Spencer Bottorff | Contributing Writer

Back in April, Marvel Studios announced they are beginning to plan their Cinematic Universe movies all the way up to the year 2028. This means for the next 14 years the studio will release at least two movies every year, a feat of planning never attempted before in movies, causing mixed feelings about the plan.

Hot off the success of movies like The Avengers and Captain America: Winter Soldier, some might say the studio is on a winning high and possibly becoming overconfident. The industry had a lot of success, releasing at least two blockbuster movies in a year. This summer alone we have three more Marvel movies coming.

Marvel is one of the first movie franchises to plan so far ahead. Assistant Professor Digital Media Jerry Johnson believes Marvel had a plan.

“The auto industry and the computer industry will plan far into the future, how to release a new car, a new product…those are all years in advance,” Johnson said. “George Lucas probably had a 14 year plan.”

What Marvel is attempting, however, is almost unheard of. For James Camron’s Avatar movie, he spent around the same time working on the movie and just waiting for technology to catch up to what he needed to produce the movie. However, that was only one movie; Marvel has at least two movies planned every year until 2028.
Senior Katy Rubino is a huge Marvel fan and she has mixed feelings about the announcement.

“I have mixed feelings about it. I’m happy, but I don’t know because it makes me worried that they are going to expand it and then make it like last long as possible, and that just kind of ruins the story,” Rubino said.

Rubino is not alone on this one. Business Insider has talked about how much farther ahead Marvel is in their Cinematic Universe plan than DC Entertainment, the second largest comic book universe, is for theirs. They worry that Marvel might be running on a little bit of a high at the moment with all of their success in the past few years at the box office.

ScreenRant mentioned in an article that Marvel Studios have well over 8,000 characters they have to work with. They can create spin offs, tie-ins, prequels and the possibilities are endless. And with Marvel introducing two new heroes in The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron next summer, there’s already potential for those characters to get their own story.

Many people believe this is a great idea and opportunity for both the industry and fans alike. Junior Cassie Forsyth says she doesn’t get tired of movies if they are good.

“If I really like it, I’ll watch it over and over again. So I feel like this kind of series will just make me more excited,” Forsyth said.

Johnson stated that these Superhero franchises aren’t like other movies like American Hustle. Those are content driven movies, while movies like Spider-Man and Avatar are character driven. They also have proven that the characters can change actors. With Andrew Garfield taking the helm of Spider-Man and Ben Affleck as Batman, it has been proven that you can continue these story arcs over the years with new actors.

Moviegoers can decide what they think of this plan when they see a few of the Marvel movies this summer.

Graphic by Justice Gage