Excelsior!

Marvel Does All The Things: Ant-Man Gets A Test Reel, the Guardians of the Galaxy Get A Movie

by Susana Polo | 11:45 am, June 29th, 2012

Now that The Avengers is over and the Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America sequels are all in some stages of production, the public eye isn’t quite staring and the workings of Marvel Studios anymore… except it is. Shiftily. Quietly. Waiting for the moment that Marvel reveals that it’s not just sitting on its heels, making a bunch of sequels that we fully expected, and instead, is planning to expand its cinematic universe into those places we know are within its power but that didn’t quite make a good mainstream debut, and probably in that mystery release spot they’ve reserved in the summer of 2014. Speculation has focused on a number of the more obscure characters in the Marvel universe (whose movie rights are not controlled by other studios), with hopes that in addition to showing off footage from the currently-in-production Iron Man 3, Marvel would have a big announcement for San Diego Comic Con, now less than a month away.

According to Variety’s sources, they do: and it’s that the next group of characters to get a chance at the Marvel cinematic universe will be the Guardians of the Galaxy. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Who?”

There have been two major incarnations of the Guardians. The first, debuting in 1969, were a space-faring team of aliens, each one of them the last of their race, who’d come together to take a more proactive role in safeguarding the galaxy than other Marvel teams, rather than waiting for crises to arrive. But the team more likely to see the big screen from the current Marvel administration would be the reintroduction of the Guardians from 2008. A team comprised of Star-Lord (a human), Adam Warlock (an artificial human), Drax the Destroyer (a human soul reborn with the singular purpose of destroying Thanos), Rocket Raccoon (an anthropomorphic raccoon), Groot (an anthropomorphic tree), Phyla-Vell (…sort of Captain Mar-Vell’s daughter), and Gamora (sometimes known as The Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe).

All in all… I’m very interested in seeing how this plays out. First, because Marvel seems to be going deep into the well for this one, with characters that are only familiar to serious Marvel fans. This is not a case of Captain America or the Hulk, where even a basic knowledge of television or movie pop culture will have a person familiar with the fact that they exist. Second, because the least they can do is include both canonical original female team members in the movie adaptation. Third, because the Guardians’ focus on space and what goes on out there is a pretty fascinating expansion on what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has laid out as its concept of the cosmos. So far, Asgard and The Avengers‘ Chitauri have been our first examples of the expanses beyond our own solar system. Not only does this promise a story very heavily themed with alien characters and space locations, a number of the characters in the Guardians have direct ties to the Mad Titan Thanos, who, as we all know, is being set up as the ultimate villain of Phase 2 of Marvel Studios’ production plans. Drax was created to destroy him, and Gamora was fostered and trained by him as a weapon until she betrayed him.

While the Guardians of the Galaxy getting some real confirmation behind it (after persistent rumors based on Disney grabbing up all the trademarks for Guardians merch) is today’s biggest news from Marvel, it’s not the only thing out there. Edgar Wright has apparently just wrapped filming a test-reel for Ant-Man, to see if he can come up with a look and tone for the character that Marvel likes. Hopefully we’ll hear even more about that during Comic Con, as well as some hard news on the possibility of a Dr. Strange, The Inhumans or Black Panther movie (the last of which is rumored to already have writers attached to it).

(via Variety.)

TAGS: Ant-Man | Guardians of the Galaxy | Marvel Studios | Thanos

John Wao

Happy Happy Joy Joy.

I hope that along with Guardians, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange and Luke Cage someone at Marvel can go back and fix the Fantastic Four and the Punisher.

Considering that Fantastic Four is the grandaddy of the Marvel Age kicked off by Jack “The King” Kirby and Stan “The Man” Lee it’s a travesty what was done to them on the big screen.
http://profiles.google.com/lowsee Heidi Mason

“Clean ALL the things!!”
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MYC65UZW7OMSYCL4YRFH4XKKKQ Brian

Rocket Raccoon is going to get a movie before Wonder Woman. Get your heads out of your asses, WB.
http://damalur.dreamwidth.org/ Damalur

If Marvel gives the Guardians of the Galaxy a movie treatment before Black Widow or Ms. Marvel, I quit life.
http://profile.yahoo.com/5VQ2KRIGTOKGIIC474OXZK36DQ Maeve

But only Squirrel Girl can defeat Thanos!
http://twitter.com/zenoferic Erica Throne

Look, I’m not trying to troll The Mary Sue or anything. Just hear me out: You guys really need to get a copy editor to go over your posts before you post them. Or you guys at least learn to copy edit your own posts. And if you have a copy editor, you need to let them know they are not doing their job.

This doesn’t even make sense: “the public eye isn’t quite staring and the workings of Marvel Studios anymore… except it is.”

