Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has been speaking about upcoming projects and the future of Marvel’s movies at Barcelona’s CineEurope. Amongst the topics discussed were ANT-MAN, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and DOCTOR STRANGE. Although there hasn’t been any decision regarding Doctor Strange casting, it’s set to begin production next spring.

” think we’ll be casting probably in the next month or two,” he says, “and announcing an actor, and then we get into production in the spring of next year. Strange is very, very important, not just because it’s an amazing character study, and a journey of a man who’s gone from this very arrogant surgeon to somebody who is quite zen and literally keeps all of reality together on a daily basis, there’s a whole other side of the Marvel comics, which is that supernatural side — the interdimensional side of the Marvel universe, and Doctor Strange is, I believe, our entry point into that other realm, which has dozens of characters and storylines all of its own.”

Marvel Studios are clearly waiting to see how GUARDIANS is received before committing to any further interstellar cinematic adventures, but Feige has hinted that if the film’s a hit then there’s already an idea or two for sequels.

“There are dozens and dozens of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY storylines. There’s a group that came about in the ’60s, were revamped again in the ’80s and they changed into this incarnation that you see in this movie about eight or nine years ago. So there are a lot of other characters and worlds and stories. So should this film work, should the audience come out for this one, there are definitely places we can take it and we have ideas of where we’d like to go with it.”

It would seem that Thanos will also have a much larger part to play in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe despite his reportedly brief appearance in GUARDIANS.

“We learn a little bit more about him in this movie, and he – and his band of followers – is the biggest piece of connective tissue that will eventually lead us back into Avengers films in the future.”

So could that mean that there will be more than three Avengers movies? If so will they have a rotating roster of characters just like in the comics? Perhaps Feige’s following comment concerning Ant-Man is a further hint that that may be likely…

“‘Ant-Man is a very important character for us. We like that people don’t necessarily know what it is. We like that it sounds sort of strange when you first hear the notion of Ant-Man, or a hero that can shrink, but he’s a very key Marvel character. He’s a key Avenger. He’s an important character we want to bring into our universe and Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and an amazing cast all set to start in August, we believe that we’re on the road to the best version of ANT-MAN that we could have.”

It’s pure speculation at this point but could using the term “Key Avenger” suggest that we will be seeing more of Paul Rudd in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe? And Marvel are clearly interested in exploring more of its supernatural world. Could we see a Man-Thing or Son of Satan movie or TV series in the future? Right now the possibilities seem limitless.

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