On Oct. 28, Marvel Studios officially released the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is ready to expand on the range of characters that they already have established in previous movies.
Phase Three begins with Captain America: Civil War, to be released in theatres on May 6, 2016. The movie will take place after Avengers: Age of Ultron, (which debuts on May 1, 2015). Captain America (Chris Evans) will have to face challenges from none other than Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).
Problems begin when Stark backs a government-made Superhero Registration Act that trains the superheroes how to effectively use their powers responsibly. Captain America disagrees with this act, and claims that the government will essentially turn the superheroes into soldiers. A civil war between superheroes then ensues.
The second title releasing in Phase Three is Doctor Strange, which is scheduled to premiere on Nov. 4, 2016.
Doctor Stephen Strange (actor TBA) is an arrogant, top-of-the-class neurosurgeon whose career ends when a car accident permanently impaired his hands, making him unable to perform surgery. After searching for multiple ways to return his hands to the way they were, he finds nothing until one day, he finds a person named the Ancient One. The Ancient One eventually teaches Stephen the mystic arts, how to be good and protect the world from evil.
The third title Marvel is releasing in the third phase is none other than Guardians of the Galaxy 2, with a projected release date of May 5, 2017.
This time around, Peter Quill/Star-Lord, (Christopher Pratt) and his gang will find new adventures as they travel the universe. While Peter searches to find himself, various unfinished plotlines from the first movie will be resolved, some being the fate of Gamora’s sister, Nebula, what songs are on Awesome Mix Vol. 2, and the identity of Peter’s father.
The fourth movie set in the list of movies is Thor: Ragnarok, which will play on screens on July 28, 2017. While Tony and Captain America duke it out in Civil War, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) will face problems on his own when his home realm, is warned about Ragnarok, or the Norse apocalypse.
The fifth film in the Phase Three franchise is Black Panther, which opens on Nov. 3, 2017.
Black Panther is another new character in the cinematic universe that follows the life of T’Challa, who is portrayed by Chadwick Boseman. We find T’Challa in the African nation of Wakanda, where the Panther Tribe resides and is led by King T’Chaka, T’Challa’s father.
The movie follows T’Challa on his journey of becoming Chief of the Panther Tribe after his father’s death and the path he takes once he assumes the role of Black Panther and receives a costume made of vibranium, which is the same material used for Captain America’s shield. His superhuman abilities include increased strength, reflexes, speed, stamina, and much more.
The sixth movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe lineup is part one of the two-part Avengers sequel titled, Avengers: The Infinity War, which lands in theatres on May 4, 2018.
Throughout the previous Marvel movies, there have been hints to the six Infinity Stones. The Infinity Stones are powerful objects spread throughout the “universe” created by a group of cosmic beings, named Cosmic Entities.
We’ve seen two already in The Avengers. One is the Tesseract, which is the Space gem that can create a pathway to any location in any universe. The other is the gem that resides in the scepter that Thor’s brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) used. That stone is believed to be the Soul gem, which can control the free will of any human that the scepter comes in contact with.
We’ve also seen an Infinity Stone in Thor: The Dark World. There is the hint of an Infinity stone, the Aether, which gives the user of the stone power over the darkness. And most recently, Ronan the Accuser uses the power from within the Orb in Guardians of the Galaxy, and is the Power Stone. If the power stone is used at it’s full potential, it can demolish an entire planet.
Although two more stones are going to be revealed in Infinity War, we know that Thanos (who was revealed in The Avengers post-credit scene and in Guardians of the Galaxy) will fuse all six of the Infinity stones into an Infinity Gauntlet, and will cause major problems, and may potentially destroy the Avengers.
The seventh movie in the franchise will be Captain Marvel, which will land in theatres on July 6, 2018.
The movie will be the first female-led superhero movie of the Cinematic Universe. President of Marvel, Kevin Feige, decided to choose the character of Carol Danvers to portray Captain Marvel. Before Danvers became Captain Marvel in the comics, multiple people played the role of Captain Marvel. While there is no storyline posted by Marvel yet, Captain Marvel’s superpowers include flight, durability, enhanced strength, flying speed as fast as six times the speed of sound, and the ability to shoot energy out of her hands.
The eighth film set to release on Nov. 17, 2018 is Inhumans.
The Inhumans are a genetically modified superhero race led by a superhero named Black Bolt. Alongside Black Bolt is Medusa, his wife, Maximus, his younger brother, Karnak, his cousin, Triton, Karnak’s older brother, Gorgon, another cousin, Crystal, Medusa’s younger sister, and Lockjaw, their loyal dog.
The Inhumans tie into the Cinematic Universe because Marvel does not own the rights to the X-Men franchise, and can use the Inhumans as an alternative team of heroes, like the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The ninth and final film of Phase Three is part two of Avengers: The Infinity War, and will wrap up the storyline from the first half. The film is set to release almost a year after part one, with a release date revealed to be May 3, 2019.
Phase Three begins in 2016, make sure to watch the final two films of Phase Two, which are Avengers: Age of Ultron (which comes out May 1, 2015) and the debut of Paul Rudd as Ant-Man (which releases July 17, 2015.)