What could Marvel Phase 4 hold in store?

If you’re a Marvel Cinimatic Universe fan they you, like me, will have gotten very excited a couple of days ago by the announcement of the next 5 years worth of films. Cap vs Iron man in “Captain America: Civil War”, Black Panther and Captain Marvel movies, Avengers: The Infinity War Pts 1 AND 2. I could barely sleep for the excitement.

  

All this got me thinking and speculating.  This is the whole of their Phase 3 revealed, but what could phase 4 look like?

I took the basic release principles Marvel has established of alternating established and new franchises, and the fact that in phase 3 they are moving from 2 to 3 films a year, also tried to factor in when Actor contracts might be up and a good boat load of pure guessing but this is what I came up with.....

2020       – Planet Hulk (Spring)

-          Blade (reboot) (Summer)

-          Ant Man 2 (Autum)

2021       - Black Widow (Spring)

                - Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (Summer)

                - Doctor Strange 2 (Autum)

2022       - Captain America 4 (with Bucky Barnes taking over the Mantle of Cap) (Spring)

-          War Machine (Summer)

-          A Sony/Marvel  co production Spider-man (Autum)

2023       - Black Panther 2 (Spring)

                - Punisher (Summer)

                - Captain Marvel 2 (Autum)

2024       - Avengers  4 (Spring)

I’m sure my views on possible line ups will change as I watch the phase 3 films but for now I think that’s a good potential line up. And here’s my thinking….

The first Sequels  

Assuming they do well at the box office is fair to assume that Ant Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Captain Marvel will be getting sequels. There is one notable exception on my list and that is The Inhumans. Which to be honest I think has just as much chance at a sequel. I didn’t include it because it would have meant bumping Avengers 4 from it’s traditional May slot. Not outside the realms of possibilities of course but something had to give. I also suspect that in order to keep their slate manageable Marvel may have to start sitting out some franchises for a Phase. And of course if any of these new Phase 3 franchises don’t do as well as hoped they may decide that they shouldn’t get included in the next phase. (as happened with Hulk after Phase 1)

Hulk Smash.  

Yes, I’ve put it down as Planet Hulk. That’s pure hopeful thinking, I would love to see this story  from the comics up on the screen. It would require a bit of set up in phase 3 though. Particually Hulk doing something so bad (probably in Infinity War) that the other heros feel they need to shoot him off into space. If that doesn’t happen I still think we’ll get some kind of solo Hulk movie in Phase 4, it’s long over-due and Marc Rufalo is certainly worthy leading it.

Blade – Marvel have the rights to Blade back. This was the character that really kicked off the modern age of superhero movies back in the 90s. It’s a big potential draw and I can’t see Marvel sitting on it forever. I reckon phrase 4 is when we’ll see him back on our screens in a reboot that takes place in the MCU. It’ll also allow Marvel to start to explore a slightly darker area of their universe. Something that also comes with teh Punisher movie I’ve also put on the list. Despite his publicly stated interest in returning though, I wouldn’t expect to see Wesley Snipes back in the role. He was fantastic and perfect at the time but a fresh start and younger blade is needed now.

Black Widow

There was some disappointment that she didn’t get a solo movie in Phase 3. Perhaps one in Phase 4 could be set a bit back in time and allow us to find out just what did happen in Budapest.

Cap 4

I think it’s important that all the franchises that kicked off the MCU in phase one don’t disappear. We’ve already lost Iron Man from phase 3 (which I think is the right call), I’m calling Thor to be the phrase 3 original avenger that doesn’t have a solo in Phase 4. Out of the big 3 heroes his are the least performing of the movies. But just because there is a Cap 4 doesn’t mean Steve Rogers is still wearing the suit. I think, if it hasn’t happened already by that point, we may see Bucky Barns take on the Cap mantel after Steve is killed in action in the Infinity War.

War Machine

Ok, so we don’t have an Iron Man film any more. This could be the natural successor.  James "Rhodey" Rhodes has been firmly established over 3 Iron man films now and he’s due to pop up in next spring’s Avengers: Age of Ulton. It’s at least possible he gets his own film.

Spider-man

There are a lot of Rumours flying around at the moment that Marvel and Sony are close to a deal to allow Spidy to appear in MCU films. The most obvious place for him initially is the Captain America: Civil War movie. Spider-man was a big part of the Marvel comics Civil War event and it would be fantastic to have him involved. And if they pull it off perhaps a co-produced Spider-man solo movie, set in the MCU and with Cameos from some of our other favourite characters would be on the cards. Who knows. It makes sense for Sony to agree. Each Spider-man film since the very first Toby Maguire one has made less money than the previous one, a co-production deal would be a way for Marvel to make the film a more must see while Sony still gets a slice of the profits. 

