After a big week of announcements from Marvel Comics, the publisher's production company has announced some future moves of its own, according to Collider.com. While we are still in Phase 2 of the Marvel cinematic roll-out of films, Marvel Studios is already gearing up for Phase 3 and beyond.
In the move, the studio has announced five major release dates for films through 2019, filling the schedule with two untitled movies in 2017, two in 2018 and one in 2019. Before this announcement, the studio already had release dates for "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Ant-Man," "Captain America 3" lined up.
The roll-out of August's "Guardians of the Galaxy" will continue Phase 2 from Marvel, setting up the next wave of movies for the future. The Doctor Strange and Black Panther movies are already in the planning stages with no firm release dates set.
The dominance of Marvel's superheroes is set to take on DC as Warner Bros. attempts to get a piece of the comic book movie pie. After "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," Warner Bros. and DC are slated to set up a "Justice League" movie. Of course the "Justice League" movie could depend on just how well 2016's "Batman v. Superman" does at the box office.
Still, Marvel is undeniably on a roll and the studio is setting the pace for the superhero film market. Even rumors of a "Guardians of the Galaxy" sequel are already swirling with next months release generating positive buzz.
"Avengers 3" could be the 2019 film that Marvel has locked up a release date for, but no official word has been leaked. Speculation will continue to fuel the fire as time goes on with possible standalone Avengers movies like Black Widow and Hawkeye being possibilities for the future release dates.
It is unclear whether or not the films will go head to head with DC's feature releases, but Marvel is certainly making a statement about its feature film dominance. Marvel is squarely looking at DC's films and hoping that they blink.
In addition to next year's films, the first family of Marvel, the Fantastic Four, will make its reboot under the guidance of "Chronicle" director Josh Trank. The film has already been cast, but there has been some backlash about the direction that the project is headed.
Rumors have been swirling that the the FF film is not going to be based on the comic book adventures. Still, Marvel seems to have a firm grasp of the future making sure that fans stick with the film branch of the House of Ideas.
