Thursday , March 28 2024

Grab some popcorn, and check out the Marvel movies due out this year

Grab some popcorn, and check out the Marvel movies due out this year

For the last 13 years, the world of movies has been absolutely dominated by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Starting with Iron Man in 2008, to date there have been 25 films released that fall within this ‘universe’. While many of the initial films were all about introducing these characters to the wider world, to give them a backstory & a bit of history, there were also a number of Avengers films, where these characters met for the first time. Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk and Thor had never appeared on screen before, so it was no surprise that the fans absolutely loved it.

By the time we got to 2018, dozens of characters had been added in, such as Spider-man, Dr Strange, Ant-Man, Black Panther and Captain Marvel. The action culminated in the Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, two of the most ambitious films audiences had ever seen. They were huge successes, as they currently sit at second (Endgame) and fifth (Infinity War) on the list for highest-grossing films of all time.

Not being content with dominating the move multiplex, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has moved onto the small screen as well, with WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki appearing on Disney Plus within the last year. If you aren’t a fan of Marvel, then it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid their output.

Despite these TV shows being incredibly popular, the thing that Marvel do best is their big cinematic releases. There were meant to be a number of big releases last year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the films were pushed back to 2021, giving Marvel fans even more to look forward to this year. Will any of these new releases overtake Endgame as the highest-grossing comic book film? Possibly not, but some of the best sportsbooks and betting sites are sure to be offering odds on it happening. Let’s have a look at which of these films will be on our screens very shortly.

Old faces back again

Several of the new Marvel films out this year star some of the most loved characters of the entire franchise. Earlier this year, we had Black Widow starring Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour and Florence Pugh. Black Widow had appeared in a number of the previous entries, but this was the first time the character had her own stand-alone film. It was released both on big screens, as well as on-demand via Disney Plus. It was very well received by both audiences and critics; Rotten Tomatoes, the online review aggregator gave it a 91% audience score, and a 79% critic score.

The biggest release of the year for an already established character is undoubtedly Spider-man: No Way Home. The third of the Spider-man series (if you exclude the non-MCU films from the 2000s/2010s) sees Spider-man’s identity as having been exposed to the whole world. Still only at high school, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) goes to visit Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to try and cast a spell so everyone can forget who he is. As often happens in these films, things never go simply, with the spell causing many of Spider-man’s classic foes to appear to try to take the web-slinger down. The reason this film is causing so much hype is it will apparently see both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire reprise their roles as Spider-man, as well as Alfred Molina as Dr Octopus and Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin. It is due out on the 17th of December.

New stars to fall in love with

The reason the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been able to continually evolve since its inception is that they aren’t afraid to establish new characters, often at the expense of old favourites. Without going into spoiler territory, Iron Man and Captain America won’t be appearing on screen anytime soon. Therefore, it is important that new films introduce new players.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has just been released onto the big screen. It is the first appearance of the Shang-Chi, a young martial arts master. It is seen as a positive step forward in representation on screen, as it is the first time a Marvel film has had an east Asian lead actor.

We also have the Eternals to look forward to. Due out on the 5th of November, it is directed by Chloé Zhao, who won an Oscar for Best Director at this year’s Academy Awards. It has a very impressive cast, including Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington and Kumail Nanjiani. The Eternals are an immortal alien race, who, having lived on Earth for 7,000 years, reunite to protect humanity from the Deviants, their evil counterparts. Originally due to be released on the 6th of November 2020, anticipation has been building for an entire year for this release.

So there are several great Marvel films to get excited about before the end of the year. And what’s great news is that they keep on coming, with another four films due out in 2022. We can’t wait!

 

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