I would like to begin with a general introduction dedicated to the growing community of young readers here at CBM.com, about the dynamic behind the production of the movies concerning Marvel Characters released so far:
Marvel Studios, a division of Marvel Entertainment Inc. (which was acquired by Disney last year), has produced in its entirety 3 Motion Pictures featuring individual Super Heroes from the published Marvel Comics, such as “Iron Man” (released in 2008), “The Incredible Hulk” (2008) and “Iron Man 2” (2010). Currently in production are “Thor” (release date: May, 2011) and “Captain America: The First Avenger” (release date: July, 2011).
Marvel’s plan is that those movies will lead to an unprecedented Cinematic project called “The Avengers”(release date: May, 2012), which will feature all of the above characters and a few others already introduced in those titles like Nick Fury, War Machine and Black Widow; and most probably other Marvel Comics characters such as General Ross, Loki, Hawkeye, Ant-Man and Wasp.
Though Marvel Studios is fairly a new enterprise itself, its 3 movie productions released so far have been solid economic, critic and fan acclaimed successes.
In the other hand, Marvel characters such as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Dare Devil, The Punisher, Ghost Rider, The Fantastic Four, Blade and a few more, have already had their respective Motion Picture treatment, and in some cases with sequels; all of them were produced by different Film Studios such as Fox and Sony, with mixed results (in the economic revenue, the Critic and the Comics’fan-base response to those movies). But it is very important to note that none of those movies produced by any Studio different than Marvel Studios have any kind of tie with each other, in any way, nor in the Story, the Cast (an actor performing the same character in different movies), etc. They all are independent films about independent characters or teams.
In other words, each of those movies belongs to a different Cinematic Universe. One universe for each character or team. Unfortunately, General Public sees the Marvel logo at the beginning of all those movies and assume that they are all related in content, which is not the case in the Live-Action films.
There is a reason for that and that reason is in our very own Earth-based Universe: the Legal department. Marvel sold, or at least “leased” generally in long term contracts, the rights to use a lot of its characters in Live-Action Motion Pictures to be produced by other Studios, as mentioned above. However, even though Fox owns the rights to use the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Dare Devil as a whole, there is no sign or plan whatsoever to involve those characters in the same movie, as opposed to what happens in the Comics Universe, where the characters meet with each other in a regular basis in Crossovers. In the case of the X-Men trilogy, the third installment was clearly damaged in continuity and treatment by having a different director and writers; as well as for its Wolverine spin-off.
Other film franchises like the Spider-Man trilogy, produced by Sony, started very promising in 2002, but ended up, for many, with a weak final product both in story and consistency by the time Spider-Man 3 hit theaters, even though that project maintained the same cast and crew, including the Director.
The rights to hold those characters are subject to a certain amount of time between beginning pre-production and releasing a movie, which means that not necessarily do we have to see Dare Devil 2 in theaters next year. Fox would fulfill the agreement by only starting “Prep” work for the movie…or rebooting the franchise, as is the trend in the wake of the new 2010’s decade. (See Nemesys awesome Editorial article about Why Reboots may be Destined For Trouble Here )
Realizing, perhaps a little too late, that the creative department for those and the rest of the characters owned by other Studios had gone out of control, Marvel Studios were created, with the purpose of self-produce movieswith the rest of the characters which rights had not been sold or compromised yet.The strategy followed by Marvel was to include “Easter eggs”, which means to show glimpses of artifacts from other movies, or to mention another character’s tie-in storylines that would eventually appear in other character’s feature.
So far, IM’s Stark Industries technology and logo (the company founded by IM’s alter ego, Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr.), was displayed in TIH movie. Stark’s father, Howard Stark, is certainly to have some involvement in the upcoming CA movie, and both IM and IM2 have showed a prototype of Captain America’s shield.
At the end of IM2, a scene showed different screens, in one of them appeared the footage of a News break from TIH movie itself, meaning that the Story lines in both movies were happening in about the same time. Those screens belong to S.H.I.E.L.D., a secret government agency from Marvel Comics which was also used in TIH, and most certainly will be mentioned in Thor as well.
Even though said references are, in some way, dedicated to the fan-base of Marvel, without a doubt the strongest connection between Iron Man and Hulk happened at the end of TIH, when an additional scene featuring Downey Jr. himself as Stark, chatted with General Ross and teased the audience about the creation of “a team”. Despite the fact that TIH movie was released in 2008, said scene actually took place after the events in IM2.
In a similar way, after the credits of IM2, audiences had a first look at Thor’s hammer in the New Mexico desert, but the explanation to that will have to wait until Thor is released.
In the audio commentary for The Incredibly Hulk, on the scene where Bruce Banner (played in that movie by Edward Norton) finally gains control over The Hulk (Banner smiling while his eyes glow green), Director Louis Leterrier comments on the two possibilities that follow that milestone:
1.-If the Hulk becomes good, it will open the way for The Incredible Hulk part 2, or:
2.-If the Hulk is used as a self-conscious villain or at least a dangerous threat, it opens the way for his immediate inclusion in The Avengers movie.
On the additional Stark scene, Leterrier added that he is very proud to have had the opportunity to shoot “the first scene of the Avengers”. This is the key that bonds TIH to the MCU. This scene is the point of no return. This is similar to the comic panel where Iron Man offers Captain America peace to end the Civil War by stretching his hand, but Cap no longer trusts him and instead held a tech trap in his glove.
So here we are, in July 2010, and Marvel has announced through its President Kevin Feige, after a long uncertainness and in a polemic way, that Norton is no longer a part of The Avengers Movie Project. To the 90% of the General Public attending the Avengers movie in theaters in 2012, confusion will certainly arise among them when Bruce Banner’s probably few but yet important scenes appear, and probably they will not relate that new actor to Norton’s TIH, but we, the Fan Community, will.
And certainly will Marvel. Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe Continuity is way underway, being all that was told and we saw in The Incredible Hulk an integral part of it…despite the cast involved.
On having eventual sequels to TIH involving Norton himself or the new Banner actor in the post-Avengers future, well…that’s a whole different story.
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Last but not least, I want to give credit, though I don’t agree fully with him, to CBM’s user MarsAmbassador for being the main fellow user raising his voice on the issue about the Continuity in the MCU being affected by Norton’s departure.
And also a great article from Nemesys about the coming Reboots, which I would consider as Part I of this Editorial!