UPDATE: Mary Jane Cut from Amazing Spider-Man 2

Shailene Woodley's minor role in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man 2 has reportedly been cut altogether. It'd be weird if MJ doesn't show up sometime, considering how important she is, but I guess she'll be joining us for the 3rd film. Her character was reportedly cut because of time constraints. On another note, this is going to be a long movie. Maybe close to 3 hours.

UPDATE: Aaron Taylor Johnson in talks to play Quicksilver

Aaron Taylor Johnson of Kick Ass  fame is in talks with Whedon to join the Avengers as Quicksilver. That's about all we know right now. 

UPDATE: RDJ Confirmed for Avengers 2 and 3

So the deal has been sealed. Robert Downey jr  has officially signed his name to return as Iron Man in the Avengers 2 and 3. 4 of the other actors (Renner, johansson, ruffalo, Evans) have confirmed they'll be back, and now the only wild card is Chris Hemsworth (Thor). God I cannot tell you how relieved I am right now. 

UPDATE: Doctor Who's Karen Gillan joins Guardians of the Galaxy

So this is mostly me fanboying, but if you've read my other posts here you know I love Doctor Who way too much. Karen Gillan played Amy Pond, the 11th Doctor's companion fir seasons 5, 6, and 7 part 1. She will be playing an unspecified villain. 

Guardians of the Galaxy

WHO
Directed by James Gunn
Written by Nicole Perlman, Chris McCoy, and James Gunn

I know nothing about the GotG, so I'm just putting up the info available. I don't really have any input at this point, except that this cast looks awesome.

Cast:

Parks and Rec's Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star Lord, a half human/half alien. He beat out Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zachary Levi for this role, so.... he's probably gonna be pretty good.

WWE Wrestler and MMA fighter Batista as Drax the Destroyer. A resurrected green human... he's basically the Hulk.

Star Trek's Zoe Saldana as Gamora. A green humanoid who's the last of her species.

The Walking Dead's Michael Rooker as Yondu.

Pushing Dasies' Lee Pace as the unspecified villain.

Damages' Glenn Close as the director of Nova Corps.

Doctor Who's Karen Gillan as the lead female villain. Holy shit I am so excited. This is going to be a beautiful, beautiful movie. I love this woman. I will marry her.

Ophelia Lovibond in an unspecified role.

Wreck-it Ralph's John C. Reilly as Rhomann Dey, the human go-between for the Guardians and SHIELD.

Alan Rickman, Hugh Laurie, and Ken Watanabe have been offered the role of Rhomann Dey's liason to the Guardians. No word yet on who's got the part.

WHAT

"It's much more of a standalone film," said Kevin Feige. "It takes place in the same universe. And when we've been the other side of that universe in other movies, you might see those characteristics in Guardians, but the Avengers are not involved with what's happening out there at this time." Feige also stated that 95% of the film would take place in space.



Again, I've never even heard of GotG until now, so this is just straight up available info.

WHEN
GOTG is the 10th film chronologically in the MCU. Look out for it on August 1, 2014.


I don't know much about this but I'm kind of excited now. I'll keep up with this one.

UPDATE: Whedon Says He Isn't Backing Down to Sony

As many of you know, X-Men DOFP just added Quicksilver onto their roster. This character is highly fought over, as he is owned by both Marvel/Disney and Fox/Sony. Whedon announced 2 weeks ago officially that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver would join the Avengers in the next movie. A few days ago, Bryan Singer, director of DOFP, tweeted "Before he was an Avenger, he was just a guy who could run REALLY fast" followed by an announcement about American Horror Story's Evan Peters joining the cast as Quicksilver. A few hours later, the tweet was edited, and the mention of the Avengers was gone. It was disputed for a few days whether Whedon would rewrite his draft of Avengers 2, but he officially announced yesterday that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch will stay in the movie no matter where else they are used first. Whether he will cast Evan Peters as Quicksilver for A2 is still up in the air.

Side note, in A2, because of stupid, stupid copyright laws, there can be no mention of the word "mutants." In addition, no one can mention that the siblings are Magneto's children. Which is dumb... that's like their whole thing.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

WHO

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo
Written by Christopher Markus and Steven McFeely

Starring:

Returning Cast:

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier
Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Haley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Toby Jones as Arnim Zola
Maximiliano Hernandez as Jasper Sitwell
Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark
Gary Shandling as Senator Stern

New Cast: There's a lot of these guys so buckle down.

