"I could arguably say what we’re planning for the year 2021. Will that happen? I don’t know. But what we planned for 2015 in 2006 is happening.”
That was what Marvel's top guy Kevin Feige said not too long ago in regards to the future of the cinematic universe he's helped cultivate. It's safe to say that his forward-thinking is a big part of why Marvel is leaps and bounds ahead of Warner Bros., and likely will be for a long time. But it turns out Feige was selling it short when he said plans were plotted out through 2021, because it actually goes much further.
With Captain America: The Winter Soldier playing in theaters right now (my review here), Bloomberg did a thorough feature on Feige, and Marvel's head honcho revealed he has a map of future films plastered on his wall.
“It’s like looking through the Hubble telescope. You go, ‘What’s happening back there? I can sort of see it,’ ” he laughs. “They printed out a new one recently that went to 2028.”
That's awfully far ahead, and obviously nothing is set in stone. But it does show why Marvel always seems to be ahead of the game in finding new stars and directors; it's because Feige is thinking about them well in advance.
And speaking of looking ahead, producer Bob Iger mentions his desire to try and replicate the success of The Avengers with other teams, namely the Guardians of the Galaxy. That means potentially there could be spinoff films for Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Drax, and Groot. Not sure how a Groot film would work, but a Rocket solo would be sweet. I'd much rather see other cosmic characters affiliated with the team get their own movies, namely Adam Warlock, Nova, and Captain Marvel.
The amazing thing is that we're only six years removed from the first Iron Man film, and in that time Marvel has literally changed the face of Hollywood blockbusters. And with hundreds, maybe even thousands of characters to choose from, Feige is only just scratching the surface of where Marvel can go.
