Well, if ever there was a time for Marvel to make a splash, Comic-Con week is it. Just a few days ago they revealed five new release dates for mystery titles that we hope will be announced during their Hall H panel this weekend. But because this is Marvel and they do everything bigger than their "Distinguished Competition", they have suddenly revealed one more.
A third Marvel movie will be hitting theaters in 2018, opening on May 4th, and your guess is as good as mine what it could be. It's clear that Kevin Feige and the big wigs at Disney are playing around with their usual pattern of two movies per year because now they have three set to release in 2017 and 2018. Here is their updated slate...
August 1, 2014 — “Guardians of the Galaxy”
May 1, 2015 — “The Avengers: Age of Ultron”
July 17, 2015 — “Ant-Man”
May 6, 2016 — “Captain America 3″
July 8, 2016 — Unconfirmed
May 5, 2017 — Unconfirmed
July 27, 2017 — Unconfirmed
November 3, 2017 — Unconfirmed
May 4, 2018 — Unconfirmed
July 6, 2018 — Unconfirmed
November 2, 2018 — Unconfirmed
May 3, 2019 — Unconfirmed
So that's now eight movies we have no clue about, although there are some logical guesses to be made. Doctor Strange will probably take that July 8th 2016 slot, and there has to a spot for third Avengers and Thor movies. A Guardians of the Galaxy sequel could be on the cards, but everything else is potentially something brand new. Black Panther? Inhumans? The possibilities are endless.
Is there that much of an appetite for this many movies, though? Or is Marvel pressing ahead on too much too fast? I think those questions may get answered with Guardians of the Galaxy, a film with no recognizable heroes even amongst comic book fans. If that does as well as some think, Marvel could be doing the right thing by pressing ahead harder.
