"I wouldn't say that in a broad sense," said Feige, when asked if Phase Two of the MCU could be described as 'cosmic'. "The Thor film and the Guardians Of The Galaxy film certainly are cosmic. Guardians and Thor will take the brunt of the cosmic side of the universe, particularly Guardians, which is 95% in space. I think Iron Man 3 shows the other side of Phase Two, which is delving deeper into the characters. Throwing them on a much more personal journey. And Captain America will showcase… What’s exciting to me about Cap – sort of about Iron Man 3 too if you look at it – is it’s tonally almost like a different genre. Shane Black’s described Iron Man 3 as a Tom Clancy sort of political thriller, which I like a lot."
Feige went on to explain how Captain America: The Winter Soldier will see a shift in genre from its predecessor, the WWII origin story Captain America: The First Avenger: "We hired our directors [Anthony Russo and Joe Russo] on Cap because they loved our explanation that we really want to make a ’70s political thriller masquerading as a big superhero movie. Just like with the first film – we got Joe Johnston because we said, ‘We want to do a ’40s World War Two movie masquerading as a big superhero movie.’ I love that we’re doing a sequel to a film that’s a completely different genre than the first film. I think that’s fun. And the comics do it all the time."
While Iron Man, Thor and Captain America are already well-established properties - particularly in the wake of Marvel's The Avengers - the studio certainly isn't resting on its laurels, and will introduce a second superhero team in 2014 with Guardians of the Galaxy, which is widely expected to feature Thanos, who of course made his MCU debut in The Avengers' mid-credits scene. So, will Guardians of the Galaxy prove as integral to The Avengers 2 as the forthcoming round of solo sequels: "I would say that it does not. It’s much more of a standalone film. It takes place in the same universe. And when we’ve been on the other side of that universe in other movies, you might see those characteristics in Guardians, but the Avengers are not involved with what’s happening out there at this time."