Marvel Studios Talks About The Future, Teasing The Punisher, Moon Knight Luke Cage And More

Celebrating the release of the trailer for Thor, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige took part in a web chat with the LA Times and Marvel fans. He discussed — very briefly in all cases — a few impressions of Captain America, and some vague possibilities for the future of Marvel Studios. There's no hard and fast news here, but if you've been curious about the status of the Marvel slate, and of possibilities for films like Black Panther, Ant-Man, Moon Knight and more, read on.

Let's start with movies we know something about. Of The Avengers, Feige says:

The best part about making an Iron Man movie is deciding which of his many armors to debut. Joss would kill me if I gave anything away, but I will say that the evolution you saw his armor take in IM2 will continue in The Avengers.

And while he responded to one fan's question about additional characters in the film by reiterating how many people were on stage at Comic Con, asked broadly about new heroes and cameos in The Avengers, Feige threw out "maybe..."

And then, of Captain America, he called the film"an epic, period adventure," and says "we figured if Harrison Ford could be Indiana Jones and Han Solo, Chris Evans could play Torch and Cap." Three more statements clarify and/or hype aspects of the film:

Bucky plays an important part in the film. Sebastian Stan's done a tremendous job playing him.

...we're keeping Nick Fury as portrayed by the great Sam Jackson just in the modern era for now.

...while there's no Invaders, there's lots of Howling Commandos!

The latter point is one about which there has been quite a bit of speculation. Finally the Cap trailer is being worked on now and will be out next year.

You might want to know where the Marvel slate is headed after The Avengers. What about Ant-Man, which Edgar Wright is still working on? Here are a handful of statements teasing various possible films. He expressed love (again) for Power Pack, and for Jessica Jones, and mentioned that there are lingering questions about movies based on "Ant-Man, Haweye, Blade, Rom Spaceknight, another Hulk, Civil War, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and more!"

Edgar was here a few days ago. He's already working on the next draft...[Ant-Man would go into production] sometime after The Avengers

Moonknight's a challenging, but extremely interesting character. We've been discussing various versions of it for years.Punisher's back in house, and various plans are in the works.

a very talented writer is currently working on a draft [for Iron Fist]...based on [Ed Brubaker/Fraction's run]

I have not been shy about my love for Dr. Strange, Black Panther, and Luke Cage. [When people named possible actors for Luke Cage, someone mentioned Isaiah Mustafah, to which Feige said "Love the Old Spide guy!]

And then there were a few statements about general approaches to making future Marvel films, including a ringing endorsement for more 'cosmic' movies, and the idea that R-rated films could happen. (The Punisher?) Finally, that idea of debuting characters in short films is called a rumor.

I love female heroes too and would love to bring many more to the big screen in the future.

I love the cosmic marvel universe. Thor is our first step into it and from there, anything's possible.

We're definitely open to [r-rated films]. Blade was a great franchise for us.

The shorts rumor was just a rumor, but we do like the idea. More Cap pics coming early next year.