Lately what has been on my mind is the idea of actor Chris Evans (Fantastic Four, Not Another Teen Movie), as Captain America in the new superhero film The First Avenger: Captain America, which is slated to come out in 2011. Joe Johnston, director of Jumanji and Wolf-Man, is set to helm the piece that is sure to lead up the inevitable Avengers film showing superheros from the Marvel universe team up to fight super villains and save the world. This is all exciting to me as an avid superhero/comic book fan ever since I was a kid. Although I've moved on from buying comics and action figures, I still sometimes catch the superhero 90's cartoons on late night television and I am a huge fan of what the Marvel Studios have been doing with these films. Iron Man was a huge achievement. In 2008, when i thought the Dark Knight was to be the only superhero film to hold my interest, Iron Man came out and changed the genre in it's own right. Casting the risky choice of Robert Downey Jr in the lead role sure did pay off. He was the perfect balance of wit, charm, cockiness, intelligence, and style while still containing the "everyday man" human quality to his character. With this being the framework of the Avengers lineup soon following, I thought I would take some time and update you as a reader on the casting choices of the Avengers, a little information on rumored casting choices, and an overview on the films to come.
Here are the films of the Avengers characters whose films have been released
1. Iron Man (2008) : Directed by Jon Favreau, Starring Robert Downey Jr.
2. The Incredible Hulk (2008) : Directed by Louis Leterrier, Starring Edward Norton as the Hulk
Now here are the ones soon to come...
1. Iron Man 2 (2010): Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. are set to return. Scarlet Johannson joins the cast as Black Widdow who will most likely appear in the Avengers film, and fan-favorite War Machine will be played by Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle.
2. Thor (2011): Directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Hemsworth as Thor, this is sure to be an interesting film. With a master thespian of a director taking on a mythical subject matter set in a superhero universe, it will be the most interesting film to watch succeed or fail, in my opinion. With big name actors such as Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (soon to be an Avenger as well), how can you not be excited?
3. The First Avenger: Captain America (2011) : This film will be interesting because Captain America has one of the best superhero stories never to be shown on screen at its fullest quality. When the Americans in World War II create a super-soldier serium to fight the Nazi's, the test it on character Steve Rogers, who becomes the greatest American soldier of all time : Captain America. When the comics began to decrease in sales, the character was frozen only to be unthawed by the Avengers to defeat his archnemesis, Red Skull. It will be interesting to see how they will play this storyline out and how they will show this hero adapt to life in the present day.
4. Ant-man (2012) : Being directed by Edgar Wright from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz is a terrific choice. This lesser known Avenger completes the original team and this film will be terrific if they decide to use this underdog tone and make him a humorous and fun character to root for and introduce just in time for the Avengers film release. No casting has been done but it will be nice to see this actually be made into a live-action piece instead of the original idea to let Pixar take on the character. He may be a character who can only shrink himself and control insects, but he's still an Avenger!
All in all, if all these films are made in time and made on nearly the same level as Iron Man, we're in for a treat. With intertwining film cameos and casting rumors such as Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Hugo Weaving as Red Skull appearing in this film, we may just see an awesome achievement in the action film genre. Surely a well thought out and developed action film that shows a brain in its script is worth my ten bucks of a ticket much more than a Jennifer Aniston comedy or another Transformers disaster sequel, am i right!?
- all information can be sited back to imdb.com, slashfilm.com, superherohype.com, and general Marvel comic-book knowledge
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