'Avengers' to 'Ghostbusters': A Guide to Hollywood's New Cinematic Universes
Thor and Captain America in ‘The Avengers’
A few years ago, Marvel Studios discovered the greatest superpower of them all: the ability to print money.
With some shrewd decision-making (and a bit of luck), the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a movie-biz template, with superheroes like Iron Man and Captain America anchoring lucrative standalone franchises, and occasionally assembling for another installment in the Avengers series.
Multi-character “universes” are now Hollywood’s latest craze, with seemingly every studio scrambling to line up their own properties. With Sony’s recent purchase of a pitch that imagines a sprawling franchise based on the Robin Hood legend (Friar Tuck: The Winter Clergy?), there were no less than eight universes in various states of production, from billion-dollar success stories to twinkles in dreaming executives’ eyes.
Below, we take a look at the current state of the cinematic universes — and reveal our Big Bang billion-dollar-idea that would bring them all together…
The Avengers superteam
(Disney and Marvel) The granddaddy of them all was launched in 2008, when Marvel Studios, with all of its biggest characters at other studios, decided to tap into a third-rate property: They put Robert Downey, Jr. into a metal suit and introduced the non-geek world to Iron Man. The Jon Favreau-helmed movie was an unexpected smash (that brought in $585 million worldwide) that earned critical acclaim and served as a launching pad for both Downey’s comeback — and the comics-centric world we know today.
Disney bought Marvel Studios in late 2009, and scored the rights to Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, which also became big titles. These heroes, along with the Hulk, Hawkeye and the Black Widow, came together for 2012’s The Avengers, which made north of $1.6 billion globally.
Now, Marvel Studios is into the third phase of their seemingly endless plan for world domination, with new titles (like Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange) being introduced even as the Avengers head for a second go-round. Avengers: Age of Ultron — in theaters next May — will introduce new characters like Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, all of them potential stars of their own series.
Batman, Superman, and the DC Dominion
(Warner Bros. and DC Comics) The second attempt to reboot and modernize Superman for the big screen was not particularly well received (earning a less-than-super 56 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but Zack Snyder’s stylish Man of Steel made $668 million, which was more than enough to justify going forward with this very serious interpretation of the beloved hero.
Unfortunately for Warners, Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise started a bit too early for this new reality of multi-character universes. Racing to catch up with Marvel, the studio decided to throw the re-cast hero (Ben Affleck!) into the Superman sequel, instead of giving him his own standalone film first… and then for good measure added more of DC Comics’s best-known characters, with the Flash and Wonder Woman appearing in 2016’s Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
It seems like they’re running a backwards version of Marvel playbook, hoping that they can spin franchises out of what could likely be a Justice League precursor.
Spider-Man’s Web
(Sony) The studio has rights to only one Marvel character, but he’s arguably the most popular of them all. Sony’s older deal with Marvel meant that it had to continue making wall-crawler movies, or risk having rights revert back to Disney — which led to the decision to reboot Spidey just five years after the final installment in Sam Raimi’s trilogy.
Suffering from negative comparisons with the Raimi movies (and the weight of its own ambitions), director Marc Webb’s first two Spider-Man installments have disappointed, with 2014’s sequel just inching past $200 million in domestic box office, thanks only to Sony leaving it in theaters forever. The grand strategy, which was to use that flick to launch Spidey world spin-offs like Venom and The Sinister Six, still seems to be a go, but the studio is understandably concerned about Spider-Man fatigue — so much so that it pushed the release date of the threequel back to 2018.
Drew Goddard, of The Cabin in the Woods and the upcoming Daredevil, will direct Sinister Six; while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Star Trek writer Alex Kurtzman will direct 2017’s Venom. What happens after that, remains to be seen.
The X-Men Vortex
(20th Century Fox) The Marvel reboot route has been kinder to Fox, which has successfully used time travel to merge the cast of its first three X-Men movies, with the younger group that starred in X-Men: First Class (Hugh Jackman, it seems, is an ageless wonder). This summer’s super-stuffed Days of Future’s Past made $746 million worldwide, which will lead nicely into 2016’s Age of Apocalypse. It’ll also give more juice to the next solo Wolverine movie, because the world just can’t get enough of Jackman’s amazing sideburns and muscles.
The Fantastic Four reboot, which features Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell, could also eventually crossover with X-Men… or at least that’s what hyped-up geeks are thinking after
Days of Future Past writer Simon Kinberg teased them with this:
“I love the characters, I love the characters in Fantastic Four, and I love the new cast. Obviously I love the characters and cast of X-Men. So, hypothetically, the notion of putting them together is really intriguing, and there’s some really fun stuff that the comics have done in the past. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
As for the other Marvel properties, those are just a little bit more uncertain. Recent stories suggested that Deadpool, the long-dormant film about the wisecracking mercenary, has finally been given the green light, and might be somehow tied to the X-Men story arcs. Which makes some sense: The cult-favorite character was introduced on the big screen in the otherwise abominable X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
The Classic Monster Mash
(Universal) Did you know a new Dracula movie coming out this week? It’s true! It’s called Dracula Untold, stars Luke Evans as a 15th-century warrior version of the famous vampire, and according to reviews, it’s not very good (27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes).
