No sooner did the full scope of the success of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers became apparent over the past weekend than audiences began asking the inevitable question, when can we see the next Avengers movie? Not so fast Marvel movie fan, Marvel Studios’ honcho Kevin Feige is adamant that Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Captain America 2 will have to come first. With Iron Man slated to open on May 3rd, 2013, Thor 2 set for November 15th, 2013, and Captain America 2 debuting on April 4, 2014, it appears that 2014 would be the earliest possible date for an Avengers sequel.
Marvel/Disney does have May 16th, 2014 saved as a debut date for an as-yet-unnamed film, so that could be a possibility, though it does seem awfully close to the release of Captain America 2, and Marvel does have other projects in the works including Edgar Wright’s long-gestating Ant Man and an adaptation of Bryan K. Vaughan’s Runaways. But the bottom-line pressure to repeat the enormous success of The Avengers presents its own imperatives that makes a 2014 release for an Avengers sequel a definite possibility.
In an interview with CHUD.com, Feige explained Marvel’s plans, which involve applying a comic book-like continuity to intertwined movie franchises: "If we do an Avengers 2 (a statement that has to stand as one of the more ridiculous hypothetical statements in history--and on May 8th Disney Chairman Robert Iger announced to stockholders that the Avengers 2 was indeed in the works, though he gave no release date), it will be after Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Captain America 2. They (these characters) have to grow, they have to change. What they have gone through in this movie (The Avengers) will impact their state of mind and where they stand in their next movies. Then whatever they go through in those movies is going to affect where we meet them in the next Avengers film."
Feige notes that Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 will be “singular” stories that won’t involve much interaction with other Marvel heroes, but "Cap, who is stuck in the modern day with no friends or family, there will be some revelations of who is still alive from his days in WWII, but SHIELD and Nick Fury are kind of his confidants right now. So, of all these movies, Captain America 2, will be most closely associated with The Avengers." Well, yes, but will the Avengers sequel open just six weeks after Cap 2? That doesn’t sound like the kind of spacing Marvel likes, but don’t rule out a late summer or winter holiday release for Avengers 2, or, given the enormous success Marvel has had in early May, a first week in May of 2015 debut date is also a definite possibility, if Disney’s money men can wait that long to attempt to reprise Marvel Studios’ first billion-dollar hit.
Note that although Mark Ruffalo’s The Hulk is clearly one of the audience’s favorite characters in The Avengers, and Marvel’s deal with the highly-regarded actor reportedly includes options for six movies, there is no current project to create a second Marvel Studios’ Hulk film. Part of the reason appears to be that Feige thinks the Hulk is better as a member of a superhero team than as a stand-alone hero: "Hulk is seemingly more suited for an ensemble piece where he can be the loose cannon, the unpredictable bad boy. You can’t get the same kind of moments necessarily when it’s a stand-alone movie and everything is on (Bruce Banner’s) shoulders."
Note that although Mark Ruffalo’s The Hulk is clearly one of the audience’s favorite characters in The Avengers, and Marvel’s deal with the highly-regarded actor reportedly includes options for six movies, there is no current project to create a second Marvel Studios’ Hulk film. Part of the reason appears to be that Feige thinks the Hulk is better as a member of a superhero team than as a stand-alone hero: "Hulk is seemingly more suited for an ensemble piece where he can be the loose cannon, the unpredictable bad boy. You can’t get the same kind of moments necessarily when it’s a stand-alone movie and everything is on (Bruce Banner’s) shoulders."