Are you trying to say the public eye isn’t quite staring AT “the workings of Marvel Studios”?

I say this out of love. In general the Mary Sue staff are great writers and I have come to rely on this place as my favourite source of entertainment news and reviews. However this is far from being the only article with an error like this. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I read an article on this site that didn’t have a minimum of one obvious and distracting error of spelling, grammar, or fact.
Anonymous

God i hate it when people compare every character movie from any comic to Wonder Woman. Just because a marvel movie comes out, or a movie with a female lead is successful does not indicate that Wonder Woman should get a movie or that she’s next in line for a movie.

No offense, but by the same theory Captain Marvel (the Shazam DC version) should get a move before her: After all Supermans really popular & Captain Marvel is just as iconic & at his most popular outsold both Wonder Woman & Superman combined.

An with all that being said, no matter how popular next years Superman movie is, thats still no reason to make either a Captain Marvel or a Wonder Woman film… An this is being said by someone who has Wonder Girl as her account image.

Now please, enough with the WW film complaints. Try being happy for the properties that are being made.
Anonymous

Bye bye, nice knowing you then… Remember to write. LOL
Anonymous

I’ll put this on the list of movies that Marvel said they were going to make & then didn’t.

Come on Runaways!
Kaarel Jakobson

“Just because a marvel movie comes out, or a movie with a female lead is successful does not indicate that Wonder Woman should get a movie”

Isn’t the fact that Wonder Woman should get a movie already self-evident? This is not something that need or could be “proven.”
Kaarel Jakobson

So now the big question is what the line-up will be.

I’m especially curious whether Gamora will be in it. She’s been a member of the team, but she also has a connection to Thanos and could work as his henchwoman… Or she could be both.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=524501420 Armand Rock

from what i hear its a combination of both teams which to me makes the most sense….you can take the most interesting characters out of the bunch….

rocket racoon is a given
vance astro would also be on that team and to me that means the team would be based in the future but would travel back in time…vance’s origin is too good to pass up.
i would then guess drax because of thanos
starhawk would also make sense to me and it would be cool if it included Aleta (although they would have to change the fact that shes his half sister and wife)

the team would need a couple of strong women so i would take the female version of quasar and Nikki to round out the team…

as for future sequels thats where other members would come in…they do have to guard an entire galaxy after all

like them on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/TheGuardiansOfTheGalaxy
Anonymous

By the same logic: Isn’t the fact that Captain Marvel should get a movie already self-evident? This is not something that need or could be “proven.”

The fact is that Wonder Woman is NOT automatically deserving of a movie.
Anonymous

I doubt it will be a combination of both teams. Its likely to be the Conquest era Gaurdians of the Galaxy.

To try to combine that version with the previous version just wouldn’t work well, since they are such different creatures.
Kaarel Jakobson

I’d like a Captain Marvel movie. It would, however, be a marketing nightmare because of the hassle with naming it. There is nothing like that standing in the way of a WW movie.
http://twitter.com/TTHOOM Tim Terrell

Agreed Kelly. I am a fan of the character despite the dearth of good WW stories, but the character has had so many short lived series and no iconic stories. WW is a figurehead, not a character. She may be about as viable a movie franchise as Aquaman. (the WW animated movie, like the comics was underwhelming.)

Not to say there shuldn’t be a movie with a female superhero. There certainly should be and it’s overdue. Enough of shit like “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”. How about Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk or Big Barda? (okay I am a little biased on that last one).

BTW, this thread was 100x more interesting than this article. After the first paragraph, my eyes glazed over and I skimmed through, when I realized the writer had no news about the project, just a lame opinion.
Anonymous

Actually i wouldn’t mind a she-hulk film, or maybe just a WB style animated movie.
Anonymous

Except this one actually seems to be moving forward in production
Anonymous

Thats what they said about the Runaways movie. No offense but i’ll believe it when i see it in cinemas & not a second earlier.
Anonymous

Not really though, since this one is expected to come out by 2014. But we’ll see.

The Ant-Man film seems to be on it’s way to being made too.
Anonymous

thats what they said about Runaways too.
Anonymous

Dude, they just confirmed it a ComicCon. They showed concept art and an official logo. And an official release date.

Nothing like the Runaways thing, which didn’t have any of this.
Anonymous

Venom, there have been plenty of potential movies that have been announced at Comiccon that didn’t make it… Including contrary to your belief Runaways. Runaways had a script, had been announced at Comicon, had been cast & then was put on permanent hiatus. Like i’ve said before on this topic: I’ll believe it when i see it on the silver screen and not a second before. Same goes with any comic book property announcement: DC/WB & Marvel are announcing so many properties are to be turned into movies at the moment, and most of them are going to fail before we even get to the scripting stage, that i no longer believe any of these claims until its on the silver screen.