Holy smokes, artichokes. I knew what to expect and still, I wasn’t prepared. I have chills. The hairs are standing up on my arms and the back of my neck. My spidey-sense is tingling.

This trailer has everything. All your favorite heroes are there, the old and the new. New alliances are forged and old ones restored. It’s only a first trailer and wisdom reminds us not to judge a book by its cover, fast food by it’s commercials, or a movie by it’s trailer. That said, Marvel has made very few missteps heretofore and have earned the benefit of the doubt.

It looks incredible. The rest of the MCU pales in comparison. There’s a bad so big it makes all other bads seem laughable. I’m excited. And I’m scared. Something unspoken in these two-and-a-half minutes implies this one is going to hurt, but in that way that poking a bruise hurts, painful yet so satisfying.

Just watch it. Then watch it again. Ouch. Mmm.

Marvel came out of the ring swinging today, unloading their entire slate of films for Phase 3. And there’s a lot to love here and a lot more to speculate about. 

The first film, coming May 6, 2016, is “Captain America: Civil War.” During the announcement, Robert Downey, Jr. and Chris Evans were brought onto the stage and told the audience it was time to pick a side. And according to sources at the event, Feige confirms that “Civil War” will be global superhuman registration with a specific inciting incident.

After that, we’re getting “Doctor Strange” on November 4, 2016. No word officially on who is playing the title character, but signs point to Benedict Cumberbatch.

Next in the lineup for Phase 3 is the already announced “Guardians of the Galaxy 2”

After that we get “Thor: Ragnarok” which could mean a lot of things. Anyone who has read Thor comics knows that Ragnarok occurs when Baldur the Brave is killed and the end of all things comes. There’s a resurrection and people come back in different forms. Could this be an opening to recasting the Asgardians? Loki came back as a woman last time. Is that possible again?

Who knows.

Next, it was announced that Chadwick Boseman had been cast as Black Panther. There was also some speculation that Wakanda would be appearing in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Who knows how soon we’ll see the character in other films, but the standalone “Black Panther” hits screens November 3, 2017.

Things get more interesting and exciting with the announcement of Marvel’s first stand-alone solo female superhero film: “Captain Marvel.” There’s no indication which version of the character this will be, but propping it up next to the “Inhumans” could be a hint. It comes out in July of 2018.

Then we have “The Inhumans,” which opens up an even different part of the Marvel universe. It comes out November 2, 2018.

But the piece de resistance? “The Avengers: Infinity War – Parts 1 and 2”. Coming back to back in May 2018 and May 2019. It was announced that Mark Ruffalo and the Hulk would be in all of the Avengers movies, but he wouldn’t go any further than that as far as cast involvement. He said that things that happened in previous movies to characters would affect the lineup, and to say much more was a spoiler.

That is one ambitious slate. And I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.