Marvel announces another 2018 release

In the past week we have received planned release dates for Marvel films through 2019. Marvel has announced one more untitled project for May 3, 2018. The weekend opportunity opened up after Sony removed The Amazing Spider-Man 4 from the date. The speculation is already swirling around which project this could be and one name is on the top of the list...

Did Marvel just announce the release date for The Avengers 3?


The previous dates announced for 2018 were July 6th and November 2nd. I personally already made the prediction that the May 5, 2017 spot could be The Avengers 3, but it is possible they might delay a third film until 2018. The only issue I see with that is that will make Phase Three incredibly long and will have way too many characters to try and wrap into a single Avengers film to finish.


Here are the Marvel release dates as they currently stand:

Guardians of the Galaxy (8/1/2014)
The Avengers: Age of Ultron (5/1/2015)
Ant-Man (7/17/2015)
Captain America 3 (5/6/2016)
Doctor Strange (7/8/2016)
Untitled (5/5/2017)
Untitled (7/28/2017)
Untitled (11/3/2017)
Untitled (5/3/2018)
Untitled (7/6/2018)
Untitled (11/2/2018)
Untitled (5/3/2019)


It's hard to say exactly when The Avengers 3 will hit, but if they stick with the May tradition we only have three possible dates for 2017, 2018, and 2019. It is worth mentioning that there is a three year gap between The Avengers and Age of Ultron so a 2018 release would keep them on that track, but there aren't nearly the amount of releases in Phase Two as there are currently planned for Phase Three and/or Phase Four.
Since The Avengers we have seen Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and are about to get Guardians of the Galaxy. That is four releases. If a third Avengers film doesn't come out until 2018 we will have another gap of three years, but we will also have a total of six releases instead of four. Unless one or two of those dates include spin-off films for The Hulk (finally) and Black Widow, I think six films is a bit much. Not to mention we are receiving two brand new characters with Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and also a rumored film for Black Panther. We also shouldn't forget one of those 2017 dates could be a sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy or a third Thor project or a fourth Iron Man. There really is no way to tell what their timetable is. 

It is also worth mentioning that even though Sony removed The Amazing Spider-Man 4 from the release date, they announced today that they have immediately refilled the date by delaying The Amazing Spider-Man 3 until then. Unless Sony and Marvel want to go head to head like Marvel is currently doing with Warner Bros. over Batman v Superman being released the same day as Captain America 3, I doubt The Avengers 3 will be released the same weekend as Spider-Man. Unless Marvel is that confident their film will win I foresee a date change for one of them if Marvel announces that May 3, 2018 does indeed belong to The Avengers.
Either way I am sure we will have more answers to what projects belong to these untitled dates by this weekend. No doubt Marvel will come into SDCC at full speed with announcements and footage of some kind. If they don't then things will continue to be mysterious for a while longer.

[EDIT] It seems that Sony was thinking the same thing as they have already removed The Amazing Spider-Man 3 from the May 4, 2018 release date and are now saying it will be released in 2018. There is no specific day set.

The Amazing Spider-Man 3 delayed until 2018

We have news about a couple release dates that were announced and delayed today.

Starting off with Disney, they have finally set a new release date for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. About a year ago the film was pulled from its original 2015 release but it was delayed indefinitely. Disney announced today that the fifth installment of the Pirates franchise will be released on July 7, 2017. Johnny Depp is slated to return as Capt. Jack Sparrow.

Moving onto Sony, they have made some significant moves in the Amazing Spider-Man franchise. The Sinister Six will be released on November 11, 2016 while The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has been delayed until May 4, 2018. It was recently rumored that Sony was going to push TASM3 from 2016 to 2017, but with them pushing it an additional year to 2018 is a bit surprising. Many are speculating the delay is to test the waters of Drew Goddard's take on the Sinister Six and see if the film can rescue Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man franchise because after very dismal and overwhelmingly negative reviews of TASM2 they obviously realized something had to be done to fix the momentum.
Keeping up with Sony, we also got news that a film adaptation of the Playstation video game, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, will be released on June 10, 2016. The film has been in the works for years and recently director Seth Gordon signed onto the project and stated that he hoped filming would start by early 2015. No one has been cast as Nathan Drake just yet, but I am sure it will be a very competitive role. I personally loved the Uncharted games so I am oddly excited for a movie to come out. It has the potential to be great.



[EDIT] It seems that Sony was thinking the same thing as just about everyone else when Marvel snatched up the May 3, 2018 date as they have already removed The Amazing Spider-Man 3 from the May 4, 2018 date and are now saying it will be released in 2018. There is no specific day set anymore. Another thing Sony has rushed to announce is the delay does not mean they are rebooting Spider-Man once again. 

The Amazing Spider-Man 3 pushed to 2017?

After a rather disappointing opening for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it is a big possibility that we might have to wait an additional year to receive the third installment of the new franchise. Rumor has it that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 might be delayed until 2017.

Sony already has things locked down through The Amazing Spider-Man 4 as well as two spin-off films (aka, Sinister Six and Venom), but potentially delaying the third installment might indicate that the studio is rethinking their strategy. It currently holds a release date of June 10, 2016.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opened this past May and was not only knocked out of the #1 spot after just one week, but it also recorded the lowest box office numbers of the entire franchise. Yes, that includes Sam Raimi's trilogy. The film is also expected to be surpassed by X-Men: Days of Future Past which would mark the first time in history that an X-Men film beat out Spider-Man.
The script for the third film is already completed, Marc Webb is set to return to the director's chair, and production was supposed to begin later this year. However, after the overwhelmingly negative reviews of TASM2 and underwhelming box office numbers we have not seen any signs pointing to a quick start for TASM3, thus making the rumored delay somewhat feasible.