It was also retro-fitted to officially kick off Universal’s Monsters universe reboot, which will feature all of their famous Golden Age horror icons. The studio, along with Legendary, reshot parts of the film to fit it into the bigger plan, according to producer Alissa Phillips, though it remains to be seen just how the Untold story will fit in with a more modern-day universe that’s planned for iconic characters like Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Wolf Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Star Trek scribe Alex Kurtzman and Fast and the Furious writer Chris Morgan are overseeing the project, which will next involve a reboot of The Mummy, due in 2016. It will be interesting to see what kind of tone they’ll be aiming for. Our guess? Dark and gritty.
Godzilla’s Gang
(Universal/Legendary) Now that Godzilla has rampaged his way back into our hearts, movie screens, and wallets, he’s calling on his gigantic monster friends to join the party.
Solid reviews (73 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and a big box office ($524 million) means that director Gareth Edwards is coming back for a sequel — but not until 2018, as he will be directing a standalone Star Wars movie. (Speaking of future movie universes to keep an eye on…) In the interim, Legendary will be bringing back old pal and rival King Kong in Skull Island, which will star Tom Hiddleston and be directed by Kings of Summer filmmaker Jordan Vogt-Roberts.
That movie will come from a script by Max Borenstein, who helped write Godzilla, which will make it easier to eventually bring these big guys together. Somewhere in the next few movies, they will introduce other classic kaiju monsters in Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah, at least one of which could end up with their own film.
Why anyone would want to watch a big budget CGI film about a giant moth is unclear, but movie audiences have sprung for dumber concepts.
The Ghostbusters Gang
(Sony) Dan Aykroyd for years tried to revive the beloved ’80s comedy, but was stymied by Bill Murray’s refusal to reprise his role as Dr. Peter Venkman. The sad passing of co-star Harold Ramis earlier this year more or less sealed the fact that the original Ghostbusters would never return to the big screen.
So, who does a comic legend who is desperate to revive his moneymaker call?
Paul Feig!
On Wednesday, the Bridesmaids and The Heat director confirmed that he would direct a reboot of the franchise, which he will cowrite with Heat's Katie Dippold. What’s more, the film will feature women in the lead roles, as had long been speculated.
What remains to be seen: How that jibes with the ambitious plans that Aykroyd laid out this summer.
“The whole vehicle of Ghostbusters has to be rebuilt,” he said in a recent interview. “That’s the ambitious thinking that’s going on now. Taking on the model of Marvel where we take all of the elements that are in this movie and we put them out there as different ideas.” Does that mean different ghostbusters with different stories, coming together to bust ghosts in a big omnibus movie? Or just lots of spin-offs? Or maybe a Slimer origin story?!
Putting them all together…
Now that we’ve reviewed all of the current cinematic universes, it’s time to create the ultimate Hollywood mashup: An uber team-up flick that will make tons of money for the participating studios.
Here’s the pitch: Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne meet at a conference for billionaires. Of course, Tony doesn’t know that Bruce is Batman, but he starts getting suspicious after Jarvis keeps getting scrambled by signals from one of Bruce’s high-tech weapons.
Ultimately, Tony decides to follow Bruce home, and finds the Batcave back at Wayne Manor. Bruce discovers Tony playing with Batman’s weapons. Tony is jealous, and confronts Bruce, scoffing at what he thinks is the unsophisticated technology. This leads to a small skirmish in the woods beyond the manor.
Over the following months, Tony starts taunting Batman through the press and drone-delivered gag packages, which leads to Batman coming to New York to battle Tony. He brings Superman for backup, and so Iron Man has to call on Thor to level the playing field.
The battle gets a bit out of hand, which brings Spider-Man — New York City’s great protector — into the fold. He tries to break up the fight, and finally brokers an agreement: They’ll duke it out on a remote island, far away from the rest of civilization.
The Avengers and Justice League head to Skull Island, where they go at it hard for several days; the heroes are pretty evenly matched, and the sheer impact of their superhuman strength and advanced weaponry wreaks havoc on the land. All this commotion, of course, wakes up several dormant monsters, including Godzilla and King Kong, who head for the United States.
Reluctantly teaming up, the Avengers and Justice League chase the monsters back to the US. When they reach land, Godzilla and King Kong stomp up the Pacific coast, crushing graveyards and waking up several undead monsters, like Frankenstein and Dracula.
With the supernatural beings now on the loose, the Avengers and the Justice League have to summon a bunch of retired goofballs they met back in the ’80s: The Ghostbusters. At first, Dr. Peter Venkman can’t be located (because he’s in Tahiti training a young female protege), but after losing an arm wrestling contest to Thor, he agrees to help out.
Using the Avengers’ Helicarrier to scout the country, the Ghostbusters try to destroy Dracula and friends. Unfortunately, their biology is foreign to the rusty team, and they need to consult with the world’s most famous mutants — the X-Men.
Meanwhile, the Avengers briefly go into mourning after Godzilla stomps on Hawkeye, but Wolverine shows them how to travel back in time, which allows them to recruit Robin Hood to take the vacated archer’s position.
Soon enough, Frankenstein and Godzilla’s teams realize that they’re fighting the same foes, so they team up, despite not speaking the same language (or any language at all). It comes down to the wire, but Venkman zaps Dracula, right as Thor buries his hammer down Godzilla’s throat, which finally brings the madness to an end.
There is still no Iron Man 4.
Photo credits: Everett
