Following the EW.com reveal earlier this week, io9 reports that the Marvel Studios post-Avengers movies could be more off-the-wall that we think. Rather than delving into some of the biggest untapped characters such as…erm…Namor the Submariner or The Black Panther, EW has indicated that some of the second tier characters will be far more interesting choices. By interesting we mean Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy (pictured above) and the Inhumans.
Naturally, Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 will stay on track for their scheduled timelines, the latter with Patty Jenkins reportedly on board to direct, bringing Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth back to their titular roles, but there will also be a a smattering of other attempts to expand the Marvel Universe…quite literally!
Guardians of the Galaxy is set in an alternate future, where a group of beings, each the last of their kind, are forced to band together. Marvel’s President of Production says “There’s an opportunity to do a big space epic, which Thor sort of hints at, in the cosmic side of the [Marvel] universe.” Marvel would definitely be looking to avoid the twin critical disasters of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and DC Comics’ Green Lantern, neither of which managed to convincing sell the threat of a cosmic force without being a bit pants.
Despite being relatively unknown, the Inhumans trace their origins back to 1965, and are a creation of the dynamic duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Millions of years ago, the alien race know as the Kree experimented on early humans to create a super race to fight the Skrulls, and those mutants eventually became known as the Inhumans. Given that the Skrulls are rumoured to be in the forthcoming The Avengers film, this seems like it might be a possibility at the very least.
The beleaguered Ant-Man is still on the books, but not looking likely any time soon. A draft has been kicked about by Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World) and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), and the two of them are now back in the limelight due to their script for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. Will Feige notes that Wright has developed a good draft recently, the project is “still nebulous but definitely in the works.” The question remains: is the world ready for an Ant-Man movie? The character has recently been painted as a bit of an abusive wife-beater, subjecting his miniaturised wife with fly spray in the recent Ultimates comics. It will also be tough to avoid any comparisons with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, except that apart from parental neglect, Rick Moranis’ character wasn’t so much a bastard as a doofus.
