When a business model consistently generates billions of dollars, it’s not surprising when interested parties plan to keep that model in perpetual motion for as long as possible. For Marvel Studios, that is certainly true of their bid for world domination using their cohesive cinematic universe. As commented by Kevin Feige – President of Marvel Studios – in a recent conversation with Business Week, they have at their disposal “a universe of thousands of characters [they] control entirely.” That’s right – this thing could run for decades.
According to the report, senior figures at Disney met with Marvel to discuss the best way to continue milking this cash cow by using a multitude of character combinations to grow their audience with each project.
[Robert] Iger and Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, recently met with the Marvel team to talk about new heroes who will be introduced in Age of Ultron and could be spun off in their own films as well. Iger declines to name them. “The possibilities are endless,” he says.
Iger would like to replicate the success of The Avengers with other Marvel teams. He says Marvel could potentially spin off members of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which include Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Groot, and Rocket Raccoon, in their own features.
As indicated, the process of introducing new characters into each tent-pole production (for example, the Avengers films), and giving them a spin-off during the intervening few years is one we are already starting to see, with Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), The Scarlett Witch (Elisabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) confirmed for Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Such a turnover allows for older characters to step back, making room for fresh faces and storylines, with the goal of keeping interest in the various franchises high. There are persistent rumours about the appearance of Ms. Marvel for that very reason.
Such an approach had already raised the question of similar plans for Guardians Of The Galaxy – which Robert Iger seems to have now confirmed as a definite possibility – particularly since Kevin Feige has already stated that Marvel’s roadmap potentially takes them all the way to 2028. While that all sounds great and exciting for fans, it’s important to read these comments in conjunction with Feige’s recent response to the question of when we will see a standalone female superhero movie from Marvel:
“’When are you doing a standalone female superhero movie?’ The answer is: I don’t know. We only do two a year, [and] we know more or less what’s coming up through ‘16/’17.”
So, we know the extent of the Marvel mix-and-match universe expansion plan, and the fact that there are exactly zero female superhero movies in the works for the next three to four years (which – at two per year – is six to eight movies). The question now becomes: What are the chances of seeing a standalone talking raccoon superhero movie, before an actual woman gets to take the real lead?
Unfortunately, at this point, I think it’s 50/50.