Kenneth Branagh‘s big-screen adaptation of THOR is just weeks away from hitting theaters and it’s only a few months until the Joe Johnston directed Captain America: The First Avenger hunts down the nefarious Red Skull at your local cineplex. Of course this all leading up to director Joss Whedon‘s superhero team-up, The Avengers. So, what will Marvel Studios do after that?
The folks over at IGN recently got a look at the upcoming summer issue of Disney twenty-three magazine, the quarterly publication of D23: The Official Disney Fan Club which contains an interview with Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige who shared a bit about Marvel’s cinematic future:
“X-Men was the dawn of the new Marvel cinematic age,” said Feige. “Iron Man was the dawn of the Marvel Studios age and the establishment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the beginning of that continuity. The Avengers is the next big step. Once all these characters come together, it’s the culmination of all that has come before. It launches a new era and a new time in the history of our films. Not only will it be the first film that our new home studio, Disney, will be distributing, but it will also renew each of these characters and launch them into their own franchises, starting with the second film to be released by Disney, Iron Man 3.”
Feige went on to describe the studio’s plans following The Avengers:
“Thor will go off into a new adventure, and Captain America will continue to explore the modern world in another film of his own. We hope that holds true for the characters appearing in that film — Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. —all of whom are more than worthy and capable of carrying their own films. And, we’ve got a lot of other characters we’re prepping and getting ready for film debuts: the world of martial arts, these great cosmic space fantasies, Dr. Strange, and the magic side of the Marvel Universe. There are many, many stories to be mined.”
THOR directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Stellan Skarsgard, Jaimie Alexander, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Josh Dallas, Tadanobu Asano, Idris Elba, Clark Gregg and Colm Feore is slated to hit U.K. theaters on April 27th, 2011 and U.S. theaters on May 6th, 2011.
Captain America: The First Avenger starring Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones, Neal McDonough, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell and Toby Jones is slated to hit theaters on July 22nd, 2011.
The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon and starring Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Clark Gregg and Tom Hiddleston is slated to hit theaters on May 4th, 2012.
