Welcome back to The Dan Cave, everyone! You look great today. Is that a new sweater?
Much like you, I have the sweet strains of Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” permanently burned into my brain after seeing James Gunn’s cosmic action-comedy Guardians of the Galaxy. While I really, really loved the film and speaking to the cast all about it, I couldn’t help but find myself wondering how Marvel wound up taking such a little-known comic book franchise to the big screen before so many others in their canon. Another Comic-Con came and went without any mention of a major superhero film lead by a woman, a person of color, or, hell, one that isn’t a sequel. This week, Kevin Feige made waves with his unfortunately worded interview with Comic Book Resources about how he “hopes” that Marvel will be able to make a female-led superhero film:
“I think it comes down to timing, which is what I’ve sort of always said, and it comes down to us being able to tell the right story. I very much believe in doing it. I very much believe that it’s unfair to say, ‘People don’t want to see movies with female heroes,’ then list five movies that were not very good, therefore, people didn’t go to the movies because they weren’t good movies, versus [because] they were female leads. And they don’t mention ‘Hunger Games,’ ‘Frozen,’ ‘Divergent.’ You can go back to ‘Kill Bill’ or ‘Aliens.’ These are all female-led movies. It can certainly be done. I hope we do it sooner rather than later.â€
Sounds all well and good, right? There’s always a but though:
“But we find ourselves in the very strange position of managing more franchises than most people have — which is a very, very good thing and we don’t take for granted, but is a challenging thing. You may notice from those release dates, we have three for 2017. And that’s because just the timing worked on what was sort of gearing up. But it does mean you have to put one franchise on hold for three or four years in order to introduce a new one? I don’t know. Those are the kinds of chess matches we’re playing right now.â€
Previously, Marvel had been celebrated for taking a risk on a lesser-known franchise like Guardians of the Galaxy:
DC/WB is all like “Wonder Woman’s too confusing for a movie!” and Marvel/Disney is all like “Here’s a raccoon with a machine gun”
— Brett White (@brettwhite) August 12, 2013
Now it’s time to put the House of Ideas under the microscope and wonder why they haven’t gone further. So, today we’re going to answer the question of which should Marvel have made before Guardians of the Galaxy?
Which Marvel superhero do you think deserves their own film? Do you think these films would have worked in a pre-Guardians era? Let me know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter.
Want even more The Dan Cave? Well, that’s kind of you to say. Be sure to check out last week’s episode in which we try to answer the age-old question of “Is Legendary creating a shared universe for its monster movies?”
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1. Black Panther!! Marvel please make Black Panther with Michael Jamal White!!!! This movie needs to be made and White is even more perfect for the role than Ryan Reynolds is for Deadpool!!!
2. Please get to the Black Widow movie we’ve been waiting so long for this!!
3. Captain Marvel, the Carol Danvers edition. She is simply great and could kick some serious cosmic or domestic ass! And the best part, it would pave the way for…
4. Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khanar Style. What better character to improve diversity. She’s female, museum and a teenager! It would be cool to have a young hero with such a unique perspective in the marvel cinematic universe!
More Black Panther than all the others mentioned. a Feature film has been teased for y e a r s. Character was an Avenger, his father had early ties to Captain America and yes the Vibranium Mound connection all of which would be a great introduction at some point.
Marvel don’t listen to this weenie geenie. Don’t make Comic Book movies to promote social issues – or political correct muckety muck. Make comic book movies because they are fun. Focus on doing movies with cool characters in great stories no matter what their skin color or their genitals are.
easy peasy some other rhyming bullshit.
when i posted a similar article on mtv, i almost got eaten alive by marvel fans. guys – psa – when you say characters like black widow & captain marvel can’t carry a film by themselves, that’s sexist. (full stop.)
dan casey is a #feminist. i love this show.
What we needed (before) Guardians of the Galaxy is a Nova film (introducing Xandar and the Elite Nova Corps) as well as an Adam Warlock film introducing his Soul Gem (one of the stones in the Infinity Gauntlet obviously). I already Tweeted James Gunn about it…don’t ask.
Since it is obvious Marvel won’t get to either of these films before 2017 Guardians of the Galaxy can only be classified as GOOD, not great. It was a movie with so much potential but little vision and almost no scope. Sure it was an origin movie, but you can tease a lot of these ideas in the exposition instead of black light/ejaculation jokes by “Star Lord.”
**SPOILERS**
Guardians left so much great stuff on the floor (where is Starhawk & ROM the Spaceknight) but yet we get HtD. Sheesh!
Marvel (via Disney) does not fill me with much confidence as a true “hard-Core” nerd. This will be a Game of Thrones (TV v. Books) argument all over again.
ROM!?!? Isnt he a Hasbro property?!
Uugh…enough with the Black Widow movies. Can’t stand alone. If so…NO Scarlett Johansson Please!
I’d love to see Idris Elba as Black Panther.
Also, a less Cage-filled Ghost Rider (I know it’s another white male role, but I actually enjoyed the first movie, somewhat, and would like to see him in the MCU)
Actually, I just realized that wouldn’t really work with him already being in Thor…Still, he is awesome.
Jesus Christ, as if we all haven’t heard this argument a MILLION times in the past…what, three years? I’ve even seen articles/video with this same exact setup and even most of the same heroes. It’s not that I don’t agree, Dan, but Marvel’s doing so amazingly right now that telling them what to do just seems…well, stupid. I clicked expecting to see something new, but besides the Thunderbolts, the entire list is unoriginal.
That said plz gimme Black Panther and Ms. Marvel movies soon thx. Black Panther for third Avengers with cameo/nod in Ultron I’m calling it. Also like to see Thunderbolts after third Avengers, but before? Nah.
Cloak and Dagger for sure.
Before the current slate of MCU movies I’m not sure I heard anyone tout Black Widow as a compelling character for story reasons. So I feel like the major reason she’s getting so much support as a character is because of Scarlett Johanson playing her.
She-Hulk, most definitely YES!! I can’t believe this hasn’t already happened, or at least hinted at with some tall female attorney in some random courtroom scene.
Someone else mentioned Spider-Woman, which I also fully support. It would be a shame if that character belonged to Sony, because the last I knew, part of Jessica Drew’s recent past was as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and she was a strong ally of Captain America, no?
Also, I want to see She-Hulk tied into these Netflix series. Which is how I thought they should handle Dr.Strange too, but we’ll see where they go with that.
Yes! Captain Marvel! Yes! Carol Danvers is a badass. Do that.
Yes, Blade and Elektra are both movies that exist, but I find it hard to believe that Marvel would consider those canon for the current slate of MCU films.
Dr. Strange and Luke Cage are both getting their dues on the big screen and Netflix respectively. Namor’s rights are tied up at Universal, so that won’t happen anytime soon.
While seeing a diverse cast of characters on the big screen would be great, all of these characters I mentioned would hold their own as solid films first and foremost, race and gender notwithstanding.
I would really love a Fraction/Aja-inspired Hawkeye film.
I would watch the hell out of a Lady Sif film. And Marvel has the rights to Blade now, so it’s entirely possible.
I have no beef with the cosmic characters, Russ. But, you could have easily swapped out something like Thor 2 for a Black Widow or Captain Marvel film and not damaged the overall arc of events building to Thanos.
He does. That decision rests in Fox’s hands though.
owen wilson and will smith as luke cage and iron fist…
Having been recently watching the Wire, I would put forward Gbenga Akinnagbe for T’Challa. He was also in the recent 24 series.
I believe Carol Danvers- Captian Marvel should have been introduced before the GotG and Black Panther before Avengers 2 but the others don’t seem as pressing to when they could be made.