“A couple of guys in London wanted to pop in and say ‘hi’,” Kevin Feige told the Comic-Con audience. Was Marvel patching in a duo from New London, Connecticut???!?! Joaquin Phoenix and, errr, Woody Allen? Turned out it was THE London. And it was James Gunn and Chris Pratt. They got to say “hello.” Make some jokes. But more importantly make an announcement: Guardians of the Galaxy is getting a sequel.
July 28, 2017 will be Guardians of the Galaxy 2. James Gunn will be back to write and direct.
But if you wanted information about Doctor Strange or some clarity of the unannounced films in Marvel’s master plan, you’ll have to wait. But if you want to see the first Guardians of the Galaxy, you’ll only have to wait a week. It’ll be released on August 1.
Related: Comic-Con 2014: Interview with Kevin Feige
So Marvel will no longer waiting to see how their first Marvel oddity does at the box office. It’s already doing gangbusters with critics (including our own). And, really, they’ve yet to do anything wrong with their own films. So perhaps they’re just excited to keep Gunn in house and busy. Apparently he also let it slip on set that he’s interested in doing Thunderbolts for Marvel. To which Feige, supposedly, replied, “James, if Guardians does well you’ll be able to do whatever you want so we’ll see what happens.”
It appears that Guardians indeed has already done well enough for Feige to continue at least one endeavor.
More Marvel news to come … And their world, and ours, keeps spinning.
Brian Formo is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @BrianEmilFormo.
