No film studio gets into the comic book movie game without thinking “franchise.” Pretty much every comic movie so far this year was preceded by sequel talk, even before they hit theaters. The filmmakers behind “X-Men: First Class” tossed around potential settings for a follow up; while much of any casting news regarding Ryan Reynolds over the past year seemed to be contingent on how quickly Warner Bros. would want a “Green Lantern 2” (judging by the numbers? Probably not so fast). And, “Captain America: The First Avenger” has already been talking sequel too. Earlier this spring Chris Evans dropped a little nugget that a second film would find Steve Rogers in the “modern world” and now, it looks like Marvel is committing to that direction.
Screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus recently took part in the Los Angeles Film Festival’s “Coffee Talk” and Screen Junkies managed to get some time with the former and he dropped a few hints about where a sequel is headed. First up, Marvel has signed the two writers. “We’ve already made the deal so I was at Marvel last week. We’re talking and passing stuff back and forth all the time. They just sent me a big PDF file of comics,” McFeely said.
While he couldn’t spill too many details this early in the game, McFeely talked about the approach he will be taking for the movie saying, “Well, our hope is that there is room and we’re negotiating how to do that now. The story will likely be in the present day. We’re experimenting with flashback elements for more period World War II stuff. I can’t say much more than that but we made it baggy enough to refer to more stories in the past.”
Asked if the writers had intentionally left openings in “Captain America: The First Avenger” that could be flashed back to or elaborated on in further movies, McFeely said, “Absolutely. He had more adventures than just the one you’re going to see in the movie.” And sorry, the villain at this point is “undetermined.”
So all this to say, not only is there sequel talk, but actual movement and seemingly a clear path on where to take the story next. Marvel seems to feel very confident in “Captain America: The First Avenger” and well, they should. Of all the comic movies this summer, the trailers and marketing for this film has been met with the most universal praise from geeks and non-geeks alike. While we’re still wary of Joe Johnston, we’re hoping it delivers on the promise it has shown so far. “Captain America: The First Avenger” hits on July 22nd.
