Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3

Marvel Studios announced the huge slate of films for Phase 3 of its Cinematic Universe. The roster now includes:

• Captain America: Civil War, releasing May 6, 2016
• Doctor Strange, November 4, 2016
• Guardians of the Galaxy 2, May 5, 2017
• Thor: Ragnarok, July 28, 2017
• Black Panther, November 3, 2017
• Avengers: Infinity War Part 1, May 4, 2018
• Captain Marvel, July 6, 2018
• Inhumans, November 2, 2018
• Avengers: Infinity War Part II, May 3, 2019

As a geek, this list is like Christmas: confirmation of the long-rumored Black Panther film; the revelation of Captain Marvel, and in the current Carol Danvers incarnation, as the fans demanded; and the surprising addition of Inhumans. The Internet gets to spend the next five years debating just what each of these films will contain. 

Personally, I'm not sure how they're going to do Civil War, especially as it's a Captain America film rather than an ensemble piece. I'm hope that the Ragnarok in Thor 3's title refers to the cyborg clone of Thor from the Civil War comics, tying the films together.

Obviously, Infinity War is the conclusion of the Thanos storyline that has been building to since the Tesseract appeared in Captain America: The First Avenger. I am not surprised that they are splitting it into two parts, especially if the Guardians of the Galaxy are involved as is likely.

It's really the new titles on the list that intrigue me. I don't know much about any of Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, or the Inhumans. I am happy to see Marvel committing to expanding the Cinematic Universe like this, even as they double down on the current Thanos plot. Phase 2 only saw two new titles (Guardians of the Galaxy and the upcoming Ant-Man), while Phase 3 has four on top of the Netflix series also currently in production.

It's a very exciting time to be a fan of superheroes, comics, and giant genre event films.