Marvel’s Avengers 3: News And Rumors About ‘Infinity War’ Abound Following ‘Age Of Ultron’

Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron dominated the box office this weekend, and with the long-anticipated release of the Avengers sequel comes news, rumors, and speculation regarding Marvel’s “Phase 3” thread lines and what the next two films in the Avengers series, dubbed the Infinity Wars, may have in store for fans of the Marvel Universe.

Adrian Callahan of the Christian Examiner reports that the two-part Infinity War films will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the sequel to the film that ushered in Chris Evans as Marvel’s venerable super soldier, Captain America: The First Avenger. Evans spoke to Esquire about Marvel’s aggressive production schedule that sees the actor starting production of the third Captain America installment in just weeks, with only a small break between that and the start of production for Infinity War, reports Marie Athena Parnada of Reality Today.

“We start Captain America 3: Civil War in a couple weeks, and then that shoots until August or something like that. Then, I have got some downtime and I can do with it as I please, and then we start the Infinity War, I think, sometime in the third quarter, Fall or Winter of 2016. That is going to be, like, nine months to shoot both movies back-to-back.”

Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon confirmed to Screen Rant that the Mad Titan, Thanos, previously seen as giving orders to the main villain in Marvel’s surprise blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy, will appear in the Infinity War, and strongly hinted that he may be joined by other iconic villains from Marvel’s comprehensive universe.

“Thanos was always meant to be the puppet-master until he was done doing that, and then he will be the big villain they face off with. Not sole, I’m sure, there’ll be plenty more villains in that monstrous epic.”

The confirmation of Thanos squaring off against the Avengers in the Infinity War angle has led many, including Cinema Blend‘s Eric Eisenberg to speculate about a much rumored crossover featuring some incarnation of the Avengers team with the Guardians of the Galaxy bunch, led by Star-Lord and also susceptible to roster changes. While it is expected that Avengers icon Iron Man will appear in both films, contractual considerations regarding Iron Man star Robert Downey, Jr., Thor‘s Chris Hemsworth, and Evans himself may lead Marvel to begin excluding some or all of these characters in favor of elevating Marvel’s lesser known characters, such as Ant-Man to the aforementioned Guardians, potentially giving Captain America, Iron Man, and/or Thor on the shelf to be folded back into the cinematic universe down the road.

Then there’s the big question on the minds of all fanboys: with Marvel having recently re-acquired the rights to their iconic Spider-Man character, how might he be inserted into the whole complex plot?

Between now and 2019, Marvel is set to see the release of Captain America: Civil War in 2016, as well as the next two films in The Avengers series, Avengers: Infinity War – Part I in 2018 and Avengers: Infinity War – Part II in 2019.

Also slated for release by Marvel in the next three years are Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Inhumans. Also in development from the Marvel camp are television vehicles for characters Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist as part of Marvel’s partnership with Netflix, which saw the recent release of the wildly successful and critically-lauded Daredevil series, which has been green lit for a second season with rumors already abound of a Daredevil cinematic inclusion, and perhaps, full cinematic reboot.