The Women Behind the Disney/Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2

Yesterday we brought you the pretty well supported rumor that Marvel will be revealing the next expansions of its movie universe in two weeks at San Diego Comic Con, and that among those efforts is going to be a live action Guardians of the Galaxy movie. But lest we forget, Marvel is partnered up with Disney these days, and if there’s anything that Disney is known for, it’s animation. How long do we have to wait for the announcement of what we all know Disney wants to do: make animated feature films for kids based on Marvel characters? According to rumor, not very long at all.

According to a couple different film news blogs (so take with grain of salt), Big Hero 6 is the ensemble team that’s been tapped for a debut. It’s a roster of characters whose most famous member is probably Silver Samurai, a Wolverine villain, so, well… that’s not saying much. As an origin story, they’ve got the pretty basic “government wants state-sanctioned team of superheroes, gets misfits, kids, and weirdos instead,” except insert the Japanese government. While any Asian-based team with a member named Wasabi-No-Ginger isn’t exactly sneaking past my Uncomfortable Stereotype alarms, if Disney is going with the characters, it’s likely because they’re interested in all those “anime cartoons” kids are watching these days and will be cleaning up the roster, character origins, and baddies for a kid audience. Hopefully, anyway.

The film is reportedly being produced by Kristina Reed, veteran of The Princess and the Frog, Kung Fu Panda, and Shrek the Third. And she’s not the only lady who appears to be attached to Marvel’s second phase. While writing yesterday’s post on the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, I spent so much time familiarizing myself with the characters themselves that I missed a pretty cool tidbit: according to Variety, the script that convinced Marvel to take up the project? Written by Nicole Perlman, a “graduate” of Disney’s screenwriting program. And frankly, that gives me eve more hope for the Guardians’ two main female team members making it to the silver screen.

(via I Heart Chaos.)