The interweb in the last two days have been blowing up with news of Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man. (Get ready to go into full geek territory!)
We could be on the verge of a big revelation. This could be history in the making for Marvel. And this would definitely, in the world of the geeks, rival DC's news from last year when it announced their next film would be Batman v Superman.
Although this is all unconfirmed by both Marvel and Downey, Jr.; but if negotiations pan out, Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, will appear in Captain America 3. Not only that, but it would be the beginning to one of the most popular story arc in the comic book world, Civil War.
And if Downey, Jr. does sign a new contract with Disney (since his own movie last weekend didn't open too well, at all); he could be playing Iron Man for the next 10 years even.
And, how interesting was it that Batman v Superman initially had the same release date as Captain America 3, which now looks more and more like Captain America vs Iron Man!
What is Civil War?
Written by Mark Millar (writer of Kick-Ass), Civil War is a crossover storyline that ran from 2006 to 2007 in the Marvel comic book universe. It began with a series of tragedies involving superheroes endangering civilians and causing the loss of many lives.
The U.S. government in the story then passes a Superhero Registration Act designed to have superhumans act under official regulations, including revealing all their secret identities.
Iron Man sided with the government, championing the act. But Captain America saw this as a threat towards civil liberty, not only publicly denouncing his involvement but started a rebellion against it. What followed was the clash between superheroes between the two camps; friend versus friend, comrade against comrade. Whatever the outcome, there will be no winners.
As this was a Marvel universe-wide event, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man all had to pick sides.
Here's why I think Marvel is potentially upping its game:
Now, coming back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Marvel and Disney have spent the last six years building up its formidable reputation. Beginning in the year 2008 with the original Iron Man movie, 10 movies later - culminating in this summer's biggest runaway hit movie, Guardians Of The Galaxy - Marvel and Disney are on a fiery hot streak.
But Kevin Feige and his team aren't resting on their laurels because they know better. All that lead they have gained and established against DC could very well be taken over in one fell swoop - that is if Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice is even simply considered a good movie. DC would have leveled the playing field just like that.
Where or when will Civil War take place?
As of last week, movie pundits have always thought that next year's Avengers: Age Of Ultron will see the Avengers be introduced to an even bigger threat, Thanos (who first appeared briefly in Guardians Of The Galaxy). As speculated, Thanos will be the main villain of Avengers 3, where MCU's mightiest heroes will assemble to take on Thanos and his all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet (which he has started collecting since the first Avengers movie).
But if the news today is true, if Civil War will be upon us, then it would have to take place in Avengers 3, logically speaking. Unless... Marvel and Disney creates a separate movie for Civil War! (I just blew my own mind typing that!)
It could aptly be titled, Marvel's Civil War.
How will this affect Marvel's Phase 3?
It doesn't matter if Civil War will be its own movie or will happen in Avengers 3, it will need considerable build-up in the MCU so that when it the two sides finally clashed, it will be the biggest cinematic event of the century!
In order to build up the hype, every other Marvel movie that comes before Avengers 3 will be dealing with the first signs of Civil War. Just like in the comics where every character in their own story is deep in the Civil War story arc as well.
Referring to Marvel's placeholder so far, after Captain America 3, there will be Ant-Man, Thor 3 and Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 (that we know of). There are still a lot of blocked out dates that we don't know which title they belong to, and many of them will be the introduction to new characters.
But all of them could, by the end of their own movie, reveal if Captain America or Iron Man would recruit them first. Just like how Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury was recruiting Iron Man and Captain America into Avengers in their own movies. Now that would be exciting. That could be a whole new reason to stay for the stingers at the end-credits.
Will we see X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man in Civil War?
The rights to mutants and X-Men, and all characters from the Fantastic Four has been sold off to Fox, while all characters in the Spider-Man universe now belongs to Sony. And it's almost impossible to have these characters crossover with those from Disney's Marvel. (I may just have to write the reasons as to why not in another post.)
The only way this could happen, since I do not foresee Fox nor Sony would ever want to let these cash cows go, is for either Fox or Sony to keep creating horrible movies and they have no choice but to sell it back to Disney, or Fox or Sony go bust.
Let's just say, by the end of last month, I would still say this was close to an impossibility. But guess what, we just heard Sony has been unprofitable for a long time now. The only arm that is still profitable is its movie-making studio.
So now, that realm of possibility just got closer for Spider-Man.
And if you are familiar with the story of Civil War, you would already know that Spider-Man plays one of the most pivotal roles in that story arc. My, it's as if the stars are almost aligned!
Two things that Disney could do right now. Civil War is still a ways away, so Disney could just wait out and see if Sony really does go under and then the rights would naturally go back to Disney. Or, they could offer some money, strike some kind of a deal, to loan or buy back Spider-Man.
Whether or not this will require a Spider-Man reboot (yet again) is a debate for another post.
In conclusion...
It's a great time to be a comic book fan. Never would I have thought while reading comic books as a teenager, that in my adult life I would be seeing those stories be translated so well onto the silver screen.
If Civil War is really happening, like I said earlier, it could be one of the biggest cinematic event after Disney's Star Wars VII.
If Civil War isn't happening (or at least not at this juncture) and that all these were just some rumour started by someone playing a prank on the whole world, then, well, it was fun just imagining up all these possibilities.
No comments:
Post a Comment