Marvel unviels their next four projects

[Tribal Warfare]

Marvel Unveils CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, THOR: THE DARK WORLD, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and ANT-MAN

Saturday’s Hall H panel for Marvel at Comic-Con was billed as Iron Man 3, but from previous experience we all knew to expect more goodies from Marvel Studios than just IM3. We were right, as the studio announced full, intriguing titles for Thor 2 and Captain America 2, confirmed Guardians of the Galaxy (including which characters will appear), and revealed test footage for Ant-Man with a surprise appearance by Edgar Wright.

Hit the jump for my full recap of this “update” portion of the Marvel panel. [Update: We've updated the article with concept art for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie as well as logos for all the upcoming Marvel films]

Chris-Hemsworth-Thor 2 the dark worldFeige opened the panel by saying that they’re working on four movies in active development. The first is Iron Man 3, hitting theaters on May 3rd, 2013. He then went on to reveal titles for two previously known sequels, and confirmed another property that we’d heard rumblings of in the past few weeks.

Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013)
Thor: The Dark World (November 8, 2013)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 4, 2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1, 2014)

For fans of the comics, the subtitle “The Winter Soldier” should provide a hint as to where the Captain America sequel will go. The title is a reference to a comics storyline that will find Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) taking an integral role.

guardians-of-the-galaxy-movieFeige added that Zachary Levi has been confirmed as the character of Fandrel in the Thor sequel, and revealed the team that will be unleashed for Guardians of the Galaxy:

StarLord
Drax the Destroyer
Rocket Raccoon
Groot
Gamora

In a fantastic surprise, Feige then introduced Edgar Wright to talk about Ant-Man. Wright had been tweeting about being in London for the past few days in an effort to throw fans off, but he came out to a very warm reception.

“I’m taking the Terrence Malick approach to superheroes,” said Wright referring to the long road of development on Ant-Man.
Wright and Joe Cornish wrote two more drafts of the script last year, but they’ve been done for quite a while.

ant-man-movie-logoThey then revealed test footage that Wright shot for Ant-Man, after Wright toyed for a bit with the audience saying they wouldn’t really want to see a clip of stuff with wires and blue screens in it. It’s completely unfinished since they shot it two weeks ago, but they showed the footage anyway because Marvel absolutely owns Comic-Con.

The footage opened with Ant-Man sitting on a ledge in an air conditioning vent that lead to a hallway guarded by two agents. The costume was pretty metallic looking, and he snuck through the vent hole and started running down the hallway. He morphed to normal size, shocking the guards, then morphed back down to ant size and kept running. Still in “ant size” he leapt up and punched one of the guys in the face, knocking the spit out of him, then he ran and attacked the other guard.

The footage was obviously rough, but I thought the big/small effects worked great. Wright found a way to make Ant-Man’s power work in a cool and useful way on screen, while still allowing room for the playful tone that he does so well. While I was hoping we’d see someone like Simon Pegg play the role just for fun in the test footage, the actor was wearing the Ant-Man helmet the entire time so we never saw his face. The lights then came back up.

“I’ve been doing one second of that for the last six years,” quipped Wright
Wright confirmed that the costume seen in the test footage will most likely be what makes the final film. He described it as a mix between the Silver Age and contemporary Ant-Man, adding “Ant-Man will kick your ass one inch at a time.”
Wright said there’s no casting to announce, but “revealed” that Ant-Man has been here in Hall H all day, pulling out an Ant-Man title card and putting it on the table next to him.

Wright then left the stage to make way for the Iron Man 3 panel, but these bits of news from Marvel were met with wild applause from the audience. Hit the comments to discuss the goings-on from today’s Marvel panel, and read Matt’s recap of Iron Man 3 right here. [Update: Simon Pegg tweeted that he, Nick Frost, and Wright start filming The World's End in 10 weeks, then Wright will film Ant-Man sometime next year.]

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by Aries Walker

Also, D'Onofrio is perfect.

He needs to get back to his Private Pyle weight, although in that recent picture it looks like he has put on a few lbs

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

nice.

A+ casting as a villain.

Marvel's (movie) villains always outshine the heroes...

[DaveNull]

I've enjoyed the first few issues of the new Daredevil run.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by DaveNull

I've enjoyed the first few issues of the new Daredevil run.

I haven't read it.

The whole "Marvel NOW" thing has completely $3it on continuity and appears only to be a vehicle to make the comix more like the movies they've already planned...

[DaveNull]

Being relatively new to comics, I think it's worked out better than the New 52. Some of them are pretty unique and won't translate to movies like Silver Surfer. The artwork in Black Widow is just amazing.

I really wish they'd do a Hawkguy movie and have Fraction write it, but I just don't see it happening, unfortunately.

[DaveNull]

I'll also add that I thought Civil War sucked a lot and created enough baggage that setting it aside is a good idea.

[Aries Walker]

Originally Posted by Rausch

A+ casting as a villain.

Marvel's (movie) villains always outshine the heroes...

Hmm, I don't know about that. I'd say there have been stunning standouts and crushing disappointments on both sides. We all remember Loki and Magneto, but do you recall what they did to Dr. Doom?

[Aries Walker]

Originally Posted by DaveNull

I really wish they'd do a Hawkguy movie and have Fraction write it, but I just don't see it happening, unfortunately.

I'd be happy if he'd just release the comics on a somewhat regular schedule.

[DaveNull]

Between Hawkeye, Sex Criminals and Satellite Sam I'm guessing he's pretty busy. I think Aja is more of the hold up though. Surprising how Black Widow is staying on schedule.

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by Aries Walker

Hmm, I don't know about that. I'd say there have been stunning standouts and crushing disappointments on both sides. We all remember Loki and Magneto, but do you recall what they did to Dr. Doom?

Under the Marvel cinematic umbrella, they have done a fine job with villains with the big exception of the Mandarin nonsense. And very soon they will be adding Ronan the Accuser, Ultron and Thanos to the list.

[Swanman]

New character posters for Guardians:

[Aries Walker]

Originally Posted by Swanman

Under the Marvel cinematic umbrella, they have done a fine job with villains with the big exception of the Mandarin nonsense. And very soon they will be adding Ronan the Accuser, Ultron and Thanos to the list.

Even then, I still give the edge to the heroes based mostly on the fact that they haven't fouled any of their characterizations up. There have been some villains that have been either medium-strength or downright weak (basically the Iron Man villains, plus Deathlok and Malekith). With heroes, though, the only mediocre characters are on Agents of SHIELD, and they're getting a lot better; the big-name ones have all been spot on.

Frankly, I'll be happy if they just do Ultron justice. He has always been one of my favorite villains, since he's so much more than just Evil Robot.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Swanman

Under the Marvel cinematic umbrella, they have done a fine job with villains with the big exception of the Mandarin nonsense. And very soon they will be adding Ronan the Accuser, Ultron and Thanos to the list.

I thought he short 'Hail to the King' (err think that was the name) more than made up for what happened with mandarin in IM3. And it's supposedly leading to more.

[Aries Walker]

We can only hope.

[unlurking]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I thought he short 'Hail to the King' (err think that was the name) more than made up for what happened with mandarin in IM3. And it's supposedly leading to more.

This is the key, IMO. The short was more of an apology than the righting of a wrong. IM4 with a strong Mandarin character would make up for IM3. Kingsley is such an awesome actor though, so there will be high expectation placed on his replacement.