Hello and welcome to In Too Deep Into Marvel, where I go through the Marvel movies over the next few months.
Well thus far I’ve done the ten movies and one TV series released by the Marvel studios company. No doubt when a new thing comes along I’ll mention it and put it into this list. But since I’ve spent eleven blogs looking back, lets spend one blog where I see if I can successfully predict the next four years. So that when 2018 rolls around we can look back on this and laugh at me.
2014
Before we start, we need to set something up. So far we’ve seen three of the Infinity Stones in the film, these stones being things of immense power. We have the Tesseract, the ‘space stone’ capable of manipulating space. We’ve seen the Orb, in which was the ‘power stone’ capable of giving the user great power and destroying anything. Now we know that the Aether from Thor: The Dark World is an Infinity Stone, but which one? Well it’s been said it’s the ‘reality stone’, and most likely that name the one that fits due to the power of the thing. It can manipulate reality in a big way, with the bad guy planning to use it to change the universe. Plus it allowed the user to jump from world to world easily enough. So that’s three, are there any more? Well one thing common in a few movies is Loki’s sceptre. Is it possible that the gem in it is the ‘mind stone’, capable of manipulating people’s minds. It would certainly make a lot of sense if this was the case. So that’s four stones at least, the ‘time stone’ and ‘soul stone’. Where could the other two be? Well lets find out.
2015
Avengers: Age of Ultron: So what’s likely to happen in this film? Well it’s clear that Baron Strucker (the guy from the Captain America: The Winter Solider stinger) is using Loki’s sceptre to control Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. No doubt we’ll have the film’s first act/opening being the Avengers taking these guys down and having them join the Avengers. This leads to Iron Man to create Ultron, who in turn turns evil and fights the Avengers. Now I predict that the ‘mind stone’ in Loki’s sceptre will play a part in this, probably being the thing that turns Ultron evil. But the post-credits stinger will probably feature Thanos having the Infinity Gauntlet in some way, with perhaps one or more of the stones.
2016
Ant-Man: Honestly don’t have much to speculate about this one. How much it ties in with the other films is currently unknown, or how it’ll play into the larger mythos. While the two films this year (and of last year) have been split between earth-bound and S.H.I.E.L.D development (Iron Man 3 & Captain America: The Winter Solider) and more fantasy, universe building stuff (Thor: The Dark World & Guardians of the Galaxy) it’s hard to say what Ant-Man will do. It’s obvious that it’s gonna be Earth-bound, but how much S.H.I.E.L.D is gonna feature in with the overall story remains to be seen.
Captain America 3: Now this one has been scheduled for May 6, 2016. What are we likely to see in it? Well this is me going so far out on a limb I’m balancing on the edge, but here me out: Captain America is from the forties. He’s a man out of time. Perhaps he’d want to go back there at some point? He’s also held onto the Time Gem at some point in the comics. Now so far every major movie (aside from Hulk) has dealt with one of these stones. Captain America is about the Tesseract, yes, but I’d argue that has a far bigger impact on the Iron Man franchise than anything else. The Tesseract is what gives Tony Stark all of this power. The Aether was introduced in Thor’s story and dealt with there. The Guardians of the Galaxy had the Power Stone. So which one of these characters hasn’t had a story about the Infinity Stone? A stone that would relate well to the character? Well it’s not impossible to believe that Captain America 3 switches genres again to a time-travel movie, having the Cap go back into the past. It would certainly make the most sense and give the character good moral conflicts.
2017
Guardians of the Galaxy 2: It’s already been confirmed for July 28, 2017, so what can we see here? Well on the one hand we might see the ‘time stone’ being introduced here, but I think that’s a bit unlikely. Marvel has been introducing one stone a year and will probably want to keep this trend up. And since there’s another one probably introduced this year, it’s more likely that the Guardians won’t encounter it. So will they encounter the ‘soul stone’ instead? Maybe, but I have a hunch it’ll go in a different direction. So what is this film about then? Well it’s a prologue for Avengers 3. It’s a build-up for Thanos. This is the movie where we learn more about who this character is and why he does what he does. He was introduced for the first time in the first GOTG movie, makes sense they’ll explore it a bit more here. That’s my guess at least.
Doctor Strange: Out of all the characters that could be getting their own movie, he’s the one I’m putting my money on for two reasons. Firstly he gets name-checked in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, so in this universe he clearly exists. But the second has to do with the ‘soul stone’. Now the soul stone is the most ‘magical’ stone there is, being able to manipulate souls of people. It makes sense that he would be the one that directly interacts with the stone, it being the McGuffin between him and the big bad. Furthermore he’s the current holder of the stone in the comics. So it’s not hard to put two and two together and think that this is what Marvel is going to do for Phrase 3.
2018
Avengers 3: The Avengers come together to fight Thanos, who has the Infinity Gauntlet and all the stones attached to it. No idea how they’re gonna play this out, except that Ant-Man and Doctor Strange are probably gonna play a part (the latter more than the former) and that the Guardians of the Galaxy will also be instrumental. If they don’t appear in the film their presence will very much be felt. Now going by the trend started with Harry Potter it’s entirely likely this film will be split into two parts, one now and one in 2019, to capture the huge scope of the whole thing. It’s essentially the final send-off to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a way of wrapping everything up. Robert Downey Jr. leaves the franchise, probably taking the character of Iron Man with him. Marvel focuses on doing the whole thing again with a completely new set of characters, to make a second version of The Avengers. A version where characters like She-Hulk and Black Panther are part of the team. But this will have a very ‘grand finale’ feel about it as ten years of stories get paid off in one last glorious moment.
So there you have it. My look at the next four years in the Marvel films and where they’re likely to go with it. If you disagree with anything, or have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment. Till next time.
