Marvel Studios came out with a press release yesterday with revised dates for their upcoming superhero tentpoles, on the heels of confirmation that both Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johannson have fully signed onto play the villains in Iron Man 2 — the latter playing the Black Widow, which Emily Blunt was originally offered before she was forced to bow out due to scheduling conflicts with the upcoming Gulliver’s Travels.
Still promising that each movie would be set within the same “Marvel Universe” leading up to the superhero team-up flick The Avengers, Marvel pushed the release date of Thor from July 16th, 2010 to nearly one year later, on June 17th, 2011. Captain America, which was set to be released on May 6th, 2011, has been moved to July 22nd, 2011 — one month after Thor’s release.
The Avengers will kick off the following summer with a May 4th, 2012 release date. And finally, Iron Man 2 will keep its May 7th, 2010 release date.
The shuffle was done for two reasons: first, because neither Thor (which has Kenneth Branagh attached to direct) or Captain America (which has Joe Johnston attached to direct) could be made in time for a 2010 release, and second, because Sony decided to release Spider-Man 4 on May 6th, 2011 (the former release date of Captain America).
That means summer 2011 will bring three major Marvel superheroes within a few months of each other: Spider-Man, Thor, and Captain America.
It’s unclear whether or not Spider-Man 4 will be folded into the “Marvel Universe” continuity.
Leave a Reply