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/The Falcon. His abilities include flying and speaking to birds. He may make an appearance in Avengers 2. He was the first black Super Hero, so he's pretty important. Black Panther came a bit later and was the first mainstream black Superhero.

Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones. One of the Captain's biggest enemies, Crossbones had to make an appearance sometime. Normally he works for Red Skull, so we'll see how they play it out.

Heavyweight wrestler and lifter Georges St-Pierre as Georges Batroc, a French mercenary.

Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, Fury's right-hand man.

And finally, Revenge's Emily VanCamp as Agent 13, a rogue assassin and Cap's love interest.

WHAT

 From Wikipedia

Following the events of the The Avengers, Steve Rogers struggles to adjust to the modern world and must partner with Natasha Romanoff to fight a powerful yet covert enemy in Washington, D.C.

 That's all we know. Crossbones will serve as the villain. The Winter Soldier, Cap's best friend from the 40's, is brainwashed into becoming an assassin bent on destroying him.

WHEN
April 4, 2014. I'm pretty pumped for this one, the 1st one was a hundred times better than I expected.

Doctor Strange

Not much is known about Doctor Strange, so I'll just give you what's available. Kevin Feige confirmed it's happening, that the movie will be his origin story, the movie will be part of Phase 3, and that he is tentatively lined up to be in Avengers 3.

As far as casting goes rumors include Peter Dinklage, Patrick Dempsey, Liam Neeson, and Hugh Laurie. However, Marvel is paying attention to one man in particular, Justin Theroux, the main who wrote Iron Man 2 (I hope his acting is better than his writing).

We can expect this movie in April 2016, chronologically following Ant-Man the previous November.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

This is the big one. Most of this is rumors and speculation, but here we go.

WHO
Directed, written, and produced by Joss Whedon (aka god)

Confirmed Returning Cast:

Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man/Tony Stark
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk
Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye (See below)
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Cobi Smulders as Maria Hill
Tom Hiddleston as Loki (minor role)

Unconfirmed Returning Cast:

Chris Hemsworth as Thor (same as above)

Rumored new cast:

Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. This is the source of most of the hype. While Spiderman is owned by Fox/Sony he can easily appear in the Disney Marvel Universe, and several prominent members of Marvel and Sony have tweeted to say the same. Apparently they've worked out a mutually beneficial deal, involving corporate fat cats on either side making bank. I don't really care how they do it honestly, I'm in a very "Shut up and take my money" kind of mental state about this movie. Now I'm not saying he will be there 100%, but at this point he's as likely as any other candidate. One thing that points to Spiderman appearing is a Marvel insider stating that Oscorp would play a role in Avengers 2. I, for one, would probably cry true tears of joy if this happened.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Also owned by Fox, but same deal as above. An anonymous Marvel insider stated that Wolverine may have a cameo role, as he's a well known Avenger and deserves to make an appearance.

Evan Peters as Quicksilver. Not confirmed for Avengers 2 yet, but he's playing the same character in X-Men: Days of Future Past because Fox and Disney both own it (yep). Hey may very well be recast for Whedon's movie though, to keep him completely seperate.

Vin Diesel as Vision (probably.) He'll definitely be playing a villain in the movie, and he isn't Thanos, and he isn't Ultron... so it's pretty evident who he'll be.


So now the casting notes. Hemsworth has not stated yes or no to whether he'd be returning, and is awaiting an offer of more money from Disney. While you make think that's greedy, in order to be Thor, this man has live on basically an all egg white diet with 3 hours of workout a day. That deserves some more money. He enjoys playing Thor and is planning to return, but has not confirmed it for anyone  yet. So fingers crossed. I'd hate to have a new guy playing Thor.


Renner is a definite yes. There were for some reason rumors running around he'd not return, but he recently debunked them in an interview.


The big X-Men issue is scarlet witch and quicksilver being used first by Days of Future Past. Whedon confirmed that the siblings will appear in the Avengers 2 but cannot say the word "mutant " nor mention their relation to Magneto. So that's pretty dumb.

WHAT
So Thanos will not be the main villain, and it will of course be Ultron with his minion Vision the android. Good news is that Tom Hiddleston will return as Loki in an unspecified way. I'm thinking like a Silence of the Lambs thing where he's in prison and he knows something about Ultron and they have to question him. I'd really enjoy that.

