As expected, Marvel came flying out of Iron Man’s $100 million dollar weekend with a high energy, optimistic outlook on their upcoming film slate. With the success of Iron Man and the release of The Incredible Hulk only months away, Marvel is looking to the future where they will continue to build on brands that have been successful in the past as well as kick-start a few new heroes into cinematic action.
While Marvel Studios will not release a self produced feature film in 2009, it will have a busy run from 2010 to 2011. They plan to launch their 2010 film slate with the release of the sequel, Iron Man 2, on April 30, 2010, followed by the launch of Thor on June 4, 2010. Additionally, Marvel is planting its feature film stakes for summer 2011 with an Avengers-themed summer – a two-picture project which will debut on May 6, 2011 with The First Avenger: Captain America (working title), followed by The Avengers in July 2011.
Three of the four projects listed already have directors attached. Jon Favreau will take the director’s chair once again for Iron Man 2, Nick Cassevetes has been attached to the Captain America project and Matthew Vaughn has already been attached to Thor for some time now. As for The Avengers, no director has been named as of yet, but Jon Favreau has publicly expressed interest in the project — he seems a likely candidate, considering the fact that he has a 3 picture deal with Marvel and it was his film that is almost single-handedly responsible for launching Marvel Studios’ agenda. Had Iron Man not done so well out of the gate, we could safely assume that this morning’s earnings call would have gone down differently.
