Its a real milestone for CBM's at the moment with a never before attempted multi-cross over series of movies, culminating with The Avengers in 2012. With Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America to hit screens first, fans are wondering how all of these dots will be connected, and which of the great characters/storylines from the comics will be followed or make the final cut. SFX magazine have lots of cool interviews and quotes from the various people involved with bringing these movies to life. I took this interview with Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige as he talks about what we can expect from the upcoming movies..
First he talks about the challenge of putting these stories together on the big screen...
"I get to cheat!" he says. "Because its been done before in comics. We might be changing how the dots connect a little bit, but its that experience of reading comics that we're trying to bring to the movies, for people that have never even opened a comic book before. I've said a million times that the best part of reading a comic is that any character can pop into another characters story. That wasn't possible on-screen until Iron Man."
We already know that with the upcoming movies, we will be introduced to more characters as well as seeing the existing ones gel together. Feige gives his take on how that will happen...
"Its fun now and we are introducing some new characters in these films. But its not about cramming in lots of new people ..thats sort of the cardinal sin of the sequel, adding too many characters"
"My only concern is that when we launch a franchise.. whichever characters franchise that may be, it should stand on its own two feet. With
Iron Man being the first one out of the gate, thank goodness thats what happend. Everyone loved it. Its our job to do the same with
Thor and
Captain America two years from now, so by the time
The Avengers comes in 2012 its not just a team super hero movie with a bunch of characters with powers, its three people,
four including Hulk , five including Nick Fury-who you have seen before in other movies, coming together for the very first time."
Yes, Feige says that The Hulk will definitely be a part of
The Avengers. We never really doubted it, but its nice to have it confirmed. Still no word on whether Ed Norton will reprise the role though. All he says is..
"...I think there's a chance, its certainly our intention to use the same actors from film to film where we can."
I think its fair to say that most fans are worried about the very fantasy oriented story of
Thor , integrating into the sci-fi type world of
Iron Man and
The Avengers. SFX put those worries to Feige...
"No, [I dont think it will be difficult] because thats what
Thor is. We're doing the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby/Walt Simonson/J Michael Straczynski
Thor. We're not doing the blow the dust of the old Norse book in your library
Thor. And in the
Thor of the Marvel universe there's a race called The Asgardians, and we're linked through this tree of life that we're unaware of. Its real science, but we don't know about it yet. The
Thor movie is about teaching people that."
Thats all for now. But if you can, be sure to pick up a copy of this months SFX, there is loads more cool Marvel goodness.