Whedon stated that he has turned in the script to Disney execs for review, so we'll see what happens.

Anything else comes up, I'll let you all know.

Black Panther

WHO
Written by Mark Bailey
Directed by ???

42's Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa, or the Black Panther. His quick rise to fame following 42's release caught Feige's attention and he is set to appear in the movie.

No other casting info yet.

WHAT
Not a lot of info here either. It will be his origin story though. He is the Prince of a fictional African country Wakanda, and sets out to stop crime using a metal known as vibranium (the same metal Captain America's shield is made out of). He's been aptly described as an African Batman. White Iron Man is Batman's real Marvel equivalent, Black Panther's just a really badass African version of the Dark Knight. He is a key Avenger and may appear in Avengers 2.

WHEN
2014. That's all we know for now. 

No further info right now. Stay tuned.

The Fantastic Four: Reborn

WHO
Directed by Josh Trank
Produced by Matthew Vaughn
Written by Seth Grahame-Smith

Starring:
 All heavily rumored technically but this casting is all but finalized.

Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch, Johnny Storm. Yes I can see that he's black, I'll address that further down. Other names that are less likely are Kevin Pennington, Cody Sousa,  and Noel Fisher.

Allison Williams as Susan Storm. Yes, I can see that she's white. I'll address that as well. Less likely names are Alice Eve, Amber Heard, and Abbie Cornish.

Bruce Willis as the voice of The Thing, who will be entirely CGI. Keifer Sutherland is the other possibility, but come on. Bruce Willis is going to get this role.

And to round off the team, who else but the 10th Doctor himself (for those of you who are not Whovians, he is from Doctor Who. Also, shame on you) David Tennant as Reed Richards, also known as Mr. Fantastic. Let me follow that up by saying the Fantastic Four have terrible super hero names. Adrien Brody and Johnathan Rhys Meyers are also on the list.

And rounding that out, Ben Mendelsohn as Viktor von Doom, aka Dr. Doom. Who doesn't get suspicious of a guy named Viktor von Doom?


Let me cover the race thing now. It's the 21st century. Why is it impossible for a black man to be a super hero? I know the character isn't black in the comics, but times change. I for one and glad. Nothing about Johnny Storm's character requires that he be white. If we get a good actor, yes, by all means be whatever race you want.The question of his white sister was easily put to bed - they will be half siblings or one will be adopted. Done.

WHAT
This will not be the same movie you saw in 2005. This is going get dark. It's going to get edgy. It's going to impact you deeply emotionally. Trank claims that this film will delve more into the issues of the human spirit and philosophical disputes on the purpose of mankind. In other words, it's not a normal Super Hero movie. Yes, there will be a villain, but it will make you think. Also, beloved alien races such as the Kree and Skrull will make an appearance. For those who are fans of the comics, the "Negative Zone" will be explored. I'm not a F4 guy, and so I have no earthly idea what that is.

This movie will take place chronologically after "The Wolverine." It's all part of Sony's Marvel Cinematic Universe that's not quite as good as the real one. We'll call it MCU B. Also, we may see Wolverine make a guest appearance.

WHEN
March 6, 2015. If David Tennant is involved I will be first in line. 

Luke Cage/Power Man

WHO
Written by: Ben Ramsey
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Directed by: ???

Cast:

Dwayne Johnson as Luke Cage (heavily rumored)

Feige and Johnson have tweeted back and forth about the role, and it's all but confirmed.

WHAT
This film will precede a full out Heroes for Hire film. That's about all we know right now. Featured villains will be Wrecking Crew and Chemistro.

WHEN
Probably late 2014. It's going to fall under Phase 3, so it won't be until December 2014 earliest. 

Ant-Man

WHO
Directed by Edgar Wright
Written by Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish

Starring:

Simon Pegg as the Villain (rumored)
????

Basically no information here. 

WHAT

So here we have some test footage from the production team, which shows what Ant-Man's power is going to look like. Kevin Feige confirmed Ant-Man will be the first movie in Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not too much news on this one yet, except that chronologically it will follow the Avengers 2 and will be an origin story. We can expect to see Ant-Man in Avengers 3.

