Marvel Does All The Things: Ant-Man Gets A Test Reel, the Guardians of the Galaxy Get A Movie

Now that The Avengers is over and the Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America sequels are all in some stages of production, the public eye isn’t quite staring and the workings of Marvel Studios anymore… except it is. Shiftily. Quietly. Waiting for the moment that Marvel reveals that it’s not just sitting on its heels, making a bunch of sequels that we fully expected, and instead, is planning to expand its cinematic universe into those places we know are within its power but that didn’t quite make a good mainstream debut, and probably in that mystery release spot they’ve reserved in the summer of 2014. Speculation has focused on a number of the more obscure characters in the Marvel universe (whose movie rights are not controlled by other studios), with hopes that in addition to showing off footage from the currently-in-production Iron Man 3, Marvel would have a big announcement for San Diego Comic Con, now less than a month away.

According to Variety’s sources, they do: and it’s that the next group of characters to get a chance at the Marvel cinematic universe will be the Guardians of the Galaxy. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Who?”

There have been two major incarnations of the Guardians. The first, debuting in 1969, were a space-faring team of aliens, each one of them the last of their race, who’d come together to take a more proactive role in safeguarding the galaxy than other Marvel teams, rather than waiting for crises to arrive. But the team more likely to see the big screen from the current Marvel administration would be the reintroduction of the Guardians from 2008. A team comprised of Star-Lord (a human), Adam Warlock (an artificial human), Drax the Destroyer (a human soul reborn with the singular purpose of destroying Thanos), Rocket Raccoon (an anthropomorphic raccoon), Groot (an anthropomorphic tree), Phyla-Vell (…sort of Captain Mar-Vell’s daughter), and Gamora (sometimes known as The Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe).

All in all… I’m very interested in seeing how this plays out. First, because Marvel seems to be going deep into the well for this one, with characters that are only familiar to serious Marvel fans. This is not a case of Captain America or the Hulk, where even a basic knowledge of television or movie pop culture will have a person familiar with the fact that they exist. Second, because the least they can do is include both canonical original female team members in the movie adaptation. Third, because the Guardians’ focus on space and what goes on out there is a pretty fascinating expansion on what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has laid out as its concept of the cosmos. So far, Asgard and The Avengers‘ Chitauri have been our first examples of the expanses beyond our own solar system. Not only does this promise a story very heavily themed with alien characters and space locations, a number of the characters in the Guardians have direct ties to the Mad Titan Thanos, who, as we all know, is being set up as the ultimate villain of Phase 2 of Marvel Studios’ production plans. Drax was created to destroy him, and Gamora was fostered and trained by him as a weapon until she betrayed him.

While the Guardians of the Galaxy getting some real confirmation behind it (after persistent rumors based on Disney grabbing up all the trademarks for Guardians merch) is today’s biggest news from Marvel, it’s not the only thing out there. Edgar Wright has apparently just wrapped filming a test-reel for Ant-Man, to see if he can come up with a look and tone for the character that Marvel likes. Hopefully we’ll hear even more about that during Comic Con, as well as some hard news on the possibility of a Dr. Strange, The Inhumans or Black Panther movie (the last of which is rumored to already have writers attached to it).

(via Variety.)