At a screening of his new film, Much Ado About Nothing, BleedingCool got a chance to ask Joss Whedon about the slightly bigger movie on his horizon, The Avengers 2. Whedon's answer potentially revealed a plot point of Marvel's Phase 2... or rather the lack of one:We’re following Guardians [of the Galaxy] at Shepperton [with Avengers 2] but we won’t be swapping cast members. Every movie is its own thing and has to be. Unless I take a lot of peyote and write a very different draft… and I’m not ruling that out.
The common assumption has been that James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy, set for an August 2014 release, would set up the events that crossover into 2015's Avengers 2 - especially as chief villain Thanos has been speculated to appear in both. But with Whedon's reveal that the two films "won't be swapping cast members" and "every movie is its own thing", it implies the two will be separate.
Unless Whedon gets "a lot of peyote", that is.
With Avengers 2 presumably ending 'Phase 2' of the Marvel Movieverse, then Guardians might be setting things up for 'Phase 3'. Edgar Wright's Ant-Man is the only film currently in development for that phase, but Marvel Studio's President of Production, Kevin Feige, has also suggested a Doctor Strange movie will soon join it. Iron Man 4 and another Hulk (presumably with the latest Bruce Banner, Mark Ruffalo) are also heavily rumoured.