Only other thing, who the hell is Ant-Man? If you're like me, you didn't know about him until about a year ago. His abilities have nothing to do with ants, but what he can do is shrink to the size of an ant or grow to almost 100 feet tall. He keeps his normal strength when he shrinks however.

More news when it becomes available.

WHEN
Ant-Man hits theaters on November 16, 2015

X-Men: Days of Future Past

WHO
Directed by: Bryan Singer 
Written by: Jane Goldman (who wrote First Class)

Starring:

Returning Cast:

James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier/Professor X
Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellan as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme/Mystique
Nicholas Coult as Hank McCoy/Beast
Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine
Anna Paquin as Marie/Rouge
Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat
Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Drake/Iceman
Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe/Storm
Daniel Cudmore as Peter Rasputin/Colossus


New Cast

Fan Bingbing as Clarice Ferguson/Blink

Evan Peters of American Horror Story as Quicksilver. There's a lot of stuff going on with this tidbit, look further down for a detailed description.

Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame has been cast as the villain, purportedly Apocalypse.


Omar Sy, Adan Canto, and Booboo Stewart in unspecified roles.

WHAT

First off, the plot is very vague right now. So far what we know is that the movie will open on the JFK assassination and show that Magneto was the real assassin. The Vietnam War and Civil Rights movement will be involved as well.

John Ottman, who worked on the previous X-Men films, will be scoring this one as well.

Bishop, who is basically a very violent version of Gambit, and Warpath, who has the normal super strength and stamina abilities, will also appear.

There will be a panel for DoFP at Comic Con this year.

The issue around Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch: We know that Fox owns The X-Men right? and Disney owns the Avengers? Well guess what. Somehow, and believe me there is no description anywhere of how this is possible, they both own Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Joss Whedon has already written in the brother/sister pair as integral parts of the Avengers 2, when suddenly, 3 days ago, Bryan Singer tweeted "Before he was an Avenger, Quicksilver was just a REALLY fast kid" and announced that Evan Peters would be joining the cast. Now the issue is this: Peters can be Quicksilver in both films, but while he's in Avengers 2 he can't mention he's Magneto's son, and while he's in X-Men he can't mention the Avengers. The second part will be easy, as he becomes an Avenger after the events of DoFP. However, it looks like Whedon will have to either accept that what he can do with the character is limited or find someone new. I don't think it's a coincidence that Singer cast Quicksilver literally 2 weeks after Whedon confirmed he was using him and I don't think it's going to go down too well. But I love AHS and can't wait to see what Peters brings with him. Also Peter Dinklage! Now as a GoT fan that is exciting.

One last thing, this is the 2nd part of the 2nd X-Men trilogy. There will be another to follow this up.

WHEN
July 18, 2014

The Wolverine

WHO
Directed by: James Mangold
Produced by: Lauren Shuler Donner, Hugh Jackman, Hutch Parker, and John Palermo
 Starring:

Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine (duh)
Famke Janssen as Jean Grey (who is dead, but will be returning, perhaps as Wolverine's conscience)
Hiroyuki Sanada as Shingen Yashida (you may have seen him as Takeda in the show Revenge)
Hal Yamanouchi as Yashida (head of the Yashida clan of the Yakuza)
Tao Okamoto as Mariko Yashida (plays love interest, was previously a Ralph Lauren model)
Rila Fukushima as Yuki the Assassin
Will Yun Lee as The Silver Samurai (he was the villain in Die Another Day)
Brian Tee as Noburo Mori (best known as DK in Tokyo Drift)
Svetlana Khodchenkova as Viper

WHAT
Wikipedia's description is as follows:

Set seven years after X-Men: The Last Stand, Logan travels to Japan, where he engages a mysterious figure from his past in a fight that has lasting consequences. Vulnerable for the first time, and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel, but also his inner struggle against his own immortality, emerging more powerful than ever before

Del Toro originally was on the bill to direct the movie, but upon realizing it was a 3 year project, turned it down.

One issue I have with this movie: the characters will speak mostly English, not Japanese with subtitles. That's ridiculous. If you put two Japanese people in a room together who grew up speaking the language and no one that speaks English is around, why the hell would they use English? It's inauthentic and I just don't appreciate it.

Marco Beltrami, who has scored multiple Wes Craven movies and many other horror films, will be writing the music.


