As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues, it also expands. What began as a geeky experiment with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk in 2008 has turned into the most lucrative film franchises of all-time. That’s a feat that wasn’t accomplished simply by making popular movies – it was done by making a lot of popular movies, and making them often.
In 2013, Marvel Studios began releasing two films a year, and soon that number will increase to three. 2017 sees the arrival of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man and Thor: Ragnarok, while 2018 will be occupied by Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1, Black Panther and Captain Marvel. The logistics behind running such an expansive franchise are daunting. Luckily, we fans don’t have to worry about the minutia of scheduling three superhero movies a year – but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to remain in the loop at each and every turn.
Thankfully, Marvel head Kevin Feige has opened up a bit about the studio’s upcoming schedule and when we can expect their various upcoming films to enter production. First out the gate of course is Captain America: Civil War, which Feige reveals is now halfway through production. Then, the studio will jump head-first into each new project in swift succession:
“We literally just crossed the halfway mark of [Captain America:] Civil War last week, it’s day 42 or 43 of 80. We start filming Doctor Strange in London in November. We start shooting Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 in February-March [2016]. We start filming Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man around the same time, around June of next year.”
While Marvel is co-producing the Spider-Man reboot with Sony, it will still be using a great deal of its production team to usher in the next iteration of the famous wall-crawler, meaning that – for the first time – Marvel will have three films in production at the same time.
Feige didn’t confirm where each new film will be made, though James Gunn has already revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will shoot in Pinewood Studios’ new lot in Atlanta. It’s likely that Spider-Man will film there as well, which means that Thor: Ragnarok may be taking a trip across the Bifrost to film in Pinewood’s original London location.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will arrive on May 5th, Spider-Man will swing into theaters on July 28th, and Thor: Ragnarok will bow on November 3rd, 2017.
