Marvel Announces New Titles And Dates

The timing of Marvel's announcement today, just a week after DC announced its slate of movies till 2020, cannot be said to be not reactionary.

Not be outdone by DC announcing the first female and black-character led superheroes in Wonder Woman (23 June 2017) and Cyborg (3 April 2020) in this new age of comic book movies, Marvel has come back with some new titles and even new dates - giving them 3 movies per year, which is what I thought would happen.

Disney and Marvel Studios have called for a big press event today in which they made the announcement with Kevin Feige at the forefront making the announcements.

The new titles are, Black Panther (and they have secured an actor in Chadwick Boseman), Captain Marvel, and Inhumans. But there are still no confirmation on a Black Widow or Hulk standalone movies. Nor were there any mentions of a new Iron Man movie, too.

Other announcements involved the titles of the upcoming movies. Captain America 3 is now officially called Captain America: Civil War. And Thor 3 is now officially called Thor: Ragnarok. Avengers 3 and 4 (not sure if they can even be considered 3 and 4 now) are called Avengers: Infinity War Part I and Infinity War Part II.

Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 has now been moved up by a few months from 28 July 2017 to 5 May 2017, giving the original slot to Thor: Ragnarok.

Still no confirmation on who's playing Doctor Strange, though there have been leaks that it will be Benedict Cumberbatch and they are working on the final details of the deal right now.

Check out the new blocked-out dates for this line-up:

1 May 2015 (Avengers: Age Of Ultron)
17 July 2015 (Ant-Man)

6 May 2016 (Captain America: Civil War)
8 July 2016 
4 November 2016 (Doctor Strange)

5 May 2017 (Guardians Of The Galaxy 2)
28 July 2017 (Thor: Ragnarok)
3 November 2017 (Black Panther)

4 May 2018 (Avengers: Infinity War Part I)
6 July 2018 (Captain Marvel)
2 November 2018 (Inhumans)

3 May 2019 (Avengers: Infinity War Part II)

The only blocked-out date without a title is the 8 July 2016. Previously it was speculated to be for Doctor Strange but now having a new date in November 2016, I wonder if Marvel still has anything planned for the 8 July 2016.

Judging from the titles of Captain America and Avengers, Civil War will only be taking place in Captain America as a one-off (no doubt the aftermath will affect other movies). And it is also confirmed to have Robert Downey Jr. appear in Captain America. The Civil War storyline will very likely be very different from the comics. Even Feige has said that, "Secret identities aren't as important in the MCU version of the story," but it will be a "global superhuman registration with a specific inciting incident".

Also, if we're going to talk about the competition with DC, Wonder Woman will arrive one whole year before Captain Marvel; being the first female-led superhero standalone movie. But Black Panther will be will be the first black superhero in this new age of comic book movies.
And, looking at this list by Marvel and comparing it to the DC slate, I feel like I have more confidence in Marvel's list. Only because Marvel has built a reputation that is well respected while in DC's case, if anything goes wrong, that whole slate could be changed.
Other than the titles and dates, we also got the title banners. Check out the true-to-their-identity Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 with the switcheroo on the date.