Star Wars, Marvel movie news: Yoda, Hulk films in works?
Published: 2/5/2013 11:37 AM
Last Modified: 2/5/2013 11:37 AM
A couple of interesting stories that came out this week have fans of Stars Wars and Marvel films seeing green – Hulk and Yoda green.
First, Latino Review’s El Mayimbe is reporting that Marvel has big plans for the Hulk in Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to his sources (and Latino Review has broken several Marvel-related stories reliably), the MCU version of the Illuminati will launch the Hulk into space at the end of “Avengers 2,”leading to a Hulk movie based on the popular Planet Hulk storyline from the comics. As part of Phase 3, which will include a movie with Illuminati member Dr. Strange, “Avengers 3” would feature the Hulk’s return to earth to seek revenge against those who exiled him, a story taken from World War Hulk in the comics.
For those unfamiliar with the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk stories, the Marvel Illuminati is a secret group of powerful heroes who work covertly to steer the superhero world. It consisted of Doctor Strange, Black Bolt of the Inhumans, Iron Man, Reed Richards, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Black Panther and Charles Xavier (the membership eventually changed to include Captain America and now Hank McCoy, aka Beast of the X-Men). After the Hulk devastated Las Vegas, the group, minus an absent Charles Xavier and dissenting Namor, votes to send the green goliath to an abandoned planet so he can’t cause any more damage.
Of course, things go awry, and the Hulk ends up on the planet Sakaar, where he is forced to fight in gladiator combat. Eventually, he becomes the planet’s king, takes a wife and has a couple of kids. Then the shuttle that brought him to the planet blows up, killing his wife. The Hulk decides it’s all the Illuminati’s fault, and he heads to Earth with some of his fellow former gladiators to get his revenge.
These would make great movies for Marvel to pursue in film. While some of the characters would be impossible to include in the Illuminati since Fox owns the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four characters, substitutes could fill those roles or the decision could just be made by the Avengers roster. Maybe this will mean we’ll see Doctor Strange in “Avengers 2”even.
In other news, Harry Knowles at Ain’t It Cool News reports that Yoda will feature in a Star Wars standalone film. There are no details on the plot, but the movie would be the first of the Star Wars solo movies, coming out after “Episode VII.”Knowles has been hit-or-miss with his reports, so take this one as rumor more than fact for now.
An earlier report about a possible Star Wars standalone had Zack Snyder working on a Star Wars version of “Seven Samurai,” a report that Snyder later denied through representatives. Of course, J.J. Abrams said multiple times that he wouldn’t direct “Episode VII”before he took the job, so even a denial doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Also, shortly after the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilms, it was reported that screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg were working on scripts for standalones. Knowles’ report says producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy will use these films to flesh out the Star Wars universe with character-driven stories.
If that’s the case, and if a Yoda film is in the works, maybe a Joe Johnston-directed Bob Fett film might not be a pipedream any more.
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Written by
James Royal
Staff Writer
