GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 Director James Gunn Considered Annihilus As Villain; Will Not Make A VOL. 4

@Kurne - Sounds like you really want it to sting for somebody.

@marvel72 - Unfortunately, from the precious little that has been divulged, NOVA was already reportedly a back, back, back-burner of a project even BEFORE the writers went on strike. At this point, God only knows when we will ever see NOVA... 🙁

@DocSpock - I agree with your points and would further explain it like this: Marvel is positioning itself to essentially be a cinematic comic shop, with at least one main group of characters for each of its subgenres: cosmic, supernatural/horror, magical/mystical, Earth-based, mutants, and street level (that's just off the top of my head). That way there's literally something for everyone, even if everything isn't for everyone, like a comic shop. Even though they didn't have much choice at the time, building the MCU starting with the Earth based heroes (i.e. the Avengers) was, in retrospect, arguably the best way they could have kicked things off because with strep level heroes the stakes are usually too low, while if they had started with something cosmic level, like GotG, it would have been to sci-fi space opera and would have been seen as a Star Wars rip off by the GA. By the end of "Avengers" the had established a range of characters with a range of abilities (i.e. ranging from Thor to Hawkeye) AND had introduced aliens and other cosmic entities. So then the success of that opened up the possibility to start going off in all this other directions.

So by the end of "A:EG" they had established the Earth based, cosmic, and magical/mystical characters, and in Phase 4 regardless of what anyone's feelings are about the quality of it, they introduced the supernatural/horror side and barely cracked the door open for the street level side with "Hawkeye", which we will obviously see explored more fully with "DD:BA", and probably to a lesser extent "Echo", which will pave the way for "SM:4" to fully embrace that side.

Then that covers pretty much all of the corners of the MCU and once they get there, there's no going back. I laid out that unnecessarily long and unneeded diatribe to respond to your comment about Disney never stopping to hump these characters. Once established, they will ALWAYS have some group of characters that represent those different subgenres, and as for the cosmic side, it may not be the GotG any time soon, but if no one else is introduced they conveniently have thee F4 coming right in to potentially fill that space. And is any coincidence that the F4 are a type of family just like how the GotG ended up being? Don't think so.

In fact, don't be surprised if that GotG "Prison Break" or whatever it's called ride at DW and DL gets remodeled into an "Escape from the Baxter Building" ride in the next 5 or so years. The Mouse never sleeps. Never.

@DocSpock - Yeah. Obviously what I laid out assumes that Marvel has had a long-term plan for years, but based on what we've heard about a planning room at Marvel Studios where Feige has like, seriously, a 10 year plan laid out on white boards or whatever on the walls, I'm inclined to believe that that's the case. I mean, it makes total sense: if you were Feige and given total control of the assets that Marvel had as of 2007 (or earlier) and were challenged with "So this is what we have. What can you do with this?" and Feige responds with "Hold my beer" and then starts kicking out the MCU (which is kinda what it seems like what happened), and if you were to be optimistic that Kevin & Co. had this grand plan to get us to where we are with the MCU and where it's potentially going... well, hell, dude that's nothing short of breathtaking and may just end up being the most impressive feat ever accomplished in cinematic history. I kinda thin that they're in the middle of it right now, so let's see if they can stick the landing.

On a related note, however, imagine what Star Wars COULD have been if they had started their universe at around the same time as the MCU and had had someone like Feige in control. I'll give you a second to wipe the tears from your eyes... 😊. Seriously, it's not a fair comparison because obviously of the time, technology, etc. differences. But as a life-long Star Wars fan (I was there for Ep. 4 in the theaters although I don't remember it and exactly ONE of the OG figures), imagine just for a minute what the folks at Marvel could have done with SW nowadays vs. what they had to deal with 50 years ago. It may have well turned out like... oh I don't know... nothing comes to mind... wait! Oh, yeah, GotG!

Cheers!

@DocSpock - Yeah I was 1 year old when Star Wars came out so I guess ya got a couple of years on me, but it was my first real "sci-fi love" (soon to be replaced by Transformers in 1984). I had a ton of the SW toys but then sold them (almost) all in a garage sale when I got into TFs (I even tried to make my AT-AT Walker into a TF by standing it up on its hind legs). Fast forward to when I was a junior in high school and we moved out of the house that I grew up in and the process I found a "Death Squad Commander" (the guy with the gray suit and that HUGE black helmet) figure underneath our stove, slightly chewed by a dog. I still have him as the only remnant of my OG SW collection.

These days I have a corner of my movie room dedicated to SW, but I really only collect the "retro" figs that are re-releases of the OG figures. And as luck would have it, as part of Star Wars Day Hasbro just revealed a pre-order for a new collection of OG figs which includes... the Death Squad Commander: https://hasbropulse.com/collections/new/products/star-wars-retro-collection-star-wars-a-new-hope-collectible-figures-multipack.

Pre-ordered on-sight. I guess life is funny that way. 😊.

@DocSpock - I feel ya man. I was fortunate enough to grow up in the 80s, which I think were more or less the pinnacle for kids toys. I mean, as far as boys toys we had such an amazing variety. And sure, the cartoons (like with TFs) were more or less animated commercials for the toys, but they comics were allowed to kinda do their own thing, and that's how (in the case of TFs anyway and likely other brands like GI Joe) they were able to establish the lore that those brands are based on today (for example the whole TF lore of Unicron and the 13 Primes, etc.).

So I guess I was lucky to grow up in that time. But then again, there was SO MUCH content and the associated toys that I didn't have the capacity to really get into stuff outside of TFs (like GI Joe, etc.). Regardless, I've been a lifelong TF fan and got into comics at right around the "Golden Age" of the 90's, but then of course that didn't last once I got far into high school.

FWIW, I'm glad that you had that type of relationship with your dad as a kid. For me, my dad was pretty 1 dimensional as a kid, as he was a businessman and was perpetually under a lot of stress, which my mom would use to discipline us as kids (that kind of "You just wait 'til your father gets home..." kinda thing. He's become much more of a 3D dad over the years, but I remember that his big thing when I was a kids was "No guns" (which meant I wasn't even allowed to have Megatron as a toy).

FWIW, my dad was a POW in Vietnam, and he literally watched his best friend's head get blown away with my dad's .45 when they were both prisoners in a camp (long story), so I can understand why he felt that way. As it is, I'm a science/tech/art/music/literature guy, so the whole absence of the wildlife aesthetic that you had doesn't really bother me that much.

That being said, before I met my wife (who is very decidedly an "indoor model"... for now...) I was a VERY outdoorsy guy and as a kid growing up we went camping, boating, hiking (I actually found myself trapped on top of a "mountain" outside of Louisville on time), skiing (both weather and snow), kneeboarding, etc. You get the point. So I'm hoping that one of these days I can get my wife to do some of this stuff (like I REALLY want to buy a boat on of these days, but that's going to be a little tricky since she doesn't know how to swim).

Anyhow, Nice talking with you man. Seems like we're on the same page on a lot of the topics posted here, so I look forward to future discussions. Cheers!