What's Next for the Avengers?

Well now that The Avengers has finally been released world wide, the first phase of Marvel's film universe is finished. This huge project teased since 2008 has finally come to a close, so whats next? Well lets look more into this, oh beware of full spoilers for the established movies, and note this is all pure speculation based on facts and Marvel Comics knowledge.

So lets start off with whats in the plans now. Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 are both scheduled for next year, with Captain America 2 in April 2014. Marvel has already announced that it would like to focus more on its magic and cosmic characters next, with names like Dr. Strange, Inhumans, Nova, and Ant Man being hinted at. But in reality, what evidence can we connect to the future, and where can Marvel go with its newly established universe.

Clearly, its next big thing is to keep all the movies somehow connected, so somehow the new films will need to connect to the previous films or somehow have a guest appearance from an established character. Let's start with Dr. Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme himself. Out of all the films mentioned this film is the one most likely to happen. Dr. Strange is an always present character in the Marvel Universe, who helps almost all characters, and battles enemies larger than life. But all of his powers comes from his artifact, The Eye of Agamotto, which can be seen briefly in Odin's vault in Thor. Already connected, so now lets move onto Thor himself.

Thor is tricky because his main villain has now been two movies, and while Loki is set to return don't expect him to be the main antagonist. Instead, Thor 2 will probably expand his side-cast introducing Beta Ray Bill, an alien who has all the powers of Thor. They will probably go through the standard story of "we fight at first until we unite against a common foe," and chances are that foe will be Loki, but that isn't the point. If Beta Ray Bill is introduced then Marvel has opened an all new realm: The Cosmic Universe.

So I'm just going to say it now, Thanos is the big reveal at the end of The Avengers. He's the big bad behind everything. In a way, his existence in the Marvel Universe has already established the Cosmic Universe, but Marvel is going to need to do more if they hope to use Thanos. Now this is where they could bring in The Guardians of the Galaxy, or more realistically introduce Nova. Guardians of the Galaxy is basically the space Avengers, so chances are this film would be a little too much (Beta Ray Bill is on this team btw). Nova on the other hand could work. We know the other realms exist out there, so why not use them? Nova could be a the perfect introduction to the Cosmic Universe, and hell, Thanos could be his villain. But more on him later.

Now Captain America 2 and Iron Man 3. Captain America 2 is already set to take place in present day, and will probably be the closest we get to an actual SHIELD movie, with Black Widow, Hawkeye, Maria Hill, and probably newcomer Falcon all set to make appearances. Iron Man 3 on the other hand has already been set in the Extremis storyline. Given the nature of this storyline, fellow scientist and Avenger Bruce Banner could easily make an appearance (Mark Ruffalo has signed for six more movies, not including a Hulk film,) alongside Hank Pym, one of the most important Avenger characters. Not only that, but what if the Extremis blueprints were used to create a certain insane android character thanks to Mr. Pym? The ideas possible.

Ok, well lets discuss Thanos. Most likely he will be the villain in Avengers 2, and that means there is only one story they can do: The Infinity Gauntlet. A cosmic weapon that when infused with the six Soul Gems allows the wielder to bend reality to their very whim. The six gems each imbed the wielder with different powers: Soul (Green), Power (Red), Time (Orange), Space (Purple), Mind (Blue), and Reality (Yellow). So in the next few movies if you start seeing colored stones given unknown importance, just remember Thanos. Oh this is just a theory, but Loki's staff did have a blue stone that allowed him to mind-control people... just saying.

Very little of what I said is fact, but it is just pure speculation based on all the other movies and general comic knowledge. Everything I said could be completely wrong, but whatever happens next you can bet will be huge.