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Wide Screen‘The Avengers’: Four things the sequel needs
When any movie is a financial success in Hollywood, the inevitable question of "What comes next?" always arises. Audiences may not necessarily want a sequel, but studio heads see the world in dollar signs, and to the studios, big box-office numbers mean just one thing: franchise. In the case of Marvel's superhero epic "The Avengers" -- the end result of a five-year series of comic book movies that saw the biggest box-office weekend in movie history -- sequels are sure thing.
But how can Marvel hope to top "The Avengers"? Although audiences may genuinely want see a follow-up to the Joss Whedon film, the director set a very high bar. "The Avengers 2" will need to do a number of things to up the ante and improve upon the first film if it's to be as critically and financially successful as the first movie. Here's a list of must-haves for "The Avengers 2."
More characters
If Marvel wants to keep building a contiguous cinematic universe for their comic book heroes to inhabit, they need to continue populating it with notable characters. Failure to do so will result in overexposure for certain heroes. Spread the love, we say!
"The Avengers" may feel jam-packed with superheroes, but it really only focused on Marvel's four primary movie heroes: Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Other less superpowered characters, like Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), were relegated to supporting roles -- though they may yet star in their own films or one big S.H.I.E.L.D. movie.
As for the big four heroes, "The Avengers" is the third silver-screen outing for both Iron Man and the Hulk in the past 10 years, with standalone sequels featuring Tony Stark and Dr. Bruce Banner already in the works. Sequels to "Thor" and "Captain America: The First Avenger" are also in production, bringing the Norse god and super soldier's big-screen tallies to three films in less than five years. That's a lot of movies.
Noticeably absent from "The Avengers" were size-changing heroes Ant-Man and Wasp. In the comics, both characters are/were key members of the superteam, but neither character has been mentioned or alluded to in any of the current Marvel movies. Though their names may be a little hokey (though no more hokey than, say, Captain America) their powers are as impressive as any of the current Avengers roster. Ant-Man (who sometimes goes by the monikers Giant-Man and Goliath) and Wasp have the ability to alter their physical size -- they can shrink down to the size of an ant or grow as tall as a ten story building. You can't tell us that wouldn't be useful when fighting off an alien invasion.
Director Edgar Wright ("Scott Pilgrim vs. The World") has been trying to get an "Ant-Man" movie made for years, and thanks to the success of "The Avengers," Wright's film may finally happen. Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige recently said that the "Ant-Man" film was "the closest it's ever been" to happening. Wright himself added fuel to the fire over the weekend, teasing fans by tweeting a cryptic picture of an Ant-Man-themed painting.
More female interaction
Director Joss Whedon made a career in television out of strong female characters like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and "Dollhouse's" Echo. So it's a surprise that the women in "The Avengers" don't really have that much to do ... or to say to one another, for that matter. Black Widow and Agent Maria Hill only ever interact with the boys and never once interact with each other. Sure, Widow gets more than a few awesome moments in the film, but she almost always plays second fiddle to the men in tights. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Hill (who is called by name only once in the movie) pretty much just stands around and shouts orders at people.
This isn't about pandering to male or female audiences. It's about giving these well-established comic characters something substantive to do in the film. Black Widow and Maria Hill both kick ass in the comics; let them do the same (and, you know, acknowledge each other's existence) on the big screen!
A bigger threat
It's hard to envision how any filmmaker could best the superhero-alien throwdown in Lower Manhattan that takes place in "The Avengers," but that's exactly what a sequel has to do. As the midcredits bump at the end of the film alluded to, there is a bigger threat out there for the Avengers to face, but how that threat is depicted in a sequel will be very important.
WARNING! Spoilers for "The Avengers" to follow! Don't read if you don't want to know what happens!
If you stayed to watch the credits of "The Avengers," then you caught a glimpse of the threat in question: The villainous Thanos. The supervillain is an extremely twisted character, a mad being bent on the destruction of all life. His appearance at the end of the film may have come as a surprise to some, but the brief cameo wasn't the first implication that the character existed in the Marvel movie-verse. Eagle-eyed fans caught a glimpse of Thanos's famed "Infinity Gauntlet" in Odin's treasure room in 2011's "Thor."
However, it should be noted that in the comic books, the heroes of the Marvel universe frequently have to band together in order to defeat Thanos. That well-established fact brings us to the next requirement for an "Avengers" sequel.
Inter-studio cameos
Can you imagine what would have happened if Spider-Man or Wolverine had showed up in "The Avengers" to aid the superteam in their fight? People would have lost their minds with excitement. It happens all the time in comic books, especially during big, world-threatening events like the one depicted in Joss Whedon's film. Spidey, Wolvie, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and other heroes frequently team up or join forces with the Avengers in the comics, but it might never happen on film.
Unfortunately for Marvel Studios, the company sold off the film rights to Spider-Man, X-Men, and others years ago, before they started producing their own superhero movies in-house. Sony controls the Wall Crawler and 20th Century Fox owns the film rights to the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil. If Marvel wants to expand their cinematic universe (pleasing fans and making a lot of money in the process) they need to work out a deal with Sony and Fox so that characters like the Wolverine and Spider-Man can join the fray. Given the continued success of the "X-Men" franchise for Fox and the long-term plans of Sony for more "Spider-Man" movies, a deal with rival studio Disney (Marvel's parent company) doesn't seem likely at this point.
Stranger things have happened in Hollywood, though, and fans will continue to hold out hope. It seems as though the Avengers will need all the help they can get for the sequel.
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