I don't get Avengers 2, weren't they building up to Thanos? Something tell me this one will be just a filler fan service sequel, not that I will mind that, but it's kind of disappointing. Also it seems it's gonna be Iron Man 4.
Let me bring you up to speed...
They are building up to Thanos. The scepter Loki had in
Avengers is in the possession of Hydra (mind gem most likely) during Avengers: Age of Ultron, so that is how Thanos is involved...indirectly. Did Luke fight the Emperor in
Empire Strikes Back? The Avengers would be destroyed if they faced Thanos right now.
With Tony and Bruce being the creators of Ultron in this story, I have no doubt that they will both play a big role.
Avengers: AoU was always going to be about Ultron. Whedon said that to Feige when he was picked for
Avengers 1. Ultron might seem like a minor diversion, but this storyline will be key to setting up the registration act, which will be shown in
Captain America: Civil War and beyond. Tony saw how vulnerable the world was when he carried that nuke into space, the Ultron program was restarted because of that, as sort of an upgrade to the Iron Legion seen in
Iron Man 3. Everything is building towards Tony and Steve butting heads. The heroes will be scattered and the Avengers roster will change, but come
Avengers: Infinity War, you can count on the pieces fitting together, with a revised Avengers roster gathering strength for the final battle.
So we have
Avengers: AoU tearing the team apart in a sense, no doubt leading straight into C
aptain America: Civil War.
Ant-Man will be following
Avengers: AoU, but it won't have any drastic effects on the MCU as a whole imo. I think Pym will be involved in some characters pasts perhaps, but I don't think the heist involved in that movie will involve an infinity stone.
One thing you will notice about the Phase Three lineup is a lot of new faces and strife between the original Avengers, like
Thor: Ragnarok, and
Captain America: Civil War. This is fallout from
Avengers: AoU. Thor will be out of the picture due to Asgard being destroyed or close to it. Captain America and Iron Man will be going at it due to Civil War. Hulk won't even get a solo title, nor will the SHIELD agents, Widow and Hawkeye. Some have speculated about Hulk being sent into space, much like what happened in
Planet Hulk, but I'm not so sure.
Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, will no doubt be a surprise hit in that November timeslot in 2016. I'm thinking
GotG 2 will have more to do with Thanos right now, since he is on the other side of universe, playing a master game of chess, allowing all the pieces to fall into place before striking. Notice they don't have a subtitle for their movie either. Could be they don't want to reveal it yet due to obvious reasons...
Black Panther brings some diversity to the cast, which I'm sure a lot of people are thankful for. I am eager to see something resembling the Illuminati like in the comics at some point. The bread crumbs are all there. If one has read the comics these movies are borrowing from, it becomes apparent what is happening to some extent. There are a lot of unknowns here though. Where will the Soul and Time gem (stone) be revealed? I would wager one being revealed in Doctor Strange at least. Black Panther has been rumored to be introduced in
Captain America: Civil War, indeed, we have Andy Serkis playing Ulysses Klaw in
AoU, with a brief clip of what appears to be a Wakandan women, possibly Shuri, so you can count on Wakanda and Vibranium being in
AoU. Strange has been name dropped already. The real unknown here is
Captain Marvel and
Inhumans. I can see Warlock being introduced in
GotG 2 at the very least, along with maybe one more original GotG member, hopefully Starhawk, but
Captain Marvel and
Inhumans are going to play in-between the
Avengers: Infinity War movies, so those are hard to decide on.
No doubt the Kree will be involved heavily in
Captain Marvel, and having a female superhero in a solo movie is a big deal. The
Inhumans are a wild card. In
Agents of SHIELD they have already introduced them to some extent, so I am curious where they will go with their story. Attilan will be a location much like Asgard, so will Wakanda for that matter. With most of these properties being unknown to the average moviegoer the upcoming linkup from Marvel Studios is pretty refreshing I think.
If I was a betting man I would count on Loki playing some sort of betrayal in
Thor: Ragnarok, he does after all possess a few powerful artifacts, and he does have Thanos to answer to. Warlock should be introduced if Thanos is involved, so I am almost certain we will see him in
GotG 2. I'm not sure why they wouldn't honestly. With Marvel Studios amping things up to three movies a year, the plot threads will start to pay off more rapidly too,which is a plus. I'm sure many people thought Thanos would be in
Avengers 2 after the stinger at the end of the first one, but I think at the very most he will be in the end credits, or just briefly shown.
