It's certainly been a busy week for news from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has dropped a whole host of details about the recently-launched Phase Two of the MCU thanks to a feature over at Entertainment Weekly. In addition to delivering some new stills and concept art and stills and confirming that Ghost Rider has become the latest character whose rights have reverted back to Marvel, Feige offers up a few thoughts on Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers 2 and Ant-Man, along with the studio's first TV project, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; check out the highlights here...
![Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Thor: The Dark World]( "Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Thor: The Dark World")
On this year's Thor: The Dark World, and what director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) will bring to the table: "Alan is bringing a grittier, more textured patina to the designs of the worlds, and to Asgard in particular. It's less to chase either Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings - because you're not going to catch up. But part of the fun of Thor over the other characters is he doesn't have to stay on Earth. We visit a few of the other realms in this new movie."
![The Winter Soldier concept art]( "The Winter Soldier concept art")
On Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is currently filming ahead of its release next April: "We weren't going back to World War II. Cap cannot travel in time. So while Tony can go home to Malibu and Thor goes up to Asgard and Hulk can sort of ride the rails, Cap was stuck. So Cap does stay with S.H.I.E.L.D. because he has nowhere else to go. But he's not necessarily comfortable there. As you might imagine, somebody who’s spent 70 years in ice, frozen, wakes up and has to fight a bunch of aliens with a bunch of weirdos—he is trying to figure out what his life is. And just as he's given permission to let go of the past and to focus on the modern world, a ghost comes up. With the Greatest Generation in World World II, there's a tendency to reflect on that period and say, 'Things were black and white back then, and now it's hard to know who the bad guys are.' 'We wanted to play on that a little with Cap being uncomfortable with the way S.H.I.E.L.D., and in particular Nick Fury, operates. Fury certainly rides a line, sort of rides the shadows. He has, I think, lied to every character in every movie, though always for seemingly for the good."
![Guardians of the Galaxy concept art]( "Guardians of the Galaxy concept art")
On Guardians of the Galaxy, Phase Two's only non-sequel: "Guardians takes place within the continuity of the [other movies] but it’s on the other side of the universe. We’ve always wanted to do a space movie. I’m obsessed with Star Wars, I’m obsessed with Star Trek. It’s a huge story on a massive canvas. We can take it to all those crazy places as long as all the characters respond in an emotionally truthful way. That’s why I believe people are going to respond to Chris Pratt and to an alien Zoë Saldana—because they did respond to that one time before [with Avatar]. And to a tree and a raccoon who, it is certainly our intention, will steal the whole movie."
![The Avengers]( "The Avengers")
On The Avengers 2, which will apparently see the introduction of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to the roster of Earth's Mightiest Heroes: "All of the Avengers from the first film will be back and they will be the core team, but what's fun is that the roster shifts. It was always the intention to have a story line that brought in, obviously, new bad guys and potentially new heroes. I'm not confirming nor denying [Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver], but the draft could change six months from now. If we're going to add new characters, there's going to be a major part of the movie."
![Ant-Man]( "Ant-Man")
On Edgar Wright's long-gestating Ant-Man, which is set to kick off Phase Three of the Cinematic Universe in November 2015: "Frankly, now we have to re-write it to put it a little bit more into the [Marvel Cinematic Universe] because it was written before it existed. We’ve talked about various names [to play the lead] over the past eight years but as you can imagine they keep changing as time goes by. But towards the end of this year, we’ll buckle down and start casting and start refining the script, which is great and which is very Edgar. He has done a great job being incredibly true to the comics but is putting his own spin on it, so we’ll be drawing on multiple mythologies for this one.
![Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]( "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.")
And finally, on Joss Whedon's small screen Avengers spin-off, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "If that works the way everyone expects it to work I think that would open up another avenue, another outlet for some of those characters. Maybe they guest star, I don’t know. I think they’re avoiding the cameo of the week on that show, which is very smart." But would Robert Downey Jr. - who is currently out of contract with Marvel following Iron Man 3 - be up for a cameo in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? According to the man himself, he's not ruling it out: "You know what? There’s no telling. I am open to everything."
On this year's Thor: The Dark World, and what director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) will bring to the table: "Alan is bringing a grittier, more textured patina to the designs of the worlds, and to Asgard in particular. It's less to chase either Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings - because you're not going to catch up. But part of the fun of Thor over the other characters is he doesn't have to stay on Earth. We visit a few of the other realms in this new movie."
On Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is currently filming ahead of its release next April: "We weren't going back to World War II. Cap cannot travel in time. So while Tony can go home to Malibu and Thor goes up to Asgard and Hulk can sort of ride the rails, Cap was stuck. So Cap does stay with S.H.I.E.L.D. because he has nowhere else to go. But he's not necessarily comfortable there. As you might imagine, somebody who’s spent 70 years in ice, frozen, wakes up and has to fight a bunch of aliens with a bunch of weirdos—he is trying to figure out what his life is. And just as he's given permission to let go of the past and to focus on the modern world, a ghost comes up. With the Greatest Generation in World World II, there's a tendency to reflect on that period and say, 'Things were black and white back then, and now it's hard to know who the bad guys are.' 'We wanted to play on that a little with Cap being uncomfortable with the way S.H.I.E.L.D., and in particular Nick Fury, operates. Fury certainly rides a line, sort of rides the shadows. He has, I think, lied to every character in every movie, though always for seemingly for the good."
On Guardians of the Galaxy, Phase Two's only non-sequel: "Guardians takes place within the continuity of the [other movies] but it’s on the other side of the universe. We’ve always wanted to do a space movie. I’m obsessed with Star Wars, I’m obsessed with Star Trek. It’s a huge story on a massive canvas. We can take it to all those crazy places as long as all the characters respond in an emotionally truthful way. That’s why I believe people are going to respond to Chris Pratt and to an alien Zoë Saldana—because they did respond to that one time before [with Avatar]. And to a tree and a raccoon who, it is certainly our intention, will steal the whole movie."
On The Avengers 2, which will apparently see the introduction of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to the roster of Earth's Mightiest Heroes: "All of the Avengers from the first film will be back and they will be the core team, but what's fun is that the roster shifts. It was always the intention to have a story line that brought in, obviously, new bad guys and potentially new heroes. I'm not confirming nor denying [Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver], but the draft could change six months from now. If we're going to add new characters, there's going to be a major part of the movie."
On Edgar Wright's long-gestating Ant-Man, which is set to kick off Phase Three of the Cinematic Universe in November 2015: "Frankly, now we have to re-write it to put it a little bit more into the [Marvel Cinematic Universe] because it was written before it existed. We’ve talked about various names [to play the lead] over the past eight years but as you can imagine they keep changing as time goes by. But towards the end of this year, we’ll buckle down and start casting and start refining the script, which is great and which is very Edgar. He has done a great job being incredibly true to the comics but is putting his own spin on it, so we’ll be drawing on multiple mythologies for this one.
And finally, on Joss Whedon's small screen Avengers spin-off, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "If that works the way everyone expects it to work I think that would open up another avenue, another outlet for some of those characters. Maybe they guest star, I don’t know. I think they’re avoiding the cameo of the week on that show, which is very smart." But would Robert Downey Jr. - who is currently out of contract with Marvel following Iron Man 3 - be up for a cameo in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? According to the man himself, he's not ruling it out: "You know what? There’s no telling. I am open to everything."