An exceedingly trustworthy, but former, Big Shiny Robot! who must remain nameless passed along this major scoop about the nature of a couple of aspects of The Avengers 2. We will not be referring to names to protect the identities and jobs of those who brought us this report. If anyone traced it back to the actual source, they would most certainly lose their jobs over this. And since we’re not making this up (how could we?) there are people’s jobs at stake here.
Now, first and foremost, bear in mind that these are things going on in the Marvel operation that are still in flux. Perhaps shedding light on them and voicing our enthusiasm will be more likely, but these scenarios have a lot of players at the table, so the stakes are high and the ability for negotiations to fall through are immense, especially considering the size of the players.
Secondly, bear in mind that if these negotiations succeed and turn out to be more than rumours, these are MAJOR spoilers. Turn away if you’re concerned.
Now, this former robot was plying a person of stature in the Marvel operation with adult beverages and learned the following:
- Agent Phil Coulson would be returning to Avengers 2, but not as himself. This cameo would arrive possibly as Vision or Deathlok. The details are sparse, but part of the iffy-ness about this particular bit of decision-making is to see what comes of the SHIELD series and Coulson’s place inside it. Deathlok might be more canon, since he’s traditionally “inhabited” by a deceased individual, but the makers of these films aren’t shy about creating their own film continuity for the good of the franchise and story.
- The Avengers will have cameos. But whose, you ask? We have learned that Marvel is in talks with Fox to get cameos from the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Storm. Wolverine. The Human Torch. Reed Richards.
- More cameos. Those aren’t all. They’re also negotiating separately with Sony to get a Spider-Man cameo.
These are in continuing negotiation and might not happen, but this tells us that Marvel (and Disney) is serious about getting us the Marvel Universe into a cohesive unit. By all rights, Avengers 2 might well be the biggest super-hero movie of all time, and it would behoove Fox and Sony to allow the Marvel characters they have in play to cameo in that filmed universe and film. It’s a win for Marvel to up the visibility of the characters and create something unified (unless the future X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man movies suck), but it would speak volumes to the fans.
And it’s not so unheard of. Disney/Marvel were in negotiations with Sony to get the Oscorp Building in Avengers, but the process was too slow to get it into the film in time. I imagine those same wheels have been turning since then.
Reminder: take these things as rumours or possibilities. There is no guarantee any of this will shake out, but it is being discussed at the higher echelons of Marvel.
You can learn more details on this month’s episode of the Big Shiny Podcast, where Kill-tacular-tron goes into more detail.
KMC-1138 and Kill-tacular-tron contributed to this report.