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Marvel Jumps at Iron Man Sequal

After huge box office success with much the anticipated Ironman movie grossing $100 million, Marvel comics announced Iron Man 2 will hit theaters April 30, 2010.

No details have been anounced so far. But the principals of Iron Man—stars Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard and director Jon Favreau, among them—have been talking for quite a while as if a sequel was going to happen and as if they were going to help make it happen. Marvel has also set a June 4, 2010, release date for Thor, and penciled in a Captain America movie and an Avengers movie for 2011. The former is tentatively titled The First Avenger: Captain America and is set to open May 6, 2011. The latter is simply called The Avengers and is due to targeted to open sometime in July 2011. Marvel also reasserted its commitment to Ant-Man, noting that writers and a director—Shaun of the Dead's Edgar Wright—have been "engaged." But no release date was announced.

Ant-Man might be the biggest loser in the "Avengers" grouping but still, the marvel hero will more than likely get his big-screen solo in 2010. Since Ant-Man is a member of the Avengers he would seem to be a lock for an invite to that group's movie, which, by rights, would costar Captain America, Thor, The Hulk and Iron Man. Earlier this year, Favreau called an Avengers movie "a great idea," and expressed interest in directing it, MTV's website reported. But so far, no cast, no director and no writers have been announced. All of today's announced films—Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and Ant-Man—will be produced by Marvel and distributed by Paramount.

The lineup doesn't include the other Marvel movies on the way: The Incredible Hulk, due out June 13; Punisher: War Zone, due out Dec. 5; and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, set for May 1, 2009.

The final weekend numbers released today for Iron Man's opening weekend: the movie grossed $102.1 million from Friday to Sunday—the 10th biggest opening in Hollywood history. Add in the foreign box office, and the film's weekend take stands at nearly $200 million.

After seeing scenes for the Hulk movie coming out in June, hopefully it will do as well, although I doubt the Hulk is as popular a character as Ironman...so we will see, but the trailer they showed at the beginneing of IRonman looked impressive to me!

May 8, 2008