Outside of the Iron Man franchise, we’re rolling into the first true round of sequels for Marvel Studios. It started with Thor: The Dark World and continues with Captain America: The Winter Soldier (4/4). With the Iron Man franchise, Jon Favreau returned to direct Iron Man 2 before being replaced by Shane Black on Iron Man 3. With the Thor franchise, Kenneth Branagh directed the first while Alan Taylor tackled the sequel.
Already, Joe Johnston was replaced by Anthony and Joe Russo for the Captain America sequel and now it seems they have already been chosen to step up to the plate for Captain America 3. Variety reports test screenings for Winter Soldier have gone so well they want to begin work on the sequel right away.
The news comes as Thor 3 has yet to be officially announced, the fate of a fourth Iron Man is unknown and Joss Whedon is already hard at work following up The Avengers with The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Of course, then there’s Edgar Wright‘s Ant-Man and James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel has already staked out May 6, 2016, July 8, 2016 and May 5, 2017 release dates for… something?
If I had to guess, it would take one of those 2016 dates, though I anticipate that May 6 date won’t hold as that’s the weekend Warner Bros. recently moved Batman vs. Superman to.