Other than that, there's not much to talk about. I'm not too excited for this one, and it is the only upcoming Marvel production I may just not go see. To be honest, Origins was kind of a let down and Wolverine was never my favorite of the X-Men.

WHEN
July  26, 2013 (USA)
July 25, 2013 (Australia)
July 24, 2013 Everywhere Else

The Spectacular Spider-Man (TAS2)

WHO

Directed by: Marc Webb
Written by: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Jeff Pinkner
Starring:


Returning cast:

Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy
Sally Field as Aunt May
Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben (returning for flashbacks, etc...)


New Cast (I'm going to attach pictures here):

Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro (Electro has always been more comic relief, but Jamie Foxx is absolutely terrifying here. I'm excited to see how an actually menacing Electro plays out.)

Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn (James Franco was the perfect Harry. Sorry buddy. But I'll give you a fair shot.)

Paul Giamatti as Aleksei Sytsevich/The Rhino (Will serve as a secondary villain to Electro in this movie, but will survive into the third one, possibly becoming that film's major villain.)

Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn (confirmed not to play the Green Goblin in this installment)

Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane Watson (She will have a smaller amount of screen time than previously noted, but that's good, because anyone who knows anything about Spiderman knows she's a bitch.)

Brian Haley as Phil Watson (MJ's abusive father)

Marton Csokas as Dr. Kafka of the Ravencroft Institute (who is a woman in the comics)

Asim Ahmad as Michael Morbius (3 minute cameo role - he may return as the primary or secondary villain for the third movie as the Living Vampire)

AND.... A HAPPY SURPRISE FOR ALL OF US!

JK Simmons, who spectacularly played J. Jonah Jameson in the Sam Raimi Trilogy, has been asked to return and reprise his role. Marc Webb stated recently that they hunted for a new Jameson but realized that  Simmons could not be replaced nor outdone. Simmons also separately stated he'd like to come back as well. So fingers crossed, looks like it's happening.






Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, and B.J. Novak (of The Office) also have unspecified roles.

WHAT

SPOILERS ALERT

So, info on the movie. As far as the plot goes, we don't have much. Peter goes on with school and meets Harry Osborn, who in this universe he knew in the past. In the comics, Harry was Peter's college roommate freshman year, but that's a minor change I don't think anyone cares about.

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are signed on through movie 3. You may be like "duh," but remember that Gwen Stacy does die. The Green Goblin tosses her off of the Brooklyn Bridge and Peter tries to save her with a web shot, but she's falling too fast and he tragically brakes her neck. Then, of course, comes the part that was displayed in the 2001 movie, where the Goblin sends his glider at Spiderman from behind but impales himself. Although I'm pretty sure I'll cry if I have to watch that happen to Emma Stone, but yes, it's probably going to happen.

Now since Emma is signed on to be in movie 3, we can assume that Norman will transform into the Green Goblin in that movie and kill Gwen at the end. But there will be a fourth movie as well, according to producer Matt Tolmach. In order to keep the love triangle aspect that permeates "Spider-Man" afloat, I'm betting 100% that the third movie will introduce Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat. No word on that yet though.

Let's see, other things... Oh! Morbius. If anyone's a real Spiderman geek like me, you know Michael Morbius and you desperately want him to be the villain of a movie. I mean, come on, Spiderman vs. a Vampire? Who in the world is not gonna go see that? He's in this movie as a nod to comic book fans and an introduction - now his storyline is very heavily intertwined with Felicia's, so maybe that's more proof we'll see her in movie 3?

Last thing, you all know about the dispute between Disney and Sony. Sony owns Spiderman, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, while Disney owns the rest of Marvel (as far as cinema goes). This would mean that several key avengers, namely Spiderman, The Thing, and Wolverine, wouldn't appear in the Avengers movies. Wrong. There are a lot of rumors Sony has partnered with Disney and may be bringing Spiderman into the Avengers (and all my dreams would literally come true).  If not for Avengers 2, then maybe 3, because Robert Downey Jr. returning for Avengers 3 is up in the air right now (he's still in for the 2nd film). If one of the four core Avengers (Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, and Thor) is gone, it'd be good to throw in a familiar face like Spiderman.

That's all I know so far, I'll keep this updated. 

WHEN
Weirdly enough, we already have an actual date. May 2, 2014. Mark your calendars people. I will most definitely be at the midnight premiere.