The fifth animated film project from Marvel Studios is a breaking new ground rather than redefining existing storylines. The first two films, Ultimate Avengers I and II, were awkwardly based both on classic and ‘Ultimate’ versions of the Avengers while attempting to develop a kind of synergy between the two. The follow ups, Iron Man and Doctor Strange, are more character-centric big budget films.
In a recent interview with iF Magazine, Senior Vice President of Creative Development Animation Craig Kyle had the following to say:
“I would definitely look at it as an extension of those films. We’ve done two of them, so if you look at it that way, this would be ULTIMATE AVENGERS 22. The story is well down the line and it would be after the AVENGERS had many journey’s and faced many foes. They’ve really come to a point in their lives, at this stage, where there a lot of other younger heroes in their world, and they’re thinking “before we lose our lives in battle or die of old age, we should settle down and enjoy a slice of it ourselves.” Not that they stopped their heroics, but they would have settled down to some degree and focused on having families, and unfortunately one of the greatest threats they ever faced was Ultron. The history of this coming film, in the final time they faced him, he defeated them — all of them. And before he could cut his way through these heroes and to their offspring, they were whisked away and hidden from them and had been living in a protective bubble, unknowing of what happened to their parents and how they are and the fate that awaits them in the outside world. What you get is an environment, where Ultron has been in control of the world for over a decade and has been rebuilding it in his image and he does find those children to finish what he started over 15-years ago.”
The ‘Next Avengers’ film takes place far in the future and while the visual above and concept sound kid-centric, one of the chief influences cited by the production team is the dark vision of the Marvel Comics future Earth X. Protected by their patriarch and teacher Tony Stark, the young Avengers are eager to prove themselves in battle against the insanely powerful villain Ultron. Taking place in a future where the classic Avengers are aged phantoms of themselves, these young Avengers view themselves as the only hope in striking back against the evil robot conqueror.
The short trailer included on the Doctor Strange animated DVD seems to indicate that despite the fact that the heroes are kids, the film will take risks at telling a darker story than the audience will be expecting.
The next two animated projects are rumored to be The Mighty Thor and Hulk Smash, but Next Avengers may be the first attempt at developing an original film.
Any Doctor Who fan watching the DVD fun fact trivia track could tell you that the average classic series episode brought in around 8 million without a pop idol guest-starring or a ‘captive’ Christmas audience. And it would take some very inventive mathematics to show how many possible TV viewers Doctor Who was shooting for in ‘79 versus ‘07, but never mind.
Finally unveiled, here’s the trailer for the eagerly awaited sequel to the hit comic book movie Hellboy. Everyone from the first film (including the sleazy government liaison played by Jeffrey Tambor) is back in this action-packed film that builds on the successes of the first horror/super hero flick.