Over the past few years, comic book-based movies have become increasingly popular. Now, it’s almost impossible to imagine a time when the only big superhero movie of the year was Spiderman (featuring Toby Maguire as Spiderman in 2002) or the original (yes, not one of the countless spin-offs) X-Men in 2003. One could say that the superhero movie scene exploded in 2005 with the release of ten superhero movies, including the first of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
Since 2008, the first appearance of the modern Iron Man, Marvel Comics has released 19 superhero movies under Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. There is expected to be at least 18 more Marvel Comics movies released from 2015 to 2020. Even though the Avengers series is rumored to end in 2015, there will be a large supply of Marvel movies to fuel our superhero movie needs.
In addition to Marvel Comics releasing many movies, DC Comics is expected to release at least ten movies from now until 2020 under Warner Brothers. DC Comics previously dominated the animated movies, with the exception of the Spiderman movies, but in the coming years, they will take a giant step into the mainstream superhero movie business.
This master list of the films (courtesy of comicsalliance.com) shows all the future Marvel and DC superhero movies up until 2020.
In the upcoming years, the comic book-based movie world will expand significantly. With this comes many movies that are expected to be great and others that may flop.
Personally, I am looking forward to the upcoming Justice League series. After watching the Marvel Universe be built into a powerhouse, as it is today, I’m really looking forward to seeing DC Comics do the same. Since I have a large collection of Justice League comics, my expectations of the upcoming series is pretty high.
Many rumors have been coming out regarding the cast of the Justice League and the other DC Comics movies, but we already know a few things: Zack Synder (director of Man of Steel and the upcoming, Batman vs. Superman) will direct the Justic League series, Henry Cavill will return as Superman (previously in Man of Steel and the upcoming Batman vs. Superman), and Ben Affleck will play Batman (also Batman in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman). After seeing Man of Steel, I have no doubt that Cavill will be a great Superman in the Justice League, but I am wary of Affleck playing Batman.
A Marvel movie that is coming out next year is Ant-Man. I am slightly wary of how this film is going to turn out, not just because hardly anyone has heard of the character, but also because of the known information of the Ant-Man. Ant-Man is based on a Marvel comic book character who actually never had his own series of comics, but appeared in many other comics including the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. Ant-Man revolves around a scientist, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) who invents a substance that allows him to change his size, thus creating Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). This will definitely be either good or a flop. I don’t think there will be an “okay” option with this movie.
The other movie that I predict as not being that good is Wolverine 3. I’m betting that Wolverine 3 will not be that great because Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) has been playing the character for over ten years and needs a break. Also, with the constant installments of the X-Men series and its spin-offs, I think that Fox has slightly overused the X-Men family and needs to take an extended break from it.
Of course, another thing to look forward to is the upcoming installments of the Avengers series. The next release will be Avengers: Age of Ultron on May 1, 2015. The trailer of Age of Ultron was recently released and it looks awesome.
Overall, the next five years are going to be big for the superhero movie industry and us comic book fans have a lot to look forward to.