Avengers 4

By Avengers 4 expect a very different team to the one we know.

Steve may be dead and Bucky may be Cap. Hulk may be off in space on another planet – (or he may return angry at being sent away and be the antagonist of this film). Downey Jr will be WAY too expensive by this point so Iron man won’t be in it. A whole load of new avengers who joined at the end of Phase 3 will part of the team and, fingers crossed, Spider-man.

No doubt it will be nothing like I’ve dreamed up here. It’s just one possibility. But it’s fun to speculate. Got a different idea of how it might pan out? Let me know in the comments. 

Welcome to Nightvale

The surreal American Radio Drama/fake community show podcast Welcome to Nightvale launched a couple of years ago now and in that time has built up quite a cult following.

If you’ve never heard of Nightvale it’s kind of a cross between a David Lynch film, the twilight zone, the TV series Eureka … and a community radio show.

I’ve been a casual listener to the podcast’s for over a year now, although I’m about 6 months behind their release schedule, and I’ve generally really enjoyed listening to them. I like slightly surreal stuff like this and, of course, I love radio drama, especially ones that do something new with the genre.

So when I heard they were doing live shows, and bringing the tour to the UK I thought it would defiantly be worth checking out.

I had sampled some Radio-drama-as-stage-show at the Edinburgh Fringe back in August courtesy of the Wireless Theatre Company. (which you can read more about here) and found it a really enjoyable and amusing experience.  But, you think, isn’t it just people at microphones standing on a stage? That’s a bit dull right? Well in the examples I’ve seen, not at all! These guys are professional actors, professional actors used to making radio dramas, they know how to entertain an audience with just their voice.  And little touches like amusing facial expressions,  Seeing Spot FX created live, and in creative lighting all add to it.

Nightvale live started off well, introduced in a very stand-up comic way by the lady who’s voice is often heard at the beginning or end of the pod casts (sorry, I forget her name). Right from the off I found myself chuckling out loud to her witty one liners in her introduction. It was a good start. We were then treated to a fantastic music set from Mary Epworth. The regular Nightvale Podcast always has a music section in it, the weather (they announce that it’s time for the weather as any radio station would… and then music starts instead, just one of Nightvale’s many quirks) , but that’s just one song and, to get a good live artist along for one song for the live show would have possibly been a struggle and to fill a whole 2 hour live show you need to expand your format a bit from your usual 30 min podcast, so this 20 minute set was a nice addition to kick things off with (and of course, she came back for the weather later).

Then it’s in to the usual Nightvale weirdness, told to us, as always, by Cecil, the host of this fictional radio show from this fictional US city, our guide into it’s weird world and underworld.

If you don’t pay much attention to the podcasts while you’re listening you may miss that they do actually have plots running through them. There is usually some kind of event that is tracked through news updates and phone interviews with people on site. It escalates throughout the episode and is usually quite strange (Randomly appearing glow clouds, disappearing children, a mayoral race between a man who is “Literally a five-headed dragon” and “The faceless old woman that secretly lives in your house” … you get the drift). Not only this some plot points crop up In multiple episodes. Yes this strange little wonderful show even has story Arcs.

I won’t spoil the live episode too much (they will be releasing the audio I gather), but the main plot revolves around Liberians, and in Nightvale Liberians are not things you want to meet down a dark ally.

There were a lot of in-jokes, referencing back to previous episodes. Some I got, some I didn’t. but the ones I didn’t get didn’t spoil my enjoyment over all. I’m quite a casual night-vale listener. I’m about 6 months behind on the episodes and it’s just something I enjoy listening to. But there are some seriously dedicated fans of this show. A large number People at this event were dressed up in their own interpretations of the various characters (some costumes were really impressive as well… particularly glow clouds). Good on them, it’s great to be passionate about something but I don’t think you have to have that level of passion to have a good time at this show.

Sadly, due to train engineering works, I had to duck out early to avoid having to sit for hours on a replacement bus service so I still don’t know how the plot was wrapped up.

But then, not getting what the hell is going on is part of the fun of Nightvale anyway, so maybe I got the truest Nightvale experience by leaving anyway, 

Find out more about Welcome to Nightvale and where you can download the Podcast: Here