Now... if this movie is delayed it will cause a ripple effect. With Sinister Six and Venom being pushed through rather quickly, it is possible that we might see the spin-offs before the third Spider-Man. It has already been said that Sony planned to cram Sinister Six in 2016 with TASM3 as a setup for TASM4 and Venom.
Seeing that the villains were one of the biggest complaints about TASM2 I won't be surprised if one or both of the spin-offs gets scrapped. Trying to revive a quickly dying franchise with an all villain installment might not be the best move at the current moment. Seriously, when people say the villains in Spider-Man 3 were better executed you know you have a major problem. With this it is also a possibility of TASM3 being limited to one villain instead of multiples.

Either way, I think we are bound to see some changes with this franchise. It's unfortunate seeing that The Amazing Spider-Man is only two years old.

Shailene Woodley out of Spider-Man for good

Well, it is very likely she is out for good.

You might recall the news that Shailene Woodley (Divergent) was cast as Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and despite filming and completing her scenes, she was cut entirely from the film. Rumors quickly circulated that the production felt they made a mistake casting Woodley and cut her scenes so they could recast Mary Jane for The Amazing Spider-Man 3. However, others said that her scenes just didn't fit and they cut them to save the character of Mary Jane for the next movie simply to avoid overcrowding.
Either way, it appears that we might never see Woodley in a Spider-Man film. Why? According to her, she has quite the schedule ahead of her. Seeing that Divergent has already been picked up for two sequels she stated at Sundance this past weekend that she would rather not take on two major blockbuster schedules at the same time. The sequels, Insurgent and Allegiant, are set to arrive in 2015 and 2016. Woodley also has The Fault in Our Stars arriving this year. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 is set to arrive in 2016 so if she is still committed to the role she will definitely have a busy year. If that's something she doesn't want I wouldn't expect her back, but if the production is adamant about keeping her after all they might just have to be willing to work around her schedule.

Mary Jane Watson is the second love interest of Peter Parker and in this case is coming after Gwen Stacy. Mary Jane was previously portrayed by Kirsten Dunst in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and has yet to be seen in Marc Webb's movies. I don't necessarily dislike Shailene Woodley, but I don't think she was the greatest choice for Mary Jane. I honestly feel the same way about Emma Stone being cast as Gwen Stacy. Love Emma Stone, but she was not a great choice at all.

Andrew Garfield might not be Spider-Man much longer

Sony has already announced their intentions to run their terrible Amazing Spider-Man movies into the ground with at least four movies total. However, we have some speculation regarding the casting of the most important character. Andrew Garfield, who has been contracted through a third Amazing Spider-Man, recently discussed the future of the franchise and made his uncertainty about playing Spider-Man for four movies.

Release years have already been announced for the third and fourth. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 will hit in 2016 with The Amazing Spider-Man 4 hitting in 2018. During an interview with Yahoo! Movies, Garfield had this to say:

"I mean I’m under contract for another one after this… as far as a forth one? That’s not anything to do with me."

This could mean a couple things. First off, by the time 2018 rolls around Garfield will be 35. That's a bit old for a teenage hero if you ask me. Tobey Maguire wasn't even that old when Spider-Man 3 came out in 2007. Second off, I imagine Garfield doesn't want to just be known for playing Spider-Man. Granted he got pretty famous for The Social Network, but what has he done since? Well, other than play Spider-Man. The answer is nothing notable. This doesn't surprise me one bit. I wouldn't even stick around through the third one, but that's just me. I don't even think Garfield is a good Spider-Man.

Mary Jane cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Mary Jane Watson was originally supposed to have a brief role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Shailene Woodley was even seen filming on set. However, director Marc Webb has announced that Mary Jane's scenes have been cut entirely from the film and they are saving her introduction until The Amazing Spider-Man 3. The is no word on whether the scenes filmed for the sequel will be saved and included in the third movie or if they will remain cut and unused.

This comes after Woodley mentioned it in the upcoming issue of EW where she was discussing her upcoming film Divergent:

"Of course I’m bummed. But I am a firm believer in everything happening for a specific reason…Based on the proposed plot, I completely understand the need for holding off on introducing Mary Jane until the next film."

Maybe this means the whole rumor of Gwen Stacy dying is going to be a reality?

Sony confirms The Amazing Spider-Man 3 & 4

Sony is rolling along with their recent, and rather successful, reboot of Spider-Man. Seeing that The Amazing Spider-Man raked in over $750 million in 2012 and the is sequel currently in production, they have announced the release dates for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4. We will get the third installment on June 10, 2016 and the fourth on May 4, 2018.

The details for each movie are non-existent and the sequel is still being filmed in NYC, so I wouldn't expect any more information for quite sometime. However, certain cast and crew members (specifically Andrew Garfield) have signed multi-year deals so it's pretty obvious that they will be sticking around until 2018. This also pretty much confirms that Sony is clinging onto the rights to Spider-Man, so those wishing for the Spidey cameo in a future Avengers movie can stop holding their breath.

We also have some new characters that are rather important to the Spider-Man story that will be introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 such as Mary Jane Watson (played by Shailene Woodley) and Harry Osborne (played by Dane DeHaan). I have no doubt one or both of them will have a major part in the future Spider-Man movies Sony has just announced. 
My only concern with this is Andrew Garfield's age. He's already 29 and is portraying a 17-year old. By the time 2018 hits he will be pushing 35. That is a bit ridiculous.