Marvel outlines official film lineup for ‘phase 3’ of the MCU

Disney and Marvel have mdd it official, Civil War is coming… and so are the Inhumans, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and the Infinity War.

At a special reveal event yesterday, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige outlined, and went into surprising amounts of detail on, the upcoming movies headed out of the studio bound for the silver screen. There were a few surprises, but most of what was discussed was (at the very least) heavily rumored over the last few months. I think we all heard that Black Panther, Dr Strange, and Captain Marvel were on the way at one point or another, but Inhumans was something of a surprise, and the Infinity War two-part movie event is something that should be very cool indeed with the sheer number of heroes that could be involved.

Then there’s Captain America: Civil War. I’m not a fan, at all, of Civil War. I didn’t like the crossover in the comics and it actually soured me on Marvel’s full line of books for a few years afterwards (much like Final Crisis finished DC off for me for a while). One thing is for sure in the film adaptation though, it’s going to be different. For starters, secret identities won’t be a focus of the film’s version of what’s happening, which I suppose is mostly due to the fact that almost none of the big screen Marvel heroes under the Marvel Studios banner even have an alternate identity.

Feige commented that that’ll be the case yesterday and, while he didn’t say much else, that in and of itself is a telling comment. Civil War will though, be set off by a catalyzing event, much like it was in the comics. What that ‘event’ might be is still unknown and whether we’ll see Chris Evans’ Cap and Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man at each other’s throats as much as we did in the comics isn’t being discussed yet either.

And since Civil War left Captain America for dead after being shot (though we all know how that turned out eventually), we also don’t know if it’ll be Evans in the stars and stripes once the film comes to a close, or if Sebastian Stan’s Bucky or Anthony Mackie’s Falcon (the current Cap in the comic books) might take up the shield. With Cap sure to play a big part in the events leading up to and involving Infinity War, the outcome should prove most interesting indeed.

Thor: Ragnarok is another films that should prove to be a big one. Feige said that, much like Captain America: The Winter Soldier changed the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a big way in ‘phase 2’, Thor: Ragnarok will alter the landscape yet again in phase 3. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston will abe returning to their roles though, and Hiddleston’s in particular might be a big deal for the simple reason that, at the end of The Dark World, it certainly looked as though Loki had killed Odin and taken the throne of Asgard himself. In the actual mythos of the Norse people, Ragnarok meant the end of the gods, might that be the same here?

Lots to think about as goes the MCU as we get further into phase 2, which culminates with the teased Age of Ultron shown above. Should be a wild ride into part 3 of Marvel’s movie universe. Here’s your official film/date rundown.

• Captain America: Civil War – May 6th, 2016
• Doctor Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) – November 4th, 2016
• Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – May 5th, 2017
• Thor: Ragnarok – July 28th, 2017
• Black Panther – November 3rd, 2017
• Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 – May 4, 2018
• Captain Marvel (which will be the Carol Danvers version) – July 6, 2018
• Inhumans – November 2, 2018
• Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 – May 3, 2019