Intellectual Property Expansion: Marvel Studios News Roundup

It has been a big couple of days for news out of Marvel Studios – or at least potential news out of Marvel Studios.

First of all, it has been announced that Lee Pace has been hired to play the antagonist in James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy, to which I think I speak for many of us when I utter a resounding: “Who?” And before you start: yeah, yeah; I know Pace played Thranduil in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, but I’m gonna go on record as not having seen it. We all know full well that Jackson will release a nine-hour extended version of the flick on Blu-Ray, and I’m holding out for that version. Anyway, it has not yet been announced exactly who the bad guy in Guardians of The Galaxy is going to be yet. With the reveal of Thanos during the credits of The Avengers, it doesn’t seem like Marvel Studios would shoot that wad just yet, but the Chituari are probably still floating around somewhere, as are the Kree (and what better way to introduce, say, Captain Marvel for Marvel Studios’ Phase Four?)… and considering Pace read for the Star Lord part, maybe we’re looking at Mar-Vell here. Or considering the presence of Rocket Raccoon, possibly a snap-on trash can lid.

Second: Marvel Studios’ President of Production Kevin Feige has confirmed that they have reclaimed the movie rights to Daredevil from Fox. Fox released the 2003 Ben Affleck version of Daredevil (and I still maintain that the director’s cut DVD version of that flick is at least a little underrated), and the terms of that deal stated that Fox had ten years to put a sequel or a reboot into production or lose the whole shooting match. And they came close – last year, director Joe Carnahan pitched a grindhousey version to be set in 1973 with a pretty damn cool-looking sizzle reel… that he then released online after Fox spiked the deal.

While Feige hasn’t said anything about what Marvel Studios has planned for Daredevil, let’s remember that, in current Marvel Comics continuity, he is a member of The Avengers… but considering that it looks like The Avengers 2 might take place in space, with the team battling Thanos, it might merely feature Daredevil back in New York, fighting a snap-on trash can lid.

And finally, in more immediate news, Marvel Studios has just released the first trailer for Thor: The Dark World, which is currently in production and scheduled to be released this fall.