him.

3. Black Panther: Announced last year, Marvel has hired documentary filmmaker Mark Bailey to write a Black Panther script. With Jon Favreau's Black Panther Easter egg in Iron Man 2, it seems almost certian that Black Panther will be in the MCU.

While those three really seem like front runners, there's also the obligatory mention of the numerous films that actors, producers, directors and the like claim are "totally going to happen reeeally soon" (some of which seem horribly out of place in the MCU), the big named ones including War Machine, Black Widow, Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Power Pack, Hawkeye, The Avengers 2, Namor, Shang-Chi, The Inhumans and Nick Fury/S.H.I.E.L.D. (no one can ever decide on a name for that one). Who knows? Marvel could throw us for a curve with one of these back-burner movies.

And finally, while they do seem like odd choices for MCU films, Marvel has also been working on films for Dr. Strange, with a full script being currently being shopped around to directors, and yet abother reboot of The Punisher, who's rights have reverted back to Marvel, and who's script in being layed out (maybe Marvel can do him justice this time around).

So what are your thoughts, Database users? Who do you feel is getting the final slot on Marvel's 2014 movie calender, and the right to call themselves the 10th installment of the Marvel Cinematic Univers?