The Avengers 2 is coming. You know it, I know it, Tibetan monks probably know it. All signs point to Thanos being the big villain. Who is Thanos? Well, the short of it is he's an insane Titan who obtains the power of a God and decides to destroy the universe, all in a sorry attempt to impress Death.
You can see Thanos in the post-credit stinger for The Avengers, here it is:
The comic series that inspires this story is called The Infinity Gauntlet and involves Thanos committing genocide on the Marvel Universe, with only a handful of cosmic heroes to save the day. One of those key players was Drax the Destroyer, set to be introduced in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in August 2014.
Two other key players in the finale were The Silver Surfer and Galactus, the gigantic planet swallowing menace.
Until recently all geeky thoughts of seeing these two characters take part in some cosmic-scaled rough-housing were the fever dreams of a mad man, as the characters were tied up in Fox's Fantastic Four rights, but it looks like that could soon change.
Marvel Studios are busy working on a deal with Fox for a trade-off; Surfer and Galactus will revert back to Marvel and in exchange Fox get an extension on their Daredevil rights.
Daredevil has been in line for a reboot for some time, Fox need to make another movie soon or the rights will revert back to Marvel (the same is said for the Fantastic Four movie), but when director David Slade dropped out recently things looked bleak for Fox. They would need to rush their production just to hold onto the property and that was looking unfeasible.
This deal would allow Fox some room to breathe with the Daredevil property, as they bring on Joe Carnahan to direct, and all they have to lose is two supporting characters that aren't entirely essential to their Fantastic Four reboot plans.
Carnahan would be a fantastic choice for Daredevil. In The Grey (still my favourite movie of the year) he dealt with the crisis of faith in a cruel and violent world in a way that would give Hemmingway and Melville a boner. This internal conflict is essential to Daredevil's character; a lapsed Catholic who dresses like the devil? Yeah, there's some issues at play there. Carnahan is also fully capable of creating legitimately threatening environments, as seen in The Grey and his break-out movie Narc.
Carnahan described his take on the material as a "Frank Miller-esque, hardcore 70s thriller," in a post-Avengers climate there's not much room for viable grim 'n' gritty superhero stories but a Joe Carnahan Daredevil would be one of them.
So comic fans could soon be seeing the Marvel Movieverse expand, with two of their most famous and powerful cosmic characters, and a Daredevil movie worthy of the heroes great legacy.
To all those who say the superhero genre is dead following The Dark Knight Rises, I laugh derisively in your general direction. The way Marvel are handling things, it's just getting started.
UPDATED
Hold your horses, fanboys! Deadline is here to discredit a rival, they have received an alternative report has hit the 'net stating that Fox may have decided to not play ball with Marvel, preferring to let the Daredevil rights lapse and retain Galactus and Silver Surfer for use in their soon-to-be rebooted Fantastic Four franchise.
This could well be a case of Fox insiders leaking conflicting news to another media outlet, to leverage a better deal out of the Disney-owned Marvel. Or they simply don't care about Daredevil, whose gritty style is at odds with the more fashionable cosmic superheroics that a Fantastic Four movie would provide the studio.
Source: Variety, Deadline (